Long, Slow Day but First Speck Ever

[UnkleRob2020]

Arron and I launched into the St Mary's river on Friday morning at sunrise. We fished for 11 hours (with a 30 minute break for lunch). Arron does not like to troll, but that is the only way we were able to catch noteworthy fish on Friday. We trolled paddletails and swimming trout tricks. I caught a striper, a bluefish and my first speck ever within the first 2 hours and I was pretty excited that I might get a Southern Slam....did not happen.

We went a couple of horus with no bites. Arron was mostly casting and I would cast with him and then troll for a bit and return to cast with him. I picked up a few nice perch while casting, but nothing like I have experienced in the Severn....they did not seem to be concentrated anywhere.

Arron had not caught anything and we had been out for about 4 - 5 hours. He was tired and ready to call it a day. I suggested we troll in the direction of a kayak in the distance. I suggested that we troll side by side in an attempt to find dropoffs and weed beds. I promised him that if he didnt catch anything and wanted to leave that I would be happy to pack up and go home or go to SML with him.

Arron immediately caught a speck as soon as we began trolling and then a few minutes later, he caught another...this one was huge and fat. I know this sounds crazy but he was yelling "I caught a skate" and I was yelling "I don't think they are still around this time of year." It was a big fat speck and I guess he caught a glimpse of the white underbelly and thought it was the bottom of a skate wing...I won't let him live that one down because he is constantly telling me that he lost a snakehead and I always want to know how he knew it was a snakehead if he lost it?

Anyway, it was a long day. In 11 hours, I finished with a few stripers, a few specs and a bluefish, as well as maybe 10 perch (not sure). I estimate that I averaged about one fish per hour, excluding the perch. Arron ended up catching more than me but still his average was not much more than one fish per hour.

Thanks to the forum, I had another first....I caught my first speck. Also, thanks to Scorchy, I didn't lose my paddle today (thanks for the paddle leash Scorchy.)

I am glad we went, but it was a long drive and a ton of paddling for the number of fish that we caught. My takeaways were that I need to install and learn to use the fishfinder and that I need to spend more time on the water in order to have more productive days.

[J.A. Veil]

Congratulations to you and Arron. The first time fishing in an unfamiliar spot does present challenges on where to go and how to fish. You guys put in a lot of effort and did well for first timers. As you note, being able to locate dropoffs, ledges, humps, or holes will be improved a lot if you have electronics installed on your kayak. You can certainly catch fish without the electronics, but your odds improve when you have them, particularly when you are unfamiliar with an area.

By the way, I did see several schools of small cownose rays in that same vicinity last week. I would be paddling along and notice a series of 15" wide chocolate-colored fish bodies near me. I did not want to hook or snag one, so I slapped my paddle on the water surface to shoo them away.

[DanMarino]

Dang, that is hard core kayak fishing right there. 11 hours is no joke. These days, I'm worn out after 2 or 3 hours. haha.

[Mark]

...I won't let him live that one down because he is constantly telling me that he lost a snakehead and I always want to know how he knew it was a snakehead if he lost it?

Rob,

Nice outing in terms of results and effort.

And a terrific question too.

[UnkleRob2020]

Arron was dog tired and ready to call it a day by the early afternoon. At one point I looked at him and he had no lines in the water and he was just sitting there rubbing his sore shoulders and remarking about how he never paddles this much when he fishes freshwater lakes.

An amazing thing happened. After he caught his first speck, and then another, all of a sudden he was trolling four rods and yelling commands to me about how I was too far from shore.

At the end of the day, I pointed out that he was exhausted physcially and complained of muscle soreness, but then found the energy to paddle for another 4 to 5 hours (and he was paddling harder than me at this point). When I asked him where he found that energy from, he said "Hope is a renewable resource" and we both laughed. My afternoon was fairly poor and I wasn't catching fish , but just seeing him catch fish was enough to keep me going and filled me with both joy and hope that I might get another nice one too.

Saturday morning I experienced a new level of soreness from all the paddling. I don't know how people track their paddling distance and I would like to know how far I paddled that day. Normally, I go to the gym on Saturday morning if I am not fishing. This Saturday I still went to the gym, but just for the hydromassage bed :--)

[Mark]

Rob,

The only thing I enjoyed about my fish finder when I had one is that its GPS capability tracked the distance I traveled. It's fun to know -- although variable winds and currents ensure that the same distance traveled on different trips rarely equates to the same energy expended.

Now, if I care to approximate my distance traveled on new waters, I use the distance calculator on Google Earth post trip. It's not as precise as electronics but close enough for my interest. For waters I visit often, I know the distances from the ramp to key areas from prior looks at Google Earth. It's good enough for my trip planning purposes.

[dsaavedra]

I won't let him live that one down because he is constantly telling me that he lost a snakehead and I always want to know how he knew it was a snakehead if he lost it?

Giving friends a hard time like this is one of the best parts of fishing.

Congrats on a successful day and on your first speck. Like John said, it is rarely easy fishing a new body of water for the first time, in those cases I usually chalk up any catches at all as a success. Same story when the water gets cold and fish get sluggish and hard to catch... I used to not even fish at all during the winter. These days I still try to go out on warm-ish days and if I even get 1 or 2 pickerel I go home happy.

[J.A. Veil]

I don't know how people track their paddling distance and I would like to know how far I paddled that day.

I predict that you will equip your kayak with a FF/GPS unit before long -- you seem to have embraced kayak fishing as a new hobby/sport. The GPS portion of those units can give you distance over ground, which is your total distance. Note that some units come from the factory with a threshold setting for speed. Often that threshold is set at 3 to 3.5 mph. I think the reason is that when used on a boat, any drifting is not counted in distance traveled. But for most of us, especially when using a paddle kayak, much of our trip is done below the threshold speed. The Lowrance Hook2 unit I have suffered that shortcoming. Eventually I downloaded a newer version of the operating software from the Lowrance website, and that fixed the problem.

In the meantime, there are various smart phone apps you can download -- some have a fee, others are free. The Navionics app will give you distance as well as show you a map view with depth contours. I also used an app called All Trails that my wife and I used for hiking. It is not really set up for use on the water, but it does give elapsed distances.

[scorchy]

Congrats on the spec, Rob. Fishing new water is definitely hard, and it's great that you, and especially your buddy, caught a few fish.

Glad that the new leash worked for you. Hope it didn't impede your paddling.

[ski357]

Congratulations on your first spec! That's some dedication.