Young of the Year: Perch and Lots of Future Trophy Rockfish 10/23

[Rivercat09]

Eastern Bay: Perch of All Sizes with Lots of Future Trophy Rockfish October 23rd 2011

The wind was supposed to be calm and the seas were supposed to be flat on both Saturday and Sunday, but that’s not exactly how it turned out. Instead of the forecasted millpond, we were dealt steady 10 to 12 knot winds out of the southeast and a slightly choppy bay. It was still fishable, but it wasn’t exactly the “can’t miss” conditions that we were promised.

It took a while to find them, but when all was said and done, we caught 32 white perch of various sizes up to 10 inches, and 20 undersized rockfish from about 6 inches up to 11½ inches. We caught them initially on a ledge near oysters that dropped from 13 to 22 feet, and later on another similar ledge near some working birds. We were in Eastern Bay near Bloody Point. Kate and I caught them on bloodworms, and I had some luck with a 6-inch pearl colored Z-man BKD style jig with a 1/2 oz head. On the jig, I had bites on just about every cast at times when the meter was lighting up or when there were birds near by, but I was having a hard time hooking these small rockfish.

Today, we had visual confirmation of the recent reports that the “young of the year” this year was a strong class. We launched at 1 PM, and returned to the dock as the sun was dipping below the horizon at about 6:30 pm.

It was a typical late October day with high, thin clouds and air temperatures in the high 50’s to low 60’s. There was a slight haze, but one could see across the bay to landmarks on the opposite shore, and the Bay Bridge could clearly be seen from Poplar Island. The water temperature is continuing to fall and was 62º. Salinity was about 5 PSU and falling, down from a relative high of about 6 PSU within the last week.

High tide at Bloody Point was at 1:33 pm, low tide was at 8:06 pm, and the moon was 21% visible. We noticed very little change at the ramp between the high tide when we launched and the low tide when we returned, and on the water there was very little current to speak of outside of a little wind-driven current. The forecast today was for flat seas and winds of 5 knots or less out of the southeast. In reality, winds blew 10 to 12 knots all day out of the southeast.

[Spot77]

That's a good Perch haul!!

We've seen some great Rockfish from the 4" to 15" range this year that have looked prettier and healthier than in years' past.

In fact, I think I've only seen one sick fish this year, and we've caught probably 100 keeper sized, and slightly undersized Rockfish this year since April.

I never seem to do very well on the eastern side of the bay. Probably has a lot to do with how unfamiliar I am with the water over there.

And my lack of skill.