Jigging Success Amidst the Winds of November 11/17/2011

[Rivercat09]

Summary
As has been the case of late, our plan today was to jig the eastern shore if the weather was cooperative, and to troll or jig the western side if Mother Nature gave us lemons. Small craft warnings and wind-driven rain forced our hand, and we ended up jigging in and near the mouth of the Rhode River. The fishing was far from epic, but it exceeded our low expectations. Norm and I had solid hookups within seconds of one another, and the end result was a 21+ inch keeper for me and a healthy 17-incher for Norm. My fish slammed a 4-inch Berkley Gulp Alive Swimming Mullet twisty on a tiny 3/8 oz chartreuse bucktail, and Norm’s fish fell to a green and pink BKD style soft plastic on a ½ oz jig head. Later, Norm caught another 17-inch rockfish on a rattletrap, and he lost a third fish at the side of the boat. I got a couple swipes on my bronze rattletrap but I got no solid hookups, and Norm also had a couple missed hookups. We boated our first fish within the first twenty minutes.

We Were Bundled in Layers


Getting better One Cast at a Time


(Miserable) Conditions
Air temperatures were in the mid to high 40’s and dropping throughout the day, and water temperatures were still 52º. Winds were out of the northwest at 17 to 20 knots, there were low hanging clouds, and bands of intermittent rain showers passed through most of the day. We splashed the boat at Holiday Hill Marina on the Rhode at about 9:45 am, and we pulled it at about 2:30 pm as the cold front was passing through and the skies were beginning to clear. We launched about an hour after high tide, but the water level was abnormally low. Stiff winds out of the northwest had been blowing for about 24 hours, and had pushed a lot of water down the bay. High tide at Thomas Point was at 8:49 am, low tide was at 2:30 pm, and the moon was 68% visible and waning. Salinity at Annapolis was about 5.5 PSU and had fallen from about 7 PSU earlier in the week. Tide-driven current was nonexistent, but we did find some wind-driven current. Despite the stormy conditions, the barometric pressure was rising the entire time that we were out with an approaching high-pressure system behind the cold front.

Baits
I was favoring my tiny chartreuse bucktail with the 4-inch twisty, and I often rotated in my bronze Rattletrap. Norm was switching between his green and pink BKD and his own bronze Rattletrap. Both of us also tossed silver Gotchas, Norm tried his lipless and suspended Yo-Zuri Edge Trembler Minnow, and just for grins I tossed my 4½ inch chartreuse Chug Bug a few times.

This was Low Tide!

[Spot77]

Woohoo!

Nice job! That's my kind of fishing there! I SO prefer to be casting than just trolling. Catching a couple small fish on medium action gear is so much fun to me.

The RatLtraps have been good to us this year. We've caught fish up to 29 inches with them in shallow water. With 14 lb braid, I can get a 1/2 ounce ratLtrap to troll at about 7 - 9 ft deep if I let out about 50 yards. That's how we managed 7 fish on Sunday...trolling those traps'

The Bill Lewis lures have worked GREAT, and the less expensive Cotton Cordell lipless cranbaits have worked very well too. Some days the color didn't matter, but it seems that chrome or gold have been the two best colors. We've caught some 12"+ White Perch on them too, as well as some of those big catfish in the tail end of summer. (Look at my thread about getting a hook embedded WAY in me for a pic of the "hot" lure.... )