Stellar fall Striper fishing ended after Super storm Sandy hit

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.

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  :)

Tried out my homemade jigging spoon

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  http://www.pierandsurf.com/fishing-forum/showthread.php?91795-Dremel-homemade-fishing-lure&highlight=
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

I thought it seemed like a perfect lure for certain conditions like areas where theres lots of snags or 
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
Heres a video of me using the spoon for the first time

 

Ocean fish in the Upper bay

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.
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.
I've been surprised a few times this summer, once I got into a school of Redfish,
 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).

 Theres also been the usual Bluefish, but I've heard of some people catching some huge ones, up to 19lbs

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!!

Fisheries conservation, what many don't want you to know

I  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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

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.
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.
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.
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!
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
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,  ASMFC and other fishery departments for no other reason but to try to ban commercial fishing from within.
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.
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
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.
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-conservation

Chesapeake Carp fishing

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.


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
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.
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!

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.

Preseason catch and release Trophy Rockfishin

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.

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.

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!!

Awesome fishing on a warm winter day 3-15-2012, Trophy Bass and Northern Pike

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

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

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

RIVER MONSTERS! James River Catfish

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.
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   River Cat'n Guide Service.
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.
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.
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 :)


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
Here's Capt Joshs website http://www.rivercatn.com/

My quest for a Northern Pike

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.
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 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












UPDATE!!!!!!!!!
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!

Big fish to end the season

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" (http://katherinecharterfishing.zenfolio.com/ ) 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.