Slower lower report

[Pamlico]

The weather looked beautiful for 6/12 so I made the drive down to St. Mary's early on Wednesday. After getting skunked at St. Inigoes a few weeks ago I had higher hopes for this trip. There were a couple of other kayakers out, including a guy who told me he'd already caught multiple drum. I trolled around some spots that produced in the past and threw plastics into grass beds for several hours without a single bite. To kill time I tossed out a few handlines with floats and chicken necks to see if I could scare up some crabs--while there were some around they were incredibly skittish. Every time I touched the line or even got close they were gone. Guess the cownose had them spooked?

In frustration I went back to trolling when suddenly the bite turned on. I got a chunky upper-slot red on an ultralight better suited to catching trout. It was a fantastic fight on 10# braid. Shortly after that I picked up another that was about 17". Over the next hour or so I caught two more around 18". Before leaving I decided to do a single pass along the edge of a grass bed when I ended up with a 23" striper. All in all, a banner day. The winning lure was a Swimming Trout Trick with a chartreuse trail--it caught four of the five fish. I've never trolled them before but for whatever reason it must have matched the forage.

All those rat reds from last year are going to give us a fantastic season in the bay.

[ski357]

Thanks for the excellent report. I went out yesterday afternoon, a couple of hours after dead low. We were out until sunset. I ended up with three perch, largest was 11". A schoolie rock, in the 14-15" range. The banner part of the day was the three reds, two 17s and a 19.