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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 10”. 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 10”. 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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