Back From Fishin'

Another walk on trip, another early morning, another sunrise picture from the bay. 

This was "Location X." There were no fish in evidence here

There is new construction going on a James Island, where the Army Corps of Engineers is restoring the island as a dredge disposal area to place sediment from Baltimore Harbor. You can see a huge mound of sand that's new there, and a tug pushing a barge loaded with rocks and a loader.

Pete found us fish here, on some submerged old islands with drowned logs. The four of us managed to catch our limit stripers, one each plus "one for the captain," there, and left to try elsewhere. At one spot, one of the other fishermen caught a single Speckled Trout. They seem to be relatively rare this year thanks to a winter kill this winter.

We went as far south as the southern tip of Hoopers Island, and caught a few more fish at most of the places we tried, but it was not an easy day.

Back From Fishin'

A 6 AM start, with the sun rising. 

We made the usual stop at Cedar Point, with nothing happening.

A bit of a lumpy ride  across the bay to Hoopers Island, and a couple of rock piles and creek mouths without success.

We fished the north end of Bloodsworth Island, with nice clear water and good grass beds, and found nothing.

We ended up at the Target Ship (the American Mariner) if you can't read the writing on the stern, where we found a slow, but rather steady bite of very large (about 30 inch) Bluefish, with amazing fighting power.

We just had fresh Bluefish for dinner.

Back From Fishin'

The weather is changing, and the fishing with it. The waters are starting to warm, particularly the shallows, and the fish are starting to prowl around the shallow bays and creeks on the Eastern Shore. 

There was some fog in a few places, but otherwise an extraordinary day, clear skies and windless, eventually reaching well over 60 F. We saw the waters in the shallows warm from about 40 to 50 over the course of the morning.

We encountered a very long (1/4 mile?) gill net anchored and stretched along one of the places we wanted to fish. Now, gill nets for striper are supposed to be drifting, and monitored by a boat. This was anchored and as near as we could see, no watermans boat was attending it. When we returned at 9:30, the net was gone. Pete called DNR and had a conversation about it. 

Yes, fish were caught. It wasn't super hot, but we caught a pretty good numbers along a shoreline, all using crankbaits, mostly Rapala X-Rap 12s. Most were fat, feisty mid to high 20s inch fish. Pete had his drone up, and could see large packs of fish in the shallows, some of them very large.

Jason with the biggest fish of the day. We didn't measure it before it went back, but it was certainly near or over 40 inches.

Went Fishin'

Pete needed a scouting day after the snowmeggocalypse on Monday. We set out around noon, and picked up Robert at his nearby dock.  We ran around to Location X, where we found nothing.

We looked at the shallows a while, and then ran into the Patuxent River, where Pete had seen some shadows on his side scan sonar yesterday, but didn't stick around to fish them. He found them again, and they were big.

It wasn't exactly a hot bite, with the water temperature at 35 F, but they did bite once in a while.

Back From Fishin'

It was cool and misty out when we arrived at Location X, but at least the wind wasn't howling.

A typical walk-on trip. One person I'd fished with many times before, Pat, an authentic SMIB, and hard core fisherman, and 2 new people to the boat, Mark, a retired Marine aviator (Lt. Col.) and Don, the relative youngster in the crowd, whose job seems to somehow involve building motocross tracks across the country. 

According to Pete, fish had been being caught there the past few days, but the bite was on a downward trajectory.

Not to put too fine a point on it, fishing sucked. I managed the only fish on the boat, a "regular grade" striper, unmeasured but somewhere in the mid 20 inches.

Pete called the trip early, and only asked for some gas money.

Back From Fishin'

A 0630 start to get to Location X by sunrise.

I hooked up on the first drop within about 30 seconds. It fought like a big fish, but it was only a mid 30s inches "normal" for this time of year, side hooked.

A little later, I got this real big fish, 42 inches, fair and square in the mouth.

After the bite slowed there, we did a whole lot of searching, and not finding.

Back From Fishin'

Another 6 AM start

Before sunrise at Cedar Point. Unlike recent trips, there appeared to be no stripers patrolling the rocks.

Looking west

There were, however schools in the open bay near by.

We caught fish in the open bay, in shallow water on structure, and on some relatively deep wrecks, using plastics, heavy metal and crank baits.

Pete needs to wipe the camera lens on his phone. 

At one of the wrecks there were a pretty good number of Black Sea Bass. 

Back from Fishin'

I was in the middle of the today's Flotsam and Jetsam, and getting Gabby on the bus, when Pete called. He didn't have a trip, and after our first frost, and high wind, he wanted to make sure he knew where some fish were. It was a free, if short trip, so I went. I think he asks me because, 1) I'm close, 2) I bring my own gear to lose and break, and 3) If I can catch fish, any moderately experienced angler can. We left Solomons about 10 AM, hit some of the same spots we hit a few days ago, and fish were there at most of them, and even at one spot that's not on his list of usual spots. 

A couple for the table

And one to go back

Back From Fishin'

A cool and clear pre-dawn photo from the dock. 40 F under fair skies.

The fishing plan to day was shaped by the wind. A blustery 20 kt SSE wind made Cedar Point fishable, but going to the other side untenable. We actually caught our limit of good fish here. I caught the first fish, but alas, it was well over the 24 inch max limit, and went back.

We fished several sites along the Western Shore up to Location X. We caught a few at most stops. I had a giant on at Location X, but it pulled the hook. See the Meg? Me neither.

Then we went around Solomons, and back to the Patuxent River, where we found a bird show going off near Sheridan Point, which is where I caught this typical low to mid 20s fish. It's a weird year. Thanks to the poor recruitment for several year, it seems a majority of the fish caught are in this class, not the 12-17 inch fish that indicate a healthy population.

Back From Fishin'

Another short-notice walk-on trip with Walleye Pete. We left the dock at 6 AM, and were at Cedar Point before the sun was up. 

The fish started to bite, just as the sky got a little light. Poppers and crank bait were the ticket, and most of the fish were a good grade, well above the 19 inch minimum and below the 24 inch upper limit. We had a newbie (at least to popper fishing) on the boat, and he had a blast.

Tom with a fish bigger than the limit. I had a good fish on and I handed Tom my phone to take a shot, but the fish broke off.

After the bite cooled there, we headed north, past the Cove Point Light to CCNPP, where we caught a couple. 

Then across to the remains of James Island, where we caught a couple more. We ended up by Sharp's Island Light, and the surrounding flats. 

The wind came up from the West shortly after, and we scooted back to Solomons. 

Back From Fishin'

Despite leaving at 0630 it was a long day. Pete asked, no, even begged me to go along; he had an older gentleman who he owed a trip to, and he wanted me along to help. We had to help him onto the boat, and lift him off, and almost didn't succeed. 

After a brief, and fruitless stop at Cedar Point, we ran south hard, ending up off Tangier Island at a wreck, looking for the big blues which have been hit and miss in the area for most of summer. Today they were miss. I did however catch one fish, video at link

On the way back up the bay, we had several flyovers from an Osprey, the V22 variety. It's good to see that the 25 mile range restriction has been lifted. 

One fish, 115 miles. 

Back From Fishing

Sunrise at Mike's Rocks on Hooper Island. We filled our limit of Striped Bass easily here, on top water lures.

We traveled south from there, with a short unproductive stop at Bloodworths Island, but the rocks at a nearby light was. 

Further south, we found a few at the jetties at Smith Island, and a few Bluefish at a wreck near Tangier Island. 

From there we went west to Smith Island Light, where I was lucky enough (and Pete was skilled enough) to land this 44 inch Red Drum. Sorry, somewhere along the way, my phone went into super low brightness mode and I couldn't figure out how to get it out of it until I got home, so no photos of the light. 

We ran into an amazing Bluefish frenzy on the way back, near the Middle Grounds, and wore ourselves out on 4-6 lbers. A great trip!