Tangier Sound Fishing Report, 12/28/2018 Update:
Hey there FishTalkers, and welcome to the final fishing report of 2018! Don't worry - despite the chilly weather and difficult conditions the next few months will hold, we'll keep bringing you current reports right through the winter. They may be shorter at times and the options may be a bit more limited, but we know there are plenty of die-hard anglers out there who will want to wet a line whenever the opportunity presents itself. Come rain, sleet, or snow, let's keep on casting!
The Sound itself is pretty quiet these days, with the C & R fishing now mostly out in the open Bay (see the Lower Bay report, for more details) and most folks focused on the holidays all week. The perch bite, however, is optimal up in the creeks. The yellow perch are an easier catch than the whites right now, since many of the white perch are still mingling in the deep water. Up towards the top of the Pocomoke and Nanticoke and in off-shoot creeks, anglers were reporting numerous yellow perch, many of which were keepers, plus a crappie here and there. Nearly all were on dropper flies or shad darts, with a few reporting that bull minnows were a clear favorite during the cool mornings. In fresher areas pickerel are a big part of the draw as well, with minnow on shad darts the usual favorite. Anglers sinking cut baits are catching some catfish, as well.
Tangier Sound Fishing Report, 12/21/2018 Update:
Happy holidays, anglers, we hope you have a wonderful fishmas. We just hope you're willing to travel up a creek to enjoy it, because reports from in and around the Sound have been exceedingly thin this past week. Travelling out into the Bay proper can produce some catch and release trolling action and some monster fish were caught this past week (see the Lower Bay report) but if you want fish for the frying pan, heading up the Nanticoke, Wicomico, and Pocomoke are the best bets. All the rain has unfortunately swamped out some areas, but you can still catch crappie from around pilings and structure with a small minnow on a shad dart or marabou jig. The other game in town is pickerel, and some nice ones have been showing up for anglers fishing large bull minnow under bobbers. There are also plenty of catfish to be found up the rivers, for anglers sinking those bull minnow or cut bait down to the bottom. There are surely some perch around, too, though we didn't hear any reports of them this past week; that's likely a function of conditions and a lack of effort as opposed to a lack of fish.
Tangier Sound Fishing Report, 12/14/2018 Update:
Area anglers are left with a few options in the Tangier: Head west into the main-stem Bay or south into the Pocomoke region, or up-stream to freshwater areas. Success can be found before stripers are shut down completely by trolling with weighted tandems run at 30-plus feet (chartreuse and pearl) from buoy 72 down to 64. There's also been some success reported by trollers and jiggers in the Pocomoke, where it meets with the open Bay, in 35 to 45 feet of water. Beyond that, it's all about pickerel, perch, and crappie. All of the above can be found in the upper Nanticoke, Wicomico, and Pocomoke. Perch have been staging deep and hitting minnow and bloodworms, while the pickerel can be found in and around dying weeds and lilly pads. Bull minnow fished on a shad dart or wobbled behind a Road Runner, are their favored offering. Use smaller minnow and suspend them under a bobber, if crappie are your target. Piers and pilings up-river from the Riverside launch have been a good bet.
Tangier Sound Fishing Report, 12/7/2018:
Temperatures are dropping quick, and so are the amount of fish left in the Sound during this time of year. Trollers working their lures deep along the channel edges are having some success, but many local anglers are running right through the sound and out to buoy 72, to troll the edge from there on down to 64. Umbrellas and tandems with six-inch shad in chartreuse and white are called out as the top picks. There have also been a few reports from trollers finding some success a bit to the south, in the Pocomoke near Flatcap.
Otherwise things in the Sound are growing quiet, with the only remaining options heading up the rivers for pickerel and perch. Both are biting in the Nanticoke and the Pocomoke, and when you get far enough up the rivers crappie are hitting, too. Minnow on a shad dart or marabou jig suspended under a bobber does the trick.