Chris Dollar: Tips on bait and tackle for a successful bottom fishing trip

The curtain is closing on another summer season of angling, and it wouldn’t be complete without a good old-fashioned bottom fishing trip.

In our part of the Chesapeake Bay, that usually means settling over a patch of live bottom or casting from shore, and it’s catfish, stripers, white perch and spot that take the bait. Though the occasional black drum or even croaker or something else that hits your line.

When I say best bottom fishing from a boat is over live bottom areas what I mean is oyster bars or man-made reefs. Of course, historically the Chesapeake was famous for its prodigious oyster “rocks,” and although sadly just a shell of its former self, ongoing efforts to rebuild the bay’s marine habitat is encouraging.

Still, the bay has plenty of good bottom fishing places, and as such they’re popular, too. Above the Bay Bridges, Sandy Point shoals, Podicory Point, Snake Reef and Belvidere Shoal draw a crowd. Below the bridges, wet a line at Hackett’s Point, Tolley Point or Thomas Point Bar.

Across the Bay, just inside the Chester and Eastern Bay hold fish. Further south, Holland Point bar, lower Choptank and Cedar Point do as well. Locating that good patch of live bottom means the difference between catching and wondering what you’re doing wrong.

If there are already boats set up on your “spot,” be courteous and pick another one close that doesn’t crowd them too much but still gets you in the game. If you come up empty but your neighbor is catching, make a strategic shift — up tide, down tide — or strike out for another place entirely.

As for gear, again simple is all you need. I like medium-fast action rod from six to seven feet matched to a 2,500-sized reel loaded with 12-pound test braid, which is more sensitive than mono and allows you to better feel the strike. But if you have kids or newbies aboard stick with mono — braid can be much more hassle than it’s worth.

The kind of bait you use depends on the kind of fish you’re after. For example, spot love lively bloodworms. But these have been way too expensive and the quality poor in recent years. Most bait and tackle shops now offer lug worms.

Catfish will eat cut alewife or chicken livers works well. Nightcrawlers, clams, soft or peeler crab, squid, grass shrimp, regular shrimp — all used by bottom fishermen — can catch a variety of species. Gulp! and FishBites bring strikes, too.

Commercially made top/bottom rigs are easy to use. I really like the Chesapeake sabikis made by Hayabusa. Designed like ocean style sabikis, these versions feature just two hooks so they are compliant with Maryland regulations.

Bottom fishing most certainly is on the tamer side of Wild Chesapeake. It doesn’t take a whole lot of effort or gear, and frankly that’s the point. There is a serenity that comes with anchoring up, setting a rod in the holder and kicking back for a while as the world spins on.

I can hear the groans and moans now, and believe me I feel ya, I really do. I too am eager for the day when stricter regulations — if not an outright ban — are implemented on the industrialized menhaden fleet that operates in the lower Chesapeake Bay.

And lots of folks are working diligently to reach that goal.

Until then, you can voice your opinion for the latest menhaden management plan under consideration by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. You can do that by attending a public hearing – the Maryland one is a hybrid of in person and webinar, or send in written comment via email to at comments@asmfc.org. In the subject line, type Atlantic Menhaden Draft Addendum I.

Comments will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 30.

Sept. 1-Oct. 15: Dove Season, first split. Fifteen birds per day.

Sept. 7: Free State Fly Fishers meeting. Capt. Tom Hughes on fly fishing Chesapeake. Davidsonville Family Recreation Center (7-9 p.m.), 3789 Queen Anne Bridge Road, Davidsonville. Contact Ryan Harvey at rybeer@gmail.com.

Sept. 13: CCA Maryland's Central Region Chapter’s “Celebration of Conservation.” 1623 Brewing Company, Eldersburg, 6 p.m.-10 p.m. Tickets at centralregion22.givesmart.com.

Sept. 17: Free State Fly Fishers monthly tying session with Tim Ruthemeyer from 10 a.m.-Noon. Davidsonville Family Recreation Center, 3789 Queen Anne Bridge Road, Davidsonville. Contact Ryan Harvey at rybeer@gmail.com.

Sept. 17: Pasadena Sportfishing Group’s “Kids Fishing Derby.” 7:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. at Fort Smallwood Park.

Sept. 22: “Past, Present, and Future of Striped Bass: A Chesapeake Perspective.” Join Bay experts for the third installment of the three-part series discussing the future of this iconic game fish. Register fishtalkmag.com/chesapeake-perspective.

Sept. 23-25: Fourth Annual Tangier Classic, Crisfield MD. Details at tangierclassic.com.

Sept. 26: Maryland and Potomac River Public Hearing for Fishery Management Plan for Menhaden. 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Hybrid meeting, in-person at DNR Tawes Building, C-1 Conference Room, 580 Taylor Avenue, Annapolis.

Send calendar listings, news and photos to cdollarchesapeake@gmail.com.