One fish, two fish, blue fish, blue fish
After having breaking rockfish (up to 23 inches) while jigging south of the Severn on Monday, we ventured out again today. We ran south from Bodkin Creek
, went under the bridge and kept an eye out for birds. Nobody home this morning at our usual haunts
Ran below TP and found a lot of birds "seriously" looking. Not working over breaking fish, but showing us where LOTS of bait was in the water. I dropped three spreader bars over and while getting the fourth one ready to deploy, one of the rods gets hit. I bring in a nice fat rock(22). Sometimes it pays to be the one putting out lines
Great start!
Next fish was a big blue. Then, same with the next, and next, and next
Circled the area with birds flying low everywhere. Lots of "nervous" water with small silversides. The gulls were thinking the same thing I was, "come on, somebody start eating this bait,". The birds couldn't catch the swimming bait, they were looking for fish to feed, so they could pick up some leftover pieces!!
Saw a "slick" not far away. Figured it meant bluefish marauding bait, and it was, nice 18 inch blues.
I actually pulled lines and ran to Eastern Bay with the hope that with birds working on the western side, would equal birds working on the eastern side
Pulled into EB, threw the boat into neutral, picked up my binoculars, and scoped the area. I saw hundreds of birds working. I threw the boat into forward and told my crew to get their jigging rods ready. We slid upwind of the action and quickly brought a few small rock to the boat. At least we were in rockfish. Maybe we could pull a few keepers out of the fray
Got a few hookups with really feisty fish. I asked Lou if he needed the net? Drag was being taken, line was running under the boat, and Lou kept saying, "This is a nice one, this is a nice one". Damn, a huge blue (20-21 inches). My friend Mark hooked another big blue. Then I had one! These were fun, and great for smoking, but not what we wanted.
I chased several groups of birds, hoping to find a decent pile of rock under the blues, but everything we hooked up had no stripes
Continued to play in EB for a while, they are fun to catch on light tackle, but eventually left them for another shot on the western side. Decided to put out planers, and we began catching blues once again. Water temps showed 75* on my meter. Blues won't be here much longer with forecasted nighttime temps in the 40's next week.
Found larger bait, peanut bunker, unmolested. Bait just "swooshed" across the water. The top water was turned white with bait. However, nothing was working on them. Unbelievable.
Checked a few more areas on the way home. Found lots of terrible "RED" water all the way from Severn River up to the Magothy
It might be a red tide, but why now? There were lots of small jellies mixed in. Maybe they just showed up well in red water, but I haven't seen this many jellies all summer.
So, we caught a ton of fish. We just couldn't get away from the blues.
Best of luck,
5th