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I went out and tried two different spots in Tangier Sound Wednesday late afternoon and Thursday during the day to hopefully find a speck or two. Reports haven't been all that great for specks on the eastern side of the bay this year; just a scattering of a few fish from time to time from what I can gather. I was hoping that a few had slipped into the shallows and maybe nobody had noticed because they haven't really been targeting them since reports haven't been that great? Kinda wishful thinking but I was off the rest of the week for the holiday so I thought I'd might as well try anyway.
Wednesday was still a little breezy and the open water was still 1 - 2 ft chop with whitecaps so I was forced to find some somewhat sheltered water when I left the landing. Despite the wind, the water was still very clear though and the floating grass wasn't too bad. I trolled and cast over grass flats, points, flats outside a few creeks on a falling tide, and inside a couple creeks. Skunked all around. Nothing. I had a paddletail bit off 100 yards from the landing and that would be all the action I had. Pretty sad when you can't even muster up a dink striper.
Thursday I launched early hoping I wouldn't be blown off the water by storms that were passing through the area. Aside from a few light showers, the big thunderstorms missed me thankfully. Started out trolling and casting paddletails and got a few 15" stripers. I eventually made it around a point a got into some good shallow grass flats where I switched to topwater. Game on! Landed 8 or 9 keeper size stripers 20" - 25". Missed a few other keeper sized ones that kept blowing up on the plug, but missing it. One threw the plug 4 ft out of the water and then hit it again where it landed. Good healthy looking fish too that you could tell had spent some time in the grass flats as they were very dark and green on top. I got a few more 15"ers, ran across a bunch of dink 10" busting bait, and one little 10" blue. All the keepers were in grass flats with 3 ft of water or less or right up tight to the bank.
Sadly no specks, but it's hard to beat a good topwater bite!
Wednesday was still a little breezy and the open water was still 1 - 2 ft chop with whitecaps so I was forced to find some somewhat sheltered water when I left the landing. Despite the wind, the water was still very clear though and the floating grass wasn't too bad. I trolled and cast over grass flats, points, flats outside a few creeks on a falling tide, and inside a couple creeks. Skunked all around. Nothing. I had a paddletail bit off 100 yards from the landing and that would be all the action I had. Pretty sad when you can't even muster up a dink striper.
Thursday I launched early hoping I wouldn't be blown off the water by storms that were passing through the area. Aside from a few light showers, the big thunderstorms missed me thankfully. Started out trolling and casting paddletails and got a few 15" stripers. I eventually made it around a point a got into some good shallow grass flats where I switched to topwater. Game on! Landed 8 or 9 keeper size stripers 20" - 25". Missed a few other keeper sized ones that kept blowing up on the plug, but missing it. One threw the plug 4 ft out of the water and then hit it again where it landed. Good healthy looking fish too that you could tell had spent some time in the grass flats as they were very dark and green on top. I got a few more 15"ers, ran across a bunch of dink 10" busting bait, and one little 10" blue. All the keepers were in grass flats with 3 ft of water or less or right up tight to the bank.
Sadly no specks, but it's hard to beat a good topwater bite!
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