tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46430801658632887832024-02-07T02:38:02.663-05:00Fishing the ChesapeakeMostly Fishing the Upper Chesapeake,Marylands Reservoirs and beyondsam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-8340081203744853642019-06-22T12:45:00.000-04:002019-06-22T12:45:35.554-04:00Spring Bassin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgapXtWCrwa8yIDbIfOQtHIiVbqEF81J9Dgj_dXKytGjxGlLRMH8ayXJrj4eDjNulxDoF8khLx8hCyWENSj4Ega56iZUZFtfkpfwVkabrpSi5CZSDMV3gwLtdUxkVDuPjxTuoyCUvfA-NEf/s1600/P2220326+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgapXtWCrwa8yIDbIfOQtHIiVbqEF81J9Dgj_dXKytGjxGlLRMH8ayXJrj4eDjNulxDoF8khLx8hCyWENSj4Ega56iZUZFtfkpfwVkabrpSi5CZSDMV3gwLtdUxkVDuPjxTuoyCUvfA-NEf/s320/P2220326+%25282%2529.JPG" width="265" /></a>This past spring was slower then usual for me, but they seemed to stay shallow a little longer then usual also, I mostly targeted Bass in the local Reservoirs and ponds. I had to work a little harder for the better size fish, seemed like there were more people fishing then normal, I think that may have had something to do with it. Plus I also think there are just more good Bass fishermen today. I remember in the early 1980s going to Loch Raven with a friend of mine, I walked to the shoreline and pointed to a log sticking out of the water from a distance, then I told him to watch, there is a big Bass there, first cast I hooked up with a monster, it did get off after jumping out of the water, but still to this day he will remind me about that. I still catch plenty of Bass that way but its not as much of a sure thing anymore, mostly because so many more fishermen know about structure fishing. One method I do today that works good is to look for places to cast where other fishermen may be less likely to. there are lots of areas to cast that aren't very obvious...sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-69428916562744274462018-12-31T17:41:00.001-05:002018-12-31T17:41:09.421-05:002018 year in review<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kIl4ckMm5ElQHGHMfU1HLINHMwTeVO0ComJ9DK4DtCmSv0ZETOeX8CyLIS0J8WN4jwLDUxsm4dB0ulOe1BKPGxfrvezZu8Lhu8QEdjrl40WXwOkFcghneyfU3YpokLkzrfPg1uO9Pfib/s1600/P4200286+%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: left; color: #0066cc; float: left; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1118" data-original-width="1491" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kIl4ckMm5ElQHGHMfU1HLINHMwTeVO0ComJ9DK4DtCmSv0ZETOeX8CyLIS0J8WN4jwLDUxsm4dB0ulOe1BKPGxfrvezZu8Lhu8QEdjrl40WXwOkFcghneyfU3YpokLkzrfPg1uO9Pfib/s320/P4200286+%25283%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kIl4ckMm5ElQHGHMfU1HLINHMwTeVO0ComJ9DK4DtCmSv0ZETOeX8CyLIS0J8WN4jwLDUxsm4dB0ulOe1BKPGxfrvezZu8Lhu8QEdjrl40WXwOkFcghneyfU3YpokLkzrfPg1uO9Pfib/s1600/P4200286+%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>This was another good year of fishing, Bass fishing off the shoreline at Loch Raven was really good with lots of nice size fish, April was the best month where I went on a streak of 6 consecutive trips catching at least one fish over 5lbs on each trip.<br />
I took my boat out a couple times on the Chesapeake for preseason Rockfish but never did very good, once the season opened I went twice and caught a fish over 45" on both trips, not bad considering many people complained of it being slow and I only trolled with 6 to 7 rods and caught the fish in less then an hour on both trips.<br />
The summer season for Stripers was really good, even when it got hot out the fish were stacked up in many different spots. then the rains came, it rained a lot this year. muddy water and huge amounts of debris was common throughout the second half of summer, I rarely even took my boat out, I mainly did shoreline fishing, I did a few trips at loch Raven for Bass, And some urban fishing in Baltimore for Catfish, I was actually trying to get Carp but all I kept getting was Cats, but I can't complain, it was still fun,<br />
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I eventually got some Carp at Loch Raven. I also did some Bass fishing in down town Baltimore, all the rain must of pushed the Bass down stream in the Patapsco. it was always amusing to hear some of the comments from people in the city, hardly anyone fishes in the city so people were constantly surprised.<br />
Luckily the bay cleared out well for my favorite time of the year, Fall, and it turned out to be my best October for Stripers ever, maybe even my best fall, it was at least my top 3. In October I had another streak where I went 10 straight trips catching fish over 30", I would of went 14 straight trips but one trip my biggest was only 29".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Q50_-D91zAO8Y7rKU_gslxp9j3jqZzgau1UlKu19bJN5c_jpQDbaK8XczGxqrtK-Pi4SExNxBk3HtNFZN5YaZHEe0XGkepH9zR28fpnTi_Q8DuW8t_Mu1KnPvFlui_gJpKW6ZPgXQqrM/s1600/P5280308.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Q50_-D91zAO8Y7rKU_gslxp9j3jqZzgau1UlKu19bJN5c_jpQDbaK8XczGxqrtK-Pi4SExNxBk3HtNFZN5YaZHEe0XGkepH9zR28fpnTi_Q8DuW8t_Mu1KnPvFlui_gJpKW6ZPgXQqrM/s200/P5280308.JPG" width="200" /></a>Hopefully this year will be as memorablesam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-29511253407956685382018-10-31T20:55:00.000-04:002018-10-31T20:59:37.483-04:00Rocktober report<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx_ISDgpNFyYS2M_pjJ_jpJrfWoljCdheVNwO8MlmaRV2CKdolq2exq0NHvlpwAom67NfDgXEXAB9vVQpqpZ9pnTatf3tBn_hZIJJpyEpKf9U4k9I1Ues5oa9aS-lB8D6BChhcQuwVnPzf/s1600/PA180303+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx_ISDgpNFyYS2M_pjJ_jpJrfWoljCdheVNwO8MlmaRV2CKdolq2exq0NHvlpwAom67NfDgXEXAB9vVQpqpZ9pnTatf3tBn_hZIJJpyEpKf9U4k9I1Ues5oa9aS-lB8D6BChhcQuwVnPzf/s320/PA180303+%25282%2529.JPG" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmYq8gejvvh918p3sGUzyzGS7wTbIvIq2YTaEi-yGOKidUA5ai5RdCZiId-ImvMKiDzA0bRyKXZeTQusysApeXPnFQHe4iEVByplV0EOVuqYK4PseuNLL_GwMe0CNlGgdZPqrOxECsRAS7/s1600/PA030306+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmYq8gejvvh918p3sGUzyzGS7wTbIvIq2YTaEi-yGOKidUA5ai5RdCZiId-ImvMKiDzA0bRyKXZeTQusysApeXPnFQHe4iEVByplV0EOVuqYK4PseuNLL_GwMe0CNlGgdZPqrOxECsRAS7/s320/PA030306+%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmYq8gejvvh918p3sGUzyzGS7wTbIvIq2YTaEi-yGOKidUA5ai5RdCZiId-ImvMKiDzA0bRyKXZeTQusysApeXPnFQHe4iEVByplV0EOVuqYK4PseuNLL_GwMe0CNlGgdZPqrOxECsRAS7/s1600/PA030306+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></a>The fall has always been my favorite time to target Rockfish casting spoons, plastics and top water. I like when the big fish come in in the spring and summer and even winter fishing, but no matter the time of year, fall is the time I'm always waiting for. The larger schoolies always usually arrive around September, but every year is different in the upper bay, this year I caught fish over 30" in September but not as many as usual, October is when it got good. I went out on 14 trip in October and caught (and released) fish over 30" on every trip except one, and on that one trip the biggest fish was 29", I had a couple trips where I caught more fish over 30" that I could even caught, just one after another for hours. the biggest in October was 36", but I also had a couple days where the biggest was 35", and about half of my trips I managed fish to 34". Its been one of my best falls in about 5 years, and probably my best October ever. the real trick to getting them was fishing shallow lumps, and lots of stealth, areas where boats are running all over the fish were al<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx_ISDgpNFyYS2M_pjJ_jpJrfWoljCdheVNwO8MlmaRV2CKdolq2exq0NHvlpwAom67NfDgXEXAB9vVQpqpZ9pnTatf3tBn_hZIJJpyEpKf9U4k9I1Ues5oa9aS-lB8D6BChhcQuwVnPzf/s1600/PA180303+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx_ISDgpNFyYS2M_pjJ_jpJrfWoljCdheVNwO8MlmaRV2CKdolq2exq0NHvlpwAom67NfDgXEXAB9vVQpqpZ9pnTatf3tBn_hZIJJpyEpKf9U4k9I1Ues5oa9aS-lB8D6BChhcQuwVnPzf/s1600/PA180303+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>most always avoided, the bigger fish don't like the sound of boat motors, they know we are their biggest predators. I would generally try many spots, until I find them, sometimes they were where I found them in the previous trips, and sometimes they were in other locations, but they always stayed in the same 3 mile radi<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmYq8gejvvh918p3sGUzyzGS7wTbIvIq2YTaEi-yGOKidUA5ai5RdCZiId-ImvMKiDzA0bRyKXZeTQusysApeXPnFQHe4iEVByplV0EOVuqYK4PseuNLL_GwMe0CNlGgdZPqrOxECsRAS7/s1600/PA030306+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-left: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmYq8gejvvh918p3sGUzyzGS7wTbIvIq2YTaEi-yGOKidUA5ai5RdCZiId-ImvMKiDzA0bRyKXZeTQusysApeXPnFQHe4iEVByplV0EOVuqYK4PseuNLL_GwMe0CNlGgdZPqrOxECsRAS7/s1600/PA030306+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></a>us. Ironically, as good as this fall has been in the upper bay for the larger fish, I haven't seen the large schools of smaller fish like usual, where you could basically run to many spots and catch all the smaller keepers you want for hours. this past summer was actually like that which was also unusual, I often commented that this past summer reminded me of the average fall, not sure where the smaller fish went, but some say they moved south to the mid bay already. It does seem like the reports are increasing down that way<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0VDp7ETyaImQN3UuFjvof7swty3ZLfyyMdoJLxrdbtEMv2ThwonOSNqWeaJbltQPNZF_EH11pb7G2EmfSC7syVXTMAUNb4gD0qnoZxtA6bmZQ9RLwZ0Ujg6OGAmCTg9r3kaRaxmLRk37_/s1600/PA260302.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>EDIT...went out on my last trip (October 31) and got totally skunked, first skunk since March, to make matters worse I hooked up with over ten drag peeling fish, and everyone got off. Im not sure what was happening. I also thought I got a snag once, but it turned out to be a big fish, it took off and snapped my line, must be a Halloween curse LOL<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />
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<br />sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-73667586419704512312017-04-08T19:22:00.000-04:002017-04-08T19:55:31.909-04:00Great fishing in the last two yearsI haven't posted on this blog in a long time, it surprised me when I realized its been over two years, the years go by so fast. LOL. I post almost all my trips on my facebook page but have almost forgot about this page, plus I think it has a lot to do about being lazy. but I haven't really been lazy when it comes to fishing, the last couple years have been great with lots of nice catches, my most recent Striper weighed over 50lbs, just an estimate since I never weighed it, since I was catch and releasing I don't like to waste to much time weighing. I basically went by the length (48"), girth charts to estimate the weight. I was actually a little disappointed when I looked at the picture, I thought it looked a lot bigger in person. I need to lose a few pounds so my fish can look bigger, ha ha<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCDNOFEg0xDuwOHFrLWFOhESlwPblMrFtVrUudJZ-FuYMseK4avk-6JBi8_FGp1NDq1z-qV16rBmQso5eqsho9fHgsH8vXNs7HLXEvycgdfV753CmMEbsxqsjLETXOZkKueR6SMMpvEbW/s1600/P3250071%2525204_zpsk178wuak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCDNOFEg0xDuwOHFrLWFOhESlwPblMrFtVrUudJZ-FuYMseK4avk-6JBi8_FGp1NDq1z-qV16rBmQso5eqsho9fHgsH8vXNs7HLXEvycgdfV753CmMEbsxqsjLETXOZkKueR6SMMpvEbW/s320/P3250071%2525204_zpsk178wuak.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCDNOFEg0xDuwOHFrLWFOhESlwPblMrFtVrUudJZ-FuYMseK4avk-6JBi8_FGp1NDq1z-qV16rBmQso5eqsho9fHgsH8vXNs7HLXEvycgdfV753CmMEbsxqsjLETXOZkKueR6SMMpvEbW/s1600/P3250071%2525204_zpsk178wuak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">I caught so many nice fish in the last couple years, I really can't post them all but its been good, last year (2016) was one of the best years for Rockfishing in a while, you could go out and catch legal size fish all day long if you wanted, very plentiful! heres a couple pics from some of my better days. I plan on posting more but who knows, I said that two years ago. LOL </a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCDNOFEg0xDuwOHFrLWFOhESlwPblMrFtVrUudJZ-FuYMseK4avk-6JBi8_FGp1NDq1z-qV16rBmQso5eqsho9fHgsH8vXNs7HLXEvycgdfV753CmMEbsxqsjLETXOZkKueR6SMMpvEbW/s1600/P3250071%2525204_zpsk178wuak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpB-DdZBW8035LKS72J2zw_CmFql2j7BTDfxlNC5uWJK86xHR3U1NY2xUuI4PpQSFRpiF6Dwi4NQnXKj9EI48if69e_6yGUx_8r3GbCbhZiimPImODBy7HmByBWiLDNVLM7qO0d6QR6hBK/s1600/11102687_829217773782863_2973907916550986122_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpB-DdZBW8035LKS72J2zw_CmFql2j7BTDfxlNC5uWJK86xHR3U1NY2xUuI4PpQSFRpiF6Dwi4NQnXKj9EI48if69e_6yGUx_8r3GbCbhZiimPImODBy7HmByBWiLDNVLM7qO0d6QR6hBK/s320/11102687_829217773782863_2973907916550986122_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOwCgzQ3xkrNW2bYQkMvqEX7P5ngwZbYS760Uo3SqRlo1Hb0AAjEqyc2sJKGUmWaDDsROUfrUV7E30Q50NKh5jwZ_qZqwTmevGJIIlqmTSeDNlgrBjs4W4Fk82qtTjH9E9BN-nkTiqJdRh/s1600/13327573_1034825689888736_5547532324252198873_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOwCgzQ3xkrNW2bYQkMvqEX7P5ngwZbYS760Uo3SqRlo1Hb0AAjEqyc2sJKGUmWaDDsROUfrUV7E30Q50NKh5jwZ_qZqwTmevGJIIlqmTSeDNlgrBjs4W4Fk82qtTjH9E9BN-nkTiqJdRh/s320/13327573_1034825689888736_5547532324252198873_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-18552716169246865312014-12-01T18:10:00.000-05:002014-12-01T18:10:24.296-05:00Another good season coming to an end<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpe1ZnW4gzHyPvBzadsVUUfLODGbyr34ukfJZ4FY6f8VhYW2gPYh54V9RJCJoXn_72qrbiVjabIc1qtJsBe9iiiAGj9r3SABSV_v2QTTgZ9qLcZX5fqTRBAK7B9WKS8cP-uE4kX4Rn9gFS/s1600/PB050002+(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpe1ZnW4gzHyPvBzadsVUUfLODGbyr34ukfJZ4FY6f8VhYW2gPYh54V9RJCJoXn_72qrbiVjabIc1qtJsBe9iiiAGj9r3SABSV_v2QTTgZ9qLcZX5fqTRBAK7B9WKS8cP-uE4kX4Rn9gFS/s1600/PB050002+(2).jpg" height="254" width="320" /></a>Finally got a boat back in September just in time for the fall fishing. luckily the fish stayed around the upper bay lumps and shoals later then usual so I never had to travel very far to get them. The fall fishing started out slower then usual, I still caught fish on every trip but I had quite a few trips where I only caught one or two, but November turned out to be a good month with plenty of good size schoolies while casting lures, but once the cold weather came in it stopped the larger fish from migrating father up the bay. Now I'm pretty much fishing the local reservoirs from shore (always fun)and anticipating some spring trophies, now that I have a more seaworthy boat I may be able to get out more!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2phq-i6TsFm9pfwLiK_PArDqBZkA31u6BHPtL80PNatSh1fecgIsulTRDpL4F3SU8UmG3L0v9PwisaqD1VtoLTOcycUKbR3oN9Ltb4ZpT9SAk7Ymk7xcE-ljHPtNkBoc1XdZ0VUUuYNa2/s1600/catfish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2phq-i6TsFm9pfwLiK_PArDqBZkA31u6BHPtL80PNatSh1fecgIsulTRDpL4F3SU8UmG3L0v9PwisaqD1VtoLTOcycUKbR3oN9Ltb4ZpT9SAk7Ymk7xcE-ljHPtNkBoc1XdZ0VUUuYNa2/s1600/catfish.jpg" height="254" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggk0E1JUUz1tfTDchX4_KH_kTasB2G2YIiFbYXTjDhGxMbyai_7WkPFfbOzOIASo6S0iJxyIWkPRxHCclq1RaUJA0h_RC6d0ajZT_avGt8PTMhJVakv4-RlJY0b7kDe4hGJPJbx3_QWuDN/s1600/PB110019+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggk0E1JUUz1tfTDchX4_KH_kTasB2G2YIiFbYXTjDhGxMbyai_7WkPFfbOzOIASo6S0iJxyIWkPRxHCclq1RaUJA0h_RC6d0ajZT_avGt8PTMhJVakv4-RlJY0b7kDe4hGJPJbx3_QWuDN/s1600/PB110019+(2).JPG" height="230" width="320" /></a></div>
sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-38893570541768173562014-08-02T15:30:00.000-04:002014-08-02T15:30:36.743-04:00Not fishing much lately<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmONDZolLup8f_9UxZn9fayGPH4n1IFuKl3ilOAGkw_88ACmdvdLN40yaI3B5vYNNL9PbrrnXnTdN-QIui6DqJqbhTWR97_U_9x7NtEZ6HbnM5EL46o2DViXoO5d1EyGsHtWR151_GBs95/s1600/P5060003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmONDZolLup8f_9UxZn9fayGPH4n1IFuKl3ilOAGkw_88ACmdvdLN40yaI3B5vYNNL9PbrrnXnTdN-QIui6DqJqbhTWR97_U_9x7NtEZ6HbnM5EL46o2DViXoO5d1EyGsHtWR151_GBs95/s1600/P5060003.JPG" height="301" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOUqNnrNeYzcYAXp46aYTvsUNPC9CqdXuv7_WwQZkakPV7vJ2S_1U-jaqn0PAnwmJWAzv1HFzgcG6IkGcEATtylsyk-ESYV-Ap1Zb-sIIMbTiveHuJA9t5YUwS-a2yIuV7ImlcJrsgU_DQ/s1600/P5300008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOUqNnrNeYzcYAXp46aYTvsUNPC9CqdXuv7_WwQZkakPV7vJ2S_1U-jaqn0PAnwmJWAzv1HFzgcG6IkGcEATtylsyk-ESYV-Ap1Zb-sIIMbTiveHuJA9t5YUwS-a2yIuV7ImlcJrsgU_DQ/s1600/P5300008.JPG" height="216" width="320" /></a>I've been getting emails from people asking why I haven't updated my blog, I never even realized anyone read it, LOL. The truth is I haven't been fishing much lately, back in may my boat got some serious damage to the hull and I may be getting one soon, And I got another deer tick on me in one of the worst possible areas, My crotch was itching for two days and I just though it was chaffing from wearing a safety harness at work, until I took A closer look and realized it was a deer tick. after that I haven't been in the woods much. I'll wait until the weather cools down some and there are less ticks. I did get into some nice Rockfish this spring before my boat feel apart, and I had a fantastic spring fishing for Large mouth. Summer has always been my least favorite time to fish anyway, to many boaters out there, crowded ramps, biting bugs, ect...hopefully I will get my next boat soon, I can't miss out on my favorite time of the year, Fall!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVvUyl-KV7Ds2Tp85zr2LyFxV2_0vZ5Z9VKxlzUgNM8z9DijndW0KFHVHrHsB17z0HcXlwAl7sh8CrdVVdMnfQbWhHgiBZHEu696fksd9AwvLtjFhpzwU2Bg41qi7s6D59g9qCNw5Ym9sI/s1600/P4260011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVvUyl-KV7Ds2Tp85zr2LyFxV2_0vZ5Z9VKxlzUgNM8z9DijndW0KFHVHrHsB17z0HcXlwAl7sh8CrdVVdMnfQbWhHgiBZHEu696fksd9AwvLtjFhpzwU2Bg41qi7s6D59g9qCNw5Ym9sI/s1600/P4260011.JPG" height="238" width="320" /></a></div>
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Here's a video from a spring Rockfish trip</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/6Qd5QF5frtc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-77055723825846037132013-10-12T20:14:00.000-04:002013-12-11T17:41:22.668-05:00The fall bite is on<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZTbTH25hTib3RTWUN2Do-1xHNHaTKUFCaOPCIxVtSrOYIGz83rVAbWF7Xa-z9w00ANpWQQb_5jRgeXMvu6rlkUDAMGzGOwmuYOS3ajTzE-LPolZiD9Zu7xVppGlr6yI-dSn3uDTEFX6D/s1600/004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZTbTH25hTib3RTWUN2Do-1xHNHaTKUFCaOPCIxVtSrOYIGz83rVAbWF7Xa-z9w00ANpWQQb_5jRgeXMvu6rlkUDAMGzGOwmuYOS3ajTzE-LPolZiD9Zu7xVppGlr6yI-dSn3uDTEFX6D/s320/004.JPG" width="320" /></a>Its been an awesome summer for Stripers in the upper bay. Catching legal size Rockfish has been routine, had many days where I caught until my arms were sore. There were lots of spots that held good fish. one of my favorite spots this year held fish since June (and is still a reliable spot). For half the summer I was the only person fishing there until a few people found out about it. The great fishing for large White perch has been an added bonus</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjt1RtPRYo0zRlmBd3KK6An4iQSWnZUzar-DByGlHMrgL9u8FpLHGymDBTJSXlSEaFWV07YWcZd4RarE7CcjB6hw92NC9EXUY36Sa1QwrQCqStMFlJex75jCCqP_OfwD8NS9et7aTfpeYV/s1600/005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjt1RtPRYo0zRlmBd3KK6An4iQSWnZUzar-DByGlHMrgL9u8FpLHGymDBTJSXlSEaFWV07YWcZd4RarE7CcjB6hw92NC9EXUY36Sa1QwrQCqStMFlJex75jCCqP_OfwD8NS9et7aTfpeYV/s320/005.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
The fall has started out very good with a larger grade of fish that moved in. Large schools of Menhaden moved in back in September and I knew it wouldn't be long before the fishing busted wide open. One method I have been doing lately is cruising around from spot to spot and if I notice a school of bait near one of the spots, I know my chances of catching will increase. usually the schools of baitfish will look like an area of slightly disturbed water, Even spots that have smaller breaking fish will still have larger fish near by. normally the larger fish will be near a drop off. listening for larger splashes has paid off.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1pbY-KZdfu5Opa1V1ihQqRbJ3V32HUqTadcAcm6pRUxfOU8QFrKHFFAYxjAKmkVdksCNXVHlG05SHft-GvoJh0SHbf-nQt2gYnVg0KSGMx__m7_0_Rq-6ZcLgwpAWmWaDmefN3ixruFd/s1600/010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1pbY-KZdfu5Opa1V1ihQqRbJ3V32HUqTadcAcm6pRUxfOU8QFrKHFFAYxjAKmkVdksCNXVHlG05SHft-GvoJh0SHbf-nQt2gYnVg0KSGMx__m7_0_Rq-6ZcLgwpAWmWaDmefN3ixruFd/s320/010.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-9548153662726395882013-07-12T13:06:00.000-04:002013-08-21T18:39:59.172-04:00fishing this spring and summer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlV98lmKAb4goNi1wBGwTo7Z0ety-S4Rhxq3Xl4I0r9jj14ph9ZxLzr9Vs0qAzUtOTccHlGK6P2deMEX6l5r_nEoCeDzOI06ggQQkDqXQVc8_bftQDiOHBiZEFejcC2RwFNGsk3s5o0OMF/s1600/004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlV98lmKAb4goNi1wBGwTo7Z0ety-S4Rhxq3Xl4I0r9jj14ph9ZxLzr9Vs0qAzUtOTccHlGK6P2deMEX6l5r_nEoCeDzOI06ggQQkDqXQVc8_bftQDiOHBiZEFejcC2RwFNGsk3s5o0OMF/s320/004.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Haven't posted in a while. I live right down the street where the Train explosion in Rosedale happened and I've been busy replacing windows and carpet, plus it happened right when I started remodeling my bathroom and other rooms. plus I've been working more then usual. oh and I'm also really lazy ; ) <br />
But I have been able to get out and fish when the weather allowed, Which didn't seem like very often.<br />
In the spring I got out a couple times and caught some trophy Rock while trolling (The picture below is of me and Anthony from a charter trip on the Katherine <a href="http://katherinecharterfishing.zenfolio.com/">http://katherinecharterfishing.zenfolio.com/</a>)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgHO7Y1Dmsn0FetjZztiBK3QTiIz4k_mn-kMSqkQ6N0Yx9y-w-eR8SKmTooyE3gl1fFPfxNcl8WafKG32QwKzOQ8jLSwG8IQKJal8ydEridr47vHRBcIBfGPORJSK6dB2XYAyn5SSzXnIx/s1600/215269_10151565946803599_246576218_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgHO7Y1Dmsn0FetjZztiBK3QTiIz4k_mn-kMSqkQ6N0Yx9y-w-eR8SKmTooyE3gl1fFPfxNcl8WafKG32QwKzOQ8jLSwG8IQKJal8ydEridr47vHRBcIBfGPORJSK6dB2XYAyn5SSzXnIx/s320/215269_10151565946803599_246576218_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
also had some good days in the spring and early summer casting lures alone the shoreline at loch raven and Liberty reservoir catching Largemouth and Pickerel and the occasional Rockbass<br />
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jigging for schoolies in the upper and mid Chesapeake has been off the hook all year <br />
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One of my more recent trips I was casting lures along the shoreline in a creek that feeds into the Bush river, catching mostly small Bass, but I kept hearing large splashes down the bank aways, figured it was probably a beaver that was slapping its tail because it didn't like me in its territory, but when I worked my way down in that direction I noticed it was actually carp feeding in shallow water, so I went back to my truck and got a can of corn that I keep just for this type of situation, and started catching them right away. Carp have got to be one of the most under rated Sport fish, they put up a great fight!<br />
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sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-7097207271460757772013-04-16T06:16:00.000-04:002013-04-16T06:16:33.226-04:00first Trophy trip of the year<div class="aboveUnitContent">
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<span class="userContent">Finally got a day with calm winds on April 6 so I headed down near the Bay bridge and trolled 5 lines, the water temp was almost 47*, didn't see many marks but every once in a while I would see what looked like a Rockfish or two in 70' or more water, <span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">started to think I may get skunked but about an hour later I hooked up with a pretty nice fish, continued to troll with the remaining 4 rods and caught one more about the same size. I was satisfied with my first Striper trip of the year so I headed in early. Spring is here!</span></span></div>
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sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-58792963184379292752013-03-31T14:05:00.004-04:002013-03-31T14:17:22.848-04:00cold water fishing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhat9EqxL1bBZaUKBqcHXRHLLYSmC8vTfMnTj8Fr3wNpXuRKwu5XxS6sN787qQaxK36QF9fmjcqdtUtxdEG8UpewmBk7RJmJjAsJeimJAlT8ptF5qYDD_GDDH3nKnpGAmfZtAvBpUPCSK8M/s1600/006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhat9EqxL1bBZaUKBqcHXRHLLYSmC8vTfMnTj8Fr3wNpXuRKwu5XxS6sN787qQaxK36QF9fmjcqdtUtxdEG8UpewmBk7RJmJjAsJeimJAlT8ptF5qYDD_GDDH3nKnpGAmfZtAvBpUPCSK8M/s320/006.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Its been a cold winter, but there's always fish to be caught no matter how cold the water is, you just have to target fish that prefer colder water like Crappie, Pickerel, Northern Pike, Walleye ect...<br />
The key to catching fish in cold water is to work your lures slowly with plenty of pauses, Usually the fish will hit when the lure isn't moving or the instant you begin to move it again after a pause. In winter fish don't usually move around much, so if you work your lure to fast it won't look natural. If you see a fish in cold water you will notice it hardly moves, and when it does it moves very slowly.<br />
I know for me it can sometimes be difficult to work a lure slow, I have to constantly force myself to be patient and work the lure slower, but that's the big difference between catching and not in the Winter or early Spring. Even Summer and fall slowing you presentation can pay off big. I don't think theres to many times when a fish will ignore a baitfish because its to slow and easy to catch, but they will if it looks to frisky and speeds by them.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4TkcW2cTiDf3Obt99JY7jC0afADZiJv5RWn5QUcU_5QfAd9suz41omwgiPGPRGE-N-JT1UCJsy584zcI-wl67EyxldDsNBOwtqg5C-vDBVTE6k9j3FChRxz8asTZYuTcSA4DVXSwT9VWw/s1600/003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4TkcW2cTiDf3Obt99JY7jC0afADZiJv5RWn5QUcU_5QfAd9suz41omwgiPGPRGE-N-JT1UCJsy584zcI-wl67EyxldDsNBOwtqg5C-vDBVTE6k9j3FChRxz8asTZYuTcSA4DVXSwT9VWw/s320/003.JPG" width="320" /></a>Also when fishing for most freshwater fish in cold water you have to concentrate on the bite, It will usually just be a light tap or you will notice your line slowly moving away, when ever you think you may have a fish on the end of your line, don't second guess, set the hook and ask questions later! Its surprising how many times I felt such a slight movement on my line that I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination but it turned out to be a fish, sometimes the biggest fish give the smallest taps...<br />
If you set the hook and it turns out to be a snag or nothing at all, just chalk it up as a part of fishing, but watch out for your lure flying back at you if it does turn out to be nothing.<br />
This Winter (when I have had a chance to fish) I have been fishing mostly at Loch Raven for Pickerel and Bass (And wishing to get a Northern), Mostly casting Spoons and Sencos from shore. Its been pretty good but its been slow. Shouldn't be to much longer and the fish will begin spawning and the fishing should get a lot faster.<br />
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sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-60410388691680849992013-01-02T16:48:00.000-05:002013-01-02T16:48:21.455-05:00Liberty Reservoir bassin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/imzam/My%20Fishing%20trips/11-27-2012002.jpg?t=1354061043" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/imzam/My%20Fishing%20trips/11-27-2012002.jpg?t=1354061043" width="320" /></a></div>
Last year (2012) I decided to mainly target my <br />
favorite fish from this area, mostly the larger predator/Sport fish, so I made up a list of the fish <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgslRn9k6K2ULn6u4fxGiG3-TSYheoWgvFITaTOCarg30VmE4sWUpWRHo0YfMiL_VmClbBcb_BZt-frh9_ye2ffUTXjQK4Kc8_5k2nL4YhoIhpwLOH425GE-d5v02N97B0u9BEPzbO7aNNy/s1600/my+bass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgslRn9k6K2ULn6u4fxGiG3-TSYheoWgvFITaTOCarg30VmE4sWUpWRHo0YfMiL_VmClbBcb_BZt-frh9_ye2ffUTXjQK4Kc8_5k2nL4YhoIhpwLOH425GE-d5v02N97B0u9BEPzbO7aNNy/s320/my+bass.jpg" width="320" /></a>I wanted to catch (Northern Pike, Rockfish, Blue catfish, Largemouth, Carp and Black drum), I also had a list of non priority fish that I could target if I finished that list, One of the fish on the non priority list was to catch a Smallmouth, the last time I caught a smallmouth was over 30 years ago when I was 18. So I really wanted to catch one again, so once I finished my list, I started to see a few reports of people catching some real trophy Smallmouths at Liberty reservoir. I fished Liberty a few times over the years, but I never put a lot of time there like I have at Loch raven. So I decided to hit it hard last fall. I caught quite a few Smallmouths, a few up to almost 3lbs, but I never could catch a big one like some of the people from that area sometimes do. One thing I realized was, the guys catching the big Smallmouths were mostly locals that have fished the lake all their lives. it can be a tough lake to fish if your not familiar with the area. It seems that a lot of the Smallmouths are farther away from shore then Largemouths are, So getting a lure out far enough was one of my biggest problems. I did get a big largemouth, quite a few yellow perch, also my first Rockbass. Tons of small Largemouths, as hard as it was to catch quality Bass, I usually always caught fish, theres so many tiny Bass that getting skunked is a hard thing to do. So eventhough I had a fun year of catching lots of good size fish, I may have to try to make 2013 my year for a trophy Smallmouth. Some of the Smallies I caught may be considered big for some areas so I can't complain, even the smaller ones put up a great fight!<br />
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sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-73789908584408240742012-11-13T16:10:00.000-05:002012-11-14T19:26:03.559-05:00Stellar fall Striper fishing ended after Super storm Sandy hit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-z4uSl34O9ygcaQoadRDmjLx5ymgxCTzfYhxhgp_uR2T7ss3H-xqiCN2WG5zAtojWq0DoJqCbvD9_qHsh1gFUE5JL4lpMvsmYdzqPkR0BRDIqiq_bxix09niKsAIkFFYF9520UteJp0dJ/s1600/10-11-2012+002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-z4uSl34O9ygcaQoadRDmjLx5ymgxCTzfYhxhgp_uR2T7ss3H-xqiCN2WG5zAtojWq0DoJqCbvD9_qHsh1gFUE5JL4lpMvsmYdzqPkR0BRDIqiq_bxix09niKsAIkFFYF9520UteJp0dJ/s320/10-11-2012+002.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Before Sandy hit there was news reports of the possibility of serious damage to our area, Gov. Martin O'malley even held a news conference before the storm, One of the things he said really concerned me, he mentioned something that evironmentalists have been saying for a while, that a big storm could bring down sediment from the Susquehana that has been built up behind the Dam for many years and the sediment may coat the bottom of the bay and kill off much of the equatic life. there were also many meteorologists that said the damage could be worse then Hurricane Agnes back in 1972, Even though I was young when that storm hit, I'll never forget it, some of the homes in my neighborhood had water so high they had to climb onto their roofs and wait to be rescued.<br />
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But luckily for us the storm didn't do a lot of damage (not so lucky for New York and New Jersey). I went on the bay after the storm and there was almost no debris at all, and the water looked clear, maybe even more clear then before the storm, the 8" or so of cold rain must of killed off a lot of the algae and may have even helped to flush out some of the polluted water. But an unexpected thing happened, the cold rain dropped water tempertures from about 62*-64* before the storm, to about 47*-49* after. Theres still Rockfish around and catching a limit of legal size fish is still easy, but the schools of fish 30" and over seemed to have left the area sooner then usual. It was great while it lasted. Running out into the upper bay and catching fish as soon as your lure first hits the water is so much fun, there was many days when I could had had a limit 2 minutes after launching my boat.. But Soon the real biggins should start to show up :)<br />
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sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-31232426758444298702012-10-28T11:55:00.000-04:002013-07-20T07:52:39.765-04:00Tried out my homemade jigging spoon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last winter I made up some spoons for fishing. I got the idea from a thread on pierandsurf.com where someone made some fishing spoons from regular teaspoons, they cut off the handles, added hooks and painted them <a href="http://www.pierandsurf.com/fishing-forum/showthread.php?91795-Dremel-homemade-fishing-lure&highlight">http://www.pierandsurf.com/fishing-forum/showthread.php?91795-Dremel-homemade-fishing-lure&highlight</a>=<br />
I decided to not paint mine because I've always liked the silver flash of spoons and I thought it would be a shame to cover them with paint, plus its less work<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWFFk6JMjplLxL5FltOUZlM6PiR2QSnOmk958WfOFNxerLjfVEz5rY20Lhmy5QsU7SaY3jx0yXjcXa5yZ3NTi_3NhMr0q9bfqkiM-KHsqTFGf-z4NySRPSjuzYQlHbJiMzANbvkhC9jxL4/s1600/homemade+fishing+spoons+005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWFFk6JMjplLxL5FltOUZlM6PiR2QSnOmk958WfOFNxerLjfVEz5rY20Lhmy5QsU7SaY3jx0yXjcXa5yZ3NTi_3NhMr0q9bfqkiM-KHsqTFGf-z4NySRPSjuzYQlHbJiMzANbvkhC9jxL4/s320/homemade+fishing+spoons+005.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I thought it seemed like a perfect lure for certain conditions like areas where theres lots of snags or <br />
winter fishing when you need to work the lures more slowly. plus they seemed like a cheaper alternative to some of the more expensive spoons like daredevils. They worked really well last winter for Northern Pike and Pickerel. A couple of the spoons I made I left the handles on and just added a hook, I thought they would work well for Rockfishing in the fall. So I recently tried one in the Upper bay and it worked great. I didn't use it for very long but I caught a couple legal size Rock at about 20" and a huge White perch<br />
Heres a video of me using the spoon for the first time<br />
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sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-45207003512883835932012-10-03T17:42:00.000-04:002012-10-03T17:42:42.239-04:00Ocean fish in the Upper bay<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgOvmrBBFmDAruY4JwBfXWbo1jEEsJdOz_fx7nOpBfPrN7OzrZ0A4ephnh2us5XQzls9TfVfGcwodFqWIDZaViBqn4cY1ZLdpdX1T8OJ4386cAS87n2cC9d8nY6EPUL-1wMSZ0mHfn9X8h/s1600/7-28-2012+001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgOvmrBBFmDAruY4JwBfXWbo1jEEsJdOz_fx7nOpBfPrN7OzrZ0A4ephnh2us5XQzls9TfVfGcwodFqWIDZaViBqn4cY1ZLdpdX1T8OJ4386cAS87n2cC9d8nY6EPUL-1wMSZ0mHfn9X8h/s320/7-28-2012+001.JPG" width="320" /></a>This has been a good summer for fishing the Upper bay. the White perch fishing has been great and the Rockfishing has been fairly good, I've been able to catch keeper size Rock on most trips but it has been another hot summer, the hottest yet on record (who could ever deny global warming exists now?) But the hot and dry summer also brought some fish up the bay that are normally from the ocean and lower bay. <br />
I've been seeing plenty of Spanish Mackerel jumping out of the water, and have heard reports of people catching a lot of Puppy Drum, Speckled trout and even Kingfish. <br />
I've been surprised a few times this summer, once I got into a school of Redfish,<br />
and another day I caught a 18" Blackdrum. I didn't even know what the Black drum was at first, Im used to catching mainly fresh water fish in these parts, I actually thought it was a Sheephead at first (there have been reports of Sheephead caught lately to). <br />
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Theres also been the usual Bluefish, but I've heard of some people catching some huge ones, up to 19lbs<br />
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The waters finally starting to cool and the Ocean fish will soon be gone from this area, but the Rockfish and Bass fishing is starting to get good now!! <br />
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sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-62589422631201880912012-08-05T18:12:00.004-04:002012-08-06T06:23:35.949-04:00Fisheries conservation, what many don't want you to knowI wanted my Blog to be only about the joys of fishing, but I thought just this time I would write about a conservational issue that some don't even know about. many people hear the word conservation and think its a good thing, and it can be if the name isn't used in the wrong way<br />
I think of myself as someone who cares a lot about the bay and the fishery, I always try to make sure a fish thats released will have the best chance of survival, it doesn't matter if its a Skate, Carp or Eel, I refuse to ever harm anything if at all possible, even the ones that are thought of as trash fish. I was totally in favor of the past catch and release restrictions eventhough I have practiced it myself ever since I was a small child. To me, Conservation is about doing things to help the fish that are released survive and only kill what you are going to eat, when the preseason catch and release became much more popular and many novices started doing it more and more, something had to be done to make people practice better catch and release methods, it was obvious they weren't going to do it on thier own.<br />
One big problem I see with many conservational organizations is that they use the name of conservation to try to restrict commercial fishing so they can have more fish to catch (and yes kill) for themselves, but the same (so called) conservational organizations time and time again will fight tooth and nail to try to keep recreational fishermen from ever getting any restrictions that could benefit the fishery. why? because they are really recreational organizations under the guise of conservation. they see commercial fishing as their competition for the same fish and they want it all for themselves. you really can't blame them entirely because its really the members that are paying dues that get mad when they are the ones facing restrictions, I guess you have to give your customers what they want. <br />
I've been accused in the past of being a waterman just because I have sometimes defended them, but the truth is I've lived in Baltimore my whole life and don't even know any Watermen. I've just always beleived that if any restrictions are ever needed, everyone should sacrifice equally. For me its never been as much as defending Watermen and commercial fishing as it is defending the American people and their right to choose to buy fish from the store and not be forced to catch their own if they want something other then a genetically altered fish that was farm raised. besides there are many people, disabled, elderly or poor that are not as fortunate as many of us to be able to hop into an expensive boat and catch their own fish. Not to mention the huge impact that it would be on our already fragile economy by taking commercially caught fish from the consumer..And once a fish like the Striped bass is made a "gamefish" (which basically means ban commercial fishing of them and only allow people who catch them themself to keep them) It would be hard to ever get that right back, We get to many of our rights taken away from us now. I would be in support if the majority of Americans wanted that, but the truth is most don't, they vote for their support of commercial fishing everytime they buy a commercially caught fish from the store. Many conservational orgs try to make others beleive that they are the majority view, but some like the MSSA don't even have the majority of their members supporting their anti-commercial fishing views, they claim when they try to ban something like nets that it is backed by their members but most of their members are only members for their tournaments and don't even know or care that they are trying to ban commercial fishing. I was a member of the MSSA for many years for the tounaments and I can tell you that they do not inform their members at all when they try to restrict commercial fishing, but yet they will claim what they are doing is backed by them. <br />
The MSSA has even claimed in the past that commercial fishing should be restricted because they are making money from the fish, and you can't trust them to be honest, but yet the MSSA tournament is a multi million dollar operation in itself, and beleive me, I've been to many of their wiegh ins and there is an incredible number of fish killed that day, but somehow they think thats OK since they are the ones benefiting financially from it. <br />
Not only is there a huge amount of Rockfish killed during that tournament by recs, but its a fact that recs overall harvest far more Rockfish then commercial fishermen. We actually kill more fish by catch and release then the entire Striped bass commercial harvest <br />
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Don't get me wrong, Im obviously not against Recreational fishing either, but anyone can see the hypocrisy of any recreational fishermen thats against commercial fishing when we do more harm then they do. <br />
Some may point out the illegal gillnets found two winters ago, but its also a fact that Recreational fishermen poach far more fish also, and finding the nets was a good thing, it showed that DNR was doing their job, the big problem was that some of the (so called) conservational orgs tried to use the illegal gilnets as a way to ban nets altogether, which would never stop poaching, it would only stop the people who are fishing legally, and if Recs poach more why wouldn't orgs like the MSSA not try to ban rec fishing also? because its a recreational fishing club not a real conservational org, they see the commercial fishery as their competetion, if they could knock them out ( and the people that choose to buy their fish instead of catching their own) they would have more fish for themselves. <br />
One thing thats often concerned me about banning commercial fishing is that it could back fire, some think it would mean more fish for them but a lot of money goes in to helping our fishery from the money generated by commercial fishing, besides, the fishery in the Chesapeake seems to be doing very well, there is no logical reason why we would even need to ban commercial fishing.<br />
One ploy the (so called) conservational orgs try to do is claim the fish population is in trouble, its a tactic that has worked in the past, over exagerate how bad the fish population is to get restrictions on commercial fishing, then when you succeed, overexagerate how much better the fishing is, they did it recently with the Blue crab and the Yellow perch in the Chesapeake, and also in Florida to get a net ban. There are many that try to claim the Rockfish population in the bay is low also, but anyone that fishes the bay regulary knows that is not true, in fact we recently had one of the best YOY (young of year) indexes for Striped bass in many years. Some people only claim the population is low to try to get restrictions on coms, its pretty hard to get resrtictions if you admit the population is fine, which makes you wonder why they have such a vendetta against coms when the population isn't even in danger, could be the brainwashing they get from their meetings. Its not uncommon for someone to join a club like the MSSA or CCA because they want to learn how to catch more fish, but are then told that its not their fault they are not catching, its because there is a low population and its the commercial fishermens fault. which I believe is a cop out. If you ever have a problem catching fish in the Chesapeake you are simply doing something wrong, work at finding what you are doing wrong and don't look for the easy way out by blaming someone else...One of my biggest fears is that we could once again get a problem with over population of Striped bass. after the moritorium I beleive there was a over population, I think its the reason so many Stripers have deseases like Mico, they ran low on forage because their numbers were so high (preditors should never out number their prey) and they had no choice but to eat each other, which is a recipe for desease. There are many that believe the disappearance of the Weakfish is a direct result of the over population of Striped bass. I know for a fact that Rock love to eat Weakfish, they would knock a menhaden out of the way to get to one!<br />
Some people only want to ban nets but still allow commercial fishermen to catch with hook and line, I really beleive that if you are going to catch large numbers of fish, nets are a much more humane way then catching them on hook and line, just the under and over sized fish that die from getting thrown back would be huge, wouldn't a true conservationist support nets over hook and line? or do some of them think less would be harvested with hook and line and that would mean more could be harvested by them? Im not sure if less would be harvested, I think a savvy Hook and liner could harvest just as many, but I sure wouldn't want hook and line fishermen constantly raiding the spots im fishing, They would be everywhere, probally calling every other H&Ler to any spot that has fish<br />
One of the things that seem the most disturbing about all this is that there are some people in the news media that ride the shirt tails of orgs like the CCA and constantly write negative articles about commercial fishing to try to get people against it, there are even peolple that joined the DNR, NOAA, <strong>ASMFC </strong>and other fishery departments for no other reason but to try to ban commercial fishing from within. <br />
Its really simple, If you are against commercial fishing, don't buy commercially caught fish, but never try to make people who have no problem with them stop. Thats where I draw the line, when people try to dictate whats best for everyone else.<br />
Its even OK to be against commercial fishing, you do sometimes need opposing views just to keep people in line, everyone has a right to their opinion, but you should never try to make others live by what you believe<br />
I think the real key is for EVERYONE to do their part to conserve, if we ever get a problem with the fishery that can get fixed with restrictions, everyone should do their part and be restricted as equally as possible.<br />
Conservation doesn't mean to try to make others conserve so you don't have to (or so you can have even more to harvest), thats anti-conservationsam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-33026855336539051762012-07-07T09:04:00.000-04:002012-08-04T13:44:31.140-04:00Chesapeake Carp fishing<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhqm3PkX_xOwvXk19cKjGPtQ3ZG8zMMpwOiXPG3OseaE5bJ6UuugC1X-a3xeHpEGbLDnB2IA2yHtsHd9XTWiLDVkIw6kCtr6ctRGc3SI6OUePvU-de07NFXWDeyvZqS-sEPtM2JjEukG2p/s1600/4-26-2012+014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhqm3PkX_xOwvXk19cKjGPtQ3ZG8zMMpwOiXPG3OseaE5bJ6UuugC1X-a3xeHpEGbLDnB2IA2yHtsHd9XTWiLDVkIw6kCtr6ctRGc3SI6OUePvU-de07NFXWDeyvZqS-sEPtM2JjEukG2p/s320/4-26-2012+014.JPG" width="320" /></a>One of the things I wanted to do more this year was Carp fishing, I did it a lot as a kid but I haven't targeted them much since. I almost forgot how fun it is to fish for them. I usually like to set up three or four rods with top/bottom rigs, I like hook sizes from #2 to #4, #2 prefered, some people like smaller hooks but I think I get a better hook set with larger hooks, speaking of hook sets, thats one thing that can be difficult when fishing for carp, they put up such a great fight, constantly making quik bursts in different directions that its common for them to rip the hook out of their own mouth, I find that keeping a loose drag and taking your time bringing them in helps, you basically have to tire them out. I always preferred just using canned yellow sweet corn over other baits just because I think its easier, it stays on the hook well and works good, especially if you throw out some handfuls of corn for chum to attract them. I actually set up a small garden shovel and attached a paint roller stick to the end, that way I can heave the corn far out to where my baits are.<br />
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You should check your baits once and a while though, there are times when tiny fish will find your bait and steal it without you even knowing it<br />
What I look for when targetting Carp is an area that is usually shallow, maybe 2'-6' and calm, I usually
don't do well on windy days. Ofcoarse it also has to be a part of the bay that is fresh water. I usually target them in the rivers closest to me, Middle river, Back river, Patapsco, Bush, Dundee amd Gunpowder, most of the parks from those areas are some of the best spots to target them. like most fish they will be more active when the
current is moving (I like when the tide is coming in), But you can still get
them on a slack tide.. also after a rain they will usually feed more, eating seeds,
berrys,worms, ect..that fell into the water. <br />
Youll usually have to wait
a while for the carp to find the bait, sometimes over an hour. But I think thats part of the fun, set everything up, then kick back and relax until you see a rod slowly bending, then set the hook ( firm but not to hard) and get ready for one of the best fights on light tackle that you have ever experienced! <br />
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One thing I like to do after setting up my rigs is to cast lures around while im waiting for a Carp, Other species like Large mouth, Rockfish, Catfish (you can get some nice ones hitting your corn BTW), Yellow and White perch are usually in the same areas that you catch carp. If you set up the rods with bite indicators or just a simple bell on the rod tip like I do, you will know when your having a bite without having to sit there and look at your rods.sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-56795462766717364612012-04-21T22:55:00.000-04:002012-04-21T22:55:40.959-04:00Preseason catch and release Trophy Rockfishin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Luckily for me this spring had a fair amount of days with calm winds, So I was a able to get out a few times and troll during the preseason. I really love fishing during the preseason because theres not many other fishermen out there. I rarely keep fish anyway so it makes no difference to me, I like to fish more for the sport then the food. I will usually put out my 6 rod spread, set up my camera, net, dehooking tools, set my seat on swivel, then just kick back and relax until a fish hits. The biggest problem was that I never had much time to relax because it usually didn't take long before there was a fish on. But if thats a problem thats the kind of problem I like. One of my favorite things about fishing the preseason is that you can work areas and take routes without having to change course because of other boaters in your way. One new spot I found produced a fish on three different days in almost exactly the same spot. And one of my old reliable spots came through once again also.<br />
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Generally after catching one or two fish I will bring in my lines and explore other areas or cast lures around, I don't like to harrass high numbers of fish during the preseason because if a fish does get mortally wounded you still have to release it, so quiting after one or two fish lowers the odds. <br />
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Now that Rockfish season has started I may take a little break from them and target other species like Carp, but Im sure I won't be able to stay away from the Rockfish to long!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZckksbJjuqkNirhpC1Efp3Ff0izl3BrDVSRuK4EPgbbw9p9xtHKib21Fhp1sTtKkRRRhjbqTJNqpawOvTgfZURqyX85G25BxpI6yZeMMrO2ucuE9pF3SznzVtHjf8xz9rig_mUVngHpc/s1600/4-3-2012+007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZckksbJjuqkNirhpC1Efp3Ff0izl3BrDVSRuK4EPgbbw9p9xtHKib21Fhp1sTtKkRRRhjbqTJNqpawOvTgfZURqyX85G25BxpI6yZeMMrO2ucuE9pF3SznzVtHjf8xz9rig_mUVngHpc/s320/4-3-2012+007.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-2919469377889400612012-03-24T23:13:00.003-04:002012-04-25T14:21:09.713-04:00Awesome fishing on a warm winter day 3-15-2012, Trophy Bass and Northern Pike<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0N9RqOjP_ojzjPoM9fvw4T20VyJv_QwEJ8614_HReHTMcH7A8TBPame4bk7LFThO4fZgmjM64_mg1d9Up81wGJUTuIPJkvMX3sgRVPrcDaeryENxwsuJXPqnYR0ybnTRbsk7eE2sO8KlU/s1600/3-15-2012+016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0N9RqOjP_ojzjPoM9fvw4T20VyJv_QwEJ8614_HReHTMcH7A8TBPame4bk7LFThO4fZgmjM64_mg1d9Up81wGJUTuIPJkvMX3sgRVPrcDaeryENxwsuJXPqnYR0ybnTRbsk7eE2sO8KlU/s320/3-15-2012+016.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
At the beginning of the year, one of my goals was to catch a trophy Largemouth, actually I made a list of fish I wanted to catch, and it was time for me to target Bass, My biggest Bass was about 5lbs, (thats a trophy in this area to me) I caught it a few years ago on my kayak and never got a very good pic of it, this time I was hoping to get one about that size with a better picture. The forcast was calling for a warm week so I decided to start fishing Loch Raven every day after work, the first few days of a warm front when the water has been cold will usually send fish into the shallows because it warms faster. The first spot I hiked to I noticed the water was muddy, but about 20' out it became clear, Im not sure why that was either because we had ne rain. I suspected the fish would be near where the muddy water met the clear water waiting for disoriented baitfish to enter the clear water from the muddy, or vice versa...And thats where I caught my first two Bass, both about 3lbs. I was casting a Texas rigged Senco worm (Watermelon), which I stayed with the whole evening. I also had a few bites that got off. But soon the wind picked up and I had to find a new spot, I hiked a while and found a cove down in a valley where the water was flat calm. As I approached it I had a good feeling about this spot, first off there where lots of fallen trees that fish love, no other people around, and I also notice small fish coming to the surface once in a while eating insects on the surface of the water. Conditions just seemed perfect, even the smell in the air just felt right! I didn't want to do anything to mess up this opportunity, so I entered the area very cautiously, so not to spook any fish that may be close to the shoreline. I've learned a long time ago that walking up to the shoreline to quikly can be a mistake, I've seen some nice fish swim away in the past that could have been caught. I try to enter a shoreline simular to the way The Great blue heron does. generally I begin to start walking slower when im about 20' from shore, once about 10' from shore I will make my first cast, while reeling in the line I will also be moving very slowly to the shore line, I will usually stay 3' or so away from the shoreline for about 5 casts, then I will move to the shoreline and make farther casts, but still try not to move much, I try to cast with just a short flick of the wrist, once Im sure no fish are close to shore I will relax more and move more freely. Well it didn't take long before I caught my first fish here, it was only about 12" (but fought well for its size), I wasn't quite sure what it was, I thought it looked more like a Musky then A Northern Pike because it had yellow lines instead of the usual white/gray blotches, but I sent a pic to DNR and they basically said thats what Juvenile Northern Pike look like<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTnKUWe-wH2RlSmJbENrt0C2g8dktiJzz1Z1foJS9BMXY4KG3jFXcqUGryH-WSJIPn_yZ0yKLJpCrL6zEP7B7mTJg9WLdFmT_MhpTr3_q2-JDFsj71GvBh9n9HKjv9iYNW9VcbgHEamIvm/s1600/3-15-2012+009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTnKUWe-wH2RlSmJbENrt0C2g8dktiJzz1Z1foJS9BMXY4KG3jFXcqUGryH-WSJIPn_yZ0yKLJpCrL6zEP7B7mTJg9WLdFmT_MhpTr3_q2-JDFsj71GvBh9n9HKjv9iYNW9VcbgHEamIvm/s320/3-15-2012+009.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
A few cast later and I had a nice hit, after a nice fight on 10lb braid I had a Northern pike on the bank<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMe9M3qri4vVA0D4S_w2DSUiHWx4wOT0uiJ21UvzblgPbwzyuhJ3pw7_e0HKaFNmacWKx13V_F4qS8LEZq9cBquNE8soYYjTioNSbknCUS6hV0H0eSXCtrSJd7UXVt4EYwCEGapA9rQnLC/s1600/3-15-2012+013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMe9M3qri4vVA0D4S_w2DSUiHWx4wOT0uiJ21UvzblgPbwzyuhJ3pw7_e0HKaFNmacWKx13V_F4qS8LEZq9cBquNE8soYYjTioNSbknCUS6hV0H0eSXCtrSJd7UXVt4EYwCEGapA9rQnLC/s320/3-15-2012+013.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
It was turning out to be an awesome couple hours of fishing!! I was getting the usual snags which are expected when your fishing around fallen trees, thats just part of fishing structure like that, so one of the times I was re-rigging I decided to not use any wieght with my worm, the first cast I felt what at first I thought was another snag, but I thought I felt a very slight movement, so just to be sure I set the hook hard, and all of a sudden a huge Bass shot out of the water ( I was thinking this is when I will lose her), and the fight was on!!! This fish was nuts, constantly jumping out of the water, peeling drag (again thinking this is when I lose her), even rapped itself around a log once (I was really thinking this is when I lose her), I just patiently waited, keeping pressure on the line, but not to much, luckily she came loose because I was thinking about taking a swim in that cold water :), One thing that was really worrying me was that I was only using 10lb power pro, That is light line for an area with such heavy cover, but some parts of Loch Raven are shallow along the shore and you sometimes need to cast a far distance. It was a relief when I finally got my thumb in its mouth! My first real trophy Bass, I didn't measure or wiegh it, it was obviously spawning from the looks of its red tail, and I just wanted to take a couple photos and get her back in the water, but It was a huge fish for Maryland waters, a big fish for anywhere<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfBHYDzUe64phER8tgCjvUqQlj_n0_tF08ZcPTyRMRdyIDJK94Va2wFNKZbTUX5vcgxwCrjeFr17hJc6yBso8ORUEfZANnwB68QXrToEEydX0I5AH1cxb4O1H-ddHjjqBV9AQFMxxgk0w4/s1600/3-15-2012+015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfBHYDzUe64phER8tgCjvUqQlj_n0_tF08ZcPTyRMRdyIDJK94Va2wFNKZbTUX5vcgxwCrjeFr17hJc6yBso8ORUEfZANnwB68QXrToEEydX0I5AH1cxb4O1H-ddHjjqBV9AQFMxxgk0w4/s320/3-15-2012+015.JPG" width="235" /></a></div>sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-37843437452914485392012-01-30T18:21:00.000-05:002012-08-09T17:06:21.062-04:00RIVER MONSTERS! James River Catfish<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yu74ZtGGelBjcOvzGv7iYUMuqksVlRmHXA0ENY8Ln5ls0aJZp8a2hSXyWcAFI__9HZwtJQGVGAeqpQY-89nM1fADDK3ox51bMvIGU-M2Xv83KFM5ywCqwXB06L43kAQexVqAz2J0DIxr/s1600/1-29-2012+005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yu74ZtGGelBjcOvzGv7iYUMuqksVlRmHXA0ENY8Ln5ls0aJZp8a2hSXyWcAFI__9HZwtJQGVGAeqpQY-89nM1fADDK3ox51bMvIGU-M2Xv83KFM5ywCqwXB06L43kAQexVqAz2J0DIxr/s320/1-29-2012+005.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
I've always loved catfishing, Its pretty much what got me hooked on fishing, when I was a kid there was a place called "The pipe" It was a large pipe that crossed a creek back in the woods that you could sit on and fish. Me and the other kids would go to fish mostly for small bullheads with worms. When I became older I still loved catfishing, especially during the Rockfish moritorium, catfish were not only plentiful but good fighting. I rarely ever target them anymore, but thats only because I still catch plenty of them while casting lures for other species, and they still bring a smile to my face everytime I get one.<br />
But theres one catfish that I always wanted to catch, the Big Blue catfish. years ago I would read fishing magazines about Blues in the Mississippi river, some as big as 100lbs! Then about 1990 I started reading about them showing up in good numbers in the James river near Richmond va, The possibility of me one day catching a monster catfish started to seem even more plausible, but every year would pass by and I never got around to targetting them. This year I finally decided to check one more thing off my bucket list. I thought about trailering my boat and targetting them on my own, but I thought a guide my be a better option. It really doesn't cost that much more when you consider the price of gas you burn in the boat, plus wear and tear on the trailer and boat. plus its much less work, not to mention the odds of success are better. So I booked a trip with Josh Fitchett <a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=186983811345888" href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/River-Catn-Guide-Service/186983811345888">River Cat'n Guide Service</a>. <br />
I could tell right away he knew his stuff just by how effortlessly he would fling the baits with level-wind reels, he looked like he's done a few thousand times before. <br />
The setup he used was basically a fishfinder rig with a chunk of Gizzard shad. One thing that I thought was surprising was the areas where we caught the fish. Im not going to be to specific, so not to burn anyones spots, but I thought we would be fishing warmwater discharges, but instead we fished mostly areas where you would think they would be in spring, summer and fall. From a inexperienced Blue catfishermen, I think they seem to favor Deep water with structure. especially where shallow water meets deep water, some of the spots were so small it was surprising such big fish could be there.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirZvXHoOBazBUNh8V90Ejzm5FGDfw0CpCpGq8T1Me4o1-vtwHRMorO5OwGh-H3St-DzlIMtLt1m_EgnteYzYoUFdx73yz5XTZvgVCB6UP1dRAF2ZRiMUw6u70SllKQaFPcTn_Fv15sSuJ7/s1600/1-29-2012+004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirZvXHoOBazBUNh8V90Ejzm5FGDfw0CpCpGq8T1Me4o1-vtwHRMorO5OwGh-H3St-DzlIMtLt1m_EgnteYzYoUFdx73yz5XTZvgVCB6UP1dRAF2ZRiMUw6u70SllKQaFPcTn_Fv15sSuJ7/s320/1-29-2012+004.JPG" width="320" /></a>We tried about ten different spots and caught fish at every spot except one. A total of 15 fish were caught, 10 were citations over 30lbs, the biggest being 49lbs! The smallest was caught on corn ment for Carp. I read about James river carp and Rockfish and Capt Josh let me experiment a little with my light tackle rod. I Didn't get any carp or Rock but we did pull up a Rock ( about 30") in in the net while catching our bait in the morning. Even the smaller Catfish were pretty big to me. Its funny to pull up a 15/20lb fish and Capt Josh calls it a little one. I think that river is spoiling him a little :)<br />
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It was a pretty cool experience, the River has some nice scenery, if your used to boating the Upper chesapeake where the shoreline has either a house or building everywhere you look, its strange to run miles down the James and rarely seeing a house, just trees as far as the eyes can see. Like being back in time<br />
Here's Capt Joshs website <a href="http://www.rivercatn.com/">http://www.rivercatn.com/</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQKlmDB2s1iKIOr_txlokB8rQp9OzT38hRn0GOuzfC4p7Kx_VAVnik2O0oRmQ4unP6uobfJP50Vqm6ztb770WmAAtNMoYI-UL_AmMNO834T1897_nIJdMrlnnMaLNstidAUubYRCY28BZ5/s1600/1-29-2012+0133.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQKlmDB2s1iKIOr_txlokB8rQp9OzT38hRn0GOuzfC4p7Kx_VAVnik2O0oRmQ4unP6uobfJP50Vqm6ztb770WmAAtNMoYI-UL_AmMNO834T1897_nIJdMrlnnMaLNstidAUubYRCY28BZ5/s320/1-29-2012+0133.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-45951016356784294482012-01-09T16:31:00.000-05:002012-11-13T17:00:14.720-05:00My quest for a Northern Pike<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrqzPhpSIKhP7MGxg1UKJSRZafKvHIl3eTP1kAakPI-QjYlagt_CT2q55Y1GCgBOVbqP1jSeEQXJI0zuaNNqS_6He4B6Vuu3D6cTVHUa9gpT3-rvMqPyvyaIa5C62199t2TemVM3lbM_9W/s1600/1-8-2012+007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrqzPhpSIKhP7MGxg1UKJSRZafKvHIl3eTP1kAakPI-QjYlagt_CT2q55Y1GCgBOVbqP1jSeEQXJI0zuaNNqS_6He4B6Vuu3D6cTVHUa9gpT3-rvMqPyvyaIa5C62199t2TemVM3lbM_9W/s320/1-8-2012+007.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Last winter I bought a VHS video from a guy at a fishing fleamarket about catching Trophy Pike in Canada for two dollars (yeah thats right, I still have a VHS player, Im a neanderthal). After watching all the Giant Pike they were catching, I really became psyched to catch one. Theres only one place close to where I live thats known to have Pike and thats Loch Raven Reservoir, So my plan was to fish there until I get a Big one. I only caught a Pike once before and that was at Loch Raven in 2006 on Mothers day. back then I went to my mothers grave site in the morning and came home a little depressed, so I took a nap, I started to dream about a real event that happened to me back in 1993, Back then me and a few friends would go to Loch Raven for the Spring White perch run. We would use a basic top/bottom rig with nightcrwlers, but there was a trick to catching them, you had to set the hook as soon as you felt the slightest tap, if you didn't, your worm would soon be stripped from your hook, if you hooked up with one Perch and waited a few seconds you could usually get a fish on the other hook. When we would leave with huge stringers of fish, many people would be shocked because they weren't catching anything..One day while fishing there by myself, a young guy came up to me and asked me how I was catching so many, I told him the trick, then he relayed some info to me, They were catching Big pike a little ways down the road, he said to drive until you see a small bridge then pull over and walk a trail to the water, cast large crankbaits in to the shallow water.<br />
I never did go but In my dream 13 years later I did go. the only difference was that I casted a White spinnerbait with black polka dots and a bassasasin trailer also with black polka dots. In the dream I caught a Big Pike! I set up my camera for a self photo of me and the fish, then released it.. When I awoke I couldn't beleive how surreal the dream was, then I realized I actually had a spinnerbait and bassasasin with black polka dots, I Got out of bed and immediately put on my shoes, grabbed my fishing gear, and was soon driving to Loch Raven still groggy from my recent nap, It was strange because somehow I knew I would catch one. I arrived at LR and started to drive down the street the guy said to, and sure enough there was a small bridge, I pulled off and walked the trail, and the very first cast I was hooked up with a good fighting fish, the fish was desperately trying to go towards a fallen tree, and I was desperately trying to keep him away. I finally got him in and it was my first Pike ever! but at 32" it was smaller then the fish in my dream.. I decided to take a quik picture of it while it was on the ground before taking a self photo with it, And Im lucky I did because just seconds after taking the picture, the fish started jumping around and made its way back into the water. Pike have alligator type teeth that can do a lot of damage if you are not experienced with them, so I wasn't about to grab it while it was jumping around.On my very next cast I got a snag and lost the lure, I tried other lures but I didn't catch another fish that day..Well anyway, back to the present time, I really wanted to catch a Pike again, and this time I wanted one bigger. I thought it would be an easy thing to do since I got one on one cast in 2006, but This time I didn't catch one the entire year of 2011, tens of thousands of cast and no Pike, I did catch plenty of other species though, so I can't complain. I fished there so much I got to know some of the regular<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV69jPVxQ0dsdF9oK9z6UyOoQxx2m9eaIbZ85HwNjmDevD9p9WX7vnyWhRmZTH9W2IJ39myuDERVViIYE0T9T6p8B12zqeaRAhpNMX07YE3Urk_G1PDPUxr1OLYI_Mq1EE7o5bbW1PLLS2/s1600/homemade+fishing+spoons+005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV69jPVxQ0dsdF9oK9z6UyOoQxx2m9eaIbZ85HwNjmDevD9p9WX7vnyWhRmZTH9W2IJ39myuDERVViIYE0T9T6p8B12zqeaRAhpNMX07YE3Urk_G1PDPUxr1OLYI_Mq1EE7o5bbW1PLLS2/s320/homemade+fishing+spoons+005.JPG" width="320" /></a> fishermen in the area, they said catching Pike was actually rare, and catching a big pike was even more rare. It started to look like my chances of catching one was pretty slim, I even considered traveling to Canada just to try to end my obsession. but then on sunday (1-8-2012) I decided to go to Loch Raven and try out some of the homemade spoons I made. I tried a few other lures at first, including a chartruese spinnerbait with a bassasasin trailer, but I didn't catch anything until I started using my homemade spoon. I caught two pickerel, then I hooked up with something bigger, once it started taking drag I knew what it was ;) The ultimate preditor of Loch raven. finally my quest is over<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz4cj0qwW9xTJXqTo8OCnF8bUhobwUL0TxzSiQopMTZgaF695sr4XZyz4FgY_JanILA01RBWo2zwJdeimdik1Lwe7gLIdgmpqwERROgKOKyPZ2JkfBdrz4QksHZx9-JXHl28jp63g97K4K/s1600/1-8-2012+010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz4cj0qwW9xTJXqTo8OCnF8bUhobwUL0TxzSiQopMTZgaF695sr4XZyz4FgY_JanILA01RBWo2zwJdeimdik1Lwe7gLIdgmpqwERROgKOKyPZ2JkfBdrz4QksHZx9-JXHl28jp63g97K4K/s200/1-8-2012+010.JPG" width="189" /></a><br />
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UPDATE!!!!!!!!! <br />
I guess my quest isn't over. I went back to Loch Raven a couple days later after work for a few cast before sunset and hooked up with another one, I also caught a good size Pickerel, once again on a homemade spoon!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCLbPXOsnaO-plSijONweaYuccqzz2QFefm-hfQZHfQLhE4egk0j9VTQxVmqWzuZ-n6aulIpR4noN9FLY9_DqPDq0QSbpFY_SZ7XAsfE1Tyk0A9QqCWaalrfy10Vo_r5EVtAQXfBx1E7AH/s1600/1-12-2012+00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCLbPXOsnaO-plSijONweaYuccqzz2QFefm-hfQZHfQLhE4egk0j9VTQxVmqWzuZ-n6aulIpR4noN9FLY9_DqPDq0QSbpFY_SZ7XAsfE1Tyk0A9QqCWaalrfy10Vo_r5EVtAQXfBx1E7AH/s320/1-12-2012+00.jpg" width="248" /></a></div>
sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-30385303301242226772012-01-08T18:37:00.000-05:002012-08-09T17:00:34.374-04:00Big fish to end the season<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxIsOiqQYV5oXKJSkTy1Lw9XLYe8aUQwA7qq8XDXfvAndVT77Zb3gO61jvqDJr3oLX_2AkypboiP5kAcwgri81JUjuu5NC5CMnZKzVyfvKmqvD4z1qvIvBr2Y2Y_mzkmzomBb1ub9ZuSD9/s1600/11-25-2011+011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxIsOiqQYV5oXKJSkTy1Lw9XLYe8aUQwA7qq8XDXfvAndVT77Zb3gO61jvqDJr3oLX_2AkypboiP5kAcwgri81JUjuu5NC5CMnZKzVyfvKmqvD4z1qvIvBr2Y2Y_mzkmzomBb1ub9ZuSD9/s320/11-25-2011+011.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
This turned out to be a good year in the Upperbay for Rockfish despite all the adverse weather. I was hoping to get into some bigger fish that migrate into the bay late in the fall, and luckily I got a few light tackle jigging, I tried trolling a few times and did catch fish on every trip, but I could never seem to get anything over 40". usually you get bigger fish trolling for the migrants and smaller fish jigging, but not this fall. I did go on a pierandsurf.com group trip on the charter boat "Katherine" (<a href="http://katherinecharterfishing.zenfolio.com/">http://katherinecharterfishing.zenfolio.com/</a> ) and one fish over 40" was boated by one of the board members, but I think we were about a week to early that day. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD3bn45L1IPor6FufIhm6Ub-NdZi7LadBDP_FjdKHEzQTT6ugjQy4e_b6gIQTYPXBzB6Q5bvAd8Ry1H6rfmi0v1jszQkAoM1VQWAJBgyKsZ0C-Uz6gPcGFFuBt4qDOHRlPfbueS8O7elr5/s1600/11-13-2011+Katherine+charter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD3bn45L1IPor6FufIhm6Ub-NdZi7LadBDP_FjdKHEzQTT6ugjQy4e_b6gIQTYPXBzB6Q5bvAd8Ry1H6rfmi0v1jszQkAoM1VQWAJBgyKsZ0C-Uz6gPcGFFuBt4qDOHRlPfbueS8O7elr5/s320/11-13-2011+Katherine+charter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-66592441589058161002011-11-22T12:50:00.000-05:002011-11-22T12:50:49.521-05:00Falll Rockfishing on the Upper bay<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/imzam/My%20Fishing%20trips/10-26-2011005.jpg?t=1320952121" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/imzam/My%20Fishing%20trips/10-26-2011005.jpg?t=1320952121" width="320" /></a></div>Luckily the dirty water brought on from this summers storms started to clear just in time for some great Fall Striper fishing. Once the temperture started to cool a little, The Rockfish started to school up, and there was some outstanding fishing to be had, with many fish over 30", in fact, catching fish over 30" was so common, it was expected!..I actually didn't see a lot of working birds early in the fall, and the marks on the fish finder didn't always show a lot, I had to basically go to a spot, work it thoroughly and hope something was there, if not, I'd try another spot until I find them. And ofcoarse finding a spot where no other fishermen are around to scare the fish is as always the most important thing of all..actually with the lack of bird action and marks, the biggest obstacle of all was trying to get away from other boats that wanted to fish the exact spot as me. I could actually catch three times more fish if it wasn't for other boaters. If they only knew the real key to finding fish is finding a spot away from other boats. So many do the complete opposite and go wherever they see another boat...maybe one day this winter I will do a blog story on that...<br />
<a href="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/imzam/My%20Fishing%20trips/10-17-2011.jpg?t=1320952121" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/imzam/My%20Fishing%20trips/10-17-2011.jpg?t=1320952121" width="200" /></a>Another possitive thing is the huge schools of juvenile Rockfish throughout the bay, This springs Striper spawn was a very good one, In the last couple of weeks I have been seeing birds working over acres of small fish, the next couple years should bring some exciting light tackle action with smaller fish!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/imzam/My%20Fishing%20trips/10-10-2011.jpg?t=1320952121" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/imzam/My%20Fishing%20trips/10-10-2011.jpg?t=1320952121" width="320" /></a></div>sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-75800821210286911852011-09-11T19:26:00.000-04:002011-09-12T17:05:21.592-04:00Hot summer on the Chesapeake<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ8bs3XybZNRl0NQpSwZRViKpNTV0nqBpLW906B5ZzvoKHpuGxWp1MCSCyaAYHgP6_VZcYg49cTRhiBX0P1nUNIU039-1x5Bl3Pbwo0Wp7fG0Cvt3xsnGrDp4sXYHbOa7g3CAdaEwKdktt/s1600/6-15-2011+013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ8bs3XybZNRl0NQpSwZRViKpNTV0nqBpLW906B5ZzvoKHpuGxWp1MCSCyaAYHgP6_VZcYg49cTRhiBX0P1nUNIU039-1x5Bl3Pbwo0Wp7fG0Cvt3xsnGrDp4sXYHbOa7g3CAdaEwKdktt/s320/6-15-2011+013.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6a2wCNaaPm1h3eAjrexMb2okcQjm4PUQc9Y0a1SxWvm6VFY3TMNic5LlHc8UemUt7GfBoMNfQI8VELjJOHMEHUZ4szyXA4NBvgAqYuuW46-XI5y1UmYCBamTaQbix_4tbSnx7BKe6atDN/s1600/6-18-2011+014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6a2wCNaaPm1h3eAjrexMb2okcQjm4PUQc9Y0a1SxWvm6VFY3TMNic5LlHc8UemUt7GfBoMNfQI8VELjJOHMEHUZ4szyXA4NBvgAqYuuW46-XI5y1UmYCBamTaQbix_4tbSnx7BKe6atDN/s200/6-18-2011+014.JPG" width="200" /></a>I didn't fish as much this summer as usual, this was the hottest summer ever recorded in history, last summer was the hottest on record but this summer blew that record away. With water temps in the bay reaching into the 90s, the fish obviously aren't used to the temps. especially Rockfish, they are primarily cool water fish, the larger migrants generally go where ever the water temps are from 50 to 70 degrees, migrating into the Chesapeake in the spring and going north in the summer to the New England states to seek out a more comfortable temperture. The smaller schoolie Rockfish are pretty much stuck in the Chesapeake and try to stay where the temps are most comfortable to them. So when this years heatwave brough temps over 100* in june, I knew the Rockfish in the mid and lower bay wouldn't move north into my part of the bay until the water finally cooled. the Upper bay is more shallow and the fish just won't travel miles across that hot water. But there were still some Rockfish in the Upper bay, and catching a limit of fish usually wasn't very hard. Just bailing 100 legal size fish in a day wasn't going to happen. But the White perch and Catfishing was very good. My general routne this summer was to target Rockfish for part of the day but always make time for the great perch and catfish fishing. The perch fishing was so good you never needed any bait, just jigs like stingsilvers. there were many days when I C&Red most of the day, then filled the cooler up with more then enough White perch in the last hour of the trip. The last couple weeks we had slightly lower water temps and the Rockfishing did get better, but then we got a weekend of very heavy storms, folowed by a hurricane Irene a week later, then <strong>Tropical Storm</strong> Lee came up the coast a week later and stalled out right over us! they opened all the Susquhanna floodgates, first time since Hurricane Agnes in 1972. <br />
The Susquehanna runs as far as New york, And everything that runs off into the water will eventually make its way into the Bay<br />
I haven't been out on the Chesapeake since then but I have heard reports of Chocolate color water and A LOT of debris floating around, everything from entire trees to refrigerators. so It may be a while before things get better, hopefully it is not a major enviromental disaster like Agnes was.<br />
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I didn't fish the bay very much this spring. I got a used VHS tape at a fishing flea market last winter about catching Northen Pike and I really wanted to catch one, so I started fishing Loch raven pretty hard. I never did catch a Northern, I actually didn't even catch a single Bass, which is unusual, I normally catch quite a few at Loch Raven in the spring. But I did catch some nice Pickerel, Yellow perch and my biggest Crappie yet at about 16" on a Booyah spinner bait with a 6" Gulp sand eel. Since I sometimes hike fairly long distances, I can't take a lot of lures, I will usually take some spinnerbaits for casting close to shore, then some type of lure that casts far like a casting spoon, And usually some 2"-3" twister tails for when nothing bigger is biting, I can usually always catch something on a twister, but they will usually be smaller (but not always). I never catch a lot of fish at loch raven like I do in the bay where catching 100+ fish on a trip is not uncommon (excluding white perch fishing or lucking onto a big school of crappie), but that may be because I know the bay better, plus I fish the Loch from shore, which can be a big disadvantage. But its fun hiking through the woods and casting the shoreline, and there is a great chance of catching a real trophy close to home. some of the downsides this spring was getting a very sore thr<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgltvVaOvc37N4JeDaoQbxF-CJvz6RTc4ICjEJpOl26l9fiofXgBPfviuVy-KuJe6bXcCve7L2QZ_N3e-dYBJWEpsXmX0IS01PyPQLXnKgAtMi4jyHS1icT9uaL8B1A3qWiHnvu4lxKRKl0/s1600/5-22-2011+003.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613405878600620290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgltvVaOvc37N4JeDaoQbxF-CJvz6RTc4ICjEJpOl26l9fiofXgBPfviuVy-KuJe6bXcCve7L2QZ_N3e-dYBJWEpsXmX0IS01PyPQLXnKgAtMi4jyHS1icT9uaL8B1A3qWiHnvu4lxKRKl0/s200/5-22-2011+003.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 152px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>oat and difficulty swallowing and needing a visit to the doctors for alergy meds, and also recently finding a Deer tick on my waist and having to take antibiotics, but I guess you have to take the good with the bad. I figure since I am on antibiotics I can still fish there for a while, but I may have to stop fishing there in the summer, Deer ticks can be very ser<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Kxqk1b8onF5yOm0NO0aDMVbJ5Z4PvsN-QmleLn8_5ViExkdkssf1qCT0bm8K6nJo49uMkCbBI-u8otYWCJd3zJBbqLbeDlTj1Q-3q4Xck3TFpZn5UJhjkUycDXnyhKJ5j9P-D2ocZGh4/s1600/5-21-2011+002.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613405152039225058" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Kxqk1b8onF5yOm0NO0aDMVbJ5Z4PvsN-QmleLn8_5ViExkdkssf1qCT0bm8K6nJo49uMkCbBI-u8otYWCJd3zJBbqLbeDlTj1Q-3q4Xck3TFpZn5UJhjkUycDXnyhKJ5j9P-D2ocZGh4/s200/5-21-2011+002.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 140px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a>ious, and eventhough I took plenty of precautions like sprying myself with deepwoods before each trip, constantly checking myself for ticks and showering after every trip I still got a deer tick. Its about time for me to start fishing the bay more anyway :)</div>
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sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4643080165863288783.post-25182890328884553722011-03-20T17:38:00.000-04:002013-07-19T11:01:52.043-04:00Still some surprises while fishing<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyphenhyphendwFiqOwJy9pVqfiLJROO8l_v8J_Qpz15kWNN4H1q3Lc2GL-hI7Zl9BM1A4K_TUm2mTgheoZi3G2iFqVOb-I7nt6-zggIr5_ZOgmRg54_2epGM11SRPyEo1VqzaXVl-CkzLH8-REAkZP/s1600/P3050003.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586285055947564434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyphenhyphendwFiqOwJy9pVqfiLJROO8l_v8J_Qpz15kWNN4H1q3Lc2GL-hI7Zl9BM1A4K_TUm2mTgheoZi3G2iFqVOb-I7nt6-zggIr5_ZOgmRg54_2epGM11SRPyEo1VqzaXVl-CkzLH8-REAkZP/s320/P3050003.JPG" style="float: right; height: 221px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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One of the things thats always kept me interested in fishing is being surprsied. The more I fish the less surprised I get, but it still happens. I still remember catching my fish speckled sea trout years ago in the Patapsco river and wondering what it was. recently I was shore fishing at Loch Raven with nightcrawlers hoping to catch some perch or maybe a carp, but instead I hooked up with a fish that felt like a Bass, when I pulled it out of the water I didn't know what it was, It was about 18"and it looked like it had a Suckers body and a trouts head. I asked another fisherman nearby and he didn't know what it was either. so I took a picture and released it, then went home and searched the DNR website without any luck, so I posted it on a local fishing site <a href="http://www.pierandsurf.com/fishing-forum/forumdisplay.php?8-Maryland-Delaware">http://www.pierandsurf.com/fishing-forum/forumdisplay.php?8-Maryland-Delaware</a>. and a few guys knew what it was right away, it turned out to be a Fallfish, Its actually the largest member of the minnow family. seems to be a fairly common catch in the Gunpowder by Trout fishermen. I actually enjoyed catching this fish more then catching a Rockfish over 40", just because its more unusual to me</div>
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sam bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12708555290973804683noreply@blogger.com0