More Chesapeake Bay Fishing Excitement! - Apr. 29-30, 2009

April 29 and April 30, 2009 were just two more exciting days of successfully fishing for striped bass on Maryland's Chesapeake Bay! In the above picture are our newest customers who came out and had a great time with us, and caught their limit of Chesapeake Bay stripers in under two hours! The weather did not cooperate as well as we would have liked, with heavy winds out of the northeast, producing very rough sea conditions, but the captain and crew of the Sawyer overcame this huge obstacle. Just look at what they landed! A couple of those striped bass were 40 inches in length! We hope to see these fine folks again in the future.

The picture above shows what we did on Thursday, April 30. We had the pleasure of taking out some of our long-time customers. These guys have been with us ever since we started up full time in 1999. This was an absolutely perfect day of striper fishing on Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. The bay was just like a sheet of glass, as opposed to the day before, yet the fishing was still wide open. These folks had caught their limit before 9am! The striped bass that you see being held up in front of the youngster was 41 inches in length, 23 inches in girth, and weighed 32 pounds! The youngster wound it in with some help, and his father arranged to have the fish mounted by a taxidermist. We're very happy that we were able to give these guys to a good time, and we hope that we will continue to see these guys year after year.

For more rockin' fishing pictures such as the ones above, or for more information about booking a Chesapeake Bay fishing charter, go to http://www.sawyercharters.com/!

You're dismissed!

More Fishing for Maryland Chesapeake Bay Striped Bass - Apr. 27-28, 2009

Yeah, you guessed it. More trophy Maryland rockfish caught in the Chesapeake Bay! Just check out these beautiful striped bass. The above picture is from Monday, April 27, 2009. It was another solid day for us, fishing for striped bass on Maryland's Chesapeake Bay! We had to wait them out through the morning, but those fish finally got their act together. As we were getting our lines pulled up to end the day, we had five lines go down at one time! Just check out what these long-time customers came away with! Everybody went home with a fish!

Check out what these guys did today in the picture above, fishing for striped bass on the Chesapeake Bay! The day started out with very calm seas and a hard-flowing flood current. We picked up three trophy stripers right away. Then, as the current slacked up, the fishing petered out a bit. We had a few hits that didn't materialize, but we waited them out. Then, the wind picked up out of the west, and the current started to flow down the Chesapeake Bay. At this point, the fishing picked up big time, and about an hour later, we had our limit! Check out the trophy Maryland rockfish that these guys came home with! The one on the far left was 43 inches long! This is the first time that these guys paid us a visit. We are very hopeful that we will see them again!

If you want to catch some of these awesome fish, check us out at http://www.sawyercharters.com/!

Weekend Update: April 24-26, 2009. Trolling for Striped Bass on Maryland's Chesapeake Bay!

Friday, April 24, 2009 was another excellent day of fishing for striped bass on Maryland's Chesapeake Bay with Sawyer Charters! We had two trips on Friday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The above picture shows what we did in the morning! These guys had their limit in under two hours! The fishing was red hot once again! As you can tell, they are all very happy. They are new customers, and we hope they will be back with us again soon. They had a beautiful day to fish as the Chesapeake Bay was pretty calm and the sun was shining.In the afternoon, we had the enjoyment of taking out some of our long-time customers. These fine folks have been with us ever since we began running Maryland fishing charters full-time back in 1999! The fishing was a bit more challenging due to rougher sea conditions and more boats in the area trying to catch the same fish that we were after, but we overcame our obstacles, as we brought in more trophy striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay! We hope that these guys will continue to see us!

Check out what this fine young lady pulled out of the Chesapeake Bay! Yep, I kid you not. She landed this beautiful striped bass, the first fish that she's ever caught! Right here, she has just done what a lot of kids her age will never do in a lifetime! The fish is almost as long as she is tall! She will never forget this experience!

We went out again on Sunday, April 26 on a calm afternoon. The Chesapeake Bay was just like a sheet of glass. Warm temperatures and a very faint breeze made for a beautiful day of fishing here in Maryland! This fine family is a new customer and we hope that we will see them again in the near future. They were definitely happy with the massive rockfish that they caught.

That will do for now. Stay tuned to this blog for more updates about our adventures catching these monster rockfish on Maryland's Chesapeake Bay! For more information beyond the scope of this blog, or if you would like to catch some of these beautiful stripers with us, please go to http://www.sawyercharters.com/!

April 22-23, 2009 - More Striped Bass Caught on Maryland's Chesapeake Bay!

It is time once again, for another installment of our adventures while fishing for Maryland rockfish on the Chesapeake Bay! The above picture is from April 22, 2009. These fine folks are long-time customers who come back to us year after year. They came down to Hoopers Island on a foggy, rainy Wednesday morning. However, the stripers had other ideas as they were red hot. We had our limit within two hours! At one point, we had six lines go down all at once! There's nothing like the drama of when multiple lines get pulled down by 30-pound Chesapeake Bay striped bass! In the above picture, the second fish from the right was 41 inches in length! What a day!
April 23 was another great day of fishing for us! We fished both in the morning and in the afternoon. A picture from the morning trip is shown above. The wind was kicking up quite a bit from the south, but we were still able to overcome rough sea conditions to land our limit of Maryland Striped Bass! Once again, these guys are long-time customers, and the above picture shows why!

The above picture shows what our afternoon trip did! In the afternoon, these fish were out of the water, even moreso than in the morning! These guys had their limit of Maryland rockfish in one hour! The fishing on the Chesapeake Bay was just unbelievable! Hopefully, we'll being seeing these folks again soon.

To check out more pictures like the ones above, and for more of the latest and greatest about Chesapeake Bay fishing, check out our website at http://www.sawyercharters.com/!

April 21, 2009 - A Day to Remember for Chesapeake Bay Striped Bass, Rockfish, or whatever you want to call 'em!

What a day we had on Tuesday! We left the dock at around 5:30 am, and after maneuvering through some crab pots set out on the Chesapeake Bay, we put our lines out just as the sun was coming up, in search of Maryland Rockfish. All of the fish that you see in the picture above were caught before 9am! The trolling was red hot. At one point, we landed three fish at one time! Unfortunately, due to already meeting our limit of stripers for the day, we had to let two of them go.
Here is the biggest fish of the morning! This fish weighed 34 pounds and was 45 inches long! As you can see, the guy who caught it is very happy! He arranged to have this fish mounted by a taxidermist. Very proud of his catch, as he should be! It was a beautiful morning. The sun was out, not a breath of wind blowing, and the fishing was out of this world! We came back to the dock at around noon for our afternoon trip.

This is how this group of 3 fared! We had our limit of Chesapeake Bay Maryland Striped Bass within 30 minutes! We caught and threw back a few other ones. These guys were tired from fighting these huge rockfish.

This is a close-up of their biggest one! This fish was 50" long, and caught by the boy in the picture! This is the biggest fish he has ever caught. It's almost as long as he is tall! This is an experience that he will never forget! This was a day where everything went right, from both a fishing and a weather perspective!

If you want to hook up on some of these monster Maryland rockfish, go to http://www.sawyercharters.com/!

Chesapeake Bay Trophy Rockfish Season 2009 Is Now Underway!

Chesapeake Bay Trophy Striped Bass Season 2009 has started off with a bang here at Sawyer Charters. Check out the rockfish that these happy fisherman came away with today. This is the first day of the season that stripers can be legally caught and kept in Maryland. In the picture, the fish on the right was 41" long! It was a beautiful day out, as the bay was calm and the sun was shining. I should also mention that the Bay was packed, as it seemed that everyone with a boat was a fisherman today. This complicated fishing some as we were trolling, but we overcame the obstacles and ended up doing very well today. To check out more pictures like this one, visit http://www.sawyercharters.com/ today! More pictures of our 2009 Trophy Striped Bass season are to come in the days that follow. Stay tuned!

Want some of these BIG Chesapeake Bay Striped Bass? Book your Chesapeake Bay Fishing Charter NOW!!

I've got two spring dates left for catching these BIG Maryland Chesapeake Bay Striped Bass, May 13 and 14! With both of those days being weekdays, the chance of a good catch are a lot higher as opposed to a weekend, when everyone with a boat is a fisherman. These dates will fill. The clock is ticking. Get onboard NOW! Call us at (410) 397-3743, or visit our website at http://www.sawyercharters.com/!

*I should mention that I realize that the image quality isn't quite as good on this blog. I don't have that many close-ups of these fish. That is because I am trying to get everybody into the picture, which is difficult when everybody has a freaking fish!

Stay tuned to this blog, as I will be talking a little bit about trolling for these big Chesapeake Bay rockfish in the days to come.

Capt. Dave

Catch and Release of Striped Bass on Maryland's Chesapeake Bay

Hello everybody.

Today, I went out in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay for the first time this year, doing some catch and release on these stripers, making sure all of my rods and reels are still working properly. I didn't leave the dock until about 8:00 this morning. We caught three rockfish within the first hour of fishing. After that, we never had another touch the rest of the morning. Not long after we caught the last one, the current started running real hard down the Bay, and that is probably what killed it. If we had left the dock an hour or two earlier, we probably would have caught more than that.

I don't have any pictures, because I usually don't take pictures when doing catch and release. My main focus is to get the fish back in the water as soon as possible. I hate the unnecessary killing of fish. As I mentioned before, the only reason I went today was to make sure that everything was working properly.

This brings me to something that I need to get off my chest. I'm going to upset a bunch of people here, but so be it. Lately, I've been hearing these stories about people who have been doing catch and release, and bragging about catching 50-60 fish in one day. Now, WHAT IS THE SENSE IN THAT? For one thing, after the first two or three, I don't see the fun in it anymore. It's more like work. More importantly, I'd be willing to bet that a significant percentage of the fish released don't live. Think about it. You're dragging these fish on a hook through the water, stressing them out. You get them in the boat, drop them on the floor, and rupture their spleens. You rub off their protective slime, causing lesions to show up on them later, which makes them sick, and when or if they're caught later, you have all these idiots screaming "Oh my God, Pfisteriaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!" After wrestling with the fish and getting the hook out of its mouth, you throw it back into the drink with a sore on its mouth. God forbid you hook one in the gill or gut-hook one. Yeah, that's right. Rip its gills out, rip its guts out, make it bleed everywhere, then throw it back in the drink, and brag about how you landed one, when in reality, all you did was kill a nice fish for no good reason. Yeah, you're one hell of a fisherman! Congratulations! I hope that someday my fat ass can ascend to that pinnacle of achievement that only you seemed to have reached.

Now, I feel better. Before anyone calls me a hypocrite, it is one thing to catch and release a handful of fish to make sure everything works before the season starts. It's a necessary evil. But, to sit back all day long and hammer those fish, 50-60 a day and more. That's just plain stupid and ridiculous. When there aren't any fish left, you can bet that these ignorant people will be the first ones to complain about it.

Ok. NOW I feel better.

Rockfish Recipes - 04.09.09

Hello again,

Here is another one of my favorite rockfish recipes. For more recipes like this one, or information about fishing in the Chesapeake, check out http://www.sawyercharters.com/!

Rockfish Stew

1 can Cream of Celery Soup
Skim Milk
4 Baked Potatoes
Old Bay Seasoning
1 Onion
2 lb. Rockfish

Cut rockfish fillets into large cubes. Dice onions and potatoes. Put onions, potatoes, and fish into a large frying pan with some oil to blanch. Then, in a cooking pot, add all items with the soup and skim milk, to desired thickness. Let it boil, and then simmer for approximately 30 minutes. Enjoy!

By the way, I still have May 13 and 14 available for anyone who wants to go after those big trophy stripers. If anyone wants either of these dates, either reply to this blog, or head on over to http://www.sawyercharters.com/!

Rockfish Recipes - 04.08.09

Hello again,

Here is another one of my favorite Chesapeake Bay striped bass recipes.

Dill Weed Rockfish

Use a heavy-duty foil. Rub fillets with olive oil and lay them on a bed of yellow onions sliced about 1/4" thick. Squeeze lemon over the fillets and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and Old Bay. Sprinkle a heavy coat of dill weed on top. Close the foil and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes. If the fillets flake apart, it is done.

More to come over the next few days. For more of these recipes, or to find out more about Chesapeake Bay fishing charters, head on over to http://www.sawyercharters.com/!

Capt. Dave

Rockfish Recipes - 04.07.09

Hello again,

With Chesapeake Bay Striped Bass season fast approaching, now would be a good time to talk about some of our favorite recipes. In the next few days, I will be posting some of my favorites, and maybe some of you can submit some of yours. For now, check this one out. It's not very heart-healthy, but good nonetheless. For more of these, and other information, check out http://www.sawyercharters.com/!

Capt. Dave's Deep-Fried Rockfish Nuggets (* also works with bluefish)

Rockfish Fillets
1 cup Italian Bread Crumbs
1-2 Eggs
1 qt. Cooking Oil
Small Amount of Milk
Cocktail Sauce

Heat oil in deep fryer. Cut fillets into small strips or nugget-sized pieces. Mix eggs and milk together in a bowl. Dip fillet strips to coat in egg/milk mixture. Coat fish with Italian bread crumbs. Place in deep fryer and cook until done or golden brown. Serve with cocktail sauce. Enjoy!