Met with light current and high skies, I didn't expect much when we arrived at the bridge at 3:00 PM today. To be honest, it wouldn't have mattered if we didn't catch a single fish. I've been off the water for well over a month and it's killing me. After another 14 hour work-day ended at 2:00 AM last night, I got up about noon today and noticed the wind wasn't blowing as hard as predicted. My plan was to put in my jon boat and fish the Bay Bridge because Crockett's Reel is still in the shop. Repairs were complete last Tuesday, but I haven't had time to pick it up. Enough whining.
I mentioned to my neighbor Mark that I was thinking of going out and he graciously offered up a trip in his Parker. This is the time of year when I really enjoy fishing the bridge. My first light tackle fishing trip on the Chesapeake Bay was in December at the bridge. I honed my jigging skills over a couple of years there, at first catching mostly small fish but occasionally landing one big enough to reveal the potential of what I consider to be the best structure-fishing location on the Bay. If you've read any of my CLT stuff you know I consider it the ultimate light tackle classroom. Today was a perfect example.
We hit the rock piles first thing finding small fish right where they are supposed to be. They were holding pretty tight in a small area, but as obvious on the fish finder as Christmas lights on a tractor tire. We decided to pull off and look elsewhere hoping to increase our chances for bigger fish, especially since there have been reports of some real hawgs caught recently. From our experience at the rock pils, we now knew that fish were holding in depths of 25 to 35 feet, probably because the water is warmer at that depth, so we looked for pilings where we could reach the bottom in that range. That was the ticket. When we hit them we found quality fish up to 37 inches. Hot lures were 7 inch Bass Assassins. I used a Candy Corn jighead with a pearl BA hotrodded in chartreuse/garlic while Mark threw an opening night orange/garlic color with a maroon head. That's not an obvious color combo, but it caught the biggest fish of the night. We stayed with them until almost dark and only saw one other boat working the bridge. Barring some drastic weather changes, I expect we will keep fish at the bridge well into February. Hope the bigger ones stay around!
Light Tackle University - Bay Bridge Jigging Report 12/06/09
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