Saltwater newbie: Get me started

[Runnin]

I'm an experienced Kayak fisher. I've been kayak fishing over 10 years. I consider myself a pretty good angler. I fish primarily LM Bass, SM Bass. I mainly paddle the Potomac river, and local WSSC reservoirs, black hills, Seneca Creek state park are regular haunts. I have caught about every species in freshwater in the state with the exception of maybe snakehead, and Muskie, although I did catch a few tiger muskie.

I have done some saltwater. I've Kayak fished redfish in South Carolina, but it really wasn't any different from the LM bass fishing I was used to. I've been out with some guides in the Keys, and Gulf Coast of Florida. Mostly fishing for Trout, Jacks, Barracuda, Snapper, and Mackeral, and Snook.

I have two yaks. One is my trusty Pamlico 100. Over 10 years old and going strong. I use it on the Upper P. My other is brand new and just recently replaced my Tarpon 120. It is a Hurricane Skimmer 128. I'm rigging it now, and it will be ready for primetime just as soon as I install my Anchor trolley. I bought the Hurricane because I often fish alone and car top my boats. My Tarpon was just to hard to lift onto the SUV. This hurricane boat only weighs 45 lbs.

I know nothing about saltwater tactics. I've been reading this board now for a couple months and have learned some new vocab like , live-lining, speck rig, etc.

I have some questions.

What are best average rod reel specs for the bay fishing you guys do?. Typical bay rods used on charters that I've been on are just to heavy for my liking. They were kind of like simply winching in your catch. Not much fun. I currently have an arsenal of basic SM Bass and LM bass gear. I have several Medium spinning, and a several Baitcasters that are MH. The spinning rods have both 20 lb. braid, and 8 lb. mono. The Baitcasters have the same braid or 12 lb. Mono. I also have some Light and UL rods. My guess is they would be great for Perch.

I'm pretty much a lure chucker. I've only used bait a few times, generally when fishing with children or family members that don't fish. Can this style of fishing be done primarily with lures, or should I expect to use bait a majority of the time? What are my species specific choices.

I've always been catch and release. Bass aren't particularly tasty critters. Especially Potomac Bass. If I caught a striper or two I would most likely want to keep them. How do most of you keep your catch on the water. Stringers over the side of the yak, or coolers. I only have a small six pack sized cooler. Any respectable fish wouldn't fit. I've seen some yak livewells for bait. I don't have one. I do have one of those flow through yellow and green minnow buckets. Anyone use those with success.

Are your Fish finders critical? Is most fishing done with marking fish and then dropping lines? Or are you fishing known and structure mostly that can be seen from surface. Ie bridge pilings, docks, laydowns, rip rap, and the like.

Tell me about trolling. Is it used commonly? From posts it seems it is used a good amount of the time. I know zip about trolling. How fast, what rig. One or two rods out at time? I'm a caster. Always have been.

Give me some schoolin.' I'm looking forward to getting out there. I'd like to shorten my learning curve. Thanks. This seems like a great place to learn and hope to fish with some of you folks soon.

[bignose]

Your basic freshwater medium/medium heavy bass fishing tackle is fine for most striper fishing. For White Perch, you may want to scale it back some, as you have mentioned. If you venture out early in the Spring during the Striped Bass trophy season you may want to scale it up slightly. The braid that you are using sounds about right. I'd generally add two feet of 20 lb. test leader material, either flouro or mono. Stripers are not leader shy. Heavier if there are a lot of big bluefish around.

We use bait, either chum or live lining on the charter boat because it is the easiest method for our clients to use. Of course, our intent is to keep our fish. Most of our tackle is a bit heavier than you, as an experienced fisherman would probably like to use. Many of our clients are relatively unskilled and can be pretty rough on the tackle.

For my own fishing, for Stripers I use 2500 series Shimanos with Sufix Braid (Power Pro is fine) with Bass Pro Shop Extreme rods, medium and medium heavy. For Perch I use a 1000 series Shimano reel and Bass Pro Shop's 5'6" Crappie Rods.

Lure selection:
For trolling- Bucktail jigs about 3/8 oz. to 1/2 oz., Storm Swim Shads 4" and 5", and 4-5" Curly tails on a 1/2-3/4 oz. jig head. Heavier if fishing in strong currents. Ratt'l Traps 1/2 oz. with two out of three of the hooks on the trebles bent in. Tony Spoons #14-#15 if there are a lot of Bluefish present as they will destroy most soft plastics and chew the hair off of your bucktails ( Z Mann lures makes a plastic that is much more resistant ). If you can find them, Mann's make a series of lures that dive deeply, but with big lips they would be a bear to troll if you paddle.

In the canoe, I just cross the rods in front of me and hold them in place with my legs. In the tin boat I had rod holders.

Standard trolling rig with a single lure from a kayak is common. You can use an inline sinker as a transition from the braid to the leader. Once again, this depends on current and depth desired.
Some guys have been experimenting with tandem rigs, like we use on the charter boat (with enormous jigs and inline sinkers weighing 4-16 oz. in the spring- I don't think that you'd want to drag this from a kayak, kinda like a moving anchor, lol).
I have used two Storm Swim Shads, one a 5" and the other a 4" attached to a 3 way swivel. The heavier lure (the dropper) is fished on a 3-4 foot leader, and the lighter lure (the trailer) goes on a 8 foot leader. This rig easily gets down to at least 9-10 feet. Don't use if bluefish are around as you will lose tails of the lures.

I have trolled from an electric powered canoe and a small tin boat. Walking pace or a little faster is about right. I find it hard to manage more than 3 rods at a time when I fish by myself. 4 is a total cluster ........
I, too prefer to cast. So if you don't like to troll, then don't! (We do these 8 hour trolling sessions with multiple rods trolling tandems on the charter boat. It's an 8 hour boat ride with 15 minutes of chaos. But, I'm getting paid for this. Just not my style most of the time)

For casting, pretty much the same selection as above, modified rigs like a jig head with a BKD (Bass Kandy Delight), or a 7" Bass Assassin soft plastic lure for a more vertical presentation. Large Poppers are a lot of fun if you encounter a school of breaking fish. Stillwater Smackits, big Storm Chug Bugs.

for Perch:
you need some 1/8 oz jig heads with a 2-3" curly tail, some 1/8 oz. Spinner jigs, and maybe some small Stingsilver spoons for vertical jigging. 1/8 oz. Ratt'l traps.....Some guys like the Mepps spinners, but between their cost, their treble hooks, and the fact that they will twist the hell out of your line.......

For Stipers it's all about structure, rocks, pilings, ledges. Same for Perch except add docks, bulkheads and rip rap.

re: fish finders, not totally needed, but certainly extremely helpful. I have a cheap one shooting thru the hull of the canoe. I generally don't use it much in freshwater, but use it a good bit in the saltwater creeks. Not to find fish but to find depth, edges, drop offs, etc.

must get books:
Chesapeake Light Tackle Shawn Kimbro
Rudo's Guide to Fishing the Chesapeake Lenny Rudo

both are excellent and both guys are very helpful.

[Runnin]

Excellent infor and much appreciated. Sounds like I don't need much other than what I already have. I'll check out the books.

[bignose]

Chesapeake Light Tackle also has an excellent website.

[mweber02]

Tons of helpful information bignose. I have been wanting to make my way into striper fishing but don't want to make a long haul from home in Harford Co. to get further south.

[bignose]

Well, up where you are you've got the Flats near Havre de Grace, Otter Point Park and the Joppatowne area, and the Susky near Lapidum. I know that some on this site have been fishing from Fisherman's Park below the dam in the early mornings, but I can't recommend doing that, after getting caught out and rolling the canoe in the discharge.

[mweber02]

Ahh, I forgot about the flats. I will keep an eye out for reports that they start picking up. I am hoping I can get out early in the Gunpowder this weekend and find the same topwater action I saw on Saturday. Pretty sure there were some stripers in there with the bass.

[Strummerfan]

As a fellow lure chucker small spinnerbaits, beetle spin, and rattle traps do very well for pretty much everything the Severn has to offer.

[Runnin]

Sounds good Strummerfan. Fish guts mess up my manicure.

[Mark]

Runnin,

I have done a lot more fresh water fishing for largemouth and smallmouth bass than tidal fishing in the Bay. I am also strictly a lure fisherman. Here are a few things I have learned this summer with my kayak during trips in the Bay and its tributaries:

Structure and current are important.

Big fish can be in shallow water and close to shore.

Freshwater bass rods will handle large white perch, croakers, spot and most stripers. That includes fly rods.

Leave your finesse baits and slow moving lures home when you go on tidal trips. Bay fish are aggressive and you cannot strip a fly or crank a lure faster than they can swim to catch it.

A curly tail grub on a jig, a Rat L Trap or a Clouser Minnow will catch any of the desired fish in the Bay…unfortunately each will also catch rays.

Trolling crank baits or curly tail grubs can be effective. I often do it while going from point A to point B on the water. My preference is to get to an area and cast but I figure why not keep a line in the water while moving to a new area? When I troll I go between 2 and 3 mph and I may have about 50 feet of line out. Some kayakers put out twice that much line and may troll 4 rods at once. So be mindful of that and give them space on the water if you approach them from behind.

You’ve been tossing lures to freshwater bass successfully. You’ll do just as well in the Bay. The tactics are very similar. However, I cannot speak to ocean kayak fishing. I have not done that yet.

Good luck when you get to saltwater.

Mark