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I've been taking advantage of this mild winter and my new dry gear the best I can. I started January with a few trips to a southern DE pond targeting pickerel for the first time and ended up catching 17 between 3 trips. Since then I've been focusing my efforts on a tidal river where I've found a semi-consistent striper bite. I'm not sure if these are resident fish, holdovers, or ocean run fish moving in to spawn but since late January I've made 4 trips to the same area and caught 1-2 fish on each outing. This post will be a summary of all 4 trips. (1/23 2/4 2/17 2/23)
So my first trip to this river was a bit of a fluke. My plan that day was to fish for pickerel on a pond but when I arrived there I found it was nearly frozen over. I knew the river was nearby and figured the tidal movement would have the river mostly ice free and I was right. I decided to launch my kayak not knowing what to expect and found the water at a frosty 36 degrees with a decent amount of patch ice floating around. I really didn't know what fish species to expect so I tied on a 1/8oz kastmaster and jigged it around hoping for panfish and ended up catching a 24" striper jigging on a school of bait I marked on my fish finder. That was the only fish of the day but it was my first striper since fall and it got me wanting more. Since I had luck jigging with a tiny metal when I got home I decided to order a few blade baits (A new type of lure for me, 1/4oz damiki vaults and 1/2oz binkies), I figured the flash and vibration in a small profile was exactly what these stripers would be looking for since they seemed keyed in on bait.
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My second trip to the river was on a beautiful 75 degree February day, polar opposites of my first trip in near freezing temps. I ended up catching a 24" striper on the 1/4oz damiki and a 20" on a tiny 2" mister twister on a 1/8oz jig I was jigging for panfish. Like my first trip both fish were caught on schools of bait.
My third and best trip started out with frustration. I really wanted some panfish for the table but after hours of jigging on fish marks that weren't biting and losing several lures to snags I decided to call it quits and try for stripers again. I tied on the 1/2oz binsky bladebait and paddled to the mark where I'd caught the 24" striper last trip. When I got to the area I was happy to see bait marks on my fishfinder and on the first drop with the binsky hooked up with another 24" fish. I stayed in the same area and shortly after I hooked up with my nicest fish between all 4 trips, a fat 28.5" striper that smashed the binsky directly under the kayak. Even though I was craving fresh fish and could have kept this one my conscious got the better of me and I decided to let it go, the girth of the fish led me to believe it was preparing to spawn and with the state of the striper fishery the last thing I wanted to do was cut into it and find eggs. Funnily enough after catching that fish the bladebait caught a 8" gizzard shad, which is what I believe these stripers were in the area feeding on.
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My fourth trip wasn't very noteworthy. I returned to the spot I caught the other fish and got another mid 20 inch class striper and a small white perch. The most noteworthy thing about this trip was that the fish I caught was in nearly the exact spot I caught fish on my second and third trip.
Takeaways: One of my biggest takeaways from these trips was the absolute necessity of my fish finder. I covered miles of river by paddle but only a couple spots actually held fish. There was no indication of fish on the surface and no visible structure they were holding on. I was only able to find them by marking them or the bait they were feeding on and without the fish finder I wouldn't been absolutely clueless to where they were. Another takeaway was the fact that on my second trip I GPS marked the spot I caught the 24" fish and that's the exact spot I caught fish on the next 2 trips. This was my first time fishing an environment like this and I was surprised by that, there was no structure holding fish in the area as far as I could tell yet that's the spot that consistently held bait and fish.
This has been my first season kayak fishing during the winter and honestly it's quickly becoming my favorite time of year to fish. Even in the cold weather I'm perfectly comfortable in my dry suit and I don't have to worry about the oppressive heat of the warmer months. Between the pickerel and stripers I'm 7 trips into the new year and I haven't been skunked yet, which is also much better than my ratio most of the year. Over all it's been a great time and it's got me excited for the spring. I hope everyone else here is having a good season, and if you can't get on the water hopefully you're overcoming the cabin fever somehow.
So my first trip to this river was a bit of a fluke. My plan that day was to fish for pickerel on a pond but when I arrived there I found it was nearly frozen over. I knew the river was nearby and figured the tidal movement would have the river mostly ice free and I was right. I decided to launch my kayak not knowing what to expect and found the water at a frosty 36 degrees with a decent amount of patch ice floating around. I really didn't know what fish species to expect so I tied on a 1/8oz kastmaster and jigged it around hoping for panfish and ended up catching a 24" striper jigging on a school of bait I marked on my fish finder. That was the only fish of the day but it was my first striper since fall and it got me wanting more. Since I had luck jigging with a tiny metal when I got home I decided to order a few blade baits (A new type of lure for me, 1/4oz damiki vaults and 1/2oz binkies), I figured the flash and vibration in a small profile was exactly what these stripers would be looking for since they seemed keyed in on bait.
freshie.jpgfreshie2.jpg
My second trip to the river was on a beautiful 75 degree February day, polar opposites of my first trip in near freezing temps. I ended up catching a 24" striper on the 1/4oz damiki and a 20" on a tiny 2" mister twister on a 1/8oz jig I was jigging for panfish. Like my first trip both fish were caught on schools of bait.
My third and best trip started out with frustration. I really wanted some panfish for the table but after hours of jigging on fish marks that weren't biting and losing several lures to snags I decided to call it quits and try for stripers again. I tied on the 1/2oz binsky bladebait and paddled to the mark where I'd caught the 24" striper last trip. When I got to the area I was happy to see bait marks on my fishfinder and on the first drop with the binsky hooked up with another 24" fish. I stayed in the same area and shortly after I hooked up with my nicest fish between all 4 trips, a fat 28.5" striper that smashed the binsky directly under the kayak. Even though I was craving fresh fish and could have kept this one my conscious got the better of me and I decided to let it go, the girth of the fish led me to believe it was preparing to spawn and with the state of the striper fishery the last thing I wanted to do was cut into it and find eggs. Funnily enough after catching that fish the bladebait caught a 8" gizzard shad, which is what I believe these stripers were in the area feeding on.
28inch.jpg
My fourth trip wasn't very noteworthy. I returned to the spot I caught the other fish and got another mid 20 inch class striper and a small white perch. The most noteworthy thing about this trip was that the fish I caught was in nearly the exact spot I caught fish on my second and third trip.
Takeaways: One of my biggest takeaways from these trips was the absolute necessity of my fish finder. I covered miles of river by paddle but only a couple spots actually held fish. There was no indication of fish on the surface and no visible structure they were holding on. I was only able to find them by marking them or the bait they were feeding on and without the fish finder I wouldn't been absolutely clueless to where they were. Another takeaway was the fact that on my second trip I GPS marked the spot I caught the 24" fish and that's the exact spot I caught fish on the next 2 trips. This was my first time fishing an environment like this and I was surprised by that, there was no structure holding fish in the area as far as I could tell yet that's the spot that consistently held bait and fish.
This has been my first season kayak fishing during the winter and honestly it's quickly becoming my favorite time of year to fish. Even in the cold weather I'm perfectly comfortable in my dry suit and I don't have to worry about the oppressive heat of the warmer months. Between the pickerel and stripers I'm 7 trips into the new year and I haven't been skunked yet, which is also much better than my ratio most of the year. Over all it's been a great time and it's got me excited for the spring. I hope everyone else here is having a good season, and if you can't get on the water hopefully you're overcoming the cabin fever somehow.
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