South River Report 12/3

[DOGFISH]

Well no luck today. I went out this evening for a couple of hours. I marked some fish. I had one take down on a tandem swim shad rig. Nothing to really talk about. Looks like the fish are even somewhat lethargic. It may take bait dropped right in front of the fish to get them to bite. They just seem to not want to chase the bait. I marked several groups of fish on the depth finder, with no takers. I crossed those areas several times. I would have stopped to vertical jig, but there was a West wind that would have pushed me too fast. The guys going out to the bridge on Saturday may need those eels to do the job. That may be the way to go, live bait. Get some good gloves. The last thing I would have wanted today was to have wet hands. If I get out again, anytime soon, I think I might slow the trolling speed down some. I normally go about 3mph.

The one bit of good news, on the warm clothing topic, I got a windshear wool sweater from Cabelas that is great. I just got it this week. It was 34 degrees out on the water today, with some wind. I had on a polypro short sleeve tee shirt, the windshear sweater and my foul weather jacket and was perfectly warm. Anyone looking for a nice fishing sweater, I strongly recommend that one. It has a zip up collar, which is great. I might get the windshear fleece vest version. However, if it gets any colder, I am not sure I want to be out on the bay. Today it was just me, the geese, the ducks and the loons out there. I liked listening to the loons.

One consolation, when I got home there was the Offshore Angler 2011 edition catalog in the mailbox. Next season really isn't that far away.

Good Luck.

[surfdog]

thanks for the info, put my revo up for the winter last weekend the last couple weekends have been real windy and this weekend looks to be the same. i was hoping to get out a few more times this year with the kayak oh well '11 season starts in 3 months

[DOGFISH]

That may be the way I go also. There comes a point where reality sets in.

[ictalurus]

That may be the way I go also. There comes a point where reality sets in.

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

If you guys quit now, you'll miss prime pickerel and yellow perch season. I was thinking about hitting Spa Creek today but got invited to fish on a boat instead. I think I was colder on the boat than I would've been kayaking. Anyway, I caught my personal best pickerel (23", almost a citation) on Dec. 2nd... oh wait, that was two days ago. However, I caught more nice ones the following Jan. 14th. I wouldn't mind checking out Round Bay on the Severn at some point. It's something ridiculous like $20 to park, but putting 2 yaks on 1 car and splitting the cost wouldn't be too bad. The South River historically held yellow, too, but we'd have to go farther upstream than Hillsmere to get to lower salinity.

[moc]

I put my tapon up for the winter too, however, it is in a place that I can quickly get to it if the weather gods are kind. I too saw the windy reports, plus with xmas shopping and the holidays, I cannot get out until next year on my yak. I may go out on a headboat for some tog on the 19th.

[DOGFISH]

I may have to second guess myself on that one. The reason is my old nemesis the veritical jig. I must tell this story.

A guy comes into the store today, one who I know from comming in and buying fishing tackle. I ask if he had been fishing lately and rather upbeat he said yes. I said, any luck. He said yes, we got three keepers. I said where did you go. He said to that spot that you told me about. The spot he was talking about was where I had been fishing yesterday, off the #6 marker in the South River.

I told him I know exactly what school of fish you are talking about. I told him I had repeatedly crossed over them trying to get the to take a trolling lure yesterday. I told him I had seen several other schools of fish on the bottom, in other areas, with no takers. He topped my story. He said his brother-in-law was fishing the front of the boat and he was fishing the back. He gave his brother-in-law a gold stingsilver with no feathers on the hook. He had a gold sting silver with feathers on the hook. They were fishing the same fish. His brother-in-law caught three fish, and he caught none. The fish are really being picky.

So, if the weather is ok, I may go out at least one more time this year. I think I may only take two spinning rods, rigged with jigs. I will make myself fish with the vertical jigs. I told the guy that the wind was blowing a little yesterday. He also said they could not keep their lines verticle, but that seemed to be ok with the fish. So I guess I will just have to give it one more try. I will miss my trolling rods.

Naturally, the guy was in buying more stingsilvers.

[DOGFISH]

Bill:

I don't know where you launch in Round Bay. There is a pond to the west side of Sherwood Forest. A friend of mine catches some nice pickerel in that pond. The pond only has a small outlet to the river. It is easy to miss. A kayak could make it in. So if you can make it to that pond, it is good pickerel fishing.

Besides, we don't need no stinking reality!

[mdmakaira410]

We did well this afternoon vert jigging. You had to up the weight considerably to combat drifting off your spot. Fish were taking 2oz stings featherless pink and plain silver and bkds with heavy gotcha heads. Actually ran into Shawn Kimbro from chesapeake light tackle.com watching him jig was something else.. He said he couldnt find any keepers anywhere either. Looks like dinks and frozen appendages were the the theme of the day.

[DOGFISH]

I know, it was cold yesterday also. However, the open bay was probably quite brutal. Never the less, I need to work on the vertical jigging. It seems to be the way to go. Good luck next time out.

[ictalurus]

I'm not sure where the Round Bay launch is, either, but Friday on tidalfish launched there once. I'll have to look at his video again.

Sticking to a technique is the only way to learn it. Sometimes, you have to be willing to take a skunk. That's how I learned about jigging for flounder. After a while, I got pretty good at finding productive spots in my area. I still haven't landed many keepers, but I've gotten several to the side of the boat, which is a start. Jigging for stripers is even tougher, I think, and I'm still not very good at it.

I fished out of a boat yesterday with some guys from tidalfish out of Buzz's Marina. Even 2oz of weight wasn't enough to keep our lines from scoping out. It was light tackle horizontal jigging. Fishing after fronts is pretty tough.

My hat's off to you, mdmakaira, for sticking it out in nasty conditions. I thought about joining you guys, but then I saw the forecast and thought about adding boater traffic to that.

[surfdog]

i think the marina at round bay closed for the winter. felt the need to fish so i went to the international market last night and picked up some late season rock candy (chicken livers) and got up at 0400, the wind was blowing pretty hard and the air temp was around 35 so spsp was out. went to the navy rec. center on the severn and fished the quay wall till about 0730. man it was cold with the wind blowing about 30. the worst thing was i got no bites

[DOGFISH]

I know, I don't have confidence in vertical jigging yet. I have used bucktails and rubber tailed jigs in the bay all my life, with alot of luck. I have used tubes and jigs for LM Bass and Smallmouth. I'll just have to slow down and give it a try. Can't be any worse than when I started fly fishing for trout. Yellow Breeches and the Latort, spelling may be wrong, were difficult.