Bay Bridge - foggy, calm, but not fishy

[J.A. Veil]

Aesigel's request for Bay Bridge fisherman caught my interest. I arrived at Sandy Pt about 8:20. I buy an annual pass, which comes with a magnetic swipe card for the entry gate. As I approached the gate, I realized that I had my 2012 park pass but had not yet gotten my new swipe card. Sure enough, last year's swipe card did not work. I drove to the park office and a nice women exchanged my card.

I launched at 8:55 into serious fog. The first few shots below show conditions at the Sandy Pt ramps, on the way out, and at the western shore rock pile. The bay was glassy calm. I could see about two pilings ahead. I stayed near the east bound pilings, figuring that if I heard a boat engine, I could tuck in close to the pilings for security. I saw only two boats all day, and both were moving quite slowly.

Once I passed the large work barge, I began trolling two Rapalas. They pulled very smoothly, but did not attract any attention. I saw no fish marks on the sonar on the way to the rock pile. I pulled in the trolling rigs and began to jig a 6" BKD while drifting around the rock pile on the eastbound span and the large concrete pillar on the westbound span. I snagged bottom a few times but did not see any obvious fish holding there.

I met aesiegel who had launched a few minutes after me. He planned on paddling further to the eastern shore rock pile. I began jigging a few more pilings on my way back in, then trolled the rest of the way in using a Rapala on one pole and a Storm swim shad on the other. Both lures looked very enticing going through the water, but I must not have pulled them past any hungry fish. The lures I trolled today are shown in the fifth photo.

I cut the trip short because I plan to try a different destination later today for some perch. I look forward to Ed's report. I hope he did better than I did today.

[chex]

Whoa... that is spooky! Must have been quite a strange feeling to be out there surrounded by all that fog. Nice pics!

Too bad about the no fish part though.

[ictalurus]

At least you got some cool pics even if the fish didn't cooperate.

[MetroMan]

Oh nice. Now I'm regretting not going this morning. Dah well...there's always tomorrow.

Thanks for the report!

[J.A. Veil]

Usually the traffic noise from the bridges is pretty annoying. I guess with all the fog today, it kept things from getting too spooky. I never felt unsafe. About the time I turned to head back in, I heard a loud, deep horn several times. I assumed it was a large ship in the channel. I never got as far east as the channel, but Ed had headed that way half an hour earlier. I can imagine that hearing that horn closeby and seeing a huge ship materialize from the fog could induce a good pucker factor.

[HJS]

Fishing in the fog is one of my favorite conditions to fish in... but not when the fish aren't biting. Although conditions certainly sounded perfect for a good day of fishing. I guess the BB can be fairly fickled during the early spring.

[J.A. Veil]

I made up for my morning skunk. I drove to another location this afternoon to fish for perch. I caught a few small white perch -- some on a Rattletrap and others on a 2" Gulp on a small jighead. Most of the area where I fished was quite shallow and loaded with green slime. Less than 10% of the surface area of the water body held perch.

The Rattletrap was clearly the hot lure this afternoon. In addition to the perch, I caught a submerged spinning reel. It was a low budget model and went into the wastebasket at home.

[Aesiegel]

Well, unfortunately I didn't do any better than John today at the Bridge. Very foggy and very still. I tried the East Rockpile with no luck, then moved back towards the west side. I was marking more fish on the West side but had no luck there either. I saw a few boats moving about in the fog but didn't see any catching going on.

John, I heard that ship too. Never saw her but heard that loud horn cutting through the fog. Caught the wake too but it was pretty small. Not what I imagined from the sound of the fog horn.

I'm gonna blame my skunk on the Bridge's fog horn. Lots of noise to scare the fish. Your'e welcome to jump on board John.

Splitscreen made it out too and I saw him on my way in. Stopped to talk for a minute as he was outbound. Hope he put John and I to shame. As luck would have it the skies cleared and sun came out just as I was loading up the truck.

Here are three pictures of the foggy conditions.

[missedshed]

I fished the eastern side from 830 to 1130 and also didn't catch anything. Fog was thick the whole time.

[Splitscreen]

Sorry guys. Wish I couldve brought up something. It was one of those days where you vow not to leave the water until you hook up. So it ends up being even more frustrating when the sun goes down and you're forced to head in. In any case it was my first time fishing bb and I head a great time. Got some pretty cool pictures I will upload next time I'm at my pc. So glad I went out today. Fish or no fish, kayak fishing the bb is an experience that can't be fully understood and appreciated until you actually do it.

[Splitscreen]

Pictures and things I took away from this trip:

Just because the last cargo ship had a tiny wake, it doesn't mean they all do....
Never forget your sunglasses
Or sunscreen
Buy a gel padded seat

[Aesiegel]

Ahh, the learning curve is steep....and long, Grasshopper.

Nice pics!

[J.A. Veil]

Those pictures don't look like the same day. I agree with all four of the lessons learned too.

Yesterday was an extremely calm day to paddle out to the rockpiles. They are not all like that. Plus as the boating season approaches, there will be more and more boats around the bridges to throw wakes and create congestion.