Good Start-Great Finish

[J. Rentch]

Good Start-Great Finish! John Veil and I launched from Goodhands this morning a little after 8. Cool morning-54, and NE winds around 10 and a low tide. I trolled three lines out of the creek towards Hog Island. About half way there hooked up to a nice 18" and a 14" within five minutes. Made trip around Hog-no action, didn't even see anything on the FF. Headed up to the Oyster Reef by the breakwater-nothing. Met up with John where he had some action on the point by the Yacht Club. Saw marks, but no takers. Made trip around the breakwater, as John headed off for the other side of the creek. Still no action, so I decided to head for Kirwan Creek and work the shoreline. As I headed there, saw fish jumping further down the shoreline-proceeded there. About 100 yds off shore in 8ft of water the rod went down hard. Quickly reeled the other two lines in and for the next five minutes worked this fish into the boat-it was big- 25" a personal best for me in a kayak. After some pictures, I continued the area and landed two more 16". John was headed back and we worked that area for a while. Ended up with only 5 fish, but a great ending.

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Also saw two big Bald Eagles in the area-one was an adult circling high in the sky, the other an immature on a dead tree. Great morning to be out!

[Mark]

You guys are killing me.

I can't wait to get back in the water later this week.

Congratulations.

[Yak67]

Nice PB John, that's a fatty

Great report.

Yak67
2015 Hobie Outback LE#217

[J.A. Veil]

John told me on the radio that he had not had a bite in a long time. A few minutes later I received another call from him announcing his big fish. Great job!

I worked over 6.5 miles of shoreline from Goodhands north to the breakwater, then east into Marshy Creek, then down the eastern side of Prospect Bay picking up a fish every now and then. I came back across to the western side of Prospect Bay and got my second 20" fish near where John got his big one. Coming back into Goodhands Creek at the end, 3 of my 4 rods went down at the same time. Two were dinks – the other 19”.

I finished with 20 stripers (two at 20”, another ten between 16” and 19”, and the rest small ones) plus a cute little menhaden (my 40th different species caught in 2016).

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[username taken]

I was wondering how y'all did today. Seems like y'all did well. User Crotalus and I fished Goodhands to Kirwan, out to Hog Island then up to the yacht club then back to Goodhands and ended up with probably 30-40 rock each. Sizes ranged from 10.5 to 21 inches, most of them were in the 15-18 inch range. We lunched at 8am and got back about 2:30. There were so many large schools of menhaden swimming I was surprised the rock weren't attacking more.

I had most of my luck with a menhaden colored rattletrap but caught my keeper on a storm wildeye minnow. One of my best days on the Bay so far.

[J. Rentch]

Congrats on your day, glad we met. Hope to run into you guys soon.

[Crotalus]

Yeah, it was good meeting you guys and thanks for the tips/info. I hooked up with a 19 3/4" fish before even getting out of sight of the ramp and had a couple ~keeper size fish shake the hook shortly after. Things slowed when the tide died but we kept catching fish and things picked back up when the tide started coming back in. I caught a couple 20 inchers just as we were getting ready to call it quits. Also had 3 at 19 3/4" and 2 at 19 1/2". Lots of fish from 16-18". I have quickly become a big fan of the zmans. Last time out caught a lot (~70 fish) on 4" paddletails and decided to go larger this time out with 6" swimmerz. Used one on each rod and they still look like new despite lots of action (~40 fish). Caught a much better grade of fish overall with the larger lure but didn't completely weed out the dinks as a hungry 10 1/2" and an 11" fish still took it down. That's a hell of a meal for such small fish. We also managed to snag some bunker (they were so thick you could almost walk across them). And they measured out right at 6".

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[EMSer]

Nice job on your PB, John!! COngradulations

[J.A. Veil]

I was wondering how y'all did today. Seems like y'all did well. User Crotalus and I fished Goodhands to Kirwan, out to Hog Island then up to the yacht club then back to Goodhands and ended up with probably 30-40 rock each. Sizes ranged from 10.5 to 21 inches, most of them were in the 15-18 inch range. We lunched at 8am and got back about 2:30. There were so many large schools of menhaden swimming I was surprised the rock weren't attacking more.

I had most of my luck with a menhaden colored rattletrap but caught my keeper on a storm wildeye minnow. One of my best days on the Bay so far.

Nice catching. Yesterday was a great day to be on the water. The wind was lighter than forecasted, and the fish were biting.