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So without spot burning, I wanted to share the results of my last 3 outings. For a few fall striper trips before these, I would often only catch 1 keeper striper, and maybe a handful of smaller fish. I would estimate I caught about 1/4 of the striper I caught last fall, and the Severn river produced almost no fish for me this year sadly.
Speck trip to VA 3 weekends ago- VERY successful, only fished 1 day down there, but caught over 60 specks, including my limit of 5 above 14" (most were around 12")
Snakehead Trip to eastern shore, MD 2 weekends ago- skunk (Matt did catch 2 nice bass though)
Striper Trolling Trip on the western shore, north of the Bay Bridge, MD last weekend- very successful, managed 7 striper, smallest was 16", the rest were above 19" including 2 30"+ fish on a deep diving plug
If you're fishing for specks in VA (which I highly suggest this time of year, as striper action around here begins to wind down), all you really need is some paddletails, jigheads, gulp, and maybe a popping cork or 2. I found that an 1/8oz chartreuse jighead with white gulp was the ticket, either rigged by itself or about 2' below a popping cork. I would often find a spot that I marked fish (or caught a few trolling by) and cast the cork and jighead into it, give it a few quick jerks, and then let it sit. Almost every time, that would produce a strike within 30 seconds, though sometimes it would take a minute or 2. Casting the white gulp w/o the cork and just letting it sink and jerking it on the retrieve also produced fish.
I caught striper on a few different trolling lures, with the biggest fish hitting the biggest deepest diving lure I had. Though I caught fish on both shallow and deep paddletails, usually white in color with either red, white, or chartreuse jigheads. Water temp was about 45 and the pressure was dropping, skies were overcast. These probably factored into my success, but I think the main thing was that water clarity was decent for once (the afternoon rain quickly changed that).
Speck trip to VA 3 weekends ago- VERY successful, only fished 1 day down there, but caught over 60 specks, including my limit of 5 above 14" (most were around 12")
Snakehead Trip to eastern shore, MD 2 weekends ago- skunk (Matt did catch 2 nice bass though)
Striper Trolling Trip on the western shore, north of the Bay Bridge, MD last weekend- very successful, managed 7 striper, smallest was 16", the rest were above 19" including 2 30"+ fish on a deep diving plug
If you're fishing for specks in VA (which I highly suggest this time of year, as striper action around here begins to wind down), all you really need is some paddletails, jigheads, gulp, and maybe a popping cork or 2. I found that an 1/8oz chartreuse jighead with white gulp was the ticket, either rigged by itself or about 2' below a popping cork. I would often find a spot that I marked fish (or caught a few trolling by) and cast the cork and jighead into it, give it a few quick jerks, and then let it sit. Almost every time, that would produce a strike within 30 seconds, though sometimes it would take a minute or 2. Casting the white gulp w/o the cork and just letting it sink and jerking it on the retrieve also produced fish.
I caught striper on a few different trolling lures, with the biggest fish hitting the biggest deepest diving lure I had. Though I caught fish on both shallow and deep paddletails, usually white in color with either red, white, or chartreuse jigheads. Water temp was about 45 and the pressure was dropping, skies were overcast. These probably factored into my success, but I think the main thing was that water clarity was decent for once (the afternoon rain quickly changed that).
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