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I almost bailed in the first hour. The wind picked up dramatically from what I saw driving over it until when I got out on it. Chris met me at the launch and got a head start. I barely got within a few casts of him before he was drifting down away from the bridge. I jigged a few places, but it was hard to stay put. The waves came in hard and the wind seemed to be worse near the bridge than it was a few casts back from it. I suppose the structure of the bridge itself bottlenecks the wind some. I would guess that at its worst, we had 3.5 to 4 foot peak to trough waves. I went to catch up with Chris and saw him paddling back up toward me.
I glanced down at my depthfinder and saw what looked like a Christmas tree on the graph. Fuzzy blue arch with big dots of red, yellow and orange. I started jigging, but knew I couldn't stay on it long. It was long enough though. An 18 incher jammed it about half way back up. I looked for Chris to yell for him to come get on them with me. He was still back there, paddling his heart out. I was glad to have the Torqeedo motor on a low setting to keep me there, but knew that the cavitation of the motor coming out of the water with each swell would not keep these fish there for long, and I didn't dare drop my anchor. Getting it wedged hard would mean riding through waves instead of over them. No thanks.
I zig zagged the area, mostly because I wanted to drift through instead of be a disturbance directly over them. What I saw on the depth finder was revealing. Any water less than about 25 feet showed few if any fish. Once I got to 27 or so feet, I could see the baitfish clouds, by 30, there were dark marks mixed in. Out over 40 or more, a few dark marks, but not as many as near the 30 foot mark. It was a quick transition to deep water and they were keying on 28 feet or so.
I looked back for Chris and found that he had bailed. I almost had, and was actually paddling back down to suggest to him that we do so and go hit Mattawoman or somewhere else more wind protected when I saw the Christmas tree on my depth finder. I'm glad I held on. With that depth in mind, I made my way back up to the bridge, and pounded out another 16 fish. The wind gradually lightened up and I was able to feel the bite much better. With the exception of 2 in the 15 inch range, all were between 18 and 22 inches, most of them being 21 inchers. What an amazing year class. I did some reading, and found that the 2011 year class was a strong one. Would they be 21 inches already? Lots of that size out there.
What I thought was going to be a bailed trip ended up being my best numbers days yet. My forearm charlie-horsed up at some point from the jigging and quick hook sets. It's killing me that it's another 9 days until I get to do it again! Does anyone know how deep they will go in summer? They reported that the dead zones are forecasted to be smaller this year compared to previous. I assume that they go deep to avoid them as much as possible, but like reservoirs there has to be a lower limit where the oxygen down there chokes out too. What is a good source to learn about this as it relates to how deep we should look for structure to jig. Yesterday that preferred depth was obvious: 28 feet!
DSC00762.jpgDSC00766.jpg
I glanced down at my depthfinder and saw what looked like a Christmas tree on the graph. Fuzzy blue arch with big dots of red, yellow and orange. I started jigging, but knew I couldn't stay on it long. It was long enough though. An 18 incher jammed it about half way back up. I looked for Chris to yell for him to come get on them with me. He was still back there, paddling his heart out. I was glad to have the Torqeedo motor on a low setting to keep me there, but knew that the cavitation of the motor coming out of the water with each swell would not keep these fish there for long, and I didn't dare drop my anchor. Getting it wedged hard would mean riding through waves instead of over them. No thanks.
I zig zagged the area, mostly because I wanted to drift through instead of be a disturbance directly over them. What I saw on the depth finder was revealing. Any water less than about 25 feet showed few if any fish. Once I got to 27 or so feet, I could see the baitfish clouds, by 30, there were dark marks mixed in. Out over 40 or more, a few dark marks, but not as many as near the 30 foot mark. It was a quick transition to deep water and they were keying on 28 feet or so.
I looked back for Chris and found that he had bailed. I almost had, and was actually paddling back down to suggest to him that we do so and go hit Mattawoman or somewhere else more wind protected when I saw the Christmas tree on my depth finder. I'm glad I held on. With that depth in mind, I made my way back up to the bridge, and pounded out another 16 fish. The wind gradually lightened up and I was able to feel the bite much better. With the exception of 2 in the 15 inch range, all were between 18 and 22 inches, most of them being 21 inchers. What an amazing year class. I did some reading, and found that the 2011 year class was a strong one. Would they be 21 inches already? Lots of that size out there.
What I thought was going to be a bailed trip ended up being my best numbers days yet. My forearm charlie-horsed up at some point from the jigging and quick hook sets. It's killing me that it's another 9 days until I get to do it again! Does anyone know how deep they will go in summer? They reported that the dead zones are forecasted to be smaller this year compared to previous. I assume that they go deep to avoid them as much as possible, but like reservoirs there has to be a lower limit where the oxygen down there chokes out too. What is a good source to learn about this as it relates to how deep we should look for structure to jig. Yesterday that preferred depth was obvious: 28 feet!
DSC00762.jpgDSC00766.jpg
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