Well................................you haven't seen me post much lately because I haven't been doing very well
. I've been lucky enough to get out on Don's (Hunter) boat and catch a few nice fish, but, I don't like giving out too much information when I'm a guest on someone elses ride.
We have a four boat rotation with Lou, Allen, Mark, and myself. We have been hitting the Ches. Beach/Cove Point area pretty hard with very limited success. Down south (Point no Point/Point Lookout) has produced nice fish and plenty of bait; however, our Mid Bay excursions have showed little bait and fish glued tightly to the bottom (holding 10 to fifteen feet off bottom). Yeah, Yeah, Jamie, I know just perfect for jigging
.
However, we couldn't reach those fish in deeper water (70-90 ft) with our trolling gear. I figure my deepest rods are somewhere in the 35 ft range (no downriggers or dummy lines).
Today four of us took a leasurly ride out with Capt. John on Patent Pending. We left the dock at 8am under foggy conditions. We didn't run very far or fast in the fog so we dropped lines just north of 82. Immediately, we noticed bait and fish higher than all the other outings. Don't misunderstand, they were still deep, but spread throughout the lower fourty/fifty feet. We found more bait in the 75 ft depth of water, so we could reach those fish showing on the meter at 30-40 feet.
Our hot rod today was a lg umbrella with two slider baits (3 oz each) in white with 24 oz weights and out 8 bars on Penn 340's (96 ft ?). It picked up half of our 8 fish today. We had another fish on another umbrella out 13 bars with 16 oz weight, and 3 fish off the boards. Three overs were on the deep umbrella, while the boards only produced one over fish.
We did see about 50 birds working and sitting in shallower water closer to 80A and took a detour to check them out. The fishfinder lit up and bait and fish were stacked in 45 ft of water. NOT A SINGLE HIT!!! My only guess was that out 9 inch baits were too large for the fish seen on the meter. We had some 6 inch baits out, but even they were ingnored.
We went back to 82 and finished our limit back in 75 feet of water.
This part of the fall season has been really dissapointing. One or two fish per trip has been normal for me, so today was an anomally. It's either a sign of good things to come, or a fluke
. Todays weather conditions may have been a factor as well. Foggy, overcast, the day before a front is coming through, and water as smooth as glass; who knows if this helped.
Best of luck, I hope this helps someone to put some fish in their cooler.
5th (Marty)