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This morning I drove to Prince Frederick early to meet Hobie Angler 25 to buy the Navionics mapping card he had for sale. I rarely fish in southern Maryland, but while I was already that far south, I decided to try a completely new locale. I considered launching at Benedict or Broomes Island on the Patuxent. A tip of the hat to Ron Ault for suggesting Broomes Island, which is farther downstream – I hoped for a shot at a spec or red (that did not happen today). There are two opportunities to launch at Broomes Island. One is a commercial marina with a ramp fee. The other is a small county cartop launch called Nan’s Cove. It is not at water level. Instead they have a floating dock and a plastic launch platform with a series of rollers. There is space for 8-10 cars there.
I had no prior experience with fishing here so I tried to be systematic in checking out different depths and looking for structures or drop-offs. I initially tried to troll my four-rod spread close in to the shoreline, but did not have enough depth to keep my lures off the bottom. Once in the river, I could see from my GPS chart that the water was shallow a long way out from shore. I started trolling in 4’ depth. In a few minutes I hooked several stripers that were less than 10â€. These Arkansas fish (little rock) were not what I wanted. I moved out to deeper water, 6’, 8’, 10’, etc. The bite was slow. At a 15’ contour I caught three 14†fish in the same area. The sonar marks looked good in that area so I worked it a while longer – but had no success. I decided to troll in a different direction. As I crossed over an area of 10’ depth, a 6'6" medium rod went down hard with line pulling against the drag. I was concerned that I had hooked a ray. But the head shakes gave me confidence that the fish had stripes. I was able to land the fish, which was 26.5†long. This is my largest striper since May and was a welcome visitor to my spread. I stayed in that area for a while longer hoping that some other larger fish were there. The sonar remained blank, and no more fish bit in that area. The fish was returned to the river after a quick photo session.
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I finished after three hours with 10 little fish and one large one. I trolled two rods with ½-oz jigheads and 3" Fat Sam mullet paddletails , one with ½-oz jighead and 4†Gulp swimming mullet, and one rod with ¾-oz jighead and 4†Shadzilla paddletail. The Shadzilla and heavier jighead caught the large fish. The Gulp bait caught only one fish today. As often is the case, the Fat Sams were a popular lure (side note, I saw some minnows swimming in the cove -- they looked to be exactly the same size as the Fat Sam.)
To reward myself for catching the large striper I had a crabcake sandwich and a glass of Sweetwater grapefruit IPA at the nearby Stoney's restaurant.
I had no prior experience with fishing here so I tried to be systematic in checking out different depths and looking for structures or drop-offs. I initially tried to troll my four-rod spread close in to the shoreline, but did not have enough depth to keep my lures off the bottom. Once in the river, I could see from my GPS chart that the water was shallow a long way out from shore. I started trolling in 4’ depth. In a few minutes I hooked several stripers that were less than 10â€. These Arkansas fish (little rock) were not what I wanted. I moved out to deeper water, 6’, 8’, 10’, etc. The bite was slow. At a 15’ contour I caught three 14†fish in the same area. The sonar marks looked good in that area so I worked it a while longer – but had no success. I decided to troll in a different direction. As I crossed over an area of 10’ depth, a 6'6" medium rod went down hard with line pulling against the drag. I was concerned that I had hooked a ray. But the head shakes gave me confidence that the fish had stripes. I was able to land the fish, which was 26.5†long. This is my largest striper since May and was a welcome visitor to my spread. I stayed in that area for a while longer hoping that some other larger fish were there. The sonar remained blank, and no more fish bit in that area. The fish was returned to the river after a quick photo session.
002.jpg
I finished after three hours with 10 little fish and one large one. I trolled two rods with ½-oz jigheads and 3" Fat Sam mullet paddletails , one with ½-oz jighead and 4†Gulp swimming mullet, and one rod with ¾-oz jighead and 4†Shadzilla paddletail. The Shadzilla and heavier jighead caught the large fish. The Gulp bait caught only one fish today. As often is the case, the Fat Sams were a popular lure (side note, I saw some minnows swimming in the cove -- they looked to be exactly the same size as the Fat Sam.)
To reward myself for catching the large striper I had a crabcake sandwich and a glass of Sweetwater grapefruit IPA at the nearby Stoney's restaurant.
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