Time to get "caught up" on my own personal facebook page; as was pointed out by a fellow CBAngler
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I've been fishing most every day (except today) on the "Patent Pending" out of Deale. We have brought back a limit to the pier on every trip. This is not meant as a brag, simply a fact that supports that fishing is definately better than last spring.
Our fish have not been huge. Most fish are from the lower 30's to the upper 30's with 36-38 being normal. Most all our fish have spawned out, however, yesterday we caught some fish with sea lice. I hope this is an indication that another group is entering from the ocean.
We have been turning south on all out trips and finding bait before setting lines. We are running 22 rods, so I am covering lots of water and different depths fairly easily. Most private boats can't run that many, so I thought you might be interested in our most productive lines. REMEMBER, this weekend is the MSSA tournament and we may need to adjust a few lines deeper with all the boat traffic.
I have a 2/4 tandem out 8 bars closest to the boards. Then a 2/8 tandem also out 8 bars. Then a single 4oz out 6 bars followed by a single 8oz 6 bars back. Then I start back with tandems 2/4 out 4 bars, and a 2/8 out 4 bars.
The baits closest to the boards have been hot.
As for umbrella's, I have a small umbrella with 2 oz chute out 200 ft and on the other side the same chute out 180. We also run big umbrella's with twin baits, but they have been less productive.
Early in the season, white was the go to color. However, both white or green have been productive lately.
As noted, the tournament may cause us to adjust the spread, but if you get out after the tournament, try some of the above suggestions. One day last week, the water was calm as glass and we could see bait flipping on the surface. The lighter baits caught five fish early in the morning.
Our spread gets tweeked throughout the day. As each fish pops a clip, that rod gets put back out at the shortest position (4 bars). Eventually, the side winds up with maybe one six bar lure and all the rest 4 bars. When this happens, wait about 40 minutes. If no fish are caught off the boards, I reset the side and often a newly set 8 or 6 bar tandem gets hit.
On real sunny days (which we haven't had too many) I don't mind the side being light, but on cloudy/windy days, I reset.
Best of luck to all this weekend, the weather looks good and lots of fish will be caught, I hope a CBAngler at least places in the tournament.
5th (Marty)