A little late, but wanted to post about some trips this weekend:
23 October (Saturday) - Left the Bodkin before sunrise hoping to fish the last 1.5 hours of the incoming current. Had 3 others with me, two inexperienced anglers, the other, my friends dad from Eerie, PA who fishes freshwater lakes, including Lake Eerie. This was his first trip ever on the Chesapeake Bay. I had referred him to Shawn Kimbro’s website
www.chesapeakelighttackle.com a couple weeks prior to him coming down and he did his homework! He was the only one who caught a keeper.
Went to a spot that was very good on Wednesday (Oct. 20). Did not see any marks on the fish finder. A few casts and we moved to another lump nearby. So a few scattered marks. Drifting very fast due to current & wind in the same direction. My friend’s dad nearly has the pole ripped out of his hands. He brings in a fat 23”on BKD, his first rockfish. Fished for a while longer with only one dink that I caught on a gold Specialized Lil’ Bunker spoon. Current was going slack around this time so we picked up and ran south. It was pretty bumpy out with a steady 15 blowing out of the South up the bay. Went to Hackett’s where saw some small birds working in 15-20’ of water. Current was beginning to move again and we all caught a few dinks.
Ran to the sewer pipe where there were some more small birds working. Never saw much on the fish finder and did not catch anything there. Then ran to Love Point, again had small birds working. Caught a few more dinks here before we had to call it a day. Ran back to the Bodkin hoping to see some birds on the way in, but did not see another bird the whole trip home.
My friends’ dad was pretty happy with his fish and I’m glad he was the one that caught the keeper.
24 October (Sunday) - Left the Bodkin at 3:00pm with my dad and cousin(who is an excellent LTJ angler)looking for an afternoon bite with the incoming current. It was still a breezy and rough. Ran around Belvedere Shoal and found nothing. Headed to Love Point where once again small birds were working and we caught a few small fish. There were a fair number of birds, but very few fish caught or marked under these birds. Decided to head back north to where I caught the one keeper yesterday. Arrived just before dark at 6:05pm, fish finder showed a few scattered marks. We made a few casts and then both my cousin and I hooked up at the same time. He had a 25” and I caught a 29”. Repeated the drift several times and all three of us caught a few more in the low to mid 20’s. By then it was pretty dark and the bite was shutting down. Most fish caught on 6” BKD’s, one on a stingsilver.
Note: I fished 3 out of 5 days from Wednesday through Sunday. Saw very few birds north of Love Point all three days. Under the birds I have found there are not many fish, and the fish we do find are deep. It seems like by now we should seeing a lot more bird shows with breaking fish. Water was fluctuating between 59 and 60 degrees. I won’t be out for a while, I hope the best is still yet to come.
Jim