Benedict Blue Catfish, Tuesday March 23

[dsaavedra]

Hmm no I didn't anchor, I was drifting fish finder rigs. I couldn't find any schools of fish dense enough to anchor up on, just little blips here and there, so I figured drifting would give me a better shot at encountering some fish. The wind was going almost directly against the tide so it ended up being a very slow drift.

[ronaultmtd]

Big mistake...the fish move with the tide. When I anchored Tuesday the sonar was clear, no fish at all showed. I was looking for the edge of the channel. You cannot "chase" these fish with Sonar and expect to be successful. I sat on that spot an hour without a bite until the rods started bending and drag running...Patience is the required soaking bait...

[dsaavedra]

Oh wow, I might have to learn that kind of patience. I am admittedly pretty impatient while fishing - if something is not working I am quick to change locations or tactics. Probably why I don't soak bait very often haha.

I'm also in the market for a new fish finder and I'm looking at ones with GPS and cartography. I think this will help me out on bigger water that I'm not as familiar with like this stretch of the Pax, and other main rivers/open bay. I had a hard time locating channel edges and holes and things. I was trying to use the free Navionics webapp on my phone to get an idea of the bottom contours while approximating my location based on my surroundings, it was half-assed at best, felt like I was pedaling around blindly watching the graph trying to find the channel edge. With a GPS fish finder I will at least have a pretty good idea of where to go to.

Thanks for your help so far Ron. One of these days I will get some nice cats - it's a personal challenge now, maybe we can meet up out there. I put my unused bait (almost all of it... I only used about half of one out of the 3 alewife I got) in the freezer, so this will be its 2nd time being frozen - think it's worth using again or should I get new bait next time?

[ronaultmtd]

The bait should be fine...it is nearly impossible to buy fresh alewife. 99% of the time I use frozen...one other bait I find works well is fresh gizzard shad...in a pinch the white perch you buy in a supermarket works, too. If you anchor and fish the edges of channels where flats drop off into deeper water, the catfish cruise those areas and it should produce, even if they don't show up on the sonar. I usually toss my baits about 25-30 feet off to each side and I toss one straight behind me about the same distance. I don't mess with the rods when the fish start hitting the bait...when it bends over and the drag starts, then I will pick up...and if the line goes completely slack, I will pick up and reel up as the fish is swimming with the bait toward you. One word of caution to anyone anchoring in current...use an anchor trolly and anchor from the bow or some prefer anchoring from the stern...never anchor amidship. I have a four pound folding anchor with three feet of stainless chain on 60 feet of 1/4 inch nylon rope.

[Jigsup]

Don’t feel bad. Got to jackson landing at about 3:00pm, checked the water. Wind was steady and the incoming tide was moving swift. Watch three guys on a canoe fight the tide. Thought about wife and children. Hopped back in truck and headed to lower Marlboro. On the way slowed down to see a lot happening at Wayson corner. Water was much calmer but didn’t want to deal with all that traffic. Continued my course to lower Marlboro. Found what I was looking for/willing to deal with. Unloaded kayak with some help from a gentleman that was fishing the pier. Wish that launch was more friendlier to heavier kayaks. I have a home made kayak carrier but didn’t bring it. Fished around the pier area staying close to channel. Found some really nice drop offs with plenty fish on them but no takers. Had a few nibbles but nothing I was looking for. Saw others catching very small catfish and one white perch on night crawlers and blood worms. I did anchor up on various “humps” and channel drops. No takers. Glad I got a chance to finally use my anchor. Got some adjustments to make them it’ll be perfect.

[mjkeith13]

Wish I had read Ron's initial post here on drift fishing for blue cats. I had some success with dragging long, heavy weights in NC years ago but never tried up here. So I used some 1/4" solid core lead wire fishing line (bullet weights) and cut into 6 to 12" lengths (2-4 oz), flattened the top and drilled a hole for a snap swivel attached to a 3-way swivel. I repurposed a couple old cajun popping corks as floats and got some frozen alewife at Anglers and made my first trip to Breton Bay last Thursday (March 25th). Launched from Camp Calvert landing.

High tide was 1pm and was on the water by noon. Mirroring Ron's results, 2 hours of drifting at less than 1mph resulted in exactly 1 hit or more likely a snag. I brought extra rods rigged with traditional fish-finder rigs and, again like Ron, anchored up in a few spots close to Abells Warf. I almost didn't even need an anchor as the water was glass flat (2mph winds) but super muddy from the torential rains the day before. I experimented with different hook sizes (5/0, 7/0 and 9/0) and different bait (cut alewife and chicken breast).
From 3-4pm didn't catch any giants but landed 5 between 21"-26." Kept the 3 below 24" and they were tastier than ever. The nearly unanimous winning combination was the 7/0 hooks with....chicken. I've always had better luck with cut bait but they were not having it that day. Lost 2 hook-ups on 5/0s as well. The drift rigs are back in long term storage. Should have read Ron's report first. :-)

I forgot the joys of wearing dry top/pants and PFD in 80 degree weather.

As a shiny new retiree, I'm enjoying taking advantage of workweek fishing so if anyone is going out for more blue cats during the week, please let me know.

Super calm at high tide:
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On of last Friday's fish fry participants:
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Over the past couple of weeks I have been itching to get out fishing...Watched Dieter Melhorne You Tube Videos...made several tiger tail dragging sinkers using two feet of 1/2 inch clear plastic hose filled with 2 1/2 oz. of BBs to try his method of drift fishing using Santee-Cooper cork rigs...visited Fred's Sports and picked up frozen alewife for bait...so yesterday I drove the fifteen miles to Benedict on the Patuxent River and launched Lady Luck at 11 am...high tide was 11:30...headed up river 2 miles to Chalk Point...at Chalk Point I dropped the dragging rigs down in 13 FOW that was 56 degrees...for the next hour I maintained .3 mph headed up river following the edge of the 13 FOW channel near the Generating Plant discharge...nothing- not a bump, not anything...disappointed (I invested a lot of time and energy into this project) I moved out to the main river channel a half mile or so off the Generating Plant ( Yes, this is deliberate burning a honey hole) and anchored up...I cut off the dragging sinker rigs and rigged up my standard carolina rigs, baited with big chunks of alewife and tossed them out...Did not have to wait long before my rod bent over With the drag running...first fish was a healthy 38 inch, estimated 30# or so bluecat...as I was tussling with getting the hook out my second rod with a head piece for bait took off...it was hectic, but I managed a quick picture on my phone before releasing that fish and fighting the second fish...the second fish was BIG...I had a heck of a time stopping it...it was very strong and after a ten minute fight, the hook pulled...No time for disappointment as my third rod was throbbing with a fish pulling drag. This fish was a mid 30 inch fish in the 25-30 pound class...trying to keep bait in the water was difficult as was hooking up...for some strange reason, I got a bunch of runs without hooking up...using 7/0 Eagle Claw circle hooks...maybe I should be using 10/0 hooks...anyway after an hour Or so, the tide was changing flow and the bite slowed...5 fish landed- smallest was 29 inches- biggest was a tad under 40...off the water at 3:15...headed home...

[moc]

Nice going Keith

[dsaavedra]

How long do you keep a chunk of alewife on the hook before re-baiting if you aren't getting bites? I found myself wondering if my bait was still as effective once it had been in the water 30, 45, 60+ minutes... I'd swap out for a fresh chunk after some time without a bite, or after getting small bites that chewed the bait all up.

[ronaultmtd]

If the bait is all soggy and washed out after an hour or so soaking, I will swap it out for a fresh chunk...but under normal circumstances the fish will take the bait off when they swallow it...next time I go I will pm you and see if your schedule permits...none of my SMOG crew wants to slime up their boats with these big cats, so I am going it alone

[mjkeith13]

If the bait is all soggy and washed out after an hour or so soaking, I will swap it out for a fresh chunk...but under normal circumstances the fish will take the bait off when they swallow it...next time I go I will pm you and see if your schedule permits...none of my SMOG crew wants to slime up their boats with these big cats, so I am going it alone

I will admit that I was a little hesitant at first with slapping that slime on the new marine mats I put on the boat over the winter.


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[dsaavedra]

If the bait is all soggy and washed out after an hour or so soaking, I will swap it out for a fresh chunk...but under normal circumstances the fish will take the bait off when they swallow it...next time I go I will pm you and see if your schedule permits...none of my SMOG crew wants to slime up their boats with these big cats, so I am going it alone

Right on, sounds good! The forecast looks pretty decent for Saturday and high tide is at 9am so it should be going out all morning. If I can get some stuff done around the house in time to install my new fish finder on Friday I'll likely be heading out to try again on Saturday. Third time's the charm right? Hopefully with all the advice in this thread I can at least get a decent fish.

With all the snakehead and pickerel I target and catch, as far as I'm concerned my kayak and everything in it is made to get slimy, the slimier the better

[ronaultmtd]

Saturday is looking pretty cold...and lots of power boat traffic...Tuesday is looking a lot warmer and low wind...noon launch sounds nearly perfect

[mjkeith13]

Noon Tuesday sounds good. I have no problem driving down southern Maryland again. Just let me know where you want to launch from.


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