Susky Flats, 5-23-12

[HJS]

I fished the Susky Flats today, Wednesday, 5-23-12, 9:30am-2:00pm. Launched from Tydings. Got there at 8:00am but it was so foggy that I decided to wait for some of it to burn off. I caught 9 stripers, 15”-20”, most in the 17”-18” range. I went all over the NW section of the Flats fishing and hunting for marks on the FF. I also spent some time well out in the Flats too, really bare out there. Compared to my earlier trips in April and early May, today there were 99.99% less marks on the FF. All those schools of stripers are gone. Most of the time the screen was bare as a baby’s butt. I was able to pick off 3 dinks, one here one there. I had almost gotten to the little islands due S of Havre de Grace when I gave up and started fishing the channel on my way back to Tydings. I ran a zig-zag pattern on the channel hunting for marks. About half way between the islands and Tydings all the sudden the FF lit up with LOTS of marks at slack high tide, ~ noon… dang decent school of stripers. Ultimately I caught 6 stripers from these marks. I lost them a few times but would eventually find them again 100 yards away. Then I lost them for good. The rest of the way back to Tydings was uneventful. All 9 stripers were caught in the channel, none on the Flats proper. So it was a fair day, but I guess I won’t be going back again until nest spring… weather/flooding permitting.

BTW, water clarity was pretty good at 3’-4’. I saw maybe 6-8 other fishing boats scattered out across the Flats. They wouldn’t stay at one place for long before moving on. All caught on 4” and 5” BAs on 1/2oz to 3/4oz heads, albino or chart/glitter.

[Yak Fish]

Thanks for the report Howard. They are def slimmer pickings than they were. With your report, it isn't just the muddy waters. I wonder how the season changes from spring to summer and back to fall again. I guess only time put on the water will tell, but from the last couple of trips it sounds like it drops off pretty quickly.

[chex]

9 isn't bad at all, considering! ... probably due to your skill rather than easy pickins.

Thanks for the report.

[rhill]

Thanks for the latest report on the flats hjs. I was out there this past saturday and experienced the same thing. A whole lot different from a few weeks ago. I trolled all over the ne side as well as along the grass beds out in the middle of the flats in 4'-5' of water and didn't get any hits and nothing on the fish finder. I decided to try along the channel as well from tydings out towards the islands. I to picked alot of decent sized fish on the ff right around the 2nd red channel marker headed from tydings toward the islands. There is a very steep drop off there on the south side of that buoy from 4' to 20'. I threw everything i had with me at them and couldn't get a bite. The channel was like i-95 at that time of day though. Good job on the 9 stripers-thats pretty good this time of year there. By the way i believe i passed by you one evening out there just before the catch and release season ended. I was in a camo ok trident ultra.

[HJS]

Yak – Yesterday, fish&marks were far less than I was expecting. I mean those vast schools of April stripers were gone... almost. Out in the channel there were long periods of time the FF screen was totally blank. Although every now and then I’d see a single tiny pixel or two march across the screen… woo-hoo. During previous trips when action was intense, once I got into fish, my FF screen would be spattered with heavy marks for a couple 100 yards. At that time, with such heavy marks it was easy to stay within the schools. Yesterday, the one and only school of stripers I found was about the size of half a basketball court. As soon as I found them I threw out my marker buoy so I could stay on them, or at the least I’d be using the marker as a stationary reference point.

It’s been decades since I have fished for stripers in the Flats or up in the river during the summer and fall months. This would have been before the moratorium. Based on summer/fall forum reports the past several years, it seems like most of the summer/fall striper action is up in the river above Rock Run Mill to the dam. And then it’s pretty much a very early morning affair. When I say early I’m talking BEFORE there is any light at all. Once the sun crests over the trees the action drops off quickly.

Chexone – No skill, just luck. Had I not stubbled back-arsed backwards into the one and only school I found I would have had a very lean day indeed.

Rhill – You mentioned maybe passing me out on the Flats during the evening. I always clear out of there around 2:00pm to beat the rushhour traffic around the B-more Beltway. So that probably wasn’t me. Yesterday, once I found the one and only school of stripers, I had a difficult time getting them hit. Based on the heavy marks on my FF I knew for a fact that my lure was going right through the thick of them, maybe bumping into them. And yet I couldn’t get them to bite consistently. So I’m thinking they were on high alert. There was hardly any boat traffic in the channel to spook them so who knows, maybe it was the accumulated heavy fishing pressure over that past several weeks that had them acting very cautiously. This school was located ~200 yards due south of the green “15” buoy. I don’t mind saying exactly where I found them because they were gone before I left. After I lost the school I hunted all over for them one last time but they were not to be found. Based on my FF the school was moving to the left… and we all know deceiving that information can be.