Fishing is great in Southern Maryland as spot, croaker, rockfish, bluefish, white perch, and flounder are all abundant and eager to bite.

Croaker are in the rivers in good numbers. Jim McDermott and Rusty Thompson launched their boat at the Point Lookout State Park Saturday morning and ventured just outside the pound net stakes in Cornfield Harbor (about a mile from the boat ramp). In about 28 feet of water they lowered their double hook bottomed rigs baited with squid and bloodworms and immediately hungry hardhead began coming over the side. They returned the Tackle Box store in Lexington Park at 2 p.m., with a box full including one out-sized croaker at 19 inches in length.

The croaker are further up the Potomac all the way to the 301 bridge with good catches being made by boaters and shore fishermen in places like Ragged Point, Piney Point, St George Island, and St. Clements Island.

Croaker are common in the Patuxent, and the Middle Grounds in the Bay at buoy 72A is now wide open for night fishing where charter boats are landing in excess of one hundred fish on a trip.

Spot and perch are in the mouth of the Patuxent at Drum Point, Fishing Point, Sandy Point, Point Patience and Hawk's Nest. The Potomac has not reported the spot as much yet, but that area should fill up by the fourth of July, their traditional kickoff time.

White Perch are plentiful in the creeks now. They love bloodworms and beetle spins. Charlie Carter kept 20 white perch under the bridge between Piney Point and St. George Island casting a beetle spin in the moving tide. He was culling the perch at 11 inches!

Bluefish in the 18 to 20 inch range are active in the bay at the Target ship. One troller landed 20 in an hour at sunset on a moving tide last week trolling small surgical eel lures, spoons, and bucktails. These fish were not breaking.

Live-liners using spot are catching rockfish above the Gas Docks, at Little Cove Point, Cedar Point Rip and in the outfall of the Nuclear Power Plant. The rockfish range from 18 to 28 inches. Trollers are catching rock using smaller bucktails and spoons both in the bay and up the rivers. Breaking rockfish are in the mouth of the Patuxent in the mornings and evenings.

Flounder are at the Three Legged in the mouth of the Patuxent and on the ledge at buoys 70 and 76. One drifter caught seven keeper fish on one drift from 76 to 74 on an incoming tide last Tuesday.

Read more local fishing news at http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/fishingreport/ .