Found the rockfish WAY back in the creeks

[Red_Beard]

With the terrible wind forecast for this weekend, I decided to take Friday off and get in some fishing before the front arrived. I launched out of Fort Smallwood using the new kayak launch. Not as impressive as the one at Solley's, but its nice to have a designated spot for us for when the boat ramp is busy. I spent the first few hours fishing around the mouth of Rock Creek with little to no success at all despite marking a lot of bait on my graph in places. I got about a half dozen perch, and one dink of a rockfish. I was almost about to call it for the day, when I decided to head up a small side creek off of Rock Creek, and boy am I glad I did.

The trib was full of bait, and the striped bass were up there with them. I finished the day with about 15 fish in total, and 5 of them were between 20-24 inches! All fish were caught on 3 or 4 inch Zman paddletail baits that were fished on 1/4 to 3/8 oz jigheads. Most fish came on the troll, but I got a few of the big ones casting when I found the fish busting on peanut bunker in front of a marina. That bite got cut short when a big sailboat came in to dock, but that's the risk you take while fishing a marina.

I don't know if the fish will still be up in the feeder tribs following this front, or if the temperature drop will cause the bait to start moving out towards the main rivers. Either way, its worth checking them out!

rock creek striper.jpg

[Big Mike]

Good report. Bait is way back in coves and creeks right now, good place to be.

[jbrown]

Great post! Main channel between the Key bridge and Baltimore harbor with a ‘23 and a 26 - nice fish but only two after 5 hrs of steady troll.


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[Mark]

Excellent outing and report Cliff.

Congratulations.

[rugbyfish]

That’s funny, I was one creek over from your and I couldn’t buy a bite. I ended up with one short striper in two hours of post-work fishing. That’s how things have been up this way lately, very scattered. Some days you find them, some days you don’t. There definitely seem to be fewer fish around that area of the Patapsco than there were even a few years ago. Each year it gets tougher to put together a productive outing.

[scorchy]

Thanks for the report. That one in the pic is a hoss!

[DanMarino]

That's a beauty!

[Red_Beard]

That’s funny, I was one creek over from your and I couldn’t buy a bite. I ended up with one short striper in two hours of post-work fishing. That’s how things have been up this way lately, very scattered. Some days you find them, some days you don’t. There definitely seem to be fewer fish around that area of the Patapsco than there were even a few years ago. Each year it gets tougher to put together a productive outing.

The thing was, I didn't catch hardly anything in Rock Creek itself. It wasn't until I went up a little tributary off of Rock Creek that I found them. I'm not even sure what it was called, but it would have been the one closest to Fort Smallwood.

[rugbyfish]

It’s funny how that works sometimes. Some days you just have to cover a ton of water until you find them. I’m glad you had some success!