Bait Fish

Everyone who fishes regularly has a favorite piece of water -- a stretch of trout stream or bass river, an arm of a reservoir or lake, a tidal creek, river mouth or channel edge. Mine is a point of land near the Bay Bridge, where the bottom steps away in well-defined plateaus for more than a half-mile.It is not an especially popular piece of water. It is shallow in parts, laid out with crab pots and marked by clam-line buoys. No state reefs have been placed there, and there are no wrecks marked on charts of the place.

Fishing for a last-minute stocking stuffer for the angler in your home? Lures of all shapes and sizes are welcome gifts whether they're a saltwater or a freshwater angler. Rapala, one of the premier lure manufacturers, makes an "X-Rap" series that cuts and darts just like a bait fish and comes in 13 freshwater and 12 saltwater patterns. There is the "D-T" series, designed by David Fritts, 1994 Bassmaster Classic winner and a crankbait wizard. The lure's lip zips it into the strike zone, where it rattles and wiggles from side to side like Carmen Miranda.

Fishing for a last-minute stocking stuffer for the angler in your home? Lures of all shapes and sizes are welcome gifts whether they're a saltwater or a freshwater angler. Rapala, one of the premier lure manufacturers, makes an "X-Rap" series that cuts and darts just like a bait fish and comes in 13 freshwater and 12 saltwater patterns. There is the "D-T" series, designed by David Fritts, 1994 Bassmaster Classic winner and a crankbait wizard. The lure's lip zips it into the strike zone, where it rattles and wiggles from side to side like Carmen Miranda.

Aaron Adams thinks like a fish. He wants us to think like one, too. The Parkville native has been lucky enough -- and smart enough -- to turn his passion for fishing first into a career in marine biology, and now into a book. Fisherman's Coast is a pretty good read. At 210 pages and $19.95, it's a bargain, too. Yes, it's a how-to book. But before you roll your eyes and say, "Oh, and we don't have enough of those to last a lifetime," understand that this isn't a typical "kiss and tell" tome.

Some memorable fishing experiences on the Chesapeake Bay, which now need revising:* Hooking huge weakfish on a hot summer night, until my wrists ached, on the edge of the main ship channel in midbay. They hit the deck, bellies bulging, literally coughing up quantities of a tiny bait fish that seemed unimportant in the flush of the moment.* A frigid winter day -- and night, and another day -- fishing with gill nets nonstop amid ice floes with the bay's biggest rockfish netter, piling up stripers by the ton. They too hit the deck spitting up a tiny bait fish on which they had been gorging in the icy depths of the upper Chesapeake.

Along more than a mile of river channel drop-off, small schools of rockfish were coming to the surface to feed on large schools of bait fish riding with the falling tide toward deeper water.Most casts with a small, silver spoon the other morning caught rockfish from 12 to 16 inches, but bucktails dressed with sassy shads, fished a little deeper and a little more slowly, took a pair of keepers.Over the next several weeks, as the daily mean temperature drops and river temperatures fall with it, the exodus of bait and predators toward warmer habitat will continue.

Some nice blues finally are turning up in the middle Chesapeake Bay area. They have been big blues, too -- 10- and 15-pounders.The ones that I am aware of were caught by last-ditch rock fishermen trolling crippled alewives beginning a little south of Chesapeake Beach and as far north as just below the Bay Bridges.Captain Eddie Davis, who fishes out of Ridge, near Point Lookout, told me, "We could have caught a boatload of big blues last Sunday. These were 15- to 18-pounders that were working our chum line."

In just two weeks, the striped-bass season will open in Maryland's portion of Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Coast.The 40-day event begins Thursday, Oct. 1, and ends Saturday, Oct. 31. However, the season will reopen during the first three weekends in November (Nov. 6-8, 13-15, and 20-22).Fishermen will be allowed a creel limit of one fish daily, measuring 18 to 36 inches. Smaller or larger rockfish must be carefully released, so it's a good idea to carry a ruler or tape measure on your boat just to be on the safe side.

We had passed more than a few times, the fellow in the red boat and I, while either drifting down tide or running a couple of hundred yards up tide. We were bottom fishing, letting the tide carry us over a hard bottom along the Eastern Shore.The fellow in the red boat had a rod in every holder and every now and again he could be seen scurrying around to tend his lines. From all appearances, the fishing must have been very good aboard the red boat.But on the third or fourth pass, the fellow in the red boat cut his engine and called across the water, "Flounder?

THE PROLONGED shortage of rainfall has taken a toll on the Chesapeake Bay, with some exceptionally large fish kills. But it has also had some positive results -- a reminder that the bay system is ever changing and subject to the unpredictable fluctuations of weather.The drought has been good news for the underwater grasses that are a source of food and habitat for aquatic life. After a recent report that the bay's submerged grasslands had receded over the past year, scientists are finding hopeful signs of renewed growth this summer.

The locations Piney Run: You can still register for tonight's Full Moon Frenzy Night Bass Fishing Tournament from 6 p.m. to midnight. Call 410-795-3274. Largemouth bass are hitting live baits and artificial lures. Prettyboy Reservoir: Fish can be found 17-30 feet down, says guide Duke Nohe. Fish the humps, rock ledges, long gravel bars for large- and smallmouth bass. Loch Raven Reservoir: Slow dragging a spinner hook tipped with a nightcrawler around the buoy in front of the Fishing Center will draw white perch.

When dove season opens next month, hunters no longer will be allowed to shoot over fields where small grains have been top-sown or broadcast on top of the soil and are readily available to feeding doves.Additionally, doves may not be hunted in any area that has been seeded by broadcasting unless the seed has germinated, been plowed under or removed.Hunting will be permitted over fields where small grains have been top-sown or broadcast only 10 days after the complete removal or germination of all grain or other feed.

THE PROLONGED shortage of rainfall has taken a toll on the Chesapeake Bay, with some exceptionally large fish kills. But it has also had some positive results -- a reminder that the bay system is ever changing and subject to the unpredictable fluctuations of weather.The drought has been good news for the underwater grasses that are a source of food and habitat for aquatic life. After a recent report that the bay's submerged grasslands had receded over the past year, scientists are finding hopeful signs of renewed growth this summer.

The whole atmosphere smells of hair tonic and Aqua Velva, chewin' tobacco and great, heaping levels of testosterone.Burly men in jeans and flannel shirts crowd around booths hawking exotic fishing trips to Alaska, Canada, Montana, each booth featuring a montage of color photos depicting beaming customers triumphantly holding up huge salmon and steelhead against breathtaking backdrops of blue skies, towering fir trees and clear-rushing rivers.But as you wander the aisles at the 15th Annual Bass Expo, Saltwater Fishing and Fly Fishing Show at the Maryland State Fairgrounds and gaze at all the high-tech equipment -- the lightweight composite rods and $30,000 bass boats, the chemically enhanced lures, the rods and tackle strong enough to reel in an oil tanker -- you're left with one overriding thought:Do the fish even have a chance anymore?

STUART, Fla. -- The trouble started one sunny March morning at Wade Aycock's dock. Bending over the mirror-bright waters of the still, slender creek behind his house, Aycock looked down at a school of silver mullet and was horror-struck by what he saw:"Thousands and thousands of fish, all with lesions on them. Deep wounds at the top of the head, above the tail, in the middle of the back -- sometimes clear through to the spinal column. I stood there and watched them die."I knew something was bad wrong," said Aycock in the slow-moving accent of his native Virginia Tidewater.

The captain grew up on the Eastern Shore and spent several days of every year of his life trolling, chumming, casting, jigging and hand-lining for fish in the Chesapeake Bay. He's caught about every species that swims there, though these days he rarely kills fish. Tuesday, he wanted to show me something, so we took his boat out of Back River shortly after noon.Somewhere to the east of Hart-Miller Island, the captain shouted and ordered me to the fly bridge. He told me to look at the electronic fish scanner, his EKG on the Chesapeake.

The captain grew up on the Eastern Shore and spent several days of every year of his life trolling, chumming, casting, jigging and hand-lining for fish in the Chesapeake Bay. He's caught about every species that swims there, though these days he rarely kills fish. Tuesday, he wanted to show me something, so we took his boat out of Back River shortly after noon.Somewhere to the east of Hart-Miller Island, the captain shouted and ordered me to the fly bridge. He told me to look at the electronic fish scanner, his EKG on the Chesapeake.

When dove season opens next month, hunters no longer will be allowed to shoot over fields where small grains have been top-sown or broadcast on top of the soil and are readily available to feeding doves.Additionally, doves may not be hunted in any area that has been seeded by broadcasting unless the seed has germinated, been plowed under or removed.Hunting will be permitted over fields where small grains have been top-sown or broadcast only 10 days after the complete removal or germination of all grain or other feed.

Along more than a mile of river channel drop-off, small schools of rockfish were coming to the surface to feed on large schools of bait fish riding with the falling tide toward deeper water.Most casts with a small, silver spoon the other morning caught rockfish from 12 to 16 inches, but bucktails dressed with sassy shads, fished a little deeper and a little more slowly, took a pair of keepers.Over the next several weeks, as the daily mean temperature drops and river temperatures fall with it, the exodus of bait and predators toward warmer habitat will continue.

Some memorable fishing experiences on the Chesapeake Bay, which now need revising:* Hooking huge weakfish on a hot summer night, until my wrists ached, on the edge of the main ship channel in midbay. They hit the deck, bellies bulging, literally coughing up quantities of a tiny bait fish that seemed unimportant in the flush of the moment.* A frigid winter day -- and night, and another day -- fishing with gill nets nonstop amid ice floes with the bay's biggest rockfish netter, piling up stripers by the ton. They too hit the deck spitting up a tiny bait fish on which they had been gorging in the icy depths of the upper Chesapeake.