Clark's Landing 04/28/2013

I went fishing with Grady Black (Mike) today. We met at 8:00am at the WAWA on Route 301 and 214. The weather was sunny in the morning with a temperature of 48 degrees and light winds, about 8 to 9 mph. The winds would pick up around mid to late afternoon, as the temperature climbed to 68 degrees. We would fish an outgoing tide since low tide was around 11:00am. We fished the creeks and coves to the right of the ramp. Grady caught a small perch on a spinner. The water was 60.5 degrees in the morning, but would warm up to 65 degrees after 11:00am. I had a few bumps on a spinner, but no takers. I tried a 1/8 ounce jig head with a chartreuse grub. No takers on that wither. I noticed small pods of fish in the deep and around the deep side of the piers. I decided to use my top and bottom perch rig that I made with a 1 ounce weight and two number six 1/16 ounce jig heads tipped with bloodworms. I located a deep end of a pier that had depths of 7 feet. I jigged my bloodworms around the pilings and caught small perch. I drifted in front of the pier and also caught more perch. All of the perch were small except for two keeps that I released. I released them because I thought that I would not catch anymore that was keeper size...big mistake. I searched around for some more keeper size perch. I jigged my top and bottom rig up a slope and hooked up with a 15 inch red drum. That was a surprise for me. I guess they wintered over last year. I eventually located some more keeper size perch. I had to drag or troll my my top and bottom rig un slopes and along the walls of the edges where I could cover a variety of depths. I landed 4 more keeper size perch using this technique and one 12 inch rockfish before I made it back to the ramp. Grady was already at the ramp. We both got off of the water since the winds were picking up quickly. At least I got 4 perch to take home for my troubles. It should have been six.

[J.A. Veil]

Good report. It is great to hear that at least some of the redfish spent the winter. I hope they are abundant this summer and fall.