Fishing Reports

We have fish camp every last week of the striper season. This week was likely our most successful even though it went out with a fizzle. It actually starts a bit earlier than the week but in general we dedicate the last week of the season to bring as many of our friends from our old stomping grounds as we can make it. 

It all started great with the biggest fish we had ever caught on Sunday the 26th. We had quality fish every day and got them early and often for the most part all week long. But sadly I had Charlie, Johnny, and Todd for the last day and we did not catch even one.

The day seemed to be doomed from the start. The weather was terrible, dense fog all over the area. I always promised myself I would not venture out in the fog so we waited until about 10:30 before leaving the dock. Even at that we did run into fog around 1GW but as you got out even further it cleared more and more. It was never really gone but certainly safe. 

We headed out to R62 and trolled our favorite baits but nothing really happening so I heading down to the cut channel. I took that long run because I really wanted them to get at least one fish. Also, it was far clearer south and the cut had at least 3 miles of visibility.

We tried for several hours but most of the group had something planned for New Years so we headed back early. Maybe if we had stayed fish a while they would have gotten the dinner bell playing but not today.

We made it back in plenty of time and again only the 1GW area had any significant fog so we were safe. I definitely had the radar humming and all eyes on the path.

No fish…no pictures.

Yep stole the title from a ZZ Top album but they obviously misspelled theirs. 

We had Trey with us today and we just took off to R62 instead of just running around the bay just to end up there. There were a few boats there already including the Midnight Sun. We took our time getting out today because we were not sure of the fog conditions but ultimately set out at 8:00 from my dock. Trey is just one of those truly genuinely nice people that I am fortunate to call friend and he is more than welcome on my boat any day he wants. 

The water was calm with just a bit (and I mean just a bit) of chop on maybe ½ foot rollers. We got there quickly and set up shop just south (maybe a half mile south of R62). Trolling eastward we ran into a few marks in the channel which is where we had caught most of our fish. But today, there was little to nothing in the deep water so we kept going eastward. We got to the shelf of approximately 45 -50 foot of water just before the NNK reef ledge of 30ft and we saw lots of marks and a fair amount of bait.

Often surprises (and at this point in my life it should not) me how out of the blue we get our limit. Today was no exception, we got multiple 20” fish but continued to throw them back and eventually hit a school 23” fish. Now that is more my style. We put three of those guys in the boat in no time and had a good ride back to the dock.

We did hit a thick layer of fog at the entrance to the Great Wicomico which I am never a fan of but we got through it fine with my chart plotter and radar. People ask me all of the time how often I use my radar and I say it is required to run if you have one but I love the confirmation of a radar blip where I can see the other boats and even more when I cannot see the other boats.

We had Mitch, Scott, and Thomas in Mitch’s boat with us all day and they had good success as well so another good day on the bay.

The purple people eater was the best bait today as well as the year really two years.

The water was calm and 45 degrees.

December 30, 2021

	High	Low	Average
Temperature	51.8 °F	48.7 °F	49.9 °F
Dew Point	50.1 °F	47.9 °F	48.8 °F
Humidity	97 %	93 %	96 %
Precipitation	0.17 in	—	—

	High	Low	Average
Wind Speed	7.6 mph	0.0 mph	1.8 mph
Wind Gust	8.9 mph	—	2.4 mph
Wind Direction	—	—	NNE
Pressure	29.78 in	29.68 in	—

Today Scott’s dad Pop Pop joined us.

Always good to have a good captain and experienced first mate on board. We set out a little later than normal thinking it would be good timing and hoping the winds would die down. I think the weather apps have been more consistently off recently than I can remember. The water was very calm, a low ceiling to the point you may have thought it was fog. There were some rolling 1.5 foot but zero chop which is always an interesting mix. What wind we had was more from the east (which is not the best fishing wind). It started out warmer and got colder during the day.

We headed off to the Smith Point Lighthouse area to see what was happening. Saw nothing in the air or on the sonar so I headed over to the areas I like best there, which are the 3 wrecks just off 63a. It’s deep water but you generally see bait and fish there. We did see a ton of bait and fish in the area. We caught a few fish but they were mostly small or at least nothing we wanted to bring onboard. We finally did catch one 23” fish there but we decided to head to R62 to see what was going on. 

Well there it was just a lot of the same. As we moved through the tide change we caught a bunch of 23”. We had two in the boat so we kept throwing back one and catching another. Well finally I decided that we were either catching the same fish or we were in a school of 23” and we just put the 3rd one in the boat and came home with plenty of daylight and time to clean everything.

Overall a really good day. I feel ashamed that you can be dejected with catching limit with nice fish. Spoiled is the only word that comes to mind.

December 29, 2021

	High	Low	Average
Temperature	64.0 °F	48.6 °F	56.1 °F
Dew Point	59.5 °F	47.1 °F	52.0 °F
Humidity	97 %	80 %	86 %
Precipitation	0.00 in	—	—

	High	Low	Average
Wind Speed	10.3 mph	0.0 mph	1.8 mph
Wind Gust	12.5 mph	—	2.4 mph
Wind Direction	—	—	South
Pressure	29.73 in	29.54 in	—

Water temp was 45 degs.

Chuck (aka, Angelique) always tells us we are the “bellys” going fishing. She will add up the number of people on the boat and that is the name of that boat. Much like whichever plane the President is in is considered Air Force one, we had the call sign today as the 4 Bellys (yes this is how we spell it). Well we probably have more fun in our Belly Boat than any of the presidents but that is another blog completely. So today we added another into the mix, Denny joined our merry band of anglers.

Far colder today, with less sunshine, more wind, stronger seas, you name it, there was worse of everything today than yesterday. But, we fish because we want to not because there are good days and bad days. We will leave the dock washer (people that have boats but don’t take them out) to themselves and charge on as normal. You can’t catch a big one or many of them on the dock making phone calls to see if they are out there. And no I am not talking about any of my friends so don’t start with me.

Anyway we headed out in Mitch’s boat from his dock at about sunrise. Did not take long to know that it was going to be a rough ride to the fishing grounds. I would say it was 2 solid feet with rough chop. It was far cooler today but we are here to fish so we did. Denny said we needed to find a better road home when we come back (Mitch complied and it was far smoother on the ride in).

We started out at R62 looking for the same group of fish but they were gone. The old saying of you can’t catch yesterday’s fish is as true as it comes. But, throughout the morning we did catch a lot of undersized fish that we threw back and two keepers.

Denny and Basil did a good job on deck and brought in the fish and rigs like they were pros. We were out there and the Captains boats were having as difficult a time as we had. Yesterday they were back at dock at 9:00, today some were still out there when we left.

December 27, 2021

	High	Low	Average
Temperature	46.0 °F	41.6 °F	43.3 °F
Dew Point	40.5 °F	31.8 °F	36.4 °F
Humidity	86 %	67 %	77 %
Precipitation	0.00 in	—	—

	High	Low	Average
Wind Speed	10.3 mph	0.0 mph	4.1 mph
Wind Gust	11.9 mph	—	5.0 mph
Wind Direction	—	—	ENE
Pressure	29.97 in	29.75 in	—

Okay, let’s start at the beginning of my day. Went to church as normal but Scott and I had arranged to go fishing as soon as I got back to my house. He called later to let me know that Mitch would be joining us on my boat. We did not get out as quickly as possible because Scott needed gas in his boat so we went there first. He needed to fill up because this week is fish camp. We invite everyone we know that wants to fish the last week of the season so we each need our boats full of gas and ready to go. But, we decided that today we need to scout out where to fish and how. 

We left the dock at about 1:30 and headed to R62. We did see a bunch of birds and the water was active. We were catching normal fish all day and we got our 28 inch fish in the boat leaving room for a big one. There have been more “big ones” caught this year than has been in a bunch of years and we wanted to be that boat as well. 

We were bottom bouncing and I saw the rod bend over and so did Scott. He picked it up and screamed to stop the boat. The fish was taking drag even after I had it in neutral. Mitch and I got the other rods in the boat to keep everything out of the way.

We all knew it was going to be a big guy and as it turned out it was a 47” 45 pound killer. This one was caught on our bottom bounce rig. We were in deeper water so in those cases we definitely want one of them out. 

Bringing a fish that big in the boat takes the whole crew. There is an amount of teamwork that is needed that without that level of work there is no way the fish is in the boat. Even with us all at work it was still amazing to get everything in order to get him over the rail.

This is what we were all looking for, we have fish to eat and could really care less about the food aspect of fishing (even though we love to eat them). I wanted the big one, this was the biggest striper to be over the rail of my boat and I am glad and proud to catch it with two of my best friends.

Just a quick note about the name of the post. It originated from our trips with Brandon and the boys. They want to name all of the fish and we decided the big one would be called Bocephus. So they keep saying we are going to catch Bocephus. Well this time we did, maybe the next time they go with us we can catch it’s brother.

December 26, 2021

	High	Low	Average
Temperature	61.7 °F	43.3 °F	55.6 °F
Dew Point	52.3 °F	39.1 °F	42.5 °F
Humidity	90 %	44 %	63 %
Precipitation	0.00 in	—	—

	High	Low	Average
Wind Speed	11.4 mph	0.0 mph	3.0 mph
Wind Gust	13.2 mph	—	4.0 mph
Wind Direction	—	—
Pressure	29.88 in	29.52 in	—

The water was very calm, about 1 foot. Water temp was 44.

Here is another tactic I have added to my list of rigs that I use. We call it bottom bouncing. In essence the idea is that you put a big enough weight on the line to have the weight bounce on the bottom and it puts the lure just above the floor of the bay. You put the lure directly above a striper that is resting close to the bottom. 

I think you can use most any lure but we use what I call a Road Runner. On to this I add a 5 inch swim shad. 

It works when other times during the day things don’t. There are times when you are waiting on the tide or current to change and you are just burning gas. I have found during those times you increase your chances of success by adding this to the mix. I don’t run these when umbrellas and tandems are killing it but when nothing else seems to be working.

I hope you can notice that for this lure the hook is up which helps it not pick up any trash if by chance in a turn it also hits the bottom.

As you are trolling you will see the rod leisurely go down then back up say on a rhythm of a Lawrence Welk “and a one and a two” or a bit slower. If the rod tip is not moving you are not on the bottom.

Working and fishing too much to write. How can work get in the way of fishing, well I am no richer now than I have been so I still keep going. My work is great and I love doing it but it all too often gets in the way of good fishing weather.

Ok, so to catch you on my fishing adventures. The week of Dec 12th was a very good fishing week but nothing stood out. It is shameful that going and catching nice keeper size fish (but not extraordinary) becomes mundane. We went out every day, the wind held and caught limit every time. Terrible to think of that is not newsworthy but all of the fish were about 21 -24. We didn’t catch the big one. 

Road runner and bottom bouncing is a new lure and method we have been working on and it has its place in your arsenal. I’ll give it its own page that maybe will come out one day this week if the wind blows. The road runner for us has been productive and we caught multiple on that rig so definitely add it to your box.

Friday, Mitch and I went on his boat and our friend Dave went on his with his son and son’s friend. The Dave group had gone on Thursday and just crushed them. We got out to the NNK reef just before Dave did and we both trolled just east of the reef and maybe just a bit north of R62. 

The FISH, we were about a ¼ mile from Dave and I could hear screaming. I was looking intently to make certain they were not in distress. Boy anything but distress, they had just landed a 46” fish. Dave called to confirm the size limitations and asked me to look again. I get it he had the fish of his life on deck but let her go as expected. Dave, now that is the fish.

Saturday a bunch of friends chartered Capt Jack Frazier. We were headed down I expect to the cut channel but he saw a massive amount of birds just east of the incredible line of fish nets. He was not a fan of heading over there but since I had just been there the day before and others with great eyes we spotted for him a path through. Wow, just wow, we had our limit in about 15 mins. So quickly we were able to regroup at the house and we all went back out in our boats.

We had Ron on the Top Seacret, Dave on Playing Hooky, Vince, Mitch, and me on the Mytical River. We all got into them so it was a great day.

Today the world lost a great person and I lost a dear friend. Patsy Sylvia went home with the Lord last night and I am so sorry for the loss. Buddy and all of the family I just want to say how sorry I am for your loss and how I mourn with you. The world is losing so many of our great champions and Patsy’s legacy is so great the entire community is suffering. She was not merely a great family leader but a leader in our community. Her pleasant smile was as infectious as it could be and she had such a great way of communicating I could just sit and talk to her for as long as I could. 

I truly enjoyed our time together, going over Bible verses, eating together at our neighborhood picnics, etc. She had such a great attitude in facing giant struggles in her health. She faced them looking them in the eye full of life and ready to fight for her family’s sake and fully prepared for the final outcome. If we could all be that brave, the world would surely be a better place. The world in fact is a better place for her being a part of it and I for one am a better person being affected by her. All of us could learn from her, she was way more concerned for her family and her friends than she ever was with herself. 

She loved her family, friends, and community and the world loved her right back. It was impossible to know her and not love her. She came to all of the neighborhood events and it was easy to see the crowd drawn to her. 

Patsy loved the Lord and she is finally resting peacefully. I can only say we should all direct our lives to accept Christ as our Savior and Patsy we will see you soon.

Well today after church Soctt and I decided the bay was down enough to give it a go. The winds were still brisk but the wave action was a manageable 1 to 2 feet. We left the dock at about 12:40 heading to ole reliable R62. We didn’t stick to our original plan (as normal). We stopped around 1 GW when we saw a bunch of birds working. One thing that is new this year or at least not like normal years is that even when the birds are working they seem to stay in one place for only a few minutes. Anyway we didn’t catch a thing nor did we see much on the sonar. With that we headed to 63 which has been a traditional favorite.

Well nothing was happening at 63 so we headed east to the NNK reef or really just above. We trolled across the channel and in about 160 feet of water we saw more bait than I had seen in years but it was definitely at the bottom. As we got closer we saw a few boats together so checking them out I realized it was really a long-lined net fisher. So anyone heading to the reef, actually just north of the reef all of the way to about even with SP Lighthouse be careful. 

So turning dead south to steer well clear of the nets we head back to our destination of R62. Maybe just barely above the reef in about 45 ft of water we ran into the herd. That is one reason we love striper fishing so much, is that you can go from a calm Sunday afternoon to total chaos. We had put one keeper in the boat early in the channel but every rod we had went down and it either had two fish or a big one. 

At the end of the chaos we finally kept one 24 and one 27 inch fish. Same baits as normal with purple leading the charge as normal. Ended the day with 8 fish, 5 of which were keeper size, and would have loved to get going but the two we kept were enough for us anyway.

The water was 48.9 degrees and very clear, the sky had plenty of sunlight and the waves, as I said before, were about 1.5 feet from the SE. 

Just another great day on the bay.

November 28, 2021

	High	Low	Average
Temperature	56.5 °F	40.8 °F	48.5 °F
Dew Point	44.8 °F	26.8 °F	33.8 °F
Humidity	88 %	39 %	58 %
Precipitation	0.00 in	—	—

	High	Low	Average
Wind Speed	5.4 mph	0.0 mph	1.2 mph
Wind Gust	7.4 mph	—	1.8 mph
Wind Direction	—	—	SSW
Pressure	29.80 in	29.61 in	—

Now today is why we fish. Today was just one of those special days. We had my friend Brandon and his two sons Asher and Sage added Mitch to help keep everything straight and we went fishing. We knew early morning there were more waves than the two boys were going to want to handle so we didn’t leave the dock until about 10 am. We got as far as the R2 buoy just outside of the Great Wicommico before it got too rough to motor but not too rough to fish so we set out our four lines. 

We started trolling north toward 63 and Smith Point. There was just tons of bait and fish on the sounder but I could not get anything to bite. A little discouragement on the  boat setting in but we started seeing some birds gathering so I knew it was not going to be long now. I would say around 11:15 or so we caught the first 20”. Looking back we should have thrown it back but I wanted to have at least one for the boys to take home. There was a massive birdnado behind us (from exactly where we had been) so we turned around. From that point on crazy fishing was the tag of the day. Just one nice fish after the next got on. The boys and Brandon had a nice time and Mitch and I were glad to have a good luck charm on the boat. 

The weather turned out to be great even with an early cold start the sun was out in full feature so it felt warm regardless. This certainly reminded me of great fishing we have had in the past. I have not had this success so far this year and glad to have this come up today.

Most any bait would have worked today but our blue, purple, white, and chartreuse umbrella rigs worked. 

Water temp finally got below 50 at 49.5, very clear water color.