14-22 September Week in Review

It's amazing how a little temperature difference can make a big difference in the fishing.  When Captain Felker arrived in Annapolis on 13 September, fall seemed to be well on the way.  Water temps were down into the high 60s-low 70s, and the fish were starting to school up, providing several days of good jigging and top water action, as well as keeper Rockfish to the cooler, including a nice 27 incher.

Unfortunately, we were fooled by the faux fall weather, as summer reappeared the following week.  Although we enjoyed the company of Bery Edmonston and Russ Knaub on two outings, the fish generally returned to summer mode.  Bery demonstrated that persistence pays off, jigging up a few small Stripers on his outing, and almost tying into a 25-plus inch Striper, who inhaled an alewive that Bery snagged several times on the retrieve, and followed the unlucky live bait all the way to the boat.

We did have one brief period of schooled up Striper action with Russ in the boat on Friday afternoon.  Having chunked alewive and jigged with no success, we noticed birds and boats down at Thomas Point lighthouse, just south of the Severn River.  We got there just in time for the tail end of the feeding frenzy, and for about 45 minutes Russ got to experience Stripers slashing at top water plugs. Though no keepers, the action was hot, and a good many 18 and 19 inch fish made it to the boat.

Cooler temps are on the way, so hopefully we've seen the last of summer and look forward to the fish schooling up and fattening up before they escape the bay in the winter.

Tight Lines,
Mikey D Fishing