Lower Potomac report 11/07/22 & week prior

[ski357]

Hello all! A quick report with all this beautiful weather we've been having. It seems to me the evening bite is what's been going on. Launched Sunday 10/30/22 at 1430 to catch the tide. No real bites, except (2) perch until sunset-ish. Them 18-23" rock right at/after sunset. I short changed the kids on Halloween and launched at 1715 and fished until 1820. A fish every 20 minutes in the hour I fished. 22, 21, & 19! Fished 11/04/22 1745 until 1815, got a 17". Which gets us today. Launched at 1400 to fish the falling tide, but based on the previous week's pattern, did not expect a positive outcome. Very glad we launched early. 25 minutes into the trip my buddy landed a very nice 20" speckled trout. Unfortunately, the pattern held. We didn't see fish again until sunset. Got a couple in the 19" range.

[dsaavedra]

Nice speck! Cool to see that they are still around.

Further up the Bay in AACo the same evening bite you noted is also the dominant pattern. In the last week of October I made three evening trips in my local waters and caught >30 stripers each trip. Today I fished the same area in the morning for the first time since identifying this pattern and found that the bite was not nearly as hot as in the evening, catching "only" 16 stripers. Still a very decent trip.

[Slackdaddy]

Nice reports,
I really wish the fish would post a "Feeding Schedule" for the up coming week!

[J.A. Veil]

Slackdaddy said "I really wish the fish would post a "Feeding Schedule" for the up coming week!"
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >

Fish feed during many times. As a general rule, tidal fish will feed more actively when there is a moving tidal current in the area. Some times this effect is small. But on two recent trips, it was very dramatic -- as if someone flipped a switch for on or off.

I fished in some new-to-me tidal locations last Friday and on Monday. The fish seemed very sensitive to a moving tide. Last Fri, high tide was at 2:30. The fish were biting well before 1:30. They stopped biting from 1:30 to 3:30, then started up again. On Monday morning, the low tide was at about 9:30. The bite shut down from about 8:45 to 10:30, then started again somewhat slowly. On Monday afternoon, high tide was at about 4:00. The bite slowed after 2:00 and stopped at 2:30. I don’t know if it is always this much affected by tidal current, but it seems like that is important now.

One other factor to consider during the past few days is the full moon. If skies are clear during a full moon period, fish often feed during the night and tend to be less eager to feed during the day.

To conclude, when the current was moving and I was in the right spots [never underestimate being in the right spots - usually as a result of prior experience], the bite was red hot (20 stripers on Friday and 43 on Monday). All fish were caught in shallow water (less than 10 ft and most less than 5 ft) by light tackle trolling.