About 20 years ago, the best place to catch sharks along the entire east coast, north of Florida, was the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Early in the season, 30 to 55-pound spiny dogfish arrived on the heels of migrating menhaden and birthed their young in the shallows near Cape Charles, VA. By the end of June, there were dusky sharks lurking along the bay's eastern channel edge, some weighing up to 400 pounds. Bull sharks to more than 500 pounds were caught along the bay's channel edges near Kent Island during the mid 1970s, and there is at least one or two taken every summer in a pound net near Tilghman Island. One was caught in a fike net several years ago in Bush River near the Railroad Bridge just above Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Several monster sharks were hooked and released by Captain Otis Asal back in the 70s from an area just above the CBBT. Otis fished this region for channel bass (red drum/redfish) and there were many occasions when he would reel in just the head of a 60 or more pound red drum. And, while hammerheads frequent the offshore waters just east of the bay's mouth, there have been reports of bonnethead sharks caught near the CBBT's manmade islands. In the early 1980s, I introduced Bassmaster's Classic winner Woo Daves to shark fishing in the bay west of Cape Charles. He caught several that topped 100 pounds, mostly dusky and a few that he could not identify.
There are also several types of rays in that same region, mostly cow nosed rays, but sting rays and leopard rays also can be caught in mid summer. If you go behind the barrier islands and the surf of Fisherman's Island, you can find tarpon to 100 pounds. They're difficult to catch, but a few local anglers manage to catch a bunch of them every year.
All the best,
Gary