BB today 10/1, Severn Crabbing 9/27, and the Gooses 9/15

[Reelaxin10]

I managed to get out on the water this afternoon for a quick trip to the bay bridge. Got there around 5 and launched from G dock. Peddled and trolled out to the bridge and started hooking up with little stripers right away on a Yo Zuri Crystal Minnow. Caught around 15 of them in pretty shallow water before I went out to some of the deeper pilings and threw some BKD's and a few other jigs, I lost two jigs and shads just a few pilings apart and went to somethings different. Threw a rattle trap for a little while and managed another small striper, and switched to a Chug Bug popper for a while. I really want to try and catch a keeper on top water this year so I gave the popper a lot of casts with no luck. Went back to trolling and caught some more small ones on my way in when it was getting dark. This was my first time trolling from my yak and I have a few questions for your guys. I would let my line out about 10 seconds and engage the drag. How long do you typically let the line out? I want to start trolling some Stretches when the bigger stripers start moving in. Here's the first small striper I caught on the troll.


Went out on the kayak last thursday before work to do a little crabing on the Severn. Ran my 9 traps for about an hour and a half and managed a dozen crabs. Steamed them up after work and they were pretty tasty. I added some crushed red pepper to the old bay salt combo and it gave them some more kick.


Two weeks ago me, my dad, and two family friends went down for some fishing in my dad's boat at the gooses in the middle bay. We caught a ton of spot and live lined hoping for some stripers, and managed to get two keepers the first day and three the second. Could have caught more but the blues were everywhere and we kept a few of those too. Also caught some reds, perch, spot, stripers, and croaker at night. Overall we managed around 200 fish for the weekend and it was great to spend it with my dad! Here's some pictures from the weekend.

[Reelaxin10]

I don't know why the dates are off on the thread title but they are right on my post.

[jet]

fixed title.

nice write up and thanks for the pics. when trolling, it depends on what i'm trolling, what i'm targeting, where i'd like the lure to be, etc, but i tend to just cast out to the left or right so i can better guess the distance it will be. you really dont have to go too far from the yak. think of it as a planer board.

[scorpioreno]

How much you let out depends on the weight of the lure. and the speed of your troll. If your troll is 2-3 knts your lighter lures, you want to let it out further so it rides a little deeper in the water column. Also the lower your rod tip the lower angle helps where it rides in the water epecially when the lure is trolling close to the boat. There are alot of Vids on basics of trolling on youtube.

[Shady]

Nice reports! Im looking to make my final crabbing trip of the year this weekend and Severn is the most likely spot. Glad to here they are still around.

[Aesiegel]

Trolling from a boat, I usually let the line out a certain number of "bars". A bar is one pass of the level wind. At home I measure the amount of line that comes off the reel per bar. That way, based on the weight of the lure and where I want the bait in the water column, I can let out the proper amount of line. It is less than exact but can get you in the zone.

[Reelaxin10]

Thanks for the tips about trolling guys, I'll have to experiment with each lure as I put it out I guess. I'm definitely familiar with running a spread from a boat so I'll just have to get the feel for rod placement and number of rods to run on my yak.

Ryan- Yea there are definitely still crabs out there and they were nice and full. This recent full moon may have had some of them slough but I'm sure you'll still catch a bunch. Good luck!