Interesting Morning on the Flats

[Salty Dog]

Not sure if this is a good report or not. I was supposed to be at the Beach surf fishing for the week. I went down this past Friday and got washed away from the Northeaster and the remains the Hurricane, did not take the kayak, again a mistake.So I came home early and decided to fish the backside channel out of HdG this morning. I was in the water around 7:00am and paddle the back channel towards Swan Creek. After the second channel marker I dropped a rattletrap on one rod and a hi/lo rig with blood worm on the other rod. Within about 10 minutes the rod with the blood worm started screaming, at first i thought I hooked an underground obstruction, not with the head shake I felt on the line. What ever it was started to pull me towards Swan Creek. I was in 13 foot of water along the channel trying to dodge WEED. As my ride approached the pier at Swan Creek, what ever it was decided to take a left and head out to Battery Island, then it happened, the hook was straightened and the fight was over. So after I regained composure, I started fishing around the pier and shore line. Got 2 dinks on a rattletrap, snagged some gizzard shad, an caught one small sm mouth bass on a small spin shad. Did not see any birds working the water. Was hoping what ever pulled me down the channel would come back and pull me back to the ramp. Unfortunately I relied on my paddle.

[Scrumptrelecent]

Big grass carp maybe?

[Chillg123]

Sounds like you had a run-in with a mini-sub.

[Donsail68]

I caught my very first cownose ray 4 weeks ago. At first I had thought I caught a mini-sub. There was no shaking or zig zagging as a normal fish would. The reel peeled out for about 10 seconds. After 20 minutes, I saw it was a ray. Now I understand why people hope not to catch them again. So I bet you caught a ray.

[Shady]

slim chance it could have been a sturgeon... Were you trolling the bloodworms?

[Salty Dog]

Yep, trolling bloods on one rod at about 1 mph. It was the strangest thing I ever experienced, in and out of the water. No left or right or backwards action. I'am going to write this one off to government. The ride was great, but no idea what was pulling me beside a big ass cat.

[mi327]

Wow that must have been something to be hooked onto, maybe a big Catfish? I am surprised you didn't see any birds/bait. I fished tues evening upriver from there and there were lots of birds/bait working. There were fish around but no keepers but still fun on light tackle top water.

[Dimo]

Wow, great story and all the more reason to pick up a gopro!

[Salty Dog]

Thanks Dimo, I have a Go Pro Hero 4 Black, but normally have no reason this time of year to have it on board. I guarantee it will be with me the remainder of the season.

[sparky1423]

Could have been a huge flathead. I met a netter at the Tidings ramp and they net that channel often. He had a boatload of channels, flatheads, and white catfish.

[mweber02]

I hit the flats for the late morning/early afternoon incoming tide today. I dropped a line as soon as I got out of the marina and got bit in the first 50', but the rest of my trolling "off shore" was pretty slow. I was barely even marking fish out there.

There were hundreds of birds up and down that backside channel but I really didnt want to run all the way back and through the marina to troll over there. I eventually gave in but by the time I got over there the birds were gone. It didnt take long though for one of my rods to go down and boy did it go down hard. By the time I got the rod under control (thought it was going to get ripped out of the holder) the fish straightened the hook and was gone. Needless to say, that will be the last time I ever buy jigs from Walmart out of convenience. I trolled down a little past the big house and at times had a screen full of marks for 100+ yards but only hooked up a couple of times. As I trolled back I had two more massive strikes but they somehow got off before I could get the rod in my hands. Within maybe 200 yards of the launch I had yet another big strike. This time it stayed hooked. I was convinced it would be around a 26" fish and was quite shocked when I got it to the yak to find that it was only 18. That fish had some shoulders on it for sure!

There is no doubt that channel is holding some big fish right now.

[Salty Dog]

There is something in that back channel that is worth a revisit. How was the grass?

[Yak Fish]

I also fished the flats recently and got lots of fish out there, but in very specific locations. They are not everywhere. There are keepers, but the majority will be around 18" I stayed away from the back channel although there were birds there like you suggested. They were those really small birds so I didn't put too much faith in them. I started making my way over and then got annoyed with all the grass so I headed back out again. I will say that I saw a fish jump in those grass beds that was enormous. It looked like the size of a man. It came straight up out of the water and had that reddish color you see on carp so that's what I'm thinking it was although I've never seen one launch out of the water straight up and down like that. It was incredible, and that's no fish story.

[mweber02]

Salty - the grass beds are still really thick. The open water seemed pretty good, even near the edges. I wasnt getting nearly as much grass on my rigs as I did 3 weeks ago. That grass bed that runs between the back channel and the rest of the flats is a nightmare to get through though. After taking forever to paddle through it on a high tide last year I know it is easier to just trek back to the marina. It would be completely impossible to get pedals or a rudder through it.

Alan - I have seen carp come straight up and almost completely out of the water, usually around their spawning time. The only one I have seen on the flats was in that weed bed and would have been around 20lbs, so I am sure there are some big ones to be found.