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10/23 impromptu REDEMPTION
First time back in the water since the Ft Smallwood M&G, when I unintentionally went swimming along side my kayak. Had to shake the jitters/dark-cloud and get back in the water.
Sorry for the long winded read - because i'm still ecstatic / in shock. Skip to the bottom for the grand finale.
I work 9-5 M-F, so with the fall weather/daylight running out earlier, it's rare I can get the kayak in the water on the weekdays with daylight to spare.
Friday 10/21 I took off work, in preparation for settlement/closing on my very first home. Long time coming, but the grass does feel 'greener' your my feet when you own the dirt it's growing from. Unfortunately, my unorganized loan officer had me scrambling to finalize some last minute paperwork corrected prior to settlement, and family came into town to celebrate, so no fishing...
Saturday 10/22, with the wind/small-craft advisory, my girlfriend alternatively/spontaneously suggested a day-trip to Harpers Ferry WV. She said to bring a fishing rod, but I knew with the wind, leaving around mid-day, and focusing on hiking, fishing gear was better left at home.
Overlook from the Maryland Heights trail:
Sunday morning 10/23, I was browsing online and chatting with another angler, Matt Hampton, from the Eastern Shore Kayaking group on facebook. He had posted a picture of a juvenile striper +/- 15" caught on a lure I was un-familiar with:
- photo courtesy Matt
I inquired, and he sent me some details of the lure pictured above. He also said that he uses this specific lure color when cloudy/overcast, and I should probably pickup a chrome//white/shimmer type for clear sunny skies. I stopped by BPS to see if they had anything remotely similar (knowing his was a few years old).
This was the closest I could find to his specifically:
In the back of my mind, and knowing it was relatively sunny Sunday, I grabbed another similar lure with white/red/black coloring w/ red treble hooks, and headed to the checkout line approx 330pm.
I've fished shore/pier for 20 years, and prefer the evening/dusk bite to the early morning. I also don't know how you guys get up at 4am. I put the kayak in the water around 445pm, and had some good success with live blood worm, picking up about two dozen white perch, about 8 were 10" keeper size:
As you may suspect from the photo above...
The sun was getting pretty low... I try to squeeze every bit of day/dusklight I can...
I dug around in my pack for that new lure I just picked up (day-light version) and cast about 18-24 times, with no luck. I'll tell you a secret, I'm not really sure how to fish with lures, i'm a bottom sinker & live-worm kinda guy. I've had a few professionals from this site tell me I should always have rods trolling as I paddle, so I guesstimated how to set this lure far enough back with drag tightened, and headed in for the night. The route I take passes some old pilings of what used to be a large pier, and then again more pilings of what used to be a small pier. We catch tons of perch among this debris. Trolling back, I cleared the first pilings, but was running very close to the second set. I now understand why a few guys were recently asking how to know when one of your trolling rods hook-set. My paranoia had be looking back every 15 seconds to make sure I didn't snag...
Then, all hell broke loose. 9'-0" medium rod, 10lb braid, new lure, thought I snagged as the kayak turned from the pull, and then I saw the splash. He must have been lying in wait, the water is only 3'-4' deep, I run relatively close to shore when short on daylight (especially on weekends) due to motor boats flying into the cove wide open throttle.
Most fun i've had in salt-water, and my personal best rockfish ever, solid 25". He fought tooth and nail all the way to the kayak, and I packed ultra-light with no net or cooler, so getting him up and into the deck was a huge challenge.
John I'm putting that SRR&KC Hawg Trough to good use now!
Sorry for the long winded read - because i'm still ecstatic / in shock. Skip to the bottom for the grand finale.
I work 9-5 M-F, so with the fall weather/daylight running out earlier, it's rare I can get the kayak in the water on the weekdays with daylight to spare.
Friday 10/21 I took off work, in preparation for settlement/closing on my very first home. Long time coming, but the grass does feel 'greener' your my feet when you own the dirt it's growing from. Unfortunately, my unorganized loan officer had me scrambling to finalize some last minute paperwork corrected prior to settlement, and family came into town to celebrate, so no fishing...
Saturday 10/22, with the wind/small-craft advisory, my girlfriend alternatively/spontaneously suggested a day-trip to Harpers Ferry WV. She said to bring a fishing rod, but I knew with the wind, leaving around mid-day, and focusing on hiking, fishing gear was better left at home.
Overlook from the Maryland Heights trail:
Sunday morning 10/23, I was browsing online and chatting with another angler, Matt Hampton, from the Eastern Shore Kayaking group on facebook. He had posted a picture of a juvenile striper +/- 15" caught on a lure I was un-familiar with:
- photo courtesy Matt
I inquired, and he sent me some details of the lure pictured above. He also said that he uses this specific lure color when cloudy/overcast, and I should probably pickup a chrome//white/shimmer type for clear sunny skies. I stopped by BPS to see if they had anything remotely similar (knowing his was a few years old).
This was the closest I could find to his specifically:
In the back of my mind, and knowing it was relatively sunny Sunday, I grabbed another similar lure with white/red/black coloring w/ red treble hooks, and headed to the checkout line approx 330pm.
I've fished shore/pier for 20 years, and prefer the evening/dusk bite to the early morning. I also don't know how you guys get up at 4am. I put the kayak in the water around 445pm, and had some good success with live blood worm, picking up about two dozen white perch, about 8 were 10" keeper size:
As you may suspect from the photo above...
The sun was getting pretty low... I try to squeeze every bit of day/dusklight I can...
I dug around in my pack for that new lure I just picked up (day-light version) and cast about 18-24 times, with no luck. I'll tell you a secret, I'm not really sure how to fish with lures, i'm a bottom sinker & live-worm kinda guy. I've had a few professionals from this site tell me I should always have rods trolling as I paddle, so I guesstimated how to set this lure far enough back with drag tightened, and headed in for the night. The route I take passes some old pilings of what used to be a large pier, and then again more pilings of what used to be a small pier. We catch tons of perch among this debris. Trolling back, I cleared the first pilings, but was running very close to the second set. I now understand why a few guys were recently asking how to know when one of your trolling rods hook-set. My paranoia had be looking back every 15 seconds to make sure I didn't snag...
Then, all hell broke loose. 9'-0" medium rod, 10lb braid, new lure, thought I snagged as the kayak turned from the pull, and then I saw the splash. He must have been lying in wait, the water is only 3'-4' deep, I run relatively close to shore when short on daylight (especially on weekends) due to motor boats flying into the cove wide open throttle.
Most fun i've had in salt-water, and my personal best rockfish ever, solid 25". He fought tooth and nail all the way to the kayak, and I packed ultra-light with no net or cooler, so getting him up and into the deck was a huge challenge.
John I'm putting that SRR&KC Hawg Trough to good use now!
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