Sea Nettles Reporting and Predictions

My "unofficial" report from a very active, fishing-oriented site (www.tidalfish.com) is that, as of mid-July, they are pretty heavy (enough to deter worry-free swimming) in the Choptank, Eastern Bay area. I'm headed North from now on (Magothy, tip of the Severn, and anxious to try out the Upper Eastern Shore (Rock Hall, Fairlee, Still Pond) area.
 
Still nettle-free on Stoney (at least where we are...) :-)
 
Been out for the week (7/18 now):

Solomons - Yes. Starting to build their numbers.

Oxford/Choptank - Yes. Not too thick, but they're there.

Annapolis - Haven't seen one since we got here a few hours ago.

Rock Creek - Too darn nasty for the poor buggers to enter (when we left, the fish were starting to float...I kid you not!)

So for the rest of the Summer, swimming will be in Still Pond and the Sassafras. The little buggers don't like that fresh water!
 
The cone jellies are starting to gather around Bloody Point and in Eastern Bay. Haven't seen many of other types yet. We usually guage how bad they are by how numb our fingers get when baiting hooks and taking fish off. :D
 
They are in the Potomac and making their way north. Was down in the St Mary's river over the weekend, they are there, in the masses...

Jamie
 
I need to -bump- this for an update. We'll be overnighting 8/18 at the Upper Chesapeake BoaterEd Rendezvous. I know they haven't made it as far as Rock Creek yet, so Stoney. However, we need to take some friends out for the evening on Friday and were thinking about the cove some call "Eagle Cove" off the Magothy. Anybody have a report for that area?
 
I guess I can somewhat answer my own post. I just saw a rather large one in my slip off Rock Creek.
 
Eagle Cove is also referred to as "Moon Jelly Cove" because of the volumes of glowing jellies there at this time of year. Prepare to be entertained, but I wouldn't get in the water.

The last time I had OHE out, we saw jellies about half way up Stoney Creek, but not all the way to where we'll be rafting... Even if they're here, there won't be very high numbers. We had people out waterskiing and tubing this afternoon, so they're not posing a problem.

~S
 
Dobbins Island on the Magothy stays jelly-free most or all of the Summer. Was there 2 weeks ago and it was clear.

Moon jellies are like see-through kidneys, and don't sting. Nettles have long, trailing tentacles that sting. They're hard to miss once they invade.
 
When it comes to quantities of jellyfish on the lower Potomac, today's volumn is only a tiny fraction of what it was like when I was a kid/teen.
They used to get so thick, you'd swear you could walk on them. There would be so many they would get their tentacles tangled up with each other to the point there would be (easily) 20 to 30 or more tangled up into one large mass.
I haven't seen it like that in years...thankfully.
 
Way up the Severn (where the water is a coffee-brown, probably due to the clay in the water), there are no stinging jellies.
 
Well, we were at Fairlee, Thursday through Friday and we had more then enough nettles. We all got stung at some point. I actually never saw that many in Fairlee, even though we were right up front at the beach and it propably gets better the further you back.

Aside of that and that we had to fend off THREE boats that nearly hit us, all from dragging anchors we had a great time. Even my two year old got to the point were he did not even leave the water after getting stung.
 
How bad are the nettle stings? Thinking about heading to the upper Chesapeake this weekend.
 
Not too bad, as I said even my two year old ignored them on the last day. You should not see too many up nort. The current in Fairlee is just so strong that it sucks them in, later in the day they were mostly washed out again. Again I am sure further back there are none. It stings for maybe 30 minutes and then is over.
 
We were in Still Pond that weekend. One person in the raft-up claimed they got stung, but I was in the water for hours each day and didn't see nor feel anything. This coming weekend (Labor Day) we'll head to the Sassafras. There won't be any of those buggers up there! Bob, I don't know how far "upper" is to you, but the Sassy is usually the safest place this late in the summer.
 
Thanks Dominic and Kurt.

Upper for me is Havre De Grace, Still Pond, etc. May venture down to Fairlee Creek to see the action at Jelly Fish Joels.
 
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