Riders on the storm, Patuxent, 8/2

[ictalurus]

Ron (ronaultmtd), Kevin (kevinfry), and I decided to do a quick trip to the lower Patuxent. I've heard of a few keeper specks being caught in the Pax creeks, so I thought it might be worth checking out a spot where I had caught small specks in the past. Ron and I launched a bit after 5pm, which was just after high tide and approaching max ebb. The wind was blowing pretty hard, so we decided to look for some shelter. At the first spot, I caught this guy:


I haven't caught one with that many spots before. The water was so clear that I thought I had a speck when I saw all the spots. It hit a 4" Gulp grub on a 3/8oz red jighead. White and chartreuse grubs worked equally well. If you think there are reds in the area, but you're not connecting or having hits, try jigging the lure under the boat before you reel all the way in. Sometimes small, quick bottom bounces work, sometimes it takes more exaggerated jigging, but it's usually pretty effective. On the second cast, I thought I actually caught the same fish again because the spot pattern was incredibly similar. Upon closer inspection, it was a different fish:




I caught one or two more in the same size range in fairly short order. Ron was working the area, too, trying to come up with a bigger fish:




Kevin showed up a little while later and brought some thunderheads with him:




I also caught a croaker in the same area using the same technique. This one fought really hard, and I thought it was a much larger fish. Note the thunderheads behind me:


Kevin fishing:


I switched over to a 2", white, twin tail grub on a spinner arm to see if there were any perch around. I caught several small ones before getting one close to 10":


We started hearing some rumbling by this point. Again, note the thunderheads:


The wind picked up, and it started looking more ominous. We dashed back to the launch, and it started looking better, but Ron heard on the weather radio that a big line of storms were coming through. We loaded up and headed out, but nothing ever came of the storms, at least for my part of the county. Oh well, it was still a fun trip despite its brevity.

[ronaultmtd]

I caught a flounder a white perch and had a striper hit a 6 inch natural color shad fluke right at the boat as I was lifting it out of the water- splashed me- slow reaction on my part and it spit the bait- the water was choppy at the mouth of the Patuxent River near the Solomon's Island Bridge on Rt. 4- wind was blowing pretty hard and it was filled with personal water craft and speed boats going wide open- we rocked and rolled pretty good coming across the channel to get into sheltered waters on the other side- Kevin joined us and the rumbling thunder started just about prime time- A developing thunderstorm was on one side with big thunderheads coming in behind us- channel 2 on the marine radio was warning of a special marine alert from Cobb Island to PLO of a line of severe thunderstorms with gusting winds to 35 knots...moving south at 25 knots- although it was looking bad and the winds were really picking up- nothing ever came of it- in perfect 20/20 hindsight we could have fished...given the information we had on hand we did what most reasonable people would have done- packed it in and headed home-

[DanMarino]

Great trip guys. I think it's neat that the red drum are abundant this year. Glad to see the red hat is back too!

[kevinfry]

If I fish that close to the ramp again, I'm going to stay till my skin tingles. Of course I SELDOM fish close to the ramp. When I lived by the Columbia River in Oregon I regularly had to ditch the canoe in the brush streamside and walk the railroad tracks back to town...but it was worth it to stay on the water as long as possible.
I have seen few shoreline homeowners that would cooperate with such a stunt along the Chesapeake, lol.

[ronaultmtd]

In May of 1985 My Brother Tommy and I were fishing Latimer Shoals for cobia using big live spot (like good fileting size) and had a good chum slick running- we had lost one fish at the boat and had had a couple of runs that took the bait without hookups...a fast moving Thunderstorm came from offshore to inshore- We were in my Brother's 24 foot Aquasport cuddy cabin named the "Miller Time" and decided just to sit it out as it looked like it was going to hit before we could get in anyway- bad decision- anyway we lowered the radio antenna, laid all the rods down so the tips were on the gunnels and got back under the canvas top- a few minutes later a bolt of lightning struck about 75 yards away in the water with a shower of sparks flying everywhere like fireworks- I thought I was going to die- the most intense pain inside all my bones and I was seeing stars! We up anchored and ran in the worst of it- our theory at that point was if it was going to hit us it was going to hit a 35 mph moving target! Since that time- I am very cautious-

[surfdog]

nice report and pix! i like the macro shots

been there Ron and dont ever want to do it again. a couple buds and i were on our anual croaker trip to James isl. in my friends 28' trophy bad storm came up in the middle of the night lightning and huge waves couldnt get the anchor up and hard to stand on the bow as its rising and dropping about 5' so i cut it loose. took a wild white knuckle ride back to mayo blasting through blinding rain and 6' seas atleast we had radar so as not to run into a tanker on the way back

[Southerly]

If I fish that close to the ramp again, I'm going to stay till my skin tingles. Of course I SELDOM fish close to the ramp. When I lived by the Columbia River in Oregon I regularly had to ditch the canoe in the brush streamside and walk the railroad tracks back to town...but it was worth it to stay on the water as long as possible.
I have seen few shoreline homeowners that would cooperate with such a stunt along the Chesapeake, lol.

just curious - did folks out there actually own the waterfront with rights to build pier etc? there are different arrangements - sometime the state owns a buffer along shore, or the community,...

btw - really nice report. i appreciate the close up pics, especially one showing dotted color distribution on the red. cool

[kevinfry]

Southerly, The whole length of the Columbia river from Mcnary dam to The Dalles dam is wildlife area...no homes. Just sagebrush, railroad tracks and rattlesnakes. It is Awesome!

[ronaultmtd]

All the way to the Tri-cites area of the DOE Hanford Nuclear weapons site- about 250-275 miles from Portland, Kevin...I am out there about four or five times every year on my job- I fish with my local buddies- they use Willis aluminum jet boats- 275 horsepower at the pump in a 22 foot open fishing boat specially designed and built for the Northwest Columbia rivers systems and salmon fishing...it rains just about every day in Portland, so you get used to fishing in rain gear...really good rain gear...

[tufnik]

Maybe that's a red that ate too many spot fish...lol...anyway, that is a bit unusual.

How big was that flounder, Ron? I heard the area near shore across from Hog Point has flounder. Been meaning to check that area out some day.

Did you guys launch from under the Solomon's bridge? Or further up the river?

Thanks for the report.

[ronaultmtd]

It was a short- 13 inches- ate a 1/4 oz jig with white Gulp 4 inch mullet- launched from the end of Clark's Landing road, Hollywood, MD

[ictalurus]

Efren--the area around Hog Point does hold flounder, but I haven't heard any good report from the flounder gurus at the Tackle Box. I haven't been out there to try myself, but I haven't had any flounder luck at PLO or St. Jerome's since April.

Dan--red hat = redfish this year.

Southerly--that heavily spotted red was really cool. I wish it had been a keeper so I could've taken more pics, but I wanted to get it back into the water. They're definitely one of my favorite saltwater fish to catch, even the small ones.