Thursday, April 7, 2016

     In 2015, Diamond Fishing Charters was voted a favorite by the locals! We have been fishing Maryland's Chesapeake Bay since 1992. Most of the fishing season we depart from Anchor Bay East Marina/Hard Yacht CafĂ© which is located at 8500 Cove Road, Dundalk Maryland 21222. Docked at the Hard Yacht Cafe is our fishing vessel named "Diamond". Diamond Fishing Charters offers 7 hour and 5 hour fishing charters, 2 per day, 7 days a week. Every year we start fishing around the middle of April and finish up the season at the end of December. Our pricing ranges from *$450-*$650 per charter. We specialize in catching rock fish; others might know them as "stripers". And even after 20+ years of fishing on the Chesapeake Bay, we still find it very enjoyable. Please feel free to e-mail of call captain Charlie if you have any further questions, thanks in advance!

     In Maryland, rock fishing is good from mid-April until the end of December. This year, Maryland changed our regulations again. Now during the trophy fishing season we can only keep fish that measure 35” and above. The trophy sized (35" and above) rock fish can be caught from mid-April until mid-May at the latest. To catch these large fish, we will be trolling 25 rods. Assisting 14 of these rods will be a set of 150' planerboard lines. We only have about 3 good weeks to catch these trophy migratory rock fish in the Chesapeake Bay. So, if you’re ever interested in one of these charters, and your schedule isn't flexible, try to let us know months in advance. Trophy season charters will cost around *$650 and after May 15th the prices drop to *$600. After these trophy fish have left the bay, we'll switch over to using lighter fishing rods and we’ll be catching rock fish of various sizes. On May the 15th Maryland’s regulations changeover to 2 fish per guest with a minimum of 20” to keep. However, the guests are only allowed to keep 1 fish over 28”per guest, but if they keep this over 28” fish, they can only possess 1 fish between 20” and 28”, NOT two. During the summer-fall season we use different techniques to catch these mid-sized rock fish. The most productive way seems to be trolling with very short 50’ planer board lines. We also chum and use cut bait to catch these fish.
Planer Set Up
Chesapeake Bay Planer Boards
 

     Bottom fishing is best from early June to late October. We offer these charters Monday-Thursday only. While on one of these charters, you can expect to catch perch, spot, small blue fish, and some croaker (hard head). These 5 hour bottom fishing charters will cost *$450 and we'll normally have less than a 30 minute boat ride to the fishing grounds. When we are bottom fishing, we will be using spinning reels spoiled with 10 lbs. test line. Top and bottom rigs baited with cut worm, squid, or shrimp (depending on what's running) seem to work best for catching these type of fish. 



*prices do not include a tip for the mate and a 20% tip is customary.