St Jerome’s

[Big Mike]

We’ve fished St Jerome’s hard the last two days with mixed results. Thursday Rugbyfish and I launched at dawn under bluebird skies. There was an east wind but with incoming tide we hoped the inlet wouldn’t be too choppy. The inlet was very bouncy and trying to fish outside the inlet, while probably doable wasn’t advisable. The fishing was, to put it mildly, slow. Joe got a skinny 19” and a few low teen fish. I only managed 3 dink’s. Virtually no bait and a blinding sun kept the fish off the flats. We even relocated to Breton Bay which was equally as dead.

This morning we had much better winds and a nice overcast sky for a SMOG meetup. Here’s Ron at dawn headed out.



When we got to the inlet we didn’t see birds but said they’ve got to be here. I started throwing top water to an underwater bar that comes up to 1’ deep and immediately had a 20.5” fish. Gary came on radio and he had a 20” trolling. Ron joined me on the bar and he got a 20 on top as well. We thought, going to be a great day. Well just as fast as they came they left. After that we’d find small groups of only 2-3 fish , mostly schoolies with occasional 18” in the mix. We chased birds about a mile off shore but it was 8-10” fish working. Went back to the bar which produced some nice fish if you hung around and waited on them to pass through.

Gary picked up a stray 14” speck and a nice perch but it’s mostly a striper fishery now.

The morning was gorgeous, I’m far more interested in scenery now than I am taking my 500th striper shot which we’ve all seen mega times. Panorama of the inlet






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[J.A. Veil]

That is a beautiful location with great potential for catching fish. They are not equally easy to find each and every trip. After the shortage of stripers earlier in the year, it is good to see stripers in that area.

[Mark]

Mike,

That's a beautiful photo of the inlet.

For what it's worth, I think Thursday's bluebird skies impacted not only your fishing but mine. I visited an Eastern Shore pond that day and while I enjoyed the clear skies and warmth of the sun, the high barometric pressure that went with those bluebird skies probably impacted my fishing which was poor. As I told a friend of mine, the fishing was great. The catching was poor. We're certainly captive to the weather when we pursue our hobby.

Congratulations on finding nice stripers on day two.

[mchottie]

WOW that sunrise panorama is AWESOME

[ronaultmtd]

John Veil is exactly right- this is a difficult to figure out location- the flats are constantly changing, small pockets of shallow depressions can hold fish in what is otherwise one foot of water, especially on tidal flows. The side scan feature of my fishfinder is a great tool for shallow water. The obstacle course of crab pots positioned in the best fishing area is difficult to fish without constantly hanging those pots. Every trip is different, every trip has new challenges. It is a challenge to find fish here...but when you do figure out where and what they are feeding on, it can be some memorial fishing. Like Mike said we fished hard, chased birds more than a mile offshore in huge schools of baby Stripers...huge! Hundreds of yards of breaking eight inch Stripers...we tried everything to find bigger fish in these moving schools but deep, shallow and in between were small all school fish...returning to the shallow flats to find quality fish, pulling paddletails on the way back, we found scattered 16-18 inch fish...after being sick for three weeks, my stamina was down, so even though fish were still biting, I threw in the towel and headed in after nearly four hours on the water.

63 degree water this morning...slick calm, SMOG crew is all together...launch on low tide with the incoming a half hour from starting...top water was spotty but had good quality fish- watching 20 inch fish blow plugs three feet out of the water before finally finding the hooks, hooked in one foot of water on light spinning gear is something else! You don’t need too many of these to have a successful day...

[rugbyfish]

I had a great time fishing with you Mike. Although fishing was slow, it was a gorgeous day to be on the water. While there are still stripers to be caught, they don’t seem to be nearly in the numbers they were a few years ago.