Chesapeake Beach and Breezy Point

The Calvert County towns of North Beach and Chesapeake Beach, with Breezy Point just to the south, face the western edge of the Bay's shipping channel. For boaters, the channel edges off Chesapeake Beach and Breezy Point are traditional middle-Bay trolling and live-lining grounds, from the May opener to the last jigging trips of December. For everyone else, the hard bottom close to shore is a dependable summer spot and croaker ground, and the town and county piers put families within casting range of it.

When to fish

• May: trolling umbrella rigs and tandem-rigged bucktails along the channel edge off Chesapeake Beach and Breezy Point when the main-Bay season opens.
• June and July: spot arrive on the hard bottom in front of Chesapeake Beach; use them to live-line stripers on the 30- to 35-foot edges. Bluefish show up by midsummer.
• August: striped bass are closed; troll the channel edges for bluefish and Spanish mackerel.
• September and October: stripers on the Breezy Point and Parkers Creek edges when the season reopens.
• November and December: jigging and trolling for stripers suspended on the channel edges, often in 25 feet or deeper; catch and release only from December 6.

Where to fish

• The western edge of the shipping channel off Chesapeake Beach, Breezy Point and Parkers Creek: stripers, bluefish and Spanish mackerel.
• Hard bottom in about 12 to 15 feet in front of Chesapeake Beach and near Holland Point: spot, croaker and white perch.
• The Breezy Point and North Beach piers: shore access to the same summer mix.

How to fish it

• Stripers: troll umbrella rigs or tandem-rigged bucktails and shads (small red teasers when the May worms hatch); in summer live-line spot on non-offset circle hooks; in late fall cruise the edges with the depth finder and jig soft plastics.
• Bluefish and Spanish mackerel: troll surgical tubes and small spoons behind planers and inline weights, faster for mackerel.
• Spot, croaker and white perch: bloodworm or artificial bloodworm on a small-hook bottom rig; peeler crab for white perch and croaker.

Getting there

Calvert County's Breezy Point Beach & Campground, 5300 Breezy Point Road, has a 200-foot fishing and crabbing pier; it's open daily May through October, charges admission, and often fills to capacity on summer weekends. In North Beach, you can fish the pier's lower fishing deck with a pass from the town Welcome Center. On Herring Bay in Anne Arundel County, the park at Rose Haven is a cartop launch with a little shore fishing, and Deale Wharf has a pier. You need a Maryland Chesapeake Bay and Coastal Sport Fishing License.