Potential Solley's Meetup on Saturday?

[UnkleRob2020]

Something in my gut tells me to be at Solley's tomorrow, so I am planning to be there unless the morning conditions are prohibitive. I drive a blue Chevy Trax and I pilot a sunburst orange Native Falcon 11. If I am able to figure out how to use my VHF, I will be on channel 68. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

[dsaavedra]

Good luck tomorrow guys. The winds are not ideal but they are manageable. Windfinder is showing 7 mph at 5am increasing to 12 mph by 11 am and 13 mph by 2 pm. In a creek off a river those wind speeds are more annoying than they are dangerous... in the main Bay or on a wide open river it would be a different story. You're lucky too that they will be blowing basically perpendicular to the creek... You should be able to find protection if you stick to the east side of the creek.

Rob, hope you finally get that 18"+

[scorchy]

Excellent day at Solley's today with UnkleRob. Met at the launch around 7 and were on the water a few minutes later. Fished till about 2 pm - lots of great talk about fishing experiences, tactics, and philosophies plus bonus conversations on healthy eating, work/life balance, and so on. I'm sure some of y'all's ears were burning.

We started off right out front where I had had some luck with bigger perch earlier in the week. The larger ones I had been catching weren't interested in what I was selling but plenty of smaller ones seem to abound and Rob (not me though) was steady cranking but I'll let him tell his side of the story.

Given the wind, I knew I wanted to stay toward the back of Marley Creek so we started paddling upstream. Rob obviously learned his lessons from you guys and has his trolling game down tight. I'm still a holdout and troll with a single rod and only when purposefully moving from one spot to another. We slowly worked our way past the power lines and the island in the middle of the creek, as John suggested to me yesterday. I only managed one 16" striper while trolling - it's like the fish know I'm only going through the motions so don't see fit to reward me.

However, I did manage 6 species today by casting. Started with smallish perch, then landed a nice pickerel in a cove. From there, three more 16" rock, two catfish, a foul-hooked tiny spot, and surprise sunfish under the dock on the island.

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Highlight of the day was this 18.5" fat rock that was a blast to haul in. This was the first time I tried out taking pics using voice commands via my new RAM X-Grip phone mount.. Guess I need to turn it sideways if I plan on catching bigger fish.

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Looking forward to getting out there again ASAP, and thanks for planning the meetup, Rob!

[Mark]

Scorchy,

Nice report and outing.

Congrats.

[dsaavedra]

Great report Scorchy. Glad you guys had success despite the sub-optimal weather. 6 species is impressive! I love multi-species days.

The X-grip phone holder is great. I've been using one for a couple seasons now. Definitely put your phone sideways for fish pictures, and find a way to elevate the X-grip if you can, it makes for a better angle. I have mine mounted on a ~20" piece of PVC pipe with a RAM ball screwed to the top. One of these days I intend to make a post about how I rig it up in the Dry Dock section of the forum.

[J.A. Veil]

Dave - Nice job on finding lots of fish. I'm glad that the less-than-optimal winds did not hinder your outing.

[UnkleRob2020]

Great morning at Solley's with Scorchy. I think we saw Bass Guy in a blue kayak as we crossed the far side of Curtis Creek. Every time I meet with someone from the forum, I learn a great deal and Saturday was no exception. I started out catching smallish perch very consistently and I thought it was going to be like that all day. It wasn't. I did not catch my 18"+ fish at Solley's yet. I caught a 17.5" striper while trolling towards the island....he was fat and put up a great fight...my other rod went down at the same time and it was very exciting. When I got him up I was surprised that he wasn't 20"+. That was one of the best fights, with head shakes and drag pulling, running under the yak, etc that I have had in a while. Whatever was on the second rod broke off the line while I was tending to the first rod.

We went further into Marley than I had ever been and I even went quite a ways past the island. I was trolling and not checking my lures (sorry John and Dave....you have definitely taught me better than this) and realized that I was pulling grass. It turns out the water gets quite shallow that far up the creek. I paddled back and fished around the island with Scorchy. He was on fire with his 3" gulp. He literally gave me the exact same lure he was using and he caught fish after fish right next to me while I managed a smallish perch here and there. I don't know what he was doing differently, but I plan to spend more time casting those while I am at Solleys.

Trolling back, I caught another striper or two. We were paddling against either the wind, against the current, or both so I stopped a couple times to cast and picked up more perch.

In terms of fishing, I would say that my day was a little below my average and certainly below my expectations (I should know better than to have expectations), but overall the day was great....it was beautiful on the water and the overcast weather was very comfortable to me....lots and lots of birds too. Hanging out with Scorchy was a lot of fun. Often when I fish with someone and we are trolling, we do not have too many extended conversations as it is difficult logistically. I spent a lot more time casting on Saturday and was able to converse about a variety of topics and the time flew by.

The taco style rod holder on my Falcon is not ideal. In fact, Dave had to retrieve my paddle in the Severn a couple of weeks ago (thanks Dave). The paddle leash that I bought online had three tethers together and I was admiring Scorchy's paddle leash. He happened to have an extra one and gave it to me...I really appreciated that act of kindness.

I am planning to order that RamMount phone holder...hopefully it can arrive before my trip this weekend. Although I am starting to wonder if I should head somewhere other than Crisfield? I think I can cancel my AirBnB until Wednesday.

I hope to have more meetups with people on the forum. Thanks again for a great day Scorchy.

[scorchy]

I tried going back to the well this morning before I have to leave for my work trip. Forecast said winds at 5-7, but pretty sure they were worse that Saturday. I only stayed out from 7:30 to 11:00 paddling to the island and back, and didn't really make any stops to fish for perch or pickerel. I only caught 5 small rock (11" - 14") and 3 catfish, two of which were enormous, all on 4" white gulp (I ran out of my 3" white ones). Not a single nibble when I tried fishing a 3" chartreuse gulp instead.

Still good to get out. Now it's off to North Jersey for for 3 days. Hope the fish are still here when I get back.

[UnkleRob2020]

Scorchy...I am looking forward to a casting/retrieving lesson with that gulp on a 1/4 oz jig head :--)

[Turtle]

I must have just missed you, scorchy. Fished from 930/10 til about noon. First time in Solley's and had fun, definitely windier than I would have liked. Caught a bunch of small rockfish trolling white paddletails on 1/8 ounce jigheads. Something much bigger bit and gave me a short sleigh ride, but then came off before I could see what it was. Had a sub 10" rockfish come off the hook and fall under my seat, which was a first. Tried my best to grab it out while on the water, but I ended up having to paddle to shore to grab it. There was enough water under there that it didn't seem any worse for wear and swam right off. I too tried a 3" chartreuse gulp minnow and didn't get anything on it.

[Magothyman]

Fished Solleys for the first time today (Wednesday). Put in at 11 am at the same time another yak fisher was coming out—he landed nothing he said. No wind so water was perfectly flat. No apparent tide, either. Tons of birds in the area, but none working any bait in the water. I trolled to almost the island with periodic stops to cast in coves. Only landed two perch in a cove. After 2 1/2 hours was almost back to the launch when a big catfish hit a Rat L Trap I was trolling. A nice fight but not a striper ☹️. Water temp was 72. I’ll probly try again there early next week.
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[scorchy]

Knowing the high winds that were on the horizon for this weekend and early next week, I made it out yesterday afternoon and fished from 1:30 to 6:15. The bad news for me was I spent too much of it not fishing - bird's nests on a reel, snags, fat-fingering my knots - probably lost 45 minutes to my own incompetence.

Good news was that I still found fish. Six rock (20", 17", two 16", and two schoolies), 4 white perch (including two fatties that topped 11"), and 3 more catfish. No "Curtis Crush," though I did see a pickerel trail my lure at one point. Really beautiful day out there.

[scorchy]

Thanks for the reports, Turtle and Magothyman. Those big catfish are a blast. Now that I have a net and have managed to get better at unhooking them, I've gotten over my initial "damn, it's a catfish not a rock" reaction and learned to just enjoy the ride. I seem to accidentally catch 2 or 3 every time I go out at Solleys now. (no jinx).