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So for the past couple of weeks I've been out almost every morning from 5:00am til 7:00am-7:30am. Knock on wood, I have yet to be skunked and have brought home many keepers for myself, friends, and family.
Within the past couple of weeks the water temperature has risen from 64ish° to, in some parts, 80°. From then til now I've had to experiment and try different techniques to land the fish I was looking for. I went from trolling rat-l-traps to bucktail jigs, then changed depths of the bucktails from low to high, then casted the bucktails and retrieved fast and slow, then casted top water poppers. Every method has resulted in landing keeper fish, in that order, gradually throughout the past couple of weeks.
Yesterday's trip turned out to be an unplanned scouting trip with 20+ undersized fish landed (all trolling 1oz bucktails at higher depths) and 10 miles of the Severn covered. It wasn't until I was headed home while trolling my white 1oz bucktail deep again (a good 75-85 ft cast behind me at 3 mph) in 22 feet of water, that I caught a keeper that measured out to 22-1/4". I didn't get home til 9:00am because of the extra miles I put on the board but luckily my first job wasn't til 10:00.
Here is a short video of a 23" rockfish landed with a topwater popper and pics of a couple buddies of mine, my 10 year old son, and yours truly holding fish ranging from 15" (my son's first sup catch of the year) to 24-1/2".
https://youtu.be/rY9HDeDkrMk
Within the past couple of weeks the water temperature has risen from 64ish° to, in some parts, 80°. From then til now I've had to experiment and try different techniques to land the fish I was looking for. I went from trolling rat-l-traps to bucktail jigs, then changed depths of the bucktails from low to high, then casted the bucktails and retrieved fast and slow, then casted top water poppers. Every method has resulted in landing keeper fish, in that order, gradually throughout the past couple of weeks.
Yesterday's trip turned out to be an unplanned scouting trip with 20+ undersized fish landed (all trolling 1oz bucktails at higher depths) and 10 miles of the Severn covered. It wasn't until I was headed home while trolling my white 1oz bucktail deep again (a good 75-85 ft cast behind me at 3 mph) in 22 feet of water, that I caught a keeper that measured out to 22-1/4". I didn't get home til 9:00am because of the extra miles I put on the board but luckily my first job wasn't til 10:00.
Here is a short video of a 23" rockfish landed with a topwater popper and pics of a couple buddies of mine, my 10 year old son, and yours truly holding fish ranging from 15" (my son's first sup catch of the year) to 24-1/2".
https://youtu.be/rY9HDeDkrMk
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