Billfish, Mahi, Flounder, Sea Bass and Some Big Red Drum On the Chesapeake Bay

By Scott Lenox

Posted on September 2nd, 2026

I just got back from an awesome trip with Captain Matt Abell of Sea Hawk Sports Center and Bobby Willey of Hocker’s Outdoors over on the Chesapeake Bay for some bull red drum. We were filming for a new episode of Hooked on OC and Matt put us on some quality fish. Bobby caught his first ever red, then I caught a beautiful 44″ fish and then Bobby caught another after dark that was around 36″ or so. I lost another fish that we got a good look at that was 40″+ rounding out an awesome trip! It should make for a great episode of Hooked on OC in a few weeks!

The offshore fishing for marlin has picked up over the past couple of days with boats getting more shots at fish. The Boss Hogg with Captain Alex Beane had an awesome day with 10 white marlin releases and two blue marlin with a couple of mahi for the grill.

Captain Mark Hoos and the crew of the MARLI had a great day with a sailfish release, a white marlin release and a pile of blueline tilefish and a few mahi.

Captain Tony Battista of Saltwater Adventures had a nice day of ocean fishing for his crew with mahi, jacks, flounder and sea bass.

Anglers fishing with Captain Will Poole of Local Hooker Fishing Charters had good luck with some sea bass, mahi and keeper flounder.

Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler reported picky sea bass fishing today, but there were some nice flounder and some mahi for some around the rail.

Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star found some nice mahi for his clients today

Light rail, calm sea, Chamber of Commerce sunrise; was a fine start to the day. While a few miles from Dave Hammond’s Memorial Reef I saw the Tiki XIV on the near-horizon . He was there to sweeten Dave’s Reef with block donated by York Building Products (& there’s a tug soon to follow I hope!) We paused a moment to make our daily drop of 16 jumbo blocks in a unit & watch Capt Stormy deploy their first drop of 132 blocks (x4 for a total). We were both spot on; and, both drops may well have squished a few sea bass. (Well, I marked mad fish on Dave’s and also on the new reef with just 232 blocks. I suspect sea bass hear those blocks falling as you’d hear a train. They’d sure better get out of the way!)

Got the skunk off the boat first drop with a bailer mahi. Pull a few, goose egg, pull a few more, goose egg, Don put a nice one in the box – biggest this season I expect – just how it went. Had to sort em out spot by spot. Tried hard to finish the day with a bang – left early, in late: but when the current slacked, the bite fizzled.

Still, a decent day of mahi fishing I think.

Plenty of room next two days too. Friday for fluke too.