Recently in Mid-Atlantic Saltwater Reports Category

LOCATION: Mid Bay

SPECIES: Stripers, Spanish Macs and Blues

UPDATE: September 15, 2009

FISHING CONDITIONS: Not much has changed with my reports except the weather pattern and cooler water temperatures. Frequently it is a Northerly with Easterly influence. This is a clear sign of fall coming. Cooler water will place more feeding fish in the tributaries and that is often where I am fishing now rather than on the main portion of the bay. There are still great numbers of nice Striped Bass, mixed with blues and Spanish Mac's, even occasional larger fish up to 28 inches. Good feeding on silversides and bunker.

WATER TEMPERATURE: with this new cooler weather, low to mid 70's

MOST COMMON BAIT: Bunker, silver sides, and spot.

"MUST HAVE" FLIES IN DESCENDING ORDER OF IMPORTANCE:

-Poppers, poppers, poppers.

-Crease flys

-Larger deceiver patterns that have look and size of 3 to 4 inch bunker

-Bay Anchovy pattern, which you might also fish under a lure as a dropper behind the half and half or behind a spinning lure.

-Blue and White, half and half

-White over white, half and half.

RECOMMENDED LEADER: most commonly I use short (6 foot), straight sections of fluorocarbon leader material for fly or spinning. I use 9 to 12 foot tapered leaders for smaller flys fished in shallow water.

BEST FLY ROD AND REEL OUTFIT: with the exception of when I am targeting big game species I always provide the same basic outfit. 9 foot 9 weight Tip Flex Rod, paired with a light weight large arbor reel.

IDEAL FLY LINE TYPES: I use two types when fly fishing on the Bay. I use multi-tip fly line with interchangeable tips in floating, intermediate, slow sink and fast sink. These allow quick change opportunity coupled with the 15 foot length which even when used with the fast sink tip can be "picked up" off the water easily. The most common line I use is the full, fast sink line in 9 wt line size to allow me to fish the entire water column even in the deepest of areas.

SPINNING REEL OUTFIT: I have selected short, six foot to seven foot, medium fast action rod with 2500 F1 series Shimano Stradic reel. This will be spooled with braided line of either 14 lb test for lighter lure applications or 25 to 30 pound test for heavier.

BEST TECHNIQUES: Mostly finding fish in small schools now and we are finding short fast strips are working to get good bite. This applies to lures and flys, top water or sinking. The silverside bait is frequently small and this short quick pull seems to get the best reaction. Although mostly smaller fish we are still landing some of the largest

blue fish of the season as well as Spanish Mac's. I am still moving to areas that are in stronger current like drop offs and edges near channels. This is the time of less and more. With less boat traffic, less angler pressure, less daylight there is more time catching fish each trip.

COMMENTS: 8 out of 10 trips we are still bringing over 100 fish to the boat.

7-DAY OUTLOOK: Every day has been good, incoming or outgoing tides, early or late. Tight lines!

LOCATION: Mid Bay
 
SPECIES: Stripers, Spanish Macs and Blues

UPDATE: September 10, 2009

FISHING CONDITIONS: There are still great numbers of nice Striped Bass, mixed with blues and Spanish Mac's, even occasional larger fish up to 28 inches. Good feeding on silversides and bunker.

WATER TEMPERATURE: with this new cooler weather, low to mid 80's

MOST COMMON BAIT: Bunker, silver sides, and spot.

"MUST HAVE" FLIES IN DESCENDING ORDER OF IMPORTANCE:
-Poppers, poppers, poppers.
-Crease flys
-Larger deceiver patterns that have look and size of 3 to 4 inch bunker
-Bay Anchovy pattern, which you might also fish under a lure as a dropper behind the half and half or behind a spinning lure.
-Blue and White, half and half
-White over white, half and half.

RECOMMENDED LEADER: most commonly I use short (6 foot), straight sections of fluorocarbon leader material for fly or spinning. I use 9 to 12 foot tapered leaders for smaller flys fished in shallow water.

 
BEST FLY ROD AND REEL OUTFIT: with the exception of when I am targeting big game species I always provide the same basic outfit. 9 foot 9 weight Tip Flex Rod, paired with a light weight large arbor reel.

IDEAL FLY LINE TYPES: I use two types when fly fishing on the Bay. I use multi-tip fly line with interchangeable tips in floating, intermediate, slow sink and fast sink. These allow quick change opportunity coupled with the 15 foot length which even when used with the fast sink tip can be "picked up" off the water easily. The most common line I use is the full, fast sink line in 9 wt line size to allow me to fish the entire water column even in the deepest of areas.

SPINNING REEL OUTFIT: I have selected short, six foot to seven foot, medium fast action rod with 2500 F1 series Shimano Stradic reel. This will be spooled with braided line of either 14 lb test for lighter lure applications or 25 to 30 pound test for heavier.

BEST TECHNIQUES: Most trips are stating off on a shallow area near a popular island. It seems that most of the fish in the area are there and nowhere else. At any given time there may be 4 or 5 large schools of fish breaking the surface and this is only what you can see. Under the water the schools of fish are even larger and cover large amounts of this flat. Smaller lures and flys meant to imitate Silversides are working when thrown directly into the thickest of the breaking fish. All sizes of fish are coming out of the frenzy. We have landed some of the largest blue fish of the season this past week. I am still moving to areas that are in stronger current like drop offs and edges
near channels. This is the time of less and more. With less boat traffic, less angler pressure, less daylight there is more time catching fish each trip.

COMMENTS: 8 out of 10 trips we are still bringing over 100 fish to the boat.

7-DAY OUTLOOK: Every day has been good, incoming or outgoing tides, early or late. Tight lines!

LOCATION:  Mid Bay

SPECIES:  Stripers, Spanish and Blues

UPDATE:  August 25, 2009

FISHING CONDITIONS: There are unbelievable numbers of nice Striped Bass, mixed with blues and Spanish Mac's, even occasional larger fish up to 28 inches.  Good feeding on silversides bait right now.

WATER TEMPERATURE: mid 80's

MOST COMMON BAIT:  Silver sides, bunker, and spot.

"MUST HAVE" FLIES IN DESCENDING ORDER OF IMPORTANCE:

Bay Anchovy pattern, which you might also fish under a lure as a dropper behind the half and half or behind a spinning lure.

Blue and White, half and half

White over white, half and half.

RECOMMENDED LEADER:  most commonly I use short (6 foot), straight sections of fluorocarbon leader material for fly or spinning.  I use 9 to 12 foot tapered leaders for smaller flys fished in shallow water.

BEST FLY ROD AND REEL OUTFIT: with the exception of when I am targeting big game species I always provide the same basic outfit.  9 foot 9 weight Tip Flex Rod, paired with a light weight large arbor reel. 

IDEAL FLY LINE TYPES: I use two types when fly fishing on the Bay.  I use multi-tip fly line with interchangeable tips in floating, intermediate, slow sink and fast sink.  These allow quick change opportunity coupled with the 15 foot length which even when used with the fast sink tip can be "picked up" off the water easily.  The most common line I use is the full, fast sink line in 9 wt line size to allow me to fish the entire water column even in the deepest of areas.

SPINNING REEL OUTFIT: I have selected short, six foot to seven foot, medium fast action rod with 2500 F1 series Shimano Stradic reel.  This will be spooled with braided line of either 14 lb test for lighter lure applications or 25 to 30 pound test for heavier.

BEST TECHNIQUES:  Birds and fish breaking are the start point and sonar keeps you in place.  When screen goes empty wait for one more cast and then start to move slowly around or move to breaking fish under birds again.

COMMENTS:  Having a great time with many clients right now.  Evenings have been a hit almost every time.  8 out of 10 trips we are bringing 100 fish to the boat.

7-DAY OUTLOOK: Every day has been good, incoming or outgoing tides, early or late.  Tight lines!

FISHING CONDITIONS:  Seasonable, changing, unsettled and our current weather forecast includes rain with possible thunderstorms.  Winds continue to be acceptable on most days.

WATER TEMPERATURE: 74.5 degrees Fahrenheit

MOST COMMON BAIT: Peanut bunker, silversides

"MUST HAVE" FLIES IN DESCENDING ORDER OF IMPORTANCE:
• Chartreuse and white half and half 3.5 to 4 inches long
• Blue and white half and half
• White on white half and half

RECOMMENDED LEADER:  6 To 9 Foot, 16 Pound test

BEST ROD OUTFIT:   9-Foot 9 weight with full, fast sink line

BEST TECHNIQUE:  Look for breaking fish early and late in all the regular areas.  Cast any fly into the action for an immediate hook up.  During the day, use sonar along deep (30 feet plus) channel drop-offs and edges.  Fish whenever a few marks occur.    Allow plenty of time for fly to get down.  Patience will be rewarded as fish seem to be cruising and hookups come quickly on multiple rods.  Outgoing tides and strong currents work best.  Fish around known structure when strong current is observed.  Singles are still in there working the rocks. 

COMMENTS: There are mostly schoolie size fish around (16 to 19 inch).  These are in limited supply and rarely large numbers of fish together.  We are still waiting on the main summer population of Striped Bass to arrive from further down the bay.  We haven't seen our summer blue fish or Spanish Mac's yet, which will be later due to the amazing amount of fresh water working its way down the Bay. 

7-DAY OUTLOOK:  By the weekend clearing and summer like.  Beautiful time to be on the water, and celebrate Father's Day.

From Capt. Russ:

"With Spring migration patterns in motion and fishing in the upper bay impacted by a May worm hatch, lower bay fishing looks very good right now.  Water temperatures are in the mid 60's and reports of black and red drum as well as Atlantic Croaker and speckled trout are coming in.  I was glad when a trip to fish the Barrier Islands at the mouth of the Chesapeake came up.

Locations:  I watched the tides and felt good about a moderately early start.  Fishing the Barrier Islands is a go!  We left the dock on an incoming tide which quickly turned into an outgoing.  This required keeping a close watch, since two feet of water runs out pretty quickly, which can turn a nice fishing area into a boat aground.   

Rod and reel outfit: nine and ten weight rods with large arbor reels.

Ideal line types: sinking lines are ideal.  You do have to watch your casting and stay out of the grass.  A sinking line cast into grass beds becomes a disaster.  It not only takes time to clear but spooks any fish in the area.  Remember this is shallow water fishing.  It is only two to three feet of water, with good visibility.  No self-respecting fish will stick around if the grass is being jerked hard and wads of it are being retrieved to the boat.   Also I rigged a floating line in case the casting was a little off. 

Flies: Used crab patterns.  My selection included one with a bunny tail, fairly large, which sinks nicely.  Moved with a twitching movement on the bottom it will entice drum to eat it.  The floating line had a smaller crab pattern which sinks slightly.  This combination with its small hook on the pattern and the floating line makes it less volatile to the fishing we were trying to do.  In the face of a drum the crab pattern will get eaten. 

Color selection: Purple and black on the sinking line and natural crab color (green) on the floating.

Best location/methods: Checked the deeper water as we moved slowly back into the barrier islands for drum possibly feeding in the holes as the tide was starting to move.  If fish were located on sonar we would use the sink line in order to get deeply into the pockets.  Remember drum look at the bottom for a meal.  Once we were back into the shallow water of the first island, poling and/or motoring extremely slow was the method.  Poling is a plus when in prime areas like this.  Pay extreme attention to those areas where a small tidal creek enters the area you are fishing.  This is a meal ticket for drum.     

Fishing technique:  We watched for schools of drum that might be foraging together as we moved along the grass beds.  A school of drum might be quite large.  If we had found such a school we would cast quietly, well in advance of the school and start twitching our fly as they arrive on it.  We moved even slower using the pole at the mouth of creeks watching for any "V's" on the water or shadows that might be moving around.  These can indicate individual fish.  We would blind cast to the area quietly as we moved the boat along. 

Results: In our nearly four hours of fishing in the back country we found four Red Drum, the largest was over 30 inches.  Next time I will start earlier, on the incoming tide.  We simply ran out of water too quickly today. 

To learn more about Capt. Russ Wilkinson, please visit: www.chesapeakebayflyfishing.com/