Susky Flats, 5/3

[Aesiegel]

I was inspired by JA Veil's very successful trip to the flats on Monday. I had never fished up there and saw today as an opportunity to get some fishing in before the C&R season closed. I was on the water by 07:30, launching at Tydings park. Nice facility and no charge for yakers! I began the paddle out to the flats, but to be honest, I had no idea where to go or how to fish the skinny water up there. There were quite a few boats out there so I decided to explore the area a little while I fished. I marked a lot of fish in the 9'-11' depths but most of the boats were fishing the 3'-5' water. I tried several lure/depth combinations but after 2 hours I had nary a nibble. It was frustrating because there were fish swirling around me on a regular basis. Finally, in 4'-5' of water, i made a cast and saw a big swirl/splash just behind my lure. A few casts later had I finally had my first fish. I'm estimating ~20" or so. It hit a 1/4 oz jig head with a 4" Gulp summing mullet (twister tail). I then had several hookups/unbuttons on that lure. I switched it up to a white jig head with a 6" pepper chartreuse Gulp jerk shad and hooked up with a big fish. It seemed like 10-12 mins, being dragged around until I finally got her to the yak. I didn't bother getting out the hog trough but I'm guessing her to be at least 36" . My biggest from my kayak. I'm bummed because my Go-pro died part way through the fight. I did get a picture, however.
I headed back in around 13:00 and as I passed over a 10' hole/secondary channel my fish finder lit up and I had to stop for a few more casts. This time I used a 1 oz jig head with a 6" swimming mullet. First cast, hooked up with what felt like a lunker but she came off after a minute of fighting. Second cast, another hook-up and I landed a nice fish.
Not an epic day of catching but my first time at the flats has me looking forward to next spring. That is a very cool place for the kayak.

[CB kayak 02]

Nice work Ed!! Some solid fish and some nice KW points.

[FRED driver]

I also made an inaugural visit to the fabled susky flats today (pretty sure I saw you out there, I was in a green outback and my buddy was in a yellow rev
13)...now I know why people go out here so often in the spring...wow what a day! 36 stripers for me in about 4.5 hrs of fishing, most being caught in the first 3 hours before low tide reared its head. Granted, most werent trophies, but who
cares; the action was too fun. I was using almost exclusively a 4" white,
twin-tailed grub on a 0.5 oz jig head. I had probably 10 that were over 20",
and a couple of very nice size. Pretty sure the one in the picture was 30+ but
hard to say...? Thanks to the previous trip reports, they made a big difference.

[Sun]

Congrats on the fish, Ed and Fred. Fred, I saw you and your buddy out on the water when I went out.

I didn't do quite as well as the others. When I arrived around 3:00PM, I bumped into Cliff, and he gave me a pointer - use a long crankbait with silver and blue on it. I didn't have one with blue on it, but I did have a long crankbait that I rigged up on one of my rods last night. It was silver and black, but close enough, I thought.

I felt the same way that Ed did when I went out. "So much water, where do I start?" I decided to go where the other boats were. After getting out of the marina, I put out my crankbait and trolled it all the way to where the boats were. Not a bite on it on the way .

When I got near the other boats, I saw that there were a lot of people hooking up around me. So I brought in my crankbait and cast it out to retrieve it manually. I hooked up with a nice 20" rockfish. He flopped out of my boat before I could snap a picture... A couple casts later, I hooked into another one that was a little bigger than the first one, but he spit the hook next to the boat.

The first 30-40 minutes was probably the most exciting...the fishing slowed down a lot after that. I fished until about 7:00PM, which is around the time my line snapped during a cast and I lost my lucky crankbait. By the end of the night, I caught maybe 3 or 4 smaller fish, and lost about 8.

I do have some questions:
I trolled around a lot. And trolling got me nothing. What are some general tips for trolling?
I de-barbed my crankbaits because I didn't want to get a barbed treble hook in my hand. Do you de-barb your trebles? How do you keep fish on? I feel like I lost several fish due to the barb-less hooks.
I stayed near the crowd of boats in around 10 feet of water. Should I have looked for shallower water for the big ones?

[Yak Fish]

Sun, you are required to remove the barbs during catch and release. Not getting one stuck in your hand is a bonus

Make sure that you have a lure that is suitable for trolling. Some don't run right and some pop out of the water. So make sure it's running correctly...as pulsing at the end of your rod tip usually indicates that it's running right.

Some guys let out a lot of line and others run it shorter. You'll have to experiment but this also depends on how deep your lure runs.

Stripers will tend to hit when you are trolling in a specific direction. For example, I find they hit when you come over a drop off rather than go up it. Also the tide makes a difference in the preferred trolling direction. I like trolling across channels rather than in the same direction since you don't exactly know which depth they are holding. If you figure it out, maybe along the channel is better but all that comes with personal experience and confidence.

[Cliff]

Not now said the cow!

Today I went out once again looking for a 40+. I launched form Tydings park and headed to an area I had success with in previous days, without putting a line in the water. I arrived and started trolling. Within 25 yards of trolling I hooked up with a 28" rock. I knew I was in the right place! maybe 30 more yards of trolling and I had a 31" in the boat. Less than 100 yards later and I caught a nice 35" rock (new personal best) but it was not as fat as the 34.5" I caught on Tuesday. Again I started trolling... and boom... my reel started singing and my line was flying out faster than I could comprehend. I grab my rod and tried to set the hook but it just kept taking out drag. So I had to grab the reel itself to stop it and gave it a good yank to set the hook. SNAP! The fish broke my 30# braid like it was dental floss... So close but soooooo far away. All of this happened within 30-45 minutes of fishing. I tried some other lures for about an hour and a half with zero hits.... With my lucky lure lost and family flying in from out of state, I called it a day. This season was an awesome experience and I am blessed to be so lucky to catch such nice fish. I hooked up with four monsters in three trips without being able to bring one of them in the yak. I know it sucks, but I could not have asked for a better first season. Thanks to all those who offered help and advice. Out of respect to them, I will not go into great detail about the lure I used because that information is not mine to give out. However, Sun said it best, invest in blue and silver

Can't wait till next spring.... Call me a Flats Rat

Cliff

[HJS]

Hey Cliff. Dang, I now bow down to you. In my book you are now a full fledged member of the Flats royalty. On my 3 trips there this year my biggest was only 29"s, and I only caught one of those. Congrats on putting in your time and mastering the Flats during your first year. Although I gotta admit, you definitely put in the time and found out were the biggies are hanging out. Lets all hope that all future years are as good. In couple of years all those 10"-14" rat stripers we were all catching on the Flats will return as a whole pile of decent fish.

I was severely kicking myself for scheduling a doctors appointment on the 3rd, the last day of the C&R season... what was I thinking?!?!?

[J.A. Veil]

It sounds like MKF had an outstanding day yesterday on the Flats, both in numbers of fish and in some very large fish. Congratulations guys. Ed and Sun reported better catches on casting than on trolling. I had the exact opposite experience on Mon.

I have seen some reports on Tidalifish from boat fishermen that the Flats had slowed down. Maybe they should have fished from a kayak instead

[Yak Fish]

It sounds like MKF had an outstanding day yesterday on the Flats, both in numbers of fish and in some very large fish. Congratulations guys. Ed and Sun reported better catches on casting than on trolling. I had the exact opposite experience on Mon.

I have seen some reports on Tidalifish from boat fishermen that the Flats had slowed down. Maybe they should have fished from a kayak instead

The fishing up there has not slowed down. In fact, I think it's gotten better. I saw that on tidalfish and just kinda laughed to myself.

[HJS]

John - I'm thinking with the relatively shallow water on the Flats, sometimes only a couple of feet, that a kayaker (or like me a canoer), has a decisive advantage on the Flats. To the fish, we just look like a floating log, something they are fairly use to seeing on the Flats. Those big fish didn't become biggies by being dumbies. And yeah, a lot of kayakers did very well this spring on the Flats. The spring of 2012 will be re-called as a banner spring for several years to come.

=====================

Just checked. The wind on the Flats at 9:45am this morning is 0 mph. If only the C&R season went one more day I'da been there today.

[Aesiegel]

New video

I finally got around to editing the video I took on Thursday.

[HJS]

Great video! Very nice fish there at the end. I think that's about the deadest dead calm I've seen in a long time. Near the end of the video, as the biggie was turning your kayak around, it looked like there was hardly anyone else out there. I couldn't go on the last day but you better believe I was thinking about it all day long.

[J.A. Veil]

Thanks for the video. It is great to be in calm water, pretty much by yourself, and be able to catch big fish like that on light tackle.

[Aesiegel]

At that point I had that area all to myself. Earlier in the day there were probably 30 boats out there. As I headed in around 13:30, I notice quite a few boats to the South of the Tydings marina. That fish pulled me fast enough to throw a slight wake. I was impressed!

[bignose]

Susquehanna sleigh ride!