With air and water temps cooling last week, it seemed only a matter of days until the Stripers got into "fall mode." On Friday Captain DiPaola finished his chores with about an hour and a half of daylight left, and took the MikeyD down to Thomas Point Lighthouse, where the experts at Anglers bait and tackle shop reported keeper Rockfish being boated. The boys at Anglers were spot on. Within a few casts Captain DiPaola had a nice keeper in the cooler, the fish caught on a "Smack-it" topwater plug.
Saturday the Mikey D team enjoyed the company of "clients" Dr.s Jennifer Keene and John Hall. The president and vice president of the Society for Military History were in town for a weekend offsite leadership meeting, set up by yours truly. What better place, I figured, than Annapolis for a variety of reasons, most of all the chance to put our guests on fish. And Annapolis did not disappoint. Perfect early fall weather. Dinner Friday night at Cantlers, enjoying a variety of soft crab dinners. On Saturday afternoon, with the meeting agenda items completed, we headed to the dock and boarded the MikeyD around 3:00 in the afternoon, and headed back down to Thomas Point. Air temps were in the low 70s, water temps around 72 degrees, partly cloudy skies, winds less than 10 kts, and seas realtively calm. Conditions that pointed to a blitz. For the first 45 minutes, though, things were kind of slow around the lighthouse. Tossing jigs and topwater plugs resulted in only one strike, a good fish which threw the jig after a brief fight.
It was starting to look like just a nice day on the water. Then the birds showed up. Around 4:30 gulls and terns almost magically arrived and started working the surface in the vicinity of the lighthouse. For the next hour we went into our "scoot and shoot" mode, running to flocking birds, tossing jigs and topwater plugs into the mix, tying into fish, then scooting to the next blitz. Although new to bay fishing, Jennifer and John expertly boated around 10 fish between them, most in the 15-18 inch range. But they did manage to each put a keeper in the box.
Saturday evening was spent at the Severn Inn, dining on blackened North Carolina Black Drum and crab cakes, a perfect end to a successful outing on the bay. Sunday morning Captain's DiPaola and Felker headed out to hit the morning bite before pulling the boat for some cleaning and maintenance. We probably left the dock a bit late. Arriving off Hackett's Point around 7:45, we had some action on topwater, but nothing to the boat. Not long after the birds showed up, but for the most part they were working schools of dinks. We were able to catch one keeper on a metal jig, but pulling in 8 inch fish just didn't hack it.
We probably spent around 6 hours on the water the entire weekend, yet caught 20-30 fish, including three keepers. As the water continues to cool the fishing is only going to heat up. Time to break out the fly rods and take advantage of fall fishing as the days get shorter.
Tight Lines,
Mikey D Fishing
