Fresh from Florida | New to the area - not new to the sport ...

[Jerry White]

Jerry -
Welcome to Maryland. As you probably gathered by now, we had an unusually long and cold winter here that has pushed back the arrival of several of our usual spring target species. In another few weeks, the late spring/summer pattern will set up and allow us good fishing for much of the year.

OK, so other than stripers, what’s swimming out there right now?

I enjoyed your article. The tackle you describe there will work here too, but you need to size the jigheads and soft plastics for the depths in which you are fishing. When I fish in the Tampa area, I notice that most kayaks do not use fishfinders -- much of your flats habitat is so shallow that sonar is of little value. Here, we fish a wide range of depths. I often troll and cast in water less than 10 ft, but also jig on structure in 30-50 ft depth. Different weights of rods and lures are needed for those different habitats.

Yup – not much use for depth finders in Tampa Bay. The running joke there is “if you fall out of your kayak, the first thing you should do is stand up …”. But, I have no problem getting what I need to be productive.

The other difference I notice in kayak fishing between here and Tampa is use of an anchor. When I fished with Neil Taylor, he uses his anchor constantly throughout each trip. Here I used an anchor only 2-3 times during the entire year. I rarely even bring it with me anymore.

I’m not a fan of anchors either. But, having a Hobie makes it easy to drift and then kick back to drift again. I do carry a PVC stake out pole that I run through the tankwell scupper, for shallow water anchoring.

Neil introduced me to 12 Fathoms plastics. I am now a big fan. I love the Fat Sam mullet. I caught about 50 stripers (12" to 19") on a single watermelon colored Fat Sam last summer. After catching the first 20 fish, the front end was slightly torn. I pulled it off, bit off the front 1/2", and rethreaded it. I caught another 20 fish, and rethreaded again. After a final 10 fish, the lure was so bedraggled that I retired it. When fishing with Neil last January, I did a similar thing with a 12 Fathoms SlamR -- I caught 30 specs on the same lure before it wore out.

I use the shimmer gold pattern almost exclusively, but I imagine other colors will be more productive here, but maybe not.

Many of our members post notices about where they plan to fish on a certain date -- either at a meet and greet, or just a regular outing. You should try to take advantage of these opportunities to meet local kayak anglers and learn their preferred locations and techniques. I'm sure you have some good technique to share with them too.

I have no familiarity with specific fishing locations around the area where you live. I fish primarily in the tidal Severn River and its tributaries -- I probably get on the river 50 times each year in all seasons. You are welcome to meet up with me to fish for perch and stripers all summer and fall and for pickerel in the winter.

I’ll definitely take you up on that … thanks! 

… but wait, there’s more …

Piggy backing off of what John said about a fishfinder, when speck fishing I'll use my FF to look at the structure of the bottom as opposed to specifically locating fish. In the Chesapeake you will find many mud and sand bottoms. If the water is more than a few feet deep, you will not have a very good idea of what type of bottom is below you and could spend a good deal of time fishing a less productive area. Especially if you are checking out an area for the first time. As you know, specks like grass. The bay is full of it, but there are places where it just isn't there. These beds show up well on most FF's.

I’ve been hesitant to bring power aboard. Mainly because I’m the type that won’t stop with a fish finder … I’ll have running lights, some neon (all on lighted switches of course), and maybe a margarita machine in the tank well. Maybe I’ll just start with the margarita machine …

Let’s talk jigs for a minute. I’ve been chatting with my peeps at Rockport Rattler, and they advised me that they had these lures now for cobia/stripers. They come in numerous color combinations and 6 different weights (1 oz, 1.5 oz, 2 oz, 3oz, 4 oz and 6 oz). Anyone used any of these? Think they’d do well here?

RR striper jigs.jpg

[J.A. Veil]

OK, so other than stripers, what’s swimming out there right now?

Let’s talk jigs for a minute. I’ve been chatting with my peeps at Rockport Rattler, and they advised me that they had these lures now for cobia/stripers. They come in numerous color combinations and 6 different weights (1 oz, 1.5 oz, 2 oz, 3oz, 4 oz and 6 oz). Anyone used any of these? Think they’d do well here?

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One of the great things about living in this area is we have lots of different habitats with different salinities -- just look at the different reports on this site over the past week or so. At this time of year, within two hours of Annapolis, you can fish lakes (LMBs, SMBs, crappie, some trout), large rivers (the shad are running well), tidal freshwater areas like Mattawoman (snakeheads, LMBs), the brackish tidal rivers like the Severn (stripers should be here now or very soon, white perch in a few weeks, a few pickerel), the main Chesapeake (jigging for large stripers), lower eastern shore (redfish, speckled trout, flounder), and going a bit farther (CBBT and Virginia Beach -- redfish, speckled trout, weakfish), (Ocean City/Lewes - tautog). As the weather warms, additional species will become available in tidal areas.

Cobia are rarely found in the upper or middle bay. They are restricted to waters with high salinity. The lures you show should work for stripers either cast or trolled or even jigged in deeper water.

[Jerry White]

One of the great things about living in this area is we have lots of different habitats with different salinities -- just look at the different reports on this site over the past week or so. At this time of year, within two hours of Annapolis, you can fish lakes (LMBs, SMBs, crappie, some trout), large rivers (the shad are running well), tidal freshwater areas like Mattawoman (snakeheads, LMBs), the brackish tidal rivers like the Severn (stripers should be here now or very soon, white perch in a few weeks, a few pickerel), the main Chesapeake (jigging for large stripers), lower eastern shore (redfish, speckled trout, flounder), and going a bit farther (CBBT and Virginia Beach -- redfish, speckled trout, weakfish), (Ocean City/Lewes - tautog). As the weather warms, additional species will become available in tidal areas.

Cobia are rarely found in the upper or middle bay. They are restricted to waters with high salinity. The lures you show should work for stripers either cast or trolled or even jigged in deeper water.

I think my first order of business is to get a nav chart.
But the weather will be too nice tomorrow to spend it all in tackle shops, so one way or another, fishing will happen.

Thanks to all of you - but I'm sure more questions will follow.

[J.A. Veil]

I think my first order of business is to get a nav chart.

Take a look at http://www.navionics.com/en/webapp. Zoom into the area where you want to fish. Then click on the icon on the lower left of the screen (3 curved lines). This gives you a much more detailed view of the depth contours. These are far from perfect and exact, but they can help point you to potentially productive locations. You can also jump start your learning curve by fishing with others -- snaggedline members, light tackle guides, etc.

[ronaultmtd]

I think you will be fine here- the lures are pretty much the same- I fish a lot further south in southern Maryland and the redfish you are holding in the picture is about what we were catching here last fall- we had a couple of really good years with redfish with last year having a few fish above the legal slot size that had to be released- I use a lot of chartreuse colors- seems to work well for me- but again, it is all about confidence- I like XRaps in bunker color and blue/silver...some do well with other colors- when trolling for the spring trophy stripers I pull stretch 25's and single chutes