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Over the past 3 weeks I've gotten out to fish twice, once in the mainstem of the Bay around Thomas Point, and once in an upper bay tributary creek. Both times have yielded double digit fish (usually striper), and this is pointing to a successful fall.
The first trip I made out around the South River/BT/Thomas Point, and covered 25 miles total trolling for spanish mackerel. Unfortunately yet again I couldn't find them, though I did troll up a bunch of striper, a few nice ones too, and a nice surprise bluefish. Dozens of powerboats were gathering by the lighthouse and the shoal, and only a few of them seemed to be catching anything (mostly tiny fish), so I considered myself lucky.
The second trip with Matt also produced a fair amount of fish but at much fatter sizes, hopefully this trend will continue. Almost all of my fish have been caught in 10-15 ft of water, on baits that don't troll below 5'. Small paddletails on 1/4 oz jigs have been productive, so much so that when I stop to change tactics and try a little jigging, I get bored so fast that I stop after about 5 minutes. I know that trolling will produce, so I just fall back on that. I've yet to dial in my topwater skills, but I did pick up a few lures that make a lot less surface disturbance than my WP or plain poppers. Matt's a beast with topwater lures, so I'll have to stick with him next time I want to give it a shot, and see what I'm doing wrong. I bet it's more of a patience thing probably, again, I fall back to trolling since it's been so successful.
The first trip I made out around the South River/BT/Thomas Point, and covered 25 miles total trolling for spanish mackerel. Unfortunately yet again I couldn't find them, though I did troll up a bunch of striper, a few nice ones too, and a nice surprise bluefish. Dozens of powerboats were gathering by the lighthouse and the shoal, and only a few of them seemed to be catching anything (mostly tiny fish), so I considered myself lucky.
The second trip with Matt also produced a fair amount of fish but at much fatter sizes, hopefully this trend will continue. Almost all of my fish have been caught in 10-15 ft of water, on baits that don't troll below 5'. Small paddletails on 1/4 oz jigs have been productive, so much so that when I stop to change tactics and try a little jigging, I get bored so fast that I stop after about 5 minutes. I know that trolling will produce, so I just fall back on that. I've yet to dial in my topwater skills, but I did pick up a few lures that make a lot less surface disturbance than my WP or plain poppers. Matt's a beast with topwater lures, so I'll have to stick with him next time I want to give it a shot, and see what I'm doing wrong. I bet it's more of a patience thing probably, again, I fall back to trolling since it's been so successful.
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