Topwater Delight

[Big Mike]

Fished lower half of St Mary’s this morning. Got to my fishing spot at 5:05 but I was already being buzzed by boats, a constant theme. Put on a Chug Bug and in the first hour got 6 rocks (all15-16”) and this 17” speck on top water. As the bottom of the sun cleared the horizon the top water shut down, along with just about everything else. I did manage 3 more speckled trout, 18” and 2 15” which this year is a good numbers day, but that was over the next 2 1/2 hours. With the incoming tide it kept the grass and jellyfish manageable. You almost can’t fish an outgoing in many spots because of them. I did see my first small school of breakers very close to me, possibly trout, but they vanished in the 15 seconds it took to get there.

One of the 300 center consoles that headed out today slammed on the brakes and said he saw a cobia. Spent 10 minutes casting around but then left. Lots of CNR around so possibly that.




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[J.A. Veil]

Nice catches, particularly on the specks. I have pretty much given up on fishing on summer holidays. If I can find an isolated spot that boats are unlikely to reach, I may still go.

The trout you show in the photo above seems to have more tiny spots and irregularly-shaped spots than the trout that I catch (more uniform spots). Do you find that pattern often?

[Big Mike]

Honestly never gave it much thought. Looking back at photos I see some regular, some more like this one. I imagine like red drum which can have a different number of black spots, that specks can have a wide variation in how they’re speckled. Jackson Pollack paintings all.

[J.A. Veil]

Yours may be a "freck" or freckled speck.

[mjkeith13]

I stupidly launched from Rose Haven this morning at 0545 hoping to be off the water before the onslaught of everything that floats.

I wanted to catch enough perch for a fish fry tonight but we’ll be eating burgers instead.

Using big nose spinners around the Holland Point docks was not working for the first time. That and the schoolies were hitting anything if you got near them. Tried some other stuff but limited success with catching any perch bigger than 10”.

At least 8 other kayaks out there fishing by 10 AM.
Had my first run-in with a guy somewhat fishing from his dock as I was fishing the docks.

Think I’ll stick to weekday fishing!


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[ronaultmtd]

Followed up behind Mike today with Teddy..banner day...not a lot of top water...a few blowups and one fish...but banner day with five species caught and released...Teddy had 17 Speckled trout to 20 inches..he took three home for dinner, bunch of stripers caught and released and he caught and released two bluefish...I caught spot, flounder, white perch, stripers, and 22 Speckled trout to 22 inches...I released all my fish...

[moc]

Followed up behind Mike today with Teddy..banner day...not a lot of top water...a few blowups and one fish...but banner day with five species caught and released...Teddy had 17 Speckled trout to 20 inches..he took three home for dinner, bunch of stripers caught and released and he caught and released two bluefish...I caught spot, flounder, white perch, stripers, and 22 Speckled trout to 22 inches...I released all my fish...

Nice catch Ron. I wish I was with you, but work requirements got me trapped so far for the summer and most of July.......bummer.

[ronaultmtd]

Teddy and I did a repeat yesterday...it was much as Big Mike reported...very slow in the areas we caught fish previously...but undeterred, we expanded our search area and located the big girls- hooking up doubles on several occasions...saw bottle nose dolphins invade 3-4 fow chasing fish...impressive wakes and huge splashes...had two within fifteen feet of my kayak really booking it!