Susky Flats Report 5/17/2013

[sparky1423]

Looks like the rock finally showed themselves in the flats! After a very discouraging C&R season, I decided to try my luck for a keeper.
Launched out of Tydings Marina around 6am, beautiful morning and the flats....well they were flat.

I was fishing the outgoing tide, low tide was arriving around 9:30. Water temps were in the mid 60's, 64.5 to be exact. Hooked into my first rock within 15 minutes trolling two xraps. She was a 25 incher, I decided not to press my luck...she was the keeper of the day. I found a nice bowl in flats, about a 100 yard diameter. The outer edges were 8ft and the inner bowl was a deep as 14ft. I marked every rockfish as a waypoint and found a pattern and stuck with it the entire morning.

I caught 14 rockfish ranging from 14" to 28", most were in the mid twenties. All my rock were caught inside the bowl or on the outer 8ft edges. If the depth was shallower than 8ft, I turned back around and re-entered the thunderdome "Two men enter, one man leave". All fish were caught on xraps...one white and one blue. It looks like the rockfish had not spawned yet....I think I did a few times, but we will keep that between you and I!

What a great morning! I finally met HJS (Howard) and had a friendly chat....he has a sweet canoe set up. I headed back in around 10am, the bite never slowed.

[yakkinfish18]

Nice report! Thanks. Its about time some rock showed up. Crazy spring

[DaveFX35]

Great report Jeremy, you have no idea how bad I wanted to leave work when you called. Looking forward to Sunday now. glass ghost and blue sardine xrap

[Shady]

Damn! Maybe if I get enough work done around the house tomorrow, I can still make it out for a few hours on sunday...

Nice report, I like the last line of your thrid paragraph, lol!

[Goody]

Very nice indeed. Glad to see you found them and brought them in. I will definitely have to try and make it out there Sunday with DaveFx.

[sparky1423]

I hear you Ryan, the last few weeks I have been cranking out all of my spring projects and maintenance. All that's left is pressure washing, but that can wait. I am heading out for sure Sunday Morning, EARLY. If it's too rough to troll, with what I was marking...anchoring and jigging should produce.

Damn! Maybe if I get enough work done around the house tomorrow, I can still make it out for a few hours on sunday...

Nice report, I like the last line of your thrid paragraph, lol!

[sparky1423]

I forgot to mention, there was alot of activity on top the water this morning. Although I am not seasoned well with rockfish or the flats, I know for sure it was not carp. Carp usually break the water, and I know it was not baitfish since usually you can follow the pattern for a few feet. These were surface swirls, barely breaking the water, big water displacement...they were where I had the most success. Could these be rockfish?

HJS thought they were rockfish, maybe an odd spawning behavior? I know with bass, topwater isn't thrown till summer and fall....I would assume it's the same for rockfish.

[Shady]

During good years on the flats, people do very well on top water in spring in the early morning hours. May be worth a try bringing some big plugs sunday...

[chex]

Nice going! and thanks for the report... that blue xrap is my fav.

[HJS]

Dang Jeremy, I’m almost embarrassed to give my report because I only caught 1.5 stripers… “half” because one shook the hook “half” way in. I launched at Tydings ~7:15am and headed for the Flats. In short order I met up with Jeremy in the middle of his “bowl”. He had already caught 3 trolling. I stubbornly stuck with jigging my trusty arsenal of soft plastics in colors and styles that have treated me so nicely on the Flats during previous years… to no avail, not even a tap did I get. After an hour of jigging, and seeing Jeremy catch a couple more stripers trolling, I too started trolling. I put on a 6” Rapala countdown, silver/blue, with rattle, and a 1oz inline trolling sinker added to keep the lure near bottom. After 15 minuets I caught my first striper, 21”. The second hit came about 30 minutes later but that was the one that eventually shook the hook half way in. I had one more solid hit but no hookup… and that was it for the rest of the morning. Took out ~11:30am.

The FF wasn’t exactly loaded with striper marks, not by a long shot, but definite marks were seen. Also saw many nice schools of baitfish on the FF with “big” marks under and near them. I just couldn’t get them to hit jigged lurers. I too saw several convincing swirls. Some of the swirls were made by nice fish.

I eventually gave up fishing Jeremy’s bowl and headed in the direction of Perryville Park. About 200 feet behind the triple barges a saw a couple of really big swirls with heavy pig-like slurping noises almost within casting range. They looked exactly like big stripers chasing bait on the surface. I quickly moved up to them and cast all around these breakers with not a single hit. They eventually moved in my direction and went right under my canoe. And to my surprise they turned out to be 3 orca-sized carp playing grab-ass on the surface. What a letdown THAT was… my heart was going a mile a minute. So now I'm not so sure about the swirls Jeremy and I saw earlier in the morning.

So, my hat goes off to Jeremy… WTG and a job well done… and I still have no idea why I couldn't catch stripers while jigging. There's always next spring.

[J.A. Veil]

Nice job Jeremy. That sure beats my two trips to the Flats this year.

[HJS]

I forgot to add that after I took out at Tydings, I drove up to Rock Run Mill to see what was happening up there. I river was low, minimal generation going on. Moderate fishing pressure and everyone was after white perch. Using my 10X binoculars I could clearly see that some boaters and some guys on shore were catching white perch almost every cast, fairly nice ones too. So, if you go up to Rock Run after white perch, keep moving around until you find fish… it’s all about location.

[AbuMasgouf]

It looks like the rockfish had not spawned yet....I think I did a few times, but we will keep that between you and I!

LOL!!!! Nice!

Thanks for the informative report bro! Extremely timely as well since I'm planning on visiting my in-laws next weekend who live 30 minutes from the flats. I plan on fishing that Saturday and maybe Sunday, God willing...

If you'r available, would love to meet up with you! and any of the other guys who live close to that area

[Yak Fish]

I got out today and fished for a few hours...yup, there are fish there. Most of the fish caught were 18-20", but I did manage a 25 incher. I was off the water by 11, just in time for the wind to really start picking up. There were plenty of boats out there. I could see a cluster by the southern end of the flats. There were some up north that drifted further south as the day went on. I was hoping for more fish in the 25-35" range, but I couldn't find those. The trick was finding the first fish and the direction they wanted the lure to be going. Once you do that, just keep doing the same thing.

[Berto]

Nice Job!