Went to the ES with MOC, Goody and Rock Chaser today. We left later than normal, because the wind and tide predictions favored late morning through afternoon being the best.
Leaving home at 7:30am, cool 26ºF:
We met up at WaWa off Route 50 in Annapolis at 8:30 and headed for the launch.
Keep up, or know where you're going:
We stopped half an hour before the final destination for last minute bathroom and snack/drinks. Got the kayaks in the water and launched right at 11am.
We had to go searching, since the weather changed so drastically this week. So a few different approaches were used. Goody and MOC decided to try the shallows, and RockChaser and I went to the channel.
It was a pretty slow start, I didn't catch my first fish until I had been on the water for 15 minutes. Caught the second fish of the day a short while later, then RockChaser got the next two fish. With those results the hunt was on in the channel. Goody ended up "lucking" on to the school of keepers a little while later and caught 10 keepers in a row before calling us on the radio to tell us what was going on. I could see he had some action going on, but sharing that sooner would have benefitted the team better.
Bundled up for the 35-42ºF air and 40-48ºF water surface temps.
RockChaser:
Goody:
Sorry MOC, I didn't get a close up of you today.
Tolling back to the launch after lots of catching.
We caught and released over 20 legal fish, and lots of shorts throughout the group. All fish were caught over deeper water, holding between 10-25 feet for the most part according to my FF. We got over schools of fish where the FF was lit up like a Christmas Tree, quit tolling, cast jigs into where we marked fish, let the jig sink down and got hooked up almost every cast. We caught lots of fish trolling too, but with the drop in temperatures we had to go slower to match what the more lethargic fish were interested in. All of the fish I caught trolling today were caught between .5-1.5 knots. I quit counting at 20 fish, because the action picked up more than keeping track mattered to me...I would Guess I caught 35-40 fish all 16-19". Goody was the star of the fleet again today with the number of fish overall and the number of keeper size.
Always interesting checking out stomach contents to learn what the fish are eating. Here are a couple, can anyone identify this? Is that a baby striper, or another species that happens to have a silver color with black stripes? It's about 6" long. There were also lots of shrimp in one's belly, and something I have no idea what that thing is on the cutting board between the fish and knife?
Leaving home at 7:30am, cool 26ºF:
We met up at WaWa off Route 50 in Annapolis at 8:30 and headed for the launch.
Keep up, or know where you're going:
We stopped half an hour before the final destination for last minute bathroom and snack/drinks. Got the kayaks in the water and launched right at 11am.
We had to go searching, since the weather changed so drastically this week. So a few different approaches were used. Goody and MOC decided to try the shallows, and RockChaser and I went to the channel.
It was a pretty slow start, I didn't catch my first fish until I had been on the water for 15 minutes. Caught the second fish of the day a short while later, then RockChaser got the next two fish. With those results the hunt was on in the channel. Goody ended up "lucking" on to the school of keepers a little while later and caught 10 keepers in a row before calling us on the radio to tell us what was going on. I could see he had some action going on, but sharing that sooner would have benefitted the team better.
Bundled up for the 35-42ºF air and 40-48ºF water surface temps.
RockChaser:
Goody:
Sorry MOC, I didn't get a close up of you today.
Tolling back to the launch after lots of catching.
We caught and released over 20 legal fish, and lots of shorts throughout the group. All fish were caught over deeper water, holding between 10-25 feet for the most part according to my FF. We got over schools of fish where the FF was lit up like a Christmas Tree, quit tolling, cast jigs into where we marked fish, let the jig sink down and got hooked up almost every cast. We caught lots of fish trolling too, but with the drop in temperatures we had to go slower to match what the more lethargic fish were interested in. All of the fish I caught trolling today were caught between .5-1.5 knots. I quit counting at 20 fish, because the action picked up more than keeping track mattered to me...I would Guess I caught 35-40 fish all 16-19". Goody was the star of the fleet again today with the number of fish overall and the number of keeper size.
Always interesting checking out stomach contents to learn what the fish are eating. Here are a couple, can anyone identify this? Is that a baby striper, or another species that happens to have a silver color with black stripes? It's about 6" long. There were also lots of shrimp in one's belly, and something I have no idea what that thing is on the cutting board between the fish and knife?
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