South River, Homeport Farm Park - 10-05

[Nitefly]

I tried out the new park and launch on Saturday morning. This was my first time fishing the South River and I had my best day of trolling, which didn't take much! A few small stripers, some blues and a nice White Perch. I did take video of the path to the launch for those interested in seeing that.

A more detailed blog posting of the trip:
http://cymbulapiscator.blogspot.com/...port-farm.html

[Polar Rock]

Good Work Nitefly! No matter how small the fish. I've been searching for a bluefish about that size for the smoker..... Not easy. Good work on the video. Takes a bit of time and effort to edit and pull that off. Now if we can get an occasional smile out of you when reeling in the fish....

[rob-kayak]

Thanks for the report and video.... I hope they don't dump tons of soft gravel on the path.. pulling a cart
through soft gravel is almost as laborious as sand.

I don't know if you are familiar with http://www.navionics.com/en/webapp it will show you some good
detail of oyster beds and structure.

I appreciate your enthusiasm to explore new places... with the good weather I made two "new" trips,
meeting a bunch of new friendly people. Although none of the them were kayak fishing or crabbing,
just people enjoying the bay.

Not to hijack your thread... I finally started taking out my good digital camera... so I thought you might
enjoy this Friday morning picture... and boy, the image stabilization does wonders on the zoom and
bumpy water.

[Nitefly]

Polar Rock... I swear I am smiling on the inside!

Rob-Kayak, that's a great pic. Is it Goodhands Creek? I've launched there a couple of times and its a great protected launch. On the Navionics, I couldn't find the oyster beds. Do you turn them on in the display somehow? Either way, thats a great resource. Thanks!

[rob-kayak]

Polar Rock... I swear I am smiling on the inside!

Rob-Kayak, that's a great pic. Is it Goodhands Creek? I've launched there a couple of times and its a great protected launch. On the Navionics, I couldn't find the oyster beds. Do you turn them on in the display somehow? Either way, thats a great resource. Thanks!

This is probably a better link for oyster beds... it takes a while for the map to load...
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries...bars/index.asp

Yes.. Goodhands.

[Mark]

Nitefly,

http://www.mgs.md.gov/coastal/oyster/northbars.shtml

Rob,

Nice photo. It does look like the launch at Goodhands.

[dinscore]

Nice video! Can't wait to tag along with you to the new launch.

[Shady]

Nice vid, looks like you got most of the fish on gulp swimming mullet? Did you have a lot of bite-offs from the Blues?

[Nitefly]

Shady... yes, lots of bite offs of the tail. I had a spinner connected to the jig head and it was the most hit lure. I should have checked every time I got a hit because I dragged it around without a tail for awhile. I got a couple Stripers on a gulp minnow on a road runner jig head. I got the White Perch on a silver and blue Rat L Trap. I also got a monster hit on that Rat L Trip, but missed em. I trolled an X Rap and Road Runner and didn't get any hits on those. I did find three lines hard to manage though. I had some line tangles when reeling in fish. Thanks for watching.

[Nitefly]

Nitefly,

http://www.mgs.md.gov/coastal/oyster/northbars.shtml

Thanks Mark. How is the new yak? And I need to get out with you guys on a Monday again soon!

[Nitefly]

Nice video! Can't wait to tag along with you to the new launch.

Definitely Dave!

[Mark]

Nitefly,

The new yak remains dry and nestled next to my Hobie in the garage. It's hard to give up those pedals!

However I recently bought a nice paddle for the Jackson at Bass Pro (got 15% off thanks to a coupon from the tournament) and I just got a cart for it last week. I hope to get it wet before the season ends.

Our Monday schedule has been a little messed up recently due to travel and other obligations. Stay tuned. I'm sure we'll be going out again.

One oyster bed at Goodhands is near the concrete block wall on the launch side of the Kent Narrows bridges. I learned that before I saw the chart because I kept hooking shells there (and a few good stripers.)

[sparky1423]

Launched and fished the same area last week. Most of my action was on a gold 1/2 oz kastmaster, trolling. Blues and rockfish, but my keeper was on the xrap. We all hooked up right away at the mouth of church creek, after that it was spotty all the way to Thomas point. Great video!

[dsiekman]

Great video. Looks like a fun day! I watched the ones that got away a few times and wondered what lure you were using? Treble hooks? Most of the misses I've had trolling have been on treble hooks. Not sure why. Also, it was hard to see, but it looked like when you lost fish on the forward spinning rod that the rod was sitting kind of sideways or forward in the rod holder. I've found you get much better action on the lure if you have the rod set so that it bends the way it naturally wants to....if that makes sense. In other words, with a spinning rod, set your rod holder so the reel is facing down and back. That will also make it easier to keep pressure on the fish when you pull it out of the rod holder. Granted, that doesn't explain a loss from the rear holders, but might be interesting to try. That action is REALLY important for an XRap. I had one rod/reel combo that seemed to work much better than any other last year with XRaps and I can only attribute that to the action of the rod.

[Nitefly]

@Sparky, I'll have to try the Kastmaster. I had good luck with one of those this summer trolling for Yellow Perch. I picked up a 1/4 oz last night while I was out. What size and color Xrap were you using?

@dsiekman, Yes, it was a fun day. I would have liked to have stayed out longer. Thanks for the analysis on my misses! I think most of my misses were on single hook jig heads. My biggest hit was on the Rat L Trap with trebles, but it was spit out quickly. I think the rod behind me missed a few times because I didn't realize I had a fish on quickly enough. After the first couple of times, I got better at recognizing it, but still was well under 50%. Some of them may just have been too small for the hook maybe? I appreciate the advice on how the rod sits in the holder. I wasn't really paying attention to their positioning in the holder so Ill be sure to do that next time. I did try out a new tube holder because my other holder can be a little tricky to get the rod out of quickly. My bait caster got tangled a bit once in the video on that type of holder. Do you leash your rods in the holders when trolling?