Susky Flats

[new2yaks11]

I launched out of Perryville this morning. Met Yakfish and Yakfisher there. There must have been 30 plus boats all out in front of the park. I began trolling about 100'yards fom car top launch. I caught my first striper within first 10 minutes. It was a 17" fish. My ff was Irving me lots of trouble with how I mounted transducer on arm over the side. There was some big wave action from the boats running everywhere and the arm was too short so it wouldn't allow transducer to stay below water line. Anyways, I'm converting to the wet well method before next trip. I tried a few different colors today. I started out ith a 5" shad on 3/8 oz jig head in silver mullet and a chartreuse shad with 1/2oz jig head. I didn't catch a single fish on the heavier jig. My hottest color today was a 5"shad in opening morning color. I caught 27 fish with my two biggest being just under 20" and all but one was caught on that color. The wind was picking up and the waves were becoming a nuisance to fish in so I called it a day about 1300. Great day even though I want able to get into any big fish. Thanks to HJS for the earlier scouting report.

[OBX_RAT]

Sounds like another good day at the flats

[HJS]

I've been dying here all day waiting for the first reports from you Susky Flat-Liners... foaming at the mouth actually.

Don - At Least you got into a bunch of fish. Wonder what happened to all the mid-twenties stripers that were there on Wednesday??? 30+ boats is a lot of traffic in one area. Maybe the nicer fish got the hint and moved elsewhere.

I'd thought with today being opening day farther down in the Bay that a lot of the Flats fishermen would have headed in that direction.

BTW, what's the color scheme of "opening morning"? Also, have any trouble finding Perryville Park?

Skies turned dark and ominous here in the mountains around 3:30pm... really dark... but not much rain or wind. It's headed your way.

I hope we don't get too much rain. I'm looking to hit the Flats next week first chance rain/wind/flooding permitting. Howard

[new2yaks11]

The boats were stacked up so deep I thought there would be a lot more fish being caught. After about an hour or so, most headed back toward the railroad bridges.

I followed your directions and had no problem getting to Perryville park. I arrived a few minutes past 7 and the gates were open so I took a chance and drove in.

The "opening morning" color made me a bit nervous last night when I bought it. It is more or less a pearl with pepper flake color but the top of the shad has some really cool looking purple,pink,blue colors that I'm sure underwater look pretty cool. I'm definitely convinced it was a good idea to pick that color last night.

I'm sure all those boats stacked up plus the bass fishermen blasting through every now and then didn't help with the fish staying around.

I know we need the rain but if it's heavy, the flats might be a bit muddy for a few days.

Thanks again for the info.

[Yak Fish]

I met up with New2yaks, Chexone, Yakfisher, Rockchaser and Shadyfisher today. It was slow going with all the boats...you could practically walk across them. Just when I found the bite with a nice 25" fish and another guy behind me hooked up with one, a jerk on a boat came flying through the area we were fishing. I mean right through us when he easily could have gone around. I exchange pleasantries with him and that was the end of the bite there as you can imagine.

New2yaks had 20 fish to my one after about an hour and a half. It looked like he was doing well but I told the guys I was heading over to carpenter point to find some bigger fish away from these boats. Chexone and Rockchaser came along...Yakfisher was with us too but he peeled off because of a hot date he had. Trolling towards carpenter point I got a hit and was marking fish like crazy so we stopped and ended up fishing there the entire day following this school of fish around. The best part is that we had them all to ourselves. I ended up with 50 to 100 stripers, mostly 15" and under with several over 20" mixed in. I was getting them almost every cast at some point. It was incredible. All were caught on crankbaits. The hottest one was a 3.5" rapala countdown minnow that dives about 5' in a shad color. It put much more vibration out than the others. I was ripping it through the water about as fast as I could reel. A stop every now and again would often trigger that strike, notable by how many hit right at the boat as it paused there before pulling it out of the water.

Shadyfisher was pulling up just as we were heading back in. The bite had sorta shut down as the current stopped so I'm wondering how well he did after we left. At any rate, this was one of the most memorable fishing trips I've had and it was really nice fishing with some of the MKF crew.

[new2yaks11]

That's awesome.you got into the stripers like that. Every time I watch you guys pedal miles and miles while I paddle I ask myself.why i dont have a Hobie? Let's just say I've been on the fence but I'm almost on the "I need a Hobie" side.

I'm glad you found the fish, I wish i had trailed behind you guys since there's no such.thing as keeping up. LOL.

I'm happy I caught 27 stripers, I'm sure you're happy.

The Flats gave up a.great day.today.

[Yak Fish]

You definitely got into them just fine. It just makes it easier to find when you can troll to try and locate them.

I started with the paddle but can't go back because off all the extra stuff you can do with your hands free....join the dark side!

Nice to meet you today.

[new2yaks11]

I'm SERIOUSLY considering that option. Like how easy it is to cover so much ground out there. Especially when there's a need to troll to try and find the fish.

[chex]

It was fun watching Yak Fish catch all the fish today

I only managed to bring 12 to the boat and lost 5 or 6. Most were small (1 year olds) and 2 were a bit bigger (2 year olds). I also caught a catfish on a little gulp minnow.

Even though I was right next to Yak Fish most of the day, casting in the same direction with a similar crankbait, he got 5 times as many as I did. Every time I looked over, he was either reeling one in or unhooking one. Pretty cool.

[Yak Fish]

Thanks for the pic Mike. I don't have many other than the ones I've taken of myself at arm's length.

[Shady]

Glad I was able to meet up with you guys out there. On the way over I trolled up 3 at about 14", 14" and 18" and had another knock down that I probably missed because I grabbed the rod wierd and let slack get in the line. I was using a trolls to 10 rapala in a shad color.

Soon after you guys left the tide had pretty much died and so did the bite. I saw a few people catch a few, but nothing else for me. i stayed on the water until about 6:30 and trolled all the way back from carpenter point to the railroad bridge on the perryville side of the river. I had brought some minnows and salties to use up so I anchored up next to one of the old railroad bridge pilings to see if I could find some cat action. I had one bite on a salty that didnt stick. Just about when I decided to go in it got pretty windy and choppy and dark. Luckily I was already on the road by the time the rain started.

Here's the only pic I took of my 18" Striper:

[Yak Fish]

As much fun as it was to catch schoolie stripers all day, it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for when I set off. I am still looking for that trophy sized rockfish. I got a pair last year, one was on a huge chunk of bait and the other was a live herring. I prefer not to fish that way, but the conditions last year sorta dictated it. I really want one on a lure.

I am wondering if the larger fish were elsewhere but nearby to where we found the schoolies or if they were mixed in but the smaller fish were more aggressive so the lure never got to the trophies. I did switch to a larger lure to see if I could catch larger fish but what happened is that I caught less fish in the same size. I have found that if I'm fishing for perch along a shoreline and find smaller ones, they seem to school together and I won't find larger ones in that pack. If I move along the shoreline, I'll probably find the pack of larger ones pretty close by.

Every time I go to the Flats I come back perplexed about something different.

[new2yaks11]

I know there are some nice trophies caught in the Susky Flats every year. I just think they are far and in between.

My best success on trophy stripers has been around VA Beach in the fall. Used to book annual trips there and we used to catch lots of them. My biggest was 44" and really want one at least 48-50". Not sure if I'll ever get one but if I have a choice, I'd prefer it to be from my kayak.

Good luch chasing those trophies.

[Rockchaser]

I had a great time Saturday. I wanted to get an early start so Iout in at Jean Boberts Park. Hit the water around 6:45 andhit thesame areas we hit last weekwend. No luck along the 7' drop off so I headed South some. No luck so I started heading towards Carpenters point. Caught up with the guys on the way and started catching fish. My biggest was a 20 incher. I caught several more in the 12" to 17" range but never saw a big one.

Oh well, now I reason to keep fishing.

[tufnik]

Nice healthy looking fish, Ryan.

With all the reports on Susky and elsewhere, it goes to show how tough it is to catch a cow from a yak. I can only dream of the day when I can do that.