Saturday Fishing
 

Now I remember why I try to fish the weekdays. With the wind we had in the later part of the week, my fishing buddy (Lou) was going through withdrawl. He called friday night and said winds were supposed to be "light and variable" on Sat. so lets try livelinning.
Because we are both retired, we usually fish weekdays. We launched from Sandy Point just before 7 am and caught spot on bridge piling #10. Spot were perfect size!!!! Did I mention the winds were supposed to be light?
After we filled the livewell, we searched for a piling that was not anchored up by another boat. Nothing on the western side, so we headed to the eastern side. While it was lighter traffic, most pilings were taken, or people were hoping from one to another.
We anchored on one of my favorite pilings, but didn't even get a runoff. Wind (did I mention it was supposed to be light) and tide were together, so it should have been good fishing. I figured with all the traffic running past pilings, it had spooked the fish. We saw birds working just south of the bridge and tried to drift a couple spot through them. No hookups, saw lots of small bait fish (silversides, glassminnows) breaking the surface and gulls diving on them; but nothing underneath feeding.
Off to Hacketts. Found the edge where water drops off from 18 ft to 30 ft quickly. Anchored up in 26 ft (dropoff) and began to feed spot to the blues. We tried to use weight to get below them, but the blues found them anyway. I had a couple nice fish cut the leader, so "when in Rome". We cut up a few spot and started catching blues. We called a friend over to get in on the action, and as soon as he anchored, the bite slowed. We still picked up a few more blues, but no more instant hits, as before.
We decided to quit around noon, and we gave the rest of our spot to a fellow fisherman who was on his way out of SP. He thanked us and we wished him luck.
We loaded the boat and laughed at some of the actions at the ramp. Lots of boats were being pulled around 1 pm and the antics were comical. Another reason to avoid weekends if possible.
Looking forward to to next week. The water temps are dropping (74*) and it's cool enough to stay on the water longer (during the summer we were calling it quits around 9:30 - 10:00 am because of the heat).
I'll try hitting the triple bouy/rock hall area hard in the coming weeks with my boat (slipped in bodkin creek), and we will be hitting the west river area in my buddies boat.
There was a tournament out of Rock Hall today, I'll be looking for reports!!
5th (Marty)

I agree with you about the benefits of only fishing during the week days. I avoid week-end fishing like the plague. I thought this board had pretty much died. Last few times I checked in (some time ago), there wasn't much going on. I plan to check in a little more often. Hey Marty - Broke out the trolling stuff yesterday and ran a few swipes up near Belvedere shoals pulling Tony 15s. Still a little early, but did pick up a couple of 20-21 inch rock and some smallie blues. The weak currents and 90 degree winds this past week made LL at the bridge a real challenge; ready for a change....Don

Easy to get spoiled fishing during the week when 15 trailers at Sandy Point is a " crowd ".

FWIW : Bridge got hammered by hook / liners last few weeks.

Don; check back in more often. We have been trolling for blues and spanish for several weeks with decent results near poplar island. We knew today was going to be a bit bumpy with the winds laying down as the day went on. We figured to stay close to SP and try livelineing for a change.

We saw so many sick rock this summer we switched to spanish.

I look forward to seeing "Hunter" out there trolling soon.

Anybody heard how the rock hall tournament went today?

5th (Marty)

He he he...took the family to the bridge this afternoon and crushed them:D.
We loaded up on spot around piling #5 and had rock on just about every piling from 15 to 20 on the west side. I couldn't believe the lack of boats on a beautiful weekend....especially on the western shore side.
Still can't beat weekday fishing!

Maybe going in the afternoon is the ticket or everyone is getting their boats winterized:D Thanks Billj

Winterized ?

Isn't there another 2 to 3 months left to this year ?

The Shoals are heatin up...Thanks to someone, on this board (you know who) for making me think about the Shoals again...

Bait has been thick the last couple of days....Catching up to just under 30" there...Chartruese Bucktails with matching BKD has worked well....

Water temps must be gettin the Rock ready for the big feed before they take some time off....

Gotta agree about the weekdays...Rather have 2 hours in the evening during the week than 4 to 5 on the weekend...

Best part is that the fish dont seem to care what time of day it is lately..And I wont be complainin.....

Odd tide today. I believe 9:40 was low tide at Sandy Point. We had a slow morning, until about 10:00 or 10:15, then someone turned the switch on, and the fish finally got hungry and started to feed. At one point we had three on at once, and hooked about 10 in a one hour window.

Not by design but we mirrored Marty and Lou all day. I see how having buddy boats out and about can help getting you on the fish. This was my first attempt in a long time trying bottom fishing and it was a tough day. A few blues a few bite offs and a few crabs. It was nice to be out running the boat. Marty we need to keep Lou and Bob apart there quick wit could get us in trouble.

A good day on the water with a lot of fishing in the same locations as Lou & Marty with no catching. Team Lou and Marty out fished us big time today.:D

Don,
Are you winterizing now? If so, I've got room for you anytime.