Patapsco, 2-14-12

[HJS]

Fished the inner Patapsco yesterday, 2-14-12, 11:30am-2:30pm. Caught one striper, 18” and really fat. He’d been eating well. It took me 2 hours of fishing to catch this one striper (see pic). I was on the verge of quitting with a skunk when he hit, so of course I had to stay another half hour just in case a feeding blitz had started. Well, that didn’t happen.

Nice day too, partly cloudy, near 50F, wind 5-8mph, and water vis a solid 4’. The FF showed a steady parade of marks made by gizzard shad (see 3 pics). They were so thick there that I could feel my jig hitting them like I was dragging over a cobble stone street. The FF also showed several schools of what looked like smaller baitfish. I’m guessing these were the baitfish my striper was feeding on since he was waaaay too small to tackle a full-sized gizzard shad, most of which probably out-weighed him. I frequently needed to clean dime-sized gizzard scales off the jig hook.

I was the only boat there. No one was fishing at the piers either. Over the past several years this place has been known to be 4+ trips of famine to one trip of feasting. Ya never know when you will hit a feast day… but it wasn’t yesterday… maybe next trip.

[new2yaks11]

Nice fat striper. I only fished there a few times late last year. Only managed a few schooling fish my first trip out but couldn't connect after that. I'd like to try and catch some of the stripers that I know frequent that area as years ago used to catch them there quite often.

[J.A. Veil]

HJS -

In the picture of the fish on the floor of the boat, the floor does not look like a kayak hull. Were you fishing from a kayak that day? I'm curious how far from a ramp you were fishing, and if it would be practical to paddle to that location.

[chex]

I love the sight of striper in the winter. Nice catch!

[Shady]

Thats one of the better looking 18" Stripers I've seen! At least you found one, good work!

[ictalurus]

That fat striper is a sweet sight. Well done.

If you can snag a few of those gizzard shad, you can trade 'em in for some nice cats in the Potomac.

[Yak Fish]

Is it possible to catch the gizzard shad? I've snagged them before, but never got one naturally. Seems like it could be a fun day fishing if there are that many.

[daddyg]

Nice fish... Where did you put in at...

[Shady]

I've heard you can fish for gizzard shad the same way that you fish for carp and with the same bait. I was fishing at beechwod park last year when they were thick in there and I must have snagged atleast a dozen of them on the dorsal fin and I wasnt even trying to. Biggest one was about 4 pounds.

[DanMarino]

Canoe

HJS -

In the picture of the fish on the floor of the boat, the floor does not look like a kayak hull. Were you fishing from a kayak that day? I'm curious how far from a ramp you were fishing, and if it would be practical to paddle to that location.

I'm pretty sure that HJS fishes from a canoe and probably with a trolling motor too.

13

[HJS]

New2yaks – The inner Patapsco is far from what it use to be back several years ago when striper populations were a lot higher. During the good years, breakers with birds were a common sight on the inner Patapsco during the summer and fall. But not so much anymore. Now I pretty much skip the entire summer months there. I still can do fairly well during the fall and early winter just as the waters starts cooling off and water clarity improves. Fall action can hold into December some years.

JAVeil – I use a 16’ Oldtown Camper Canoe with 40# troller side mount. I’ll attach a pic. And yeah, these waters are easily accessible with a kayak. If you can handle the distances you do on the Severn then this area would be considered easy.

Ictalurus – I often thought I should give gizzard chunks a try there but pier and bank fishermen using bait in this area rarely catch any catfish. Sort of a mystery to me, dunno why. And I’ve tackled with enough bluecats just above Chain Bridge on the Potomac (while fishing large soft plastics for stripers) to know for certain that I am outgunned by those beasts… like taking a fishing rod to a gun fight. I was even using 30# Fireline, 40# mono leader on a big reel attached to a heavy rod and still got whooped bigtime by huge bluecats. Of course they use the swift current there to their advantage.

Yak Fish – I’ve heard a few guys say that on rare occasions they will catch a gizzard in the mouth with a shad dart. But I’m guessing that it’s more like an accidental snagging a gizzard in the mouth. Some of the ones I snag on the Patapsco are huge. The other day, a few of them felt like a striper fighting back until I could see I snagged a gizzard near the tail. Unlike hickory and white shad, gizzard shad are quite slimy and I try to shake them off with minimal touching of the fish.

Shady – Like I say, most of the gizzards I snag on the inner Patapsco are huge!!! A couple years ago I measured a few up to 18”. I don’t weigh fish on the boat, however being that they are built like a brick poophouse I guess they’d easily go 4 pounds or more. It would take a heck of a striper to eat a gizzard that size. All those big ones are mostly, if not entirely, females. The males are a fair bit smaller… and maybe eatable by big stripers.

And others – During the winter months I generally don’t get too specific with exact locations until after March 1st when the gill net season closes. I have no doubt that commercial fishermen keep an eye on fishing websites. Maybe not this site yet but they do lurk on other fishing message boards. The WWDs on the Patapsco are no secrete to any commercial fishermen but whether or not the stripers are there is a crap shoot. I’ve set a few gill nets in my line of work and know first hand how arduous and dirty the job is, ESPECIAL when the stripers are mixed in with tens of 1000s of gizzard shad. Knowing that stripers are indeed being caught in high numbers by fishermen at a specific WWD would be extremely useful information. After all, just like us, a commercial fishermen doesn’t want to waste his time fishing where there are no fish. That being said, I will gladly share specific locations and other fishing details with vetted kayakers on this site via PMs or email.
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Yeah, I guess I came across as a little too uppity. What I meant to say is anyone who contributes to MKF in a constructive manor is more than welcome to PM or email me for additional information about my fishing reports. All of you who post reports and comments about reports are obviously the good guys. Love to hear from you.