Oyster reefs ?

[Slackdaddy]

Tell me what you know about oyster reefs in the Bay and rivers (Pax)
Spent some time searching and only coming up with results for stories about the decline or reviews for seafodd bars LOL

The nautical charts for the PAX show rectangles labeled "oyster" , Assuming these are Artificial oyster beds?

Any idea what the oyster beds look like on the sonar? not sure what I should be looking for?

Do the fish hang out around oyster beds?
How do you fish these areas?

Thanks,
Slack

[J.A. Veil]

I cannot comment on the location of oyster reefs in the Patuxent area. I attached a map of the oyster bars/reefs in the Severn. Hard bottom areas like oyster bars provide 3 dimensional structure that attracts worms, amphipods, and other creatures lower on the food chain. This in turn attracts small fish and crabs, which then attract our gamefish.


Severn Oyster Survey 2009.jpg

I rarely do bottom fishing these days (2-hook wire bottom rig with cut bait or FishBites). If I was going to try it, I would deploy 1 or 2 rods with those bottom rigs and drift across a hard bottom. I messed around for 45 mins in mid-summer outside of Weems Creek on the oyster bottom using Fish Bites on bottom rigs. In short order, I caught small croaker, spot, and white perch. Stripers cruise those areas because of the presence of food. Fishing on the hard bottom on the larger bars sticking out into the bay in the Annapolis region (Hacketts, Tollys, Thomas Point) can produce those same species, plus flounder, stripers, bluefish, and others. There should be similar options closer to where you live.

You can also jig metal or soft plastic lures on hard bottom. Some of the largest white perch I have seen in the Severn were caught by jigging a gold spoon, like a Kastmaster over a hard bottom. I did not fish for them that way, but know the guy who won a perch tournament fishing like that. You can jig vertically (basically straight up and down) or horizontally (what I call bottom bouncing -- cast out and work the lure back slowly keeping it on or near the bottom).

Finally, you can troll over shallow oyster bars. Try to keep the lures near the bottom, but off the bottom. The sharp and rough edges of the oyster shells can snag a lure that hits bottom.

You asked about what oyster bars look like on sonar. Those who are good at reading sonar suggest that you get a different color return when moving over hard bottom than over mud or sand. I don't which is which, but maybe someone else will help out with that answer.

[Yak Fish]

Here's a cool sonar shot I took with stripers sitting just below the oyster bed on a drop off.
https://www.facebook.com/chesapeake....43673675899882

[Mark]

Alan,

Those are some fascinating underwater views.

[Slackdaddy]

Thanks for the time and info John and Alan,

I have a Lowrance Hook 5 sonar shooting through the hull.
The oyster beds where I fish are in 9-12' of water. Just not sure of there exact size, location and condition.

Best to remain stationary over them and work the area? or drift through ?
I was throwing a 1/4 and 3/8 oz underspin jig with 4" paddle tail swim bait.

[ShaunGT]

Hey Slackdaddy,

On the oyster bed I fish on I’ve found 2 small spots that are most productive. One is a hump and one is a drop off. I would say that overall the oyster bed is more productive then a featureless bottom but finding the key areas that combine structure and depth change will help you find greater concentrations of fish. Trust your fishfinder if you are seeing fish marks. I’ve been over fish multiple times this season that just wouldn’t bite. I’d leave the spot paddle around for an hour then come back to the same marks and start catching fish right away. So many variables with tide change light level boat traffic water clarity.

I most frequently troll with diving crankbaits. It allows me to cover a lot of water with only rarely hanging up. On my last boat trip to the same oyster reef I had success using blade baits vertically jigged while drifting. Soft plastics I’m sure will work it’s just this year for me personally they haven’t caught as many fish as crankbaits.

Not all oyster beds are equal. Many beds are silted over or dredged flat.

Truth be told I am a complete novice kayak angler. I have had more success this year hen ever with two tips from another angler. Do you have a crankbait? Find five feet and troll. I took that applied it to the spot I was on and then started to build on that the whole season. Thank god for those two tips because it’s changed my kayak fishing forever. They seem small but it unlocked a huge puzzle for me. Think about the “details” of your own spot.

Btw the advice you received in prior posts is exceptional!! Bravo!


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[Slackdaddy]

Shaun,
thanks for the time to share what you have learned.
I have 15 years of kayak fishing,,,, but 99% is chasing smallmouth on mountain rivers in a Jackson Coosa HD.

While the Coosa HD is hands down the best mountain river fishing/camping kayak, I quickly learned it is not ideal in the lower tidal Patuxent, I needed a pedal craft.

So I bought a used Slayer Propel 10, it is doing what I need it to do and the fact that it has a Hook5 FF opens another door I did not know existed.

I'll have to pick up a larger crank bait and swap it to single hooks,, I never ever run trebbles on a kayak, not matter what type of fishing I am doing

I just "discovered" the existance of this oyster bed last outing,, I will have to "map" it out and see what I can figure out.

I'll keep you posted,
Slack

[ShaunGT]

https://shopkarls.com/rapala-x-rap-s...iABEgKp1_D_BwE

This is what I’ve had the most luck with this season. Only draw back is I’ve lost some big fish due to pulled hooks. I need to use a Rod with a more limber tip.


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[Mark]

Slackdaddy,

You've gotten some great information above from John, Allen and ShaunGT.

The most pronounced oyster bed I know is in the Severn. Its location is also quite visible above the water. You do not need electronics to find it. That's because the state has marked it with three orange floats. You can see the floats as you cross east on the Route 50 Bridge in your vehicle. Look to your right as near the shoreline. Those three floats mark one end of the bed. The other end starts hundreds of feet south of that marker. The bed lies roughly parallel to the nearest shoreline.

There's a channel marker south of the floats. I would toss my lines out there and troll north aiming for the floats. It was often a productive striper path. Or, more frequently because I'm not an avid troller, I would travel to the floats and blind cast near them. Either way of fishing was productive. Rat-L-Traps, paddletails or bucktails worked. I use the past tense because I haven't concentrated on that area this year. I believe the orange floats are still present.

There's no reason it should not still be productive. It's in a protected area and no dredging is allowed. An oyster bed is structure and as we all know, fish relate to it as a food source.

The above bed must be thick because as I as I recall when I had a fishfinder, the end of the bed near the floats had a noticeable hump. I imagine that's where the state began dumping the substrate.

I no longer kayak fish with electronics. However, while you won't get the precise data electronics provide, the MD DNR provides plenty of information online about the location of oyster beds:

https://www.maryland.gov/pages/searc...al%20Resources

The particular Severn oyster bar I mentioned above is the one right under the banner that says "Rte 50/301" on this map:

Screenshot 2020-09-16 080357.jpg

Here's a link to the map if it doesn't show well in this post:

https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/P...nriver-map.jpg

[J.A. Veil]

Thanks for the time and info John and Alan,

I have a Lowrance Hook 5 sonar shooting through the hull.
The oyster beds where I fish are in 9-12' of water. Just not sure of there exact size, location and condition.

Best to remain stationary over them and work the area? or drift through ?
I was throwing a 1/4 and 3/8 oz underspin jig with 4" paddle tail swim bait.

When I had my center console boat, I often fished near the end of Tolly Point bar as one of my stops on a multi-stop route. The bar stuck out half a mile from shore, with much of it covered in oyster shell. The depth was 7' to 10'. I liked to have moving current. I would position the boat so that the current would drift me across the bar. I would blind cast with a jighead of at least 1/2-oz and a paddletail. I let the lure drop for a few seconds then I hopped it back to the boat, keeping the lure near the bottom but keeping it moving so the hook did not hang up on the oyster shell.

That spot was hit or miss. Some days I got no bites on several drifts. Other days I caught a few modest fish. But every now and then I had good success catching stripers of 16" to 24". Some times I would see fish showing up on the sonar, often not. But given the shallow water and long casts I was making, any fish I caught were not seen on the sonar. The wavy bottom is a combination of the boat moving up and down slightly with the waves and the irregular texture of the shell.

tolly point bar sonar shot.jpg