For those of you who may be familiar, I'd like some very general information on this area.  My entire family (I have a very large family with many siblings, nieces, nephews, etc.) have rented a giant home for next summer in what I believe are the headwaters of the Little Choptank, maybe Fishing Creek specifically.  I'm torn whether I should take my boat or not.  First of all, I've never put my rigs in saltwater and I don't really know whether this is fairly fresh water, brackish or really salty.  Secondly, I have no clue what the quality of the fishery is there, what I'd target or whether it's worth having my rig on hand.  I know that the Chesepeake is loaded with smallish to medium sized stripers in the summertime (we're going in mid July) but I don't know if they're in that area.  I also know that the upstream, freshwater areas can be good for yellow perch and largemouth bass, but again, I'm not sure if this area is fresh water and how good the bass or perch fishing would be.  I've looked at a map and it seems like the rental is way up this arm of the bay, almost as far as you can go.

 

Generally, how far might I have to travel for good striper fishing and how reliable is the fishing for someone who's not done it before (I'm a good fisherman who can fish stickbaits, swimbaits, jigs, etc. and I even have downriggers, planer boards and other trolling gear if necessary)?  Secondly, assuming that I am in fairly fresh water in that area, how would the bass or yellow perch fishing be?  I'm not terribly interested in white perch, croacker or bluefish for what it's worth (unless the blues were big and plentiful, in which case they're probably be fun I guess). 

 

Assuming that I don't take my boat, are there reasonably priced charters or headboats that fish near this area?  Are the headboats reasonably successful at putting you on fish or would a charter or two be a better idea?

 

Finally, what's the status of blue crabs in that area?  Again, how far might I have to go to get into crabs and is it easy enough for a newbie to gather a mess of them for dinner (I've done it with handlines but it was many years ago and I don't really know how or where to look for them in this area). 

 

Thanks in advance for any help that you guys may be able to provide.

 

 

If you want to take your boat you have good bass fishing 20 min or less away by land or sea. It will be salty water leading to brackish water. The crabbing and rock fishing will have to be monitored proir and up to departure. Close by you will have the marshy hope river, the nanticoke river, black water. They are all decent places to bass fish. I have heard that the area you are in has great scenic river boat rides for the family but i would have to ask my buddy about that. I think you are also close to the honga river and decent flounder fishing

Thanks Lendiesel.  It's been years since I've gone after flounder and that would be fun I'm sure.  I don't know that I'm really that interested in hauling my boat 9 hours one way for a bit of bass fishing but we'll see.  Hopefully some others will have thoughts too but I really appreciate the help.

Watts Creek in Martinak State Park in Denton USED to be the jam....but the Tank' and alot of the places on the Eastern Shore arent as good as they used to be.