Fishing off Ft. Smallwood

[BalmerBrian]

My dad and I are planning to fish out Ft. Smallwood this weekend. What tips do you have for fishing the area?

[Yakinzak]

I've had excellent luck. Check out my YouTube channel. Yakinzak on there. First video is from fort Smallwood. About 300 yards out from the launch and between the jeti to the fort itself I've had luck just trolling and casting for schoolies. In my first video you'll see a nice 28"er I got there

[BalmerBrian]

I'll check ithe vudeos out tonight. I figured that the dropoffs would be a good place to start.

[Yakinzak]

I caught every fish in under 10ft of water, the drop off is near the canal, but kayakers are no longer allowed in that area due to one that almost got ran over by a barge.

[BalmerBrian]

I was thinking the dropoff before the canals. Looks like a drop from 4 ft to 13 feet off rock point at abot 2 oclock. Likewise, directly out from the jetty it drops from 4 to 14 ft. I'm going nowhere near the channels.

[BalmerBrian]

Got a late start, put in a high tide and used the fish finder to find the dropoff (not the canal) Man, distances sure are larger in reality than on the marine charts. It seemed like forvever to get to the spot. Anyway, saw some big cow nose rays finning near by. Had to stop fishing because my father's brand new SOT kayak was taking on water (gallons over 90 min). He's going to exchange it at the store. I have the same model and mine is bone dry.

Kayaking is always an adventure.

[sega]

Was there a good amount of rays out and about? No fish?

[BalmerBrian]

Couple nibbles on swimbaits. Never got time to troll much because had to return. Unknown how many rays were around due to waves and wakes. I saw a couple as they broke the surface. Now that we are familiar with the area, we'll get out earlier, perhaps this weekend.