Articles by Dennis Doyle

Perseverance Pays

If you’re on the water, the fish may come to you

The sun was getting low in an overcast sky, night was rapidly falling — and still there were no fish. Conditions were perfect off the shallow-water point, the tide was up, there was good current, a chilly wind was lying down nicely — and only one other boat was present. But no fish. Fish Are Biting Better weather and cooler water temperatures have jumped the fall bite into the red zone. Nice rockfish are schooling at the mouths of all of the major tributaries and are...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle; 10/14/10

Get Ready to Catch Crabs

Here’s how

This year will be the best season in over a decade for Chesapeake Bay crabbers. The Department of Natural Resources estimates that the blue crab population is up 60 percent, the highest number since 1997. If you want to get a share of this delicious Chesapeake bounty, now is the time to start preparations and acquire the necessary gear. Assuming that you have even the most modest of boats (even a canoe or kayak will do), the best method to employ, especially if you’re just starting...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle; 5/6/10

Two's a Party

Vertical jigging snares many a pair

Three weeks of big wind and steady rain got me thinking about a trip this time of month last year. Back then, it was calm and lovely, and we were drifting a bit south of one of the Bay Bridge rock piles in 30 feet of water. I had just lowered my rod tip to let the flashing lure at the end of my line flutter back down to the bottom. Fish Are Biting The relentless wind and rainstorms have pretty much killed the fall bite. Besides muddying the water and scattering the...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle; 10/7/10

The Bay's Other Great Filter

Scooping up suspended plant matter and algae, a typical menhaden filters seven gallons of water a minute, dwarfing even the oyster

Also called pogy, mossbunker, fatback, bugmouth and about 25 other names, they are all the same creature, menhaden, and the most important fish that swims in our Chesapeake. The fish with many names is also an essential resident along the Atlantic seaboard because it is a main ecological building block for our entire marine food web. A schooling, silvery fish about 15 inches long with an enormous mouth and weighing a pound or so, it is bony, smelly and poor tasting. But everything...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle; 5/20/10

A Box Full of Rocks

So I was wrong about the Jonah

The Bay was calm, the sun was shining and we were relaxed. It was early afternoon and Mike E. and I, anchored in 35 feet of water, had six light-tackle rods rigged with cut, fresh menhaden and set out in rod holders. The closest fishing boat to us was about a mile away. The slick from a block of ground menhaden, submerged in a net bag astern, had spread out well behind us, and Mike was occasionally adding to it a few chunks of fresh menhaden as he prepared additional baits. Usually...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle; 5/27/10

Let Summer Begin

I’ve caught and eaten my first feast of crabs

It started out as a tip from a friend. Fooling with his crab line in a distant, shallow cove, he had discovered a bumper load of crabs weeks earlier than he had ever encountered anywhere else on the Chesapeake. I wanted in on that. Experience with chasing the delectable Chesapeake blue crab had convinced me that catching enough for a good feast was probably not going to happen until mid-June. Before then, it always seemed that our state’s hallowed crustaceans had risen from their...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle; 6/3/10

The Key to Catching

If at first you don’t succeed … try something different

Sundown was only a half-hour away as I steered my skiff toward another deserted shoreline. Well out, I switched over to my electric trolling motor and eased into casting range. My target was a rip forming over the nearest of a number of mostly submerged stone jetties jutting sharply out from the shoreline. Fish Are Biting Rockfish remain the stars of the fall bite. Live-lining, chumming and trolling are the preeminent methods of securing a limit as the water temperatures have...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle; 9/30/10

Pinched

Sometimes the crab catches you

The sudden pain was excruciating. The Jimmie I was attempting to free from my net was not particularly large, but it had closed its pincer firmly across the tip of my middle finger and was bearing down with unbelievable pressure. Just a moment’s inattention, and I’d been caught like the rankest amateur crabber. It hurt like hell. I yelled out in agony. My right hand held the crab net that had captured the rascal, and I couldn’t let it go without adding even more...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle; 6/10/10

Perch in a Poke

An old salt teaches this old dog a new lesson

It felt like a good fish right from the start. Lifting my rod tip at the strike, I felt solid resistance, then a headshake. Then the perch shot out from deep under the dock where I had hooked it. On its way out, the crafty devil also cornered at the nearest barnacle-encrusted piling and cut the line. I shook my head and reached for another spinner bait. This wasn’t the first big white perch to have done me dirt that morning. A number of whities finning in our five-gallon...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle; 6/17/10

A Sweetwater Slam

Despite heavy winds, I landed a largemouth bass, a bluegill and a pickerel

Most folks know that a grand slam is baseball’s term for a home run with the bases loaded. Angling has its own slam. A Chesapeake Bay slam is landing a rockfish, bluefish and Spanish mackerel on the same day. The freshwater version is typically a largemouth bass, a pickerel and a bluegill. Fish Are Biting When winds permit, there is great fishing on the Chesapeake. Trollers are starting to do well pulling small spoons, fast and on top for Spanish mackerel and blues, slow and low...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle; 9/23/10