Articles by Dennis Doyle

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 8/2/12

How Much Fish Is Safe to Eat?

From the Bay, you can enjoy a little more

After yet another great rockfish dinner, I decided to do a little research on past warnings about contaminants in our Bay waters, hence in our striped bass. Checking out the latest Maryland Department of the Environment Updated Fish Consumption Advisory for Maryland, I found great news and a little bad news. Good news first: The most recent testing of Bay rockfish showed a decided decrease in contaminant levels, meaning more rockfish can now be safely...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 7/26/12

Luring Big Bubba

This old dog learned a new trick

I have dedicated a great deal of effort and financial investment in my quest for big perch on artificial lures. Last week I discovered I had been on the wrong track. I experimented with the Super Rooster Tail, Beetle Spins, the Tony Accetta Pet Spoon, small Rat-L-Traps, the Little Cleo spoon, Acme Kastmasters and small Bass Assassins and Finesse minnows in various colors. All can catch white perch. At catching really big perch, 12 inches or over, none...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 7/19/12

The Scourge of Summer

Algae blooms mean red tides and stressed fish

We were already launched speeding toward our rendezvous as dawn broke on the Chesapeake. Then the radio crackled with bad news. “Don’t bother,” said a friend who had arrived on station first. “There’s a red tide pouring out of the river and the fish have left.” Fishfinder Rockfish remain good, though algae blooms have made locating them more complicated. Love Point has been good for chumming, live lining and...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 7/12/12

What Line Catches More Fish?

Read on to find out

The rod tip twitched, just a little and just once, but I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye. “Hey Mo, you’ve got a bite,” I hissed, needlessly. My friend’s hand had already moved to his reel and slipped off the clicker to reduce its resistance on the line. His thumb was on the spool, but he left the rod in its holder. The rod tip twitched slightly again, then again. The line began to pull out, slowly at first,...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 7/5/12

Summer Fishing

Get up early to find the fish and beat the heat

We were drifting quietly well off the mouth of the Severn in 30 feet of water. It was not yet sunrise but the first blush of daylight lit the water’s surface well enough to show some very nervous schools of baitfish swimming around us. Here and there small menhaden — peanut bunker — would shower into the air, fleeing something sinister below. There must have been a heck of a spawn this spring because I don’t believe I’ve ever seen so many...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 6/28/12

Why Rockfish Prefer Spot

And what to do if perch is your only bait

I could feel the five-inch white perch on my line swimming toward the bottom 30 feet down. The pulses of its efforts transmitted plainly up the line on my bait-casting rod. As the baitfish reached its goal and settled down, I lightly thumbed the narrow spool of my casting reel and lifted my rod tip just enough to make the fish’s movements a bit more frantic. I was drifting over some nice marks on my depth sounder off the mouth of the Severn, and I suspected the arches...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 6/21/12

Chesapeake White Perch

Good fishing, good eating and good news

Casting up tight to the riprapped shoreline, I flipped the bail closed on the small spin reel and started my retrieve. I wanted to keep the Rooster Tail lure up and off the submerged rock below. My retrieve slowed as the lure came away from the stony structure and I let it settle, slow rolling it down, close to the bottom where I hoped some big blackbacks were holding. My bait stopped. I suspected a snag at first, but with big perch you never know. I gave my rod a good tug...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 6/14/12

Stepping Up for Rockfish

New regional recommendations help ensure legal harvests

It’s good news for the Chesapeake Bay, which provides 75 percent of striped bass stocks that reside in the Atlantic. New recommendations by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission tackle the very real threat that commercial poaching poses to the fish’s sustainability. Past as Prologue In 1985, the striped bass, or rockfish, population had collapsed due to over-fishing and environmental degradation. That led to a five-year moratorium on all harvesting...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 6/7/12

Gone Trapshooting

The Paralyzed Veterans of America annual event is a must in my family

The first target out of the trap house for me was just the slightest angle off of dead-straight-away, always a dangerous target and easy to misjudge. I swung up my 12-gauge single-barrel trap gun, just touched the bottom of the departing clay with my front bead, and slapped the trigger. The bird sailed on untouched as the scorer behind me called out, lost. My heart dropped. Trap is a game of very small numbers and fierce competition. Just one or two misses out of a hundred...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 5/31/12

The Summer Bite Begins Hot

Here’s how to catch your share chumming

My reel began clicking out an alert, slowly at first but quickly turning into a metallic shriek as the fish that had grabbed my bait shifted into high gear. I plucked the outfit from the rod holder and switched off the line-out alarm, thumbing the reel spool lightly and letting the striper run with my bait. Fishfinder The rockfish bite has slowed the last few days, but it should pick up after the hectic boat traffic of the recent holiday dissipates and the stripers return...