Back at it on the Potomac

[Pamlico]

I was on the water in St. Mary's on 7/11 around 7:30 AM. Things were a little slow to begin with so I tossed out some ring traps for crabs. But around 8:30 the bite went nuts and I had a fantastic day. I slow-trolled soft plastics around the edges of grass beds in about 3' of water and caught four stripers, six drum, and a chunky trout. Every single fish was almost exactly 20", which was kind of unusual. I also brought home 10 good sized crabs. The highlight of the day was when I had two reds hit simultaneously and got to enjoy the chaos of managing both of them on light tackle. It was a nice recovery from last week when I fished PLO and got skunked.

Left them biting because I needed to get home early. The action around southern Maryland has been better this year than my usual haunts in Tidewater and the OBX. Those days trips are a lot less exhausting, too.

[inthegrass]

Great job! I was in my boat in the same area yesterday and the fishing was really good. Wish I would have done some crabbing too.

[Pamlico]

Hit the same area on 7/26. The wind was pretty bad but I was able to ride it out and tuck up against the shore to avoid the worst of it till it died down around 10 AM. I looked hard for the drum but they had cleared out. Repeated passes through an area about half a mile from where I normally fish only resulted in four stripers, so I stopped fishing there because of the closed season. I went back to the grass beds and finally lucked into a spec just before leaving. Bit of a slow day but still nice to be on the water.

[inthegrass]

Thanks for the report. Was the grass still thick? Usually it starts thinning out around now.

[Pamlico]

It was very thick, though it's starting to go into bloom so hopefully it'll break up in the near future. And the jellyfish were worse than I have ever seen. It was nuts.

[Pamlico]

I went to the same spot yesterday, 8/23. Much tougher going this time. I caught a short striper around 7 AM and then proceeded to draw a blank for the next several hours on my favorite grass bed. The tide was incoming, which helped to push the muddy post-hurricane water up into the creeks but it was still really murky. Around 11 I caught another short striper and headed back to fish the channel. I was so desperate I was looking for marks on the sonar that indicated ribbonfish--no dice trying to jig them up. I started fishing a sandy flat that had clearer water as the tide approached high, thinking there might be some flounder. Yeah, I know, a long shot...but they've been in the Potomac this year. My instincts were correct, though it was only around 13".

After that I debated leaving but went to another grass bed I hadn't fished in years.The tide had started falling and visibility was zero. Blanked again. At this point the wind had started to pick up and put a chop on the water. I went back to my original spot and thought "Okay, one more pass, then I'm outta here." Almost immediately I caught a 19.5" striper, followed by a smaller one. Another 50 yards trolling and I had a hard knockdown. Nice drum! While reeling it in I saw another one following it and before I could net it, my other rod went nuts even though it was just dragging a paddletail along as I drifted. I released the first fish and brought in the second one, which also had another drum trying to grab the lure out of his mouth. At the last second I'd stumbled into a school. I kept the second one, which was 23". Both the drum and striper were the most cosmetically perfect fish I've ever seen. Zero scars or sore spots. The striper was metallic silver, fading to a blueish/greenish hue toward the belly. The drum was bright silver along the dorsal, fading to copper, then a rose color near the belly; its tail was still a vivid orchid purple, unusual on a larger one.

Signs of fall are in the air. The bunker are forming tight bait balls all over the place, and the grass is finally starting to break up a little. The nettles were completely gone from all the fresh water. I may have seen two the whole time, a major contrast to two weeks ago when it was like trolling through snot.

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[ski357]

Thanks for the report. This past week has been kinda funky. I think the full moon last weekend effected the bite. We fished on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday with limited success. Nothing exceptional Sunday and Tuesday, some perch, a couple of small reds and rock. Wednesday was better, with some bluefish and one 19.5" rockfish. Yesterday was a personal best for this season, St. Marys Slam. Went out two hours before high tide in the evening. Landed a 15.5" speckled trout, 21" red, amd a 23" rock. Also got a couple perch and a 9-10" flounder. The rockfish and trout hit a 1/8oz. Red jighead with a 4" limetreuse paddletail. Everything else hit a spinner bait. Pink was the color of choice.