“Wedding Crashers” may have informed us that Maryland is famous for crab cakes and football, but Mid-Atlantic anglers also associate it with a particular fish – elsewhere they’re known as stripers, but here the locals call ‘em rockfish.
That’s not to be confused with the various Pacific rockfish, like those we’ve caught in Alaska, and which we’ve profiled previously. These are the hard-fighting anadromous variety – and they’re so iconic that lots of Old Bay-bleeding Marylanders have them tattooed on their bodies. Here are a few examples:
For many of us, the Improved Clinch Knot was the first one we learned. Some of us still use it. It may not test stronger than some other, but it’s remarkably easy to tie correctly. You can improve your chances of landing big fish to the boat with the Double Clinch Knot.