Continuing quest of all Flats Knowledge

[Yak Fish]

Chexone, shadyfisher and I fished the flats on the last day of rock season. I didn't have a lot of hope as the water was very cold but figured, why not? Water temp was 46 degrees and there weren't many fish around. I gave up fishing my normal area because there was nothing happening so I headed north towards the susquehanna river looking for deeper water but the current was strong enough that I didnt want to keep wasting energy heading north. However, all of a sudden there was a rapid change on my FF...I was hardly even paying attention but there was something down there. It was a very small spot, but it looked like a massive debris pile. I snagged both rigs on it, but they came free fairly easily once I got on top of it and jigged them a little while. Even with the imaging FF, it was hard to make it out. I figured it was worth a try and fished around it for a little while and pulled my only fish of the day, an 18" rock. I'm sure it'd be dynamite at warmer times, as this isn't the only one of these I've found out there and they are all very productive during peak times. So it wasn't a great day for catching fish but I learned something very valuable. I also found out from a duck hunter that there were several large boats near Elk River catching rock. When I was fishing I could see several boats way off in the distance so I assumed he was telling the truth. There were also guys that were looking for perch. They were just heading out so I don't know if they found them yet or not. I've found the month of february to be the best, ramping up at the end of Jan. It seems early to me but maybe not.

[Shady]

Thanks for coming out with us novice Flats fisherman and dropping some knowledge. I trolled from tydings accross the flats and over to the northeast river and back covering almost 20 miles. For my efforts I managed to land 5 Stripers, 4 of them were too small in th 6-14" range. The last one was very close to big enough but I will never know because it jumped off of my measuring board and back in the water before I could tell. Also, caught a catfish the strangest way that I've ever seen. Somehow, I snagged the unlucky channel cat right in the butt. Here are a few pics of the spry little Stripers and butt hooked cat.

[HJS]

At least you found more action than I did sitting here at the computer. Those modest sized stripers appear to be in pretty good shape. I've heard from others that there is a lot of small bait in the area. So looks like those stripers have been chowing now at a high rate of speed. I see the NOAA buoy was pulled for the winter a couple of days ago,

[Yak Fish]

The do look in good shape. The one I got was a football. I also saw a gigantic carp jump in front of me in 15' of water. There was some stuff on the surface that it may have been trying to eat.

[kevinfry]

I should have gone fishing instead of deerhunting.....here is the highlight of my day

[sparky1423]

When you are speaking of the flats, is that the area you can see from the promenade or is it more north on the susky? I have only fished by the dam when the gates are open (wading). Do the opening of the flood gates effect the current enough to make kayaking difficult? How is the perch fishing in the area? The shad are a lot of fun when they are running at the opening of deer creek.

[HJS]

Sparky - The Flats is all that huge area from Havre de Grace and Perryville south to Spesutie Island (Aberdeen Proving ground) and over to the mouth of the Elk River. Lot of water there. Weather and river flow permitting the Flats will be hopping with fish and fisherman from mid-winter (yperch) through early May (stripers).

See if this works. The following link should take you back to April reports for this forum. There you will find several "Flats" reports that will get you started gearing up for the striper C&R season on the Flats. Lets all hope the weather and river flows will cooperated like it did last spring.

http://www.snaggedline.com/forumdisp...oatyard/page29

[archeryrob]

I have noticed that most power boaters don't know how to fish. They turn the motor on a troll a gold spoon or some other lure 10 miles and they amazing catch 1 stupid fish. They rely on their boat and trolling for fix lack of knowledge. They think that because they bought a boat it suddenly made them a fisherman and knowledge was bestowed with the boat purchase.

We fished the tournament last April and listened to a guide and went out on the flats, used the gold spoons and all. Nothing was happening, we saw rockfish feeding, but they would not hit anything we threw. I noticed other guys jigging and not getting anything either. After being frustrated I went back to my bass fishing knowledge, but upsized the lures. I started turning on fish with a rattletrap once I moved to deeper water. My buddy did the same and went to weightless plastic and nailed a really nice largemouth. The tourney was over on Sunday but we went back out. I said screw the power boats, I'm fishing the channel. I started on my grid search and cast 180 degrees and moving after each set 30 to 40 yards. I finally found some fish and rotated through the lures until I found one working. The Bomber Long A rattling Jerk bait! The tide was going out and sucking water into the channel from the flats. Stripers where staging in the channel looking for bait fish coming out of the shallows. We laid into them for hours. I looked up one time and asked Greg "Where did all these boats come from?" He said, "They noticed we are catching fish." We had guys stopping us asking what we are using as they could not catch anything while watching us light them up. He said we could not see it from our low platform in our yaks, but from his high deck he could see the schoolies fighting over the lures when we caught them. Greg and I worked the big school and caught lots of fish, with 22" being the largest, but it was fun. Dave worked the school edges and ended up picking up a nice 27" fish.

It just proves knowing how to bass fish and learning reaction strikes and other fishing tactics can really pay off. A big motor can't always recover for lack of knowledge.