The Anglers Annapolis weekly Maryland fishing report for May 22 tells the same Memorial Day weekend story most of the East Coast is now reading, with one important Maryland twist — the Chesapeake itself is firing on rockfish at every famous landmark, mid-shore wrecks are loaded with jumbo sea bass, and the canyon trolling season has officially opened with the first reports of mahi and yellowfin.
Hosts Sam and Adam open at the beach. "You still have a lot of good surf fishing going on with the fishing all the way up from Delaware down to the south tip of Chincoteague," Adam says. "A lot of great stuff where they are looking for stripers, bluefish are starting to show up and maybe the tail end of some of the black drum." Black drum are eating high-low rigs baited with sand fleas, clams or cut bait, while the early rockfish and bluefish runs are taking cut bait and plugs out of the surf.
Offshore, the wreck-and-reef bite is the standout. "Some of your mid-shore wrecks and reefs are holding some jumbo sea bass and flounder right now," Adam says, leaning on Nomad Ridgeback jigs from 60 to 160 grams to match the depth. "I actually heard a pretty good report from a customer that we had in here using these Ridgebacks catching his limit of sea bass." Further out, "out in the canyons guys, we are hearing our first reports of mahi and yellowfin," Adam says, calling out the Nomad DTX as a worthwhile addition to the trolling spread.
Inside the Bay, Sam frames May as the moment to fish. "This is a great time of year to get out for rockfish," he says. "It's not too hot, the fish are biting a lot more so than they will be in the next few months. So great time to get out whether you want to troll for them, jig for them, or bait fish, it's really the time of year for that." Spot are starting to show patchily, opening the door for live-lining around structure such as the Bay Bridge, the lighthouses and the deeper edges. "If you can't get a hold of spot, peeler crabs and soft crabs work effectively for them, too," Sam adds.
The open-water jigging bite is described as 'a little bit more challenging' but the early-morning and evening shallow-water program has been productive on plugs, swimbaits and jig heads. "The Bay Bridge, Love Point, mouth of Patapsco, Thomas Point, Poplar Island, all those sort of popular spots have been firing off in the early mornings and your sunset hours, as well," Adam confirms.
Maryland's catfish run is starting to slip with the warming water. "The further we get into summer, the more that catfish bite is going to start to slow down," Adam says. "So you guys are really looking to fill up your freezer with a whole bunch of meat, get out there and take advantage of that catfish bite now." White perch are climbing too — shallow rivers fish best on perch pounders, Mepps and Rooster Tails, with Chesapeake spook jigs over the hard bottom at Hacketts and Thomas Point.
Freshwater is in transition. Largemouth and smallmouth are still in the post-spawn phase, not yet on the deeper summer zones. "They have not quite fully transitioned to their summer zones, which are going to be a little bit deeper," Adam says, recommending Berkley Dime 4 square-bill crankbaits cranked along rocky shorelines on the Baltimore reservoirs. On the Susquehanna, Monocacy and Potomac, the smallmouth water is unusually low and clear despite recent rain. "You're going to want to make a long cast," Adam says. "With that low and clear water, those fish can obviously see you. So make a really long cast, and I like in clear water to do a really fast retrieve." His confidence bait is a Whopper Plopper-style topwater.
The Eastern Shore snakehead fishery is also in play. "The Chickahominy, the Transquaking, have all been really good, as well as the little Blackwater," Sam says, with subsurface swimbaits working on cooler days and a frog winning on the warmer ones.
Crabbing is the one soft note. "It's started off a little slow, to be completely honest," Adam admits. Trotliners in 8 to 12 feet of water on razor clams or chicken necks are picking up a couple of dozen crabs a day rather than filling bushel baskets. The advice is to set pots off the pier or run a trotline early, but to keep expectations modest until the Bay warms up properly.