By Bill May Times Outdoors Columnist
In his 22-year military career Captain “Walleye Pete” Dahlberg never served under General Douglas MacArthur, but he has adopted MacArthur’s famous “island hopping campaign” tactics with similarly successful results. The results in this case are catching lots of Chesapeake Bay stripers, speckled trout, redfish, bluefish, croakers and a few other incidental species.
Yep, I've got every one of those.
“The weather’s going to be great,” Pete assured me when I signed up for a “walk on” trip recently. Pete takes parties of six anglers on his 27-foot, full cabin Judge Chesapeake model boat. Typically a group of six anglers gets together to book his boat, but Pete also offers “walk on” trips, where an individual can book a trip that will include others he may not know. I like the walk on approach, since less advanced planning is required.
The walk on trips have been working for me, too.
Our group included, regular “walk ons,” Jim Marecki, Bill Knower and Ken Zuknick plus Christian Terreros, Tim Bennett and me.
Pete’s “great weather” forecast proved a bit optimistic. Winds in the 12-knot range made for considerable Chesapeake Bay chop, and instead of diminishing, winds picked up as the day progressed. Likewise intermittent light showers developed in the afternoon. We were able to duck into the cabin when we weren’t fishing, and rain gear — always bring it — sufficed at other times.
Been there, done that.
The islands we targeted are the mid-bay complex of South Marsh, Bloodsworth and Smith Islands, and numerous small, satellite islands continually formed, reformed and lost due to erosion. “I’ve got two weeks of spots to fish without repeating,” Pete described this target rich area.
It is an amazing area. Lot's of productive shoreline.
Unlike most guides and individuals fishing these areas, we launched from the western shore, crossing the Bay from Buzz’s Marina on the St. Jerome’s Creek in the Point No Point area. The crossing took us north of the large area generically described as the Middle Grounds. So we followed Pete’s usual plan of hitting a rocky, mid-Bay hump in about 16 feet of water on the way across.
Funny, in all my trips this year, we never hit the humps on the way across. A couple of time on the way back, though.
Pete’s standard tackle for this fishing consists of medium spinning tackle and braided line with a 20-pound monofilament leader. Preferred lures are a 1-ounce jighead and 6-inch pearl or chartreuse BKDs for fishing the mid-Bay humps and a 1/8 to 3/8 ounce jigheads with the same BKD or 4-inch Bass Assassin or swimtail jigs for the shallow waters around the islands. The hot lure on our trip was a red, 3/8-ounce jighead with a chartreuse Bass Assassin.
Before launching Pete reviewed his “4-foot rule” for boating fish: Reel in the fish to within four feet of the rod tip, then lean the rod against the gunwhale, grab the line/leader and complete the boating with a hand-over-hand retrieve. This approach avoids breaking the rod or line and the dangers of having a hook spring loose under tension and flying into the boat...
Oh, go read the whole thing,
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