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Today was a welcome change from many subpar trips I have had this year, including disappointing perch trips in the Severn and Rhode Rivers the previous two days. With DNR's rockfish moratorium starting on July 16, I wanted to try for stripers a few more times in the next week. My best striper catches this year have been when launching from several of the Queen Annes County launches. I launched at two different QA County locations this morning and caught plenty of fish. The weather was great. Partly cloudy, mild air temp, almost no wind, flat seas. I fished the end of the outgoing tide at the first spot and the middle of the incoming tide at the second spot. Other than some crabbers in the distance, I had both places to myself.
I launched at 5:45 at the first location and paddled over to the area I call the Hot Spot. On my first time fishing at that location several years ago, I trolled in 4 to 5 ft depth parallel to a shoreline with side-by-side houses with piers. The bite was so-so until I reached a group of three specific houses. Stripers were actively feeding there. Each time I returned to that area, I made a point to pass by those houses several times at different distances away from shore. It was uncanny how that shallow area with some oyster shells on the bottom produced fish trip after trip. And many of the fish were above 20”.
Today the fish were so active there that I quickly caught two by trolling once I reached the Hot Spot. I stopped trolling and began casting in all directions and rarely went 5 casts without another fish. In about an hour, I caught 19 stripers there with five of 21”-22”, a 23”, and a 24” fish. Most of the others were 17”-18” – good pullage on each fish. I also snagged a large cownose ray that pulled me around for a bit. Once I confirmed it was a ray, I broke it off. A white 3" paddletail on 3/16-oz jighead was the hot lure today.
I fished there for about 1.5 hours, then loaded up, drove to the second launch, and launched again. I have fished this location often in May and June, and have a sense of where the fish are likely to be. They were more or less where I expected them to be. I caught 21 stripers (including a 21” and 22”) over the next two hours here. I also caught two large perch and my first speck for that area in 2022. Catching 40 stripers in July with a quarter of them being keeper size was a pretty good morning. The 15" speck and 11" perch were bonus catches.
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I launched at 5:45 at the first location and paddled over to the area I call the Hot Spot. On my first time fishing at that location several years ago, I trolled in 4 to 5 ft depth parallel to a shoreline with side-by-side houses with piers. The bite was so-so until I reached a group of three specific houses. Stripers were actively feeding there. Each time I returned to that area, I made a point to pass by those houses several times at different distances away from shore. It was uncanny how that shallow area with some oyster shells on the bottom produced fish trip after trip. And many of the fish were above 20”.
Today the fish were so active there that I quickly caught two by trolling once I reached the Hot Spot. I stopped trolling and began casting in all directions and rarely went 5 casts without another fish. In about an hour, I caught 19 stripers there with five of 21”-22”, a 23”, and a 24” fish. Most of the others were 17”-18” – good pullage on each fish. I also snagged a large cownose ray that pulled me around for a bit. Once I confirmed it was a ray, I broke it off. A white 3" paddletail on 3/16-oz jighead was the hot lure today.
I fished there for about 1.5 hours, then loaded up, drove to the second launch, and launched again. I have fished this location often in May and June, and have a sense of where the fish are likely to be. They were more or less where I expected them to be. I caught 21 stripers (including a 21” and 22”) over the next two hours here. I also caught two large perch and my first speck for that area in 2022. Catching 40 stripers in July with a quarter of them being keeper size was a pretty good morning. The 15" speck and 11" perch were bonus catches.
2021-04-11-002.jpg
2021-04-11-003.jpg
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