5/28 South River, skunked..

[frettr00]

I went out on the South River for the first time this morning, way early (was on the water by 4:30am, still dark). I launched off some small "community" beach about a half mile south of the Rt 2 bridge. I was targeting striped bass at first, casted to the riprap along the western shoreline first with red sandworm gulp baits, then 6" white swim shads, nothing on either. As daylight started to break I headed up to fish under the Rt2 bridge itself, starting from the western side.

I tried with the swim shad again, no luck. As I made my way towards the middle in about 18-20 feet of water my fish finder was going off nonstop with what looked like stacks of arches, hanging around 10-15 feet of water. There were occasional small fish breaking the water surface around the general area. I worked the area trying every type of lure I could think of at different depths, even some fish bites since I didn't bring any cut bait with me today. I didn't get so much as a nibble. It was driving me crazy since I couldn't figure out what these fish were, but there were clearly a ton of them down there. After a while I gave up and packed it in.

[Memory Maker]

It's almost a waste of time when the may worms are mating .......... the fish gorge on them for a couple of weeks

[Redfish12]

Sounds like tough fishing for everyone this weekend. I'm skunked so far this weekend in NC so I feel your pain.

One thing in your report I noticed, it sounds like the summer pattern is setting in. Pretty soon the bigger bait will have left the bay so it's time to break out the smaller 3 and 4 inch swimbaits. Sassy shads in pearl are my go to for summer rock. When the blues steal your tail break out a 1/2 oz Kroc or Hopkins. In a few weeks you should start to see some blues blitzing at the bridge and they can be a lot of fun. Put a stingsilver, or something else shinny that will sink fast, and then add a fly (deceiver/clouser) about 12-18 above. Cast into the blitz, let it sink below and then start jigging. Usually you can pick up some rock below bc they are being lazy and eating the scraps. When the spot make it up here then live-lining picks up. Till then I'll keep feeding the no-see-ums and mosquittos and dream about breaking blues!

[ronaultmtd]

I'm going to give it a try for the next couple of days- love challenges of finding the right combination- the May worm swarms around the dock lights are an annual thing that do fatten them up, but there is nothing you can do about that- and after folks put in expensive gas in their boats for a few days and burn it for nothing but a boat ride- it tends to cut back the traffic a bit, too. The salinity is still way too low for decent fishing- so I'll continue to target the big blue catfish as my primary fish- although I will troll a while before anchoring up for them. The spot will be in the middle Bay in a week or so if the fresh water (salinity gets better) drops a bit- then line lining takes over as the way to catch bigger fish-

Today, I will put on a six inch chartreuse shad and a chrome rattle trap as the first pull on my mile long paddle out to the channel- I keep a rod rigged with a Badonk-a-donk just in case I see breaking fish. Last time I was out I saw some but they were gone before I could rig a rod- learned my lesson-