Late October rewards the Chesapeake for the misery of August. While just breathing outside is a difficult task in the humid summer months, come October, cool breezes blow across the Bay through the lush green ferns that drip from the wrought iron balconies of the antebellum plantations near Romancoke at the far southern tip of Kent Island. They call it The Land of Pleasant Living.

I drove down Route 18 past the Romancoke Fire Station before turning between two ancient brick pillars then down a long, oak-lined gravel driveway. I got out of my car and walked up to the porch of the ancient stone mansion.

“They don’t advertise,” my friend advised, “you just have to know about it. It’s one of the nicest Bed & Breakfast Inns on the East Coast.”

I was tired because I had made the long drive from Tennessee early that morning. With a job opportunity in Washington DC, I was considering relocating to the Mid-Atlantic and I had spent most of the day looking for a place to live.

I stood beneath the ferns and looked up toward the slate-shingled roof. Something caught my eye up there, perhaps the quick movement of a bird. A dark feather spiraled down toward me. Once it hit the ground, I leaned over and picked it up – a pigeon maybe? No, it was more likely from the wing of a crow or a blackbird. I made my way up to the front door of the house. Read More!

“We’re number eight!  We’re number eight!”

That’s not a cheer you’re likely to hear at any NFL game this fall, but after several years of disappointment, striped bass anglers are slapping fives all over the East Coast about the news that Maryland’s Young of the Year (YOY) index came in the eighth highest ever. I’m not surprised since I’ve seen thousands of fingerling-sized rockfish feeding in the shallows through the summer. Many of my fishing buddies have also noticed all the baby fish. About a month ago, I penned a Hooked Up forum post about all the tiny rockfish. You can read my comments and those of other anglers here:  Hooked Up – Zillions of Tiny Rockfish. 

Count me as one of those joining the celebration. Back in 2011 we also had a good spawn. If you’ve been fishing on the Bay recently, you know that it’s relatively easy to find schools of breaking rockfish in the 15-20 inch range. Many of these are 2011-class fish. Now that we’ve had another successful spawning year, we can hope for continued good striped bass fishing. By 2018, most of this year’s baby fish will be 18-inches or longer.  At the same time, the 2011 fish will be approaching the 30-inch mark. Now that should be fun! If fisheries managers make the right choices, we should enjoy good striped bass fishing in the Chesapeake Bay for at least the next decade.  Read More!

Just as predicted, we’re right in the middle of the best summer for light tackle fishing in recent memory. Right now we have thirty-inch-plus stripers in shallow water above the bridge, and hoards of marauding bluefish down south. Here’s what it looks like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV5ns7iusmc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpZhTSas81A

If you haven’t already, subscribe to my  YouTube channel to get my latest videos. Also don’t forget, a lot of  my recent Internet activity has been via social networks, especially Facebook (@Shawn.Kimbro), Twitter (@ShawnKimbro) and Instagram (@Shawn_Kimbro). It’s very easy to get a message out via these outlets and I can very quickly post fishing pictures and short reports. If you haven’t already, please look me up! Here are some recent videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENQ9HnR1zP0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZq58gV-rDE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsmRZwL3Ix8

“Swish!”

“Swish!”

“What’s that sound?” I kept fishing, pretending not to notice the conversation in the back of the boat. Hank DiNardo had been nice enough to invite me out on his Southport 28TE to fish Eastern Bay. I hadn’t fished with Hank before and he wasn’t familiar with my quick-snap style of jigging. The fish finder told us there was fish around the boat, but they weren’t biting. I was up on the bow using every strike trigger I knew, including snapping my jig for all I was worth.

From the back I heard my regular fishing partner, Jamie Clough explaining, “That’s just the way Kimbro jigs sometimes.”

Indeed. That was seven years ago and since then I’ve earned something of a reputation for my energetic, somewhat spastic jigging style. When fishing is tough, you’ll frequently hear my rod tip cutting through the air as I snap my soft plastic jigs off the bottom. It’s a technique that’s been both mocked and revered with the biggest detractors being a couple of local guys who thought they already had it all figured out and the strongest proponents being newcomers to the Chesapeake Bay light tackle game who just want to catch more fish.

Why snap jigging? Read More!

My year in review video:

Most of the anglers I know caught rockfish last year. Some of us here in Maryland had a pretty good year. One of the reasons we caught well in 2014 is because we had a lot of fish very close to home. I don’t like to kick off a new year on a down note, but I’m not too excited about our catching last year. Our area is one of the few places in the country where striped bass fishing was decent in 2014. Did we have a good year, or have we lowered our expectations? Read More!