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Mdfisherkid and I made it to hemingways at around 830 saturday, and after dealing with a lost paddle that fell out of the truck on the way down we were on the water by about 930. Luckily a local store carried kayak paddles so it wasnt too big a deal, for us atleast. I can't speak for the people driving behind us. Anyway, we were a bit put off by the white caps and the temperature coming over the bridge but decided to give it a go.
The waves were probably every bit of 2 feet at times getting over 3 on the way out, paddling directly into the northwest wind. It was defintily not for the faint of heart. We were only making about 1.5 mph so it took quite a while to make it to our first spot. In an effort to try and keep drag down we both only trolled one rod, chris trolled a stretch 25 and i had out a tandem bucktail rig. (BTW trying to deal with two tandem rigs on my kayak in those temperatures in rough weather was a complete mistake.) We planned to troll along the south side of the south span up to the west rock pile and jig that area. Well, holding tight to the bridge pilings was nearly impossible with the wind so we were pushed off about 20 yards from the bridge itself. We marked fish in about 20 feet of water then but it was too rough to stop and jig so we made one pass and decided to try and make the shelter of the rocks. At about midway to the spot i wanted to turnback as i was down right exhausted but Chris convinced me to stick it out. peer pressure....
We arrived at the rockpile in time to see a seafox center console hookup with a small rockfish trolling past the south east corner of the piling. We got the jigs out and started working the corners of the area working the jigs coming upcurrent and drifting back. We marked a big school of fish holding tight to the area where the boat hooked up but didnt manage anything before they were gone. we didnt see anything else for the rest of the hour or so we stayed. I was using a 1.5oz silver stingsilver and chris was using a 3/4oz jighead with a chartreuse 5'' bkd. Another center console then caught another small fish on the same bkd but i assume with a heavier head. This was our first go with vertical jigging and we didnt figure it out right away. The wind was such that you could only make one bottom bounce before the line went past vertical. That spot has great structure and amazing bottom contours that certainly holds fish, maybe we just werent doing it right. We gave up on the spot and had lunch in behind the piling out of the breeze. Crabcakes and gatorade brightened my spirits considerably. FYI chris actually got out of his kayak on the rocks to pee, which was super dicey. but it can be done.
We started heading back towards kent island and trolled the north side of the north span and the wind was letting up a bit so it wasnt as brutal a paddle back in. I realized my initial tandem rig had gotten fouled somehow so i just cut the mess off and put out the other rod i had setup with a heavier bullet head setup. mistake. that was all jacked up as well. furious, i had the glass ghost xrap that dogfish suggested on a spinning rod i had planned to troll in shallower and decided i might as well put something out there. Zigzagging through the pilings i had 2 knockdowns in about 19 feet of water. That got me excited so i turned around and tried to see if i couldnt find fish around that depth and to my suprise i came across a tiny mark along one of the pilings with a number of smaller columns that come down in different directions. With the bow facing the western shore, into the wind, i dropped the silver stingsilver about 5 feet off the column and got hit as the jig fluttered down after the first bottom bounce. it was a small rockfish but enough to get the adrenaline flowing. I got another shortly thereafter along a similiar set of pilings in around the same depth. I had chris come over and start dropping his pink 2oz stingsilver and he started to catch them too. We then started marking a bunch of schools of fish on the north side of that north span and started wacking them. The fish were spread out between 18-23 feet of water. I lost my stingsilver being too aggressive against the pilings and switched up to a 1oz jighead with a 6'' charteuse bkd. It seemed like they were super aggressive with anything dropped right on their noses. there was a hole where fish seemed to hold consistently and i caught a fish at it just about each time i could find it on the depth finder. This all happened around 3pm and we took all the fish in about half an hour. We wanted to see if we could boat a keeper so we both headed about 50 yards north to the sewer pipeline that runs parallel to the bridge. We marked a few fish but didnt catch anything there. Sun was going down, feet were cold so we headed in. We tied as far as fish scores with 5 rock and 2 white perch each. Gotta keep it it a little competitive out there.
Vertical Jigging is definitly tough but it is apparently really effective. We ran into Shawn Kimbro from Chesapeakelighttackle.com out there fishing on his 27
' Judge CC Thunder Road at the pipeline. If you guys havent read his articles on light tackle jigging i would highly suggest you do so. We would have been completely lost without it. He used a really aggressive motion when popping the jig backup off the bottom which was impressive to watch. We went up and said hey and he said he was catching small fish just like we were in around the same depth. The trick was finding fish on the fishfinders. We had eels with us but never came across any schools big enough or any fishmarks big enough to want to mess with those suckers.
In that weather i probably wouldnt go out again without a vhf and a drift sock, that would have helped considerably. Heavy weight and braided line were also key. The fish are defintely still out there. We stopped at anglers before we headed out saturday and apparently a 50'' fish was brought in to the scale there friday afternoon from a boat fishing just below the bridge along the edge of the shipping channel.....and the fish was caught JIGGING. That is all the info the shop was given unfortunately. We havent given up fishing the main bay yet and I dont think you guys should either. You just have to be careful and be smart about it. Basically dont do what we did. I realize this post was quite verbose and if your getting to this line I thank you for putting up with my repetitive fish banter.
The waves were probably every bit of 2 feet at times getting over 3 on the way out, paddling directly into the northwest wind. It was defintily not for the faint of heart. We were only making about 1.5 mph so it took quite a while to make it to our first spot. In an effort to try and keep drag down we both only trolled one rod, chris trolled a stretch 25 and i had out a tandem bucktail rig. (BTW trying to deal with two tandem rigs on my kayak in those temperatures in rough weather was a complete mistake.) We planned to troll along the south side of the south span up to the west rock pile and jig that area. Well, holding tight to the bridge pilings was nearly impossible with the wind so we were pushed off about 20 yards from the bridge itself. We marked fish in about 20 feet of water then but it was too rough to stop and jig so we made one pass and decided to try and make the shelter of the rocks. At about midway to the spot i wanted to turnback as i was down right exhausted but Chris convinced me to stick it out. peer pressure....
We arrived at the rockpile in time to see a seafox center console hookup with a small rockfish trolling past the south east corner of the piling. We got the jigs out and started working the corners of the area working the jigs coming upcurrent and drifting back. We marked a big school of fish holding tight to the area where the boat hooked up but didnt manage anything before they were gone. we didnt see anything else for the rest of the hour or so we stayed. I was using a 1.5oz silver stingsilver and chris was using a 3/4oz jighead with a chartreuse 5'' bkd. Another center console then caught another small fish on the same bkd but i assume with a heavier head. This was our first go with vertical jigging and we didnt figure it out right away. The wind was such that you could only make one bottom bounce before the line went past vertical. That spot has great structure and amazing bottom contours that certainly holds fish, maybe we just werent doing it right. We gave up on the spot and had lunch in behind the piling out of the breeze. Crabcakes and gatorade brightened my spirits considerably. FYI chris actually got out of his kayak on the rocks to pee, which was super dicey. but it can be done.
We started heading back towards kent island and trolled the north side of the north span and the wind was letting up a bit so it wasnt as brutal a paddle back in. I realized my initial tandem rig had gotten fouled somehow so i just cut the mess off and put out the other rod i had setup with a heavier bullet head setup. mistake. that was all jacked up as well. furious, i had the glass ghost xrap that dogfish suggested on a spinning rod i had planned to troll in shallower and decided i might as well put something out there. Zigzagging through the pilings i had 2 knockdowns in about 19 feet of water. That got me excited so i turned around and tried to see if i couldnt find fish around that depth and to my suprise i came across a tiny mark along one of the pilings with a number of smaller columns that come down in different directions. With the bow facing the western shore, into the wind, i dropped the silver stingsilver about 5 feet off the column and got hit as the jig fluttered down after the first bottom bounce. it was a small rockfish but enough to get the adrenaline flowing. I got another shortly thereafter along a similiar set of pilings in around the same depth. I had chris come over and start dropping his pink 2oz stingsilver and he started to catch them too. We then started marking a bunch of schools of fish on the north side of that north span and started wacking them. The fish were spread out between 18-23 feet of water. I lost my stingsilver being too aggressive against the pilings and switched up to a 1oz jighead with a 6'' charteuse bkd. It seemed like they were super aggressive with anything dropped right on their noses. there was a hole where fish seemed to hold consistently and i caught a fish at it just about each time i could find it on the depth finder. This all happened around 3pm and we took all the fish in about half an hour. We wanted to see if we could boat a keeper so we both headed about 50 yards north to the sewer pipeline that runs parallel to the bridge. We marked a few fish but didnt catch anything there. Sun was going down, feet were cold so we headed in. We tied as far as fish scores with 5 rock and 2 white perch each. Gotta keep it it a little competitive out there.
Vertical Jigging is definitly tough but it is apparently really effective. We ran into Shawn Kimbro from Chesapeakelighttackle.com out there fishing on his 27
' Judge CC Thunder Road at the pipeline. If you guys havent read his articles on light tackle jigging i would highly suggest you do so. We would have been completely lost without it. He used a really aggressive motion when popping the jig backup off the bottom which was impressive to watch. We went up and said hey and he said he was catching small fish just like we were in around the same depth. The trick was finding fish on the fishfinders. We had eels with us but never came across any schools big enough or any fishmarks big enough to want to mess with those suckers.
In that weather i probably wouldnt go out again without a vhf and a drift sock, that would have helped considerably. Heavy weight and braided line were also key. The fish are defintely still out there. We stopped at anglers before we headed out saturday and apparently a 50'' fish was brought in to the scale there friday afternoon from a boat fishing just below the bridge along the edge of the shipping channel.....and the fish was caught JIGGING. That is all the info the shop was given unfortunately. We havent given up fishing the main bay yet and I dont think you guys should either. You just have to be careful and be smart about it. Basically dont do what we did. I realize this post was quite verbose and if your getting to this line I thank you for putting up with my repetitive fish banter.
I still had to deal with the wind but it wasn't nearly as rough in the Severn! Good fishin
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