Lower ESVA Speck/Drum Outting

[RavensDfense]

Hemingway, Jhoss, and I fished down near Kipto yesterday (just a few miles north). Hemingway and I started off fishing a bayside creek for specks in the morning. We both caught specks; mostly in the 16 - 18" range while the tide was just beginning to turn in. The water looked like crap from all the rain so they were a good surprise. As the tide began to come in, the water cleared up a little. I found a school of dink rockfish and Gary worked hard to make bait catching croaker for the evening drum trip. Around noon, we explored a flat where we thought some pups may be and Gary catches a under-sized on one of his first cast. We fished towards the mouth for a bit longer and even had a run in with some Spanish mackerel, but a boater motored through them and pushed them under. On the way back to the ramp, I found some cleaner water and very quietly moved into position. On my first pass through, I lost a small speck. On my second pass through, I finally found a lager speck at 20".

After our morning trip, we anchored up 3 miles off the beach and soaked bait for reds. In short, it was not our night. The weather cooperated, but the reds did not. We caught a lot of sharks and bull reds were caught around us, but our ticket wasn't called. That's fall red fishing for you. We fished until 9:00 PM and finally left around 9:45PM. I arrived back in Salisbury at 11:30. After washing all the cut bait off the kayak and showering, I finally laid down at 1:00AM. The things we do for big fish....



Untitled by Doug Greiner, on Flickr

[Big Mike]

It's been a very good year for quality specks. Nice to see the rebound after the freeze a couple years ago.

[RavensDfense]

I agree. Most of the specks this year have been legal sized instead of the micro specks we've had the past couple of years.

[Slobber Bob]

Bummer. I've never been skunked on bulls reds out there - you guys stink, lol

At least you caught some fish earlier in the day though. Hopefully next time you'll be in the bulls thick!

[RavensDfense]

Bummer. I've never been skunked on bulls reds out there - you guys stink, lol

At least you caught some fish earlier in the day though. Hopefully next time you'll be in the bulls thick!

You do seem to have a small horseshoe in your PFD when it comes to that place! Hope we can get out sometime soon before they move out.

[J.A. Veil]

You guys put in a good effort. Mark, John Rentch, and I fished in similar spots last week and other than one short striper and spec blitz, did not do as well as you guys did. It is a beautiful area with loads of fish potential.

[RavensDfense]

You guys put in a good effort. Mark, John Rentch, and I fished in similar spots last week and other than one short striper and spec blitz, did not do as well as you guys did. It is a beautiful area with loads of fish potential.

We were going to try where you guys fished, but the tide was a little too late in the day for us to catch the high and make the run further South for the larger reds. I agree with you though, its one of the more fishy places on the shore.

[Mark]

We were going to try where you guys fished, but the tide was a little too late in the day for us to catch the high and make the run further South for the larger reds. I agree with you though, its one of the more fishy places on the shore.

It's an incredibly fishy-looking area. Our most productive time was when the tide was high. Catching the high as you put it would have been the proper tact. The tide differential is larger there than I am accustomed to here in the mid-Bay. I think the greater flow and depth variance has a tremendous impact on the fish there, perhaps more than the changing tide does on our fish here.

[RavensDfense]

Over the years, I have noticed that certain species seem to like certain tide cycles. It is obviously not an absolute statement, but in general I have found that rockfish like a mid-tide, with as much moving current as is available that day. Once the current slacks a bit (or stops entirely), the larger specks seem to be more willing to strike.

I believe specks are a lazier fish in general than other species. Competing with a strong current or against a school of 14" rockfish isn't something that bodes well for them; at least as far as I have seen. With that said, there are always exceptions.

Another feature that we have down here that the northern bay lacks (for better or worse) is incredibly expansive grass flats. In addition to being sensitive to rapid changes in water temp, they also become extremely shallow on low tide making high tide a better time to fish them.

[ComeOnFish]

Thank you for the info you guys provided. It seems that specks are moving toward north slower than I expected.
I fished Northern Neck (the western side) 4 times. Based on the info I gathered. Specks are moving toward the north slower than usual in Northern Neck. I caught average 7 specks @15-25" a day. This year has been good here I heard. I think it will be good next few weeks in ESVA and Northern Neck. I am not sure if a good number of specks are moving to Point Lookout and Honga River this year.

Thanks
Joe

[ComeOnFish]

Thank you for the info you guys provided. It seems that specks are moving toward north slower than I expected.
I fished Northern Neck (the western side) 4 times. Based on the info I gathered. Specks are moving toward the north slower than usual in Northern Neck. I caught average 7 specks @15-25" a day. This year has been good here I heard. I think it will be good next few weeks in ESVA and Northern Neck. I am not sure if a good number of specks are moving to Point Lookout and Honga River this year.

Thanks
Joe

[Seasalt]

Hey Joe, are you planning to hit Northern Neck next couple weeks?