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Spot city @ Piney Pt., 8/4
I decided on the spur of the moment to hit Piney Point for some topwater action because I finished up the day's tasks early, the tide was right, and the weather seemed decent. However, not only was the wind forecast off by 90 degrees and 10-15 knots, it also rained quite a bit. 
I hit the water at 5:45pm (near high tide and max ebb) and headed to my spot spot to see who was home. One the first cast, I caught a 9-incher:
With that lens flare, it looks like the pic was taken on the set of the most recent Star Trek movie.
I caught 5 more similarly sized spot in short order before heading to a spot that should hold puppy drum. Something was scaring silversides out of the water, so I was hopeful. I cast a 4" chartreuse Gulp grub on a red 1/4oz head. I missed a couple strikes, and I also missed a fish that hit it 3 times as I jigged it under my yak at the end of the retrieve. The only fish I've ever had hit a lure that close to the boat in that shallow water (3ft) were bluefish and redfish. Either way, it was probably too small if it couldn't inhale the grub. It turns out there might be a third option because I also caught a 10" croaker on the bottom rig that I was dragging behind me. That sucker fought hard in the shallow water and was a bit of a disappointment when I finally saw it.
At around 7, I started making my way to my topwater spot. I stopped in an area where I saw some marks earlier and picked up two more 10" croaker before moving on. Six more casts at my spot spot yield six more 9-inchers but nothing larger. The wind was absolutely howling at this point, so I headed to the topwater spot, which was in the lee.
I didn't have any hits on my Bomber minnow or my popper/bucktail combo. I had some small bluefish blowups on a Chugbug, but the fish were too small to connect. I did pick up two 12" croakers on the bottom rig, though. It was raining pretty steady by 8:30, so I called it a night.
Final tally for the evening was 12 spot and 5 croaker. I forgot my salt/temp meter, but my sonar read 82* by the end of the night, which seems right because the water felt cooler than recent days, and the salinity at the mouth of the Potomac was ~12. I wish had gotten there a little earlier so I could've hit my horse croaker spots, but I didn't have any shrimp with me and coming back in the wind and rain would've been pretty rotten. I'm pretty bummed that the topwater spot didn't produce because I haven't caught a keeper striper all year.
Last year, I was giving striper fillets away but couldn't buy a spot. I guess I can only have one or the other. At least I caught enough for some fish sammiches and a few for my buddy at work.
I hit the water at 5:45pm (near high tide and max ebb) and headed to my spot spot to see who was home. One the first cast, I caught a 9-incher:
With that lens flare, it looks like the pic was taken on the set of the most recent Star Trek movie.
I caught 5 more similarly sized spot in short order before heading to a spot that should hold puppy drum. Something was scaring silversides out of the water, so I was hopeful. I cast a 4" chartreuse Gulp grub on a red 1/4oz head. I missed a couple strikes, and I also missed a fish that hit it 3 times as I jigged it under my yak at the end of the retrieve. The only fish I've ever had hit a lure that close to the boat in that shallow water (3ft) were bluefish and redfish. Either way, it was probably too small if it couldn't inhale the grub. It turns out there might be a third option because I also caught a 10" croaker on the bottom rig that I was dragging behind me. That sucker fought hard in the shallow water and was a bit of a disappointment when I finally saw it.
At around 7, I started making my way to my topwater spot. I stopped in an area where I saw some marks earlier and picked up two more 10" croaker before moving on. Six more casts at my spot spot yield six more 9-inchers but nothing larger. The wind was absolutely howling at this point, so I headed to the topwater spot, which was in the lee.
I didn't have any hits on my Bomber minnow or my popper/bucktail combo. I had some small bluefish blowups on a Chugbug, but the fish were too small to connect. I did pick up two 12" croakers on the bottom rig, though. It was raining pretty steady by 8:30, so I called it a night.
Final tally for the evening was 12 spot and 5 croaker. I forgot my salt/temp meter, but my sonar read 82* by the end of the night, which seems right because the water felt cooler than recent days, and the salinity at the mouth of the Potomac was ~12. I wish had gotten there a little earlier so I could've hit my horse croaker spots, but I didn't have any shrimp with me and coming back in the wind and rain would've been pretty rotten. I'm pretty bummed that the topwater spot didn't produce because I haven't caught a keeper striper all year.
Last year, I was giving striper fillets away but couldn't buy a spot. I guess I can only have one or the other. At least I caught enough for some fish sammiches and a few for my buddy at work.
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