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Managed to catch some fish at the Bay Bridge on Saturday, but, had to work hard for them. At the end of the day, caught 28 total: 27 striper (including my Chesapeake Bay personal best 29") and 1 big white perch (also a personal best at 12.5"). Conditions were very different from last week with sunny skies and a flood current direction at 5:59AM. Water temps 75-80deg. Saw what I believe were schools of peanut bunker near the beach launch, but no predator surface action. Wasn't seeing anything at the sewer pipe area so I explored some of the shallower pilings that I hadn't fished before. Observed that the piling numbers on the southern span are not all unique. The numbers go down to #30 from east to west, then restart at #50 decrementing down again from east to west. Made it to the deeper lower #40s pilings just before 8AM with very little current. Suprised to mark large schools of baitfish with what looked like bigger fish following. Started vertically jigging and after switching to a smaller Zoom super fluke on a lighter 1/2 oz jig, was able to pick off four rockfish from 13"-15" over the next 30min. Switched over to the shallow running jerkbait that worked last week, but, I believe the sunny skies were keeping the schools deeper so was only able to get one on it. Unfortunately, my BPS Carbonlite spinning rod snapped in half on this 16" striper. Saw Alan (Yak Fish) and Jeff Little which was pretty cool. Was able to pick up another 17" striper with some advice from Jeff. Thanks, Jeff. Also got some insight from Alan on some of his trolling techniques/setups which seemed to be working very well for him that day. Thanks, Alan. These guys clearly know what they are doing and are quite friendly and humble to complete strangers like me. The current really slowed at this point so I did some more exploring for the next 1.5 hours until the current was moving fast in the ebb direction. Made it back to my favorite piling at about 11:30AM with the current really moving and caught/released my personal best Chesapeake Bay striper, just under 29". It hit a white super fluke on a 3/4 oz jighead and put up a great fight.
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Caught another 4 striper (14"-16") and my personal best White Perch (12.5") over the next 30min casting/jigging with the kayak positioned down current from the piling.
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After another 45min lull in action, I moved right up to the pilings looking for marks on the sonar. Over the next 2.5 hrs, was able to land another 15 striped bass (12"-16") using the sonar and vertically jigging when the marks showed up. All in all a pretty good, but exhausting day on the kayak treadmill. Mostly happy to have made adjustments to the conditions that seemed to pay off: lighter jigheads, downsizing plastic, white vs chartreuse, vertical jigging w/sonar vs jerkbait.
It was hard work physically and mentally.
Can't wait to do it again.
IMG_0974.jpg IMG_0978.jpg
Caught another 4 striper (14"-16") and my personal best White Perch (12.5") over the next 30min casting/jigging with the kayak positioned down current from the piling.
IMG_0980.jpg
After another 45min lull in action, I moved right up to the pilings looking for marks on the sonar. Over the next 2.5 hrs, was able to land another 15 striped bass (12"-16") using the sonar and vertically jigging when the marks showed up. All in all a pretty good, but exhausting day on the kayak treadmill. Mostly happy to have made adjustments to the conditions that seemed to pay off: lighter jigheads, downsizing plastic, white vs chartreuse, vertical jigging w/sonar vs jerkbait.
It was hard work physically and mentally.
Can't wait to do it again.
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