Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle

The Last Hurrah

It’s time for the big guys

They started to arrive late last week. First you saw a few 38- and 40-inch rockfish in angler’s boat boxes. Then the really big guys appeared, up to 47 inches so far. The ocean-run migratory fish have reached the mid-Bay, and they are awesome. Falling mainly to anglers trolling big lures deep, at 40 to 60 feet, the monsters are providing lots of thrills after we’ve been struggling the last several weeks to get fish over 18 inches. It’s a welcome change.

article – Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle

– by Dennis Doyle – 12/1/11

Holding Back Winter

Even this time of year, you might find a rockfish. Or two.

The temperatures were actually mild the other day. Rain and wind were forecast as an all-day certainty, but I kept a close eye on the weather. Late that afternoon, sure enough, the stiff breeze lay down. With no looming sign of rain from the heavy cloud cover, I hooked up my trailered skiff and headed for the Bay. My heart was set on a fresh rockfish dinner.

article – Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle

– by Dennis Doyle – 11/24/11

Master Angler at Work

Joseph Capozzolli is one of a new species of Chesapeake waterman

A few hardy souls on the Chesapeake still fish to live.

article – Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle

– by Dennis Doyle – 11/17/11

Autumn Afield

I can’t resist South Dakota’s 7 million pheasants

We hadn’t gotten a dozen yards into the thick growth bordering the harvested cornfield when the first rooster burst out — behind me. I whirled, shouldering my model 12 Winchester (circa 1929), swung through the bird and fired. The ringneck dropped like a stone.

article – Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle

– by Dennis Doyle – 11/10/11

The Spectacular Spec

Spotted sea trout don’t frequent our neck of the Bay, so you want to get out there when they do

I was wade-fishing off Thomas Point Park when the fish hit my Clouser fly. Casting the weighted streamer around a boulder-strewn area in about four feet of water, I felt the take, and right away I knew it was not a rockfish.

article – Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle

– by Dennis Doyle – 11/3/11

A Spawning Success?

Was this year’s good news because of — or in spite of — our fishery practices?

The Young of Year Survey for striped bass spawning success in the Chesapeake Bay for 2011 is a whopping 34.6, the fourth highest on record since the Department of Natural Resources began this statistical measurement 58 years ago. Since our resident rockfish population has declined by approximately 30 percent over the last decade, this is great news indeed.

article – Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle

– by Dennis Doyle – 10/27/11

Etiquette for Breakers

How to get your fair share when fish and birds are feeding

It had started as a brisk, calm morning, but the fish weren’t in the shallows where I had hoped to find them. After a futile hour, I followed Plan B to the Bay Bridge to find only little guys there. I was calling it a day and heading in when I saw a wisp of smoke to the north.

article – Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle

– by Dennis Doyle – 10/20/11

Beating the Elements

When conditions are rough, the catch is all the sweeter

The 20-knot northerly wind was supposed to have laid down by dawn. Of course it didn’t. Mike and I nonetheless launched at first light and, despite the snotty weather, were soon anchored off one of the western-side Bay Bridge supports and tossing chunks of weighted soft crab back into the structure. My skiff was rocking and rolling, but we were determined. Our battle plan had morphed into simply getting four legal stripers as quickly as possible, then heading home.

article – Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle

– by Dennis Doyle – 10/13/11

Into October Fishing, I Go

Quietly and with hope

The tide was beginning to briskly move out as I lowered the hydraulic spike on my shallow-water anchor. Positioned a dozen or so yards off a long, heavy rock jetty in four feet of water, my skiff came to an abrupt stop, then swung about with the current. The light was already getting low in an overcast early evening gloom.

article – Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle

– by Dennis Doyle – 10/6/11

Getting a Proper Grip

Another week, I’m sitting home cleaning the gear

The past two weeks have been frustrating. Constant marine forecasts for morning rain and thunderstorms have been followed by calm, balmy mornings with lovely overcasts that have not only been rain-free but ideal for working the edges of the Bay for marauding rockfish.

article – Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle

– by Dennis Doyle – 9/29/11