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Slow @ PLO, 5/4
Ron and I met up at PLO to try for some big stripers and maybe scare up a flounder or two. I hit the water a bit before 9am, and Ron joined me short thereafter.
I started off jigging the inlet for flounder but didn't have any luck. Ron joined me, then we started trolling out to deeper water. I was pulling an X-Rap 14 in bunker and only picked up a crab pot on the way out.
Ron headed toward the rock piles out in front of the beach, and I head out to try and find a couple rock piles out by Cornfield Point. I think I hooked a really nice flounder out there about two weeks ago while fishing from my buddy's boat. I was jigging a BKD on a rock pile he showed me, and I thought I was snagged. I started trying to break the lure off, and it came off the bottom but felt like I was stuck on a crab pot line or something else soft and water-resistant. I got it nearly to the surface and started getting ready to try and shake off whatever I was snagged on when I saw the tell-tale brown shape with tan dots below the surface. I saw a flash of white, my lure came free, and the brown shape with the tan dots shot back to the bottom. I wouldn't have believed it if my buddy hadn't seen it, too. So I was set on finding that flat bastard again.
I couldn't find the the rock pile (didn't have the numbers), so I jigged the drop off there. I was marking fish at the bottom of the drop off. I ended up with a 20" striper that released itself boatside. Except for a few missed hits and another crab pot (doing my best Pinch impression), I didn't have any more action out there. Ron didn't have any luck at the other rock piles, either.
Ron set up chumming, with 70lbs of chum, no less, out by the NOAA buoy. I trolled a couple different lures while heading back to meet up. No hits. Ron gave me some menhaden and a fresh spot, and we started soaking the bait in the chum slick. I also had some shrimp and tried for croaker at the same time. No hits whatsoever. We moved to slightly deeper water after a couple hours. I gave up on the croaker and went back to jigging again while soaking bait. I picked up another 20" striper on the jig. Since it was undersized, I quickly let it go without a pic.
We started heading back in around 2:30. We putzed around the inlet again but still had no luck.
We fished from early flood to early ebb, soaked 70lbs of chum, used really fresh bait, and only saw two fish, which was pretty hard to believe. Water temperature was ~64*, and the salinity was 13.5. There were plenty of bait marks in the water, and I saw bigger fish that were probably stripers in the 20" range like I caught. I didn't see any big fish marks, and the trollers were complaining about how slow it was. We heard a couple of fish in the high 30s were caught on the VA side. We couldn't have had nicer weather, and it was good to fish with Ron again and hear about his fishing adventures in Virginia, but I wish the catching was a bit better. I was kind of out of it today and only took a few pictures. Here's Ron coming back into the inlet:
Apparently, the crabbing isn't that good, either. Not only did we not catch any crabs while chumming, the crab boats were picking up their pots while we were out there. So I'm guessing they were going to move them somewhere more productive. Either that, or they were tired of watching me snagging them.
Hopefully, the croakers and flounder will pick up soon.
I started off jigging the inlet for flounder but didn't have any luck. Ron joined me, then we started trolling out to deeper water. I was pulling an X-Rap 14 in bunker and only picked up a crab pot on the way out.
Ron headed toward the rock piles out in front of the beach, and I head out to try and find a couple rock piles out by Cornfield Point. I think I hooked a really nice flounder out there about two weeks ago while fishing from my buddy's boat. I was jigging a BKD on a rock pile he showed me, and I thought I was snagged. I started trying to break the lure off, and it came off the bottom but felt like I was stuck on a crab pot line or something else soft and water-resistant. I got it nearly to the surface and started getting ready to try and shake off whatever I was snagged on when I saw the tell-tale brown shape with tan dots below the surface. I saw a flash of white, my lure came free, and the brown shape with the tan dots shot back to the bottom. I wouldn't have believed it if my buddy hadn't seen it, too. So I was set on finding that flat bastard again.I couldn't find the the rock pile (didn't have the numbers), so I jigged the drop off there. I was marking fish at the bottom of the drop off. I ended up with a 20" striper that released itself boatside. Except for a few missed hits and another crab pot (doing my best Pinch impression), I didn't have any more action out there. Ron didn't have any luck at the other rock piles, either.
Ron set up chumming, with 70lbs of chum, no less, out by the NOAA buoy. I trolled a couple different lures while heading back to meet up. No hits. Ron gave me some menhaden and a fresh spot, and we started soaking the bait in the chum slick. I also had some shrimp and tried for croaker at the same time. No hits whatsoever. We moved to slightly deeper water after a couple hours. I gave up on the croaker and went back to jigging again while soaking bait. I picked up another 20" striper on the jig. Since it was undersized, I quickly let it go without a pic.
We started heading back in around 2:30. We putzed around the inlet again but still had no luck.
We fished from early flood to early ebb, soaked 70lbs of chum, used really fresh bait, and only saw two fish, which was pretty hard to believe. Water temperature was ~64*, and the salinity was 13.5. There were plenty of bait marks in the water, and I saw bigger fish that were probably stripers in the 20" range like I caught. I didn't see any big fish marks, and the trollers were complaining about how slow it was. We heard a couple of fish in the high 30s were caught on the VA side. We couldn't have had nicer weather, and it was good to fish with Ron again and hear about his fishing adventures in Virginia, but I wish the catching was a bit better. I was kind of out of it today and only took a few pictures. Here's Ron coming back into the inlet:
Apparently, the crabbing isn't that good, either. Not only did we not catch any crabs while chumming, the crab boats were picking up their pots while we were out there. So I'm guessing they were going to move them somewhere more productive. Either that, or they were tired of watching me snagging them.
Hopefully, the croakers and flounder will pick up soon.
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