Cracking the Chesapeake Striper Code - 6 Jun 2019

To say that it has been a frustrating 2019 striper season in the Chesapeake Bay is an understatement.  Early signs were not good with Maryland's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) along with other groups reporting that the overall biomass of stripers was significantly depleted compared to typical levels.  Couple that with opened flood gates on the Conowingo Dam and the release of millions of gallons of freshwater and you have a recipe for striper scarcity.

Mikey D Fishing enjoys using light tackle techniques beginning in mid to late May to target the much sought after rockfish.  The standard approach is to chunk or chum at any one of several "hot spots" that are verified with marked fish on our newly installed Simrad sonar / fish-finder.  This year, that approach produced channel and blue catfish.  Fine and probably fun if you are noodling in Arkansas, but if you pride yourself on bringing keeper stripers over the gunwale, then it is less than satisfying.  I have personally witnessed committed striper fisherman giving in to the proliferation of catfish by targeting and fileting them.  Not these fisherman, at least not yet.

A tip from a fellow kayak fisherman, Clay White, gave me some hope.  On his advice, I left the dock at 1800 and headed to the far eastern side of the twin spans of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.  The trip across the main channel was a smooth as it gets.  There was no wind, clear skies and the bay's surface was flat calm.

I started working the bridge pilings on the south span about 1/4 mile from the Kent Island shoreline in 15 feet of water.  Another small boat was having mixed success jigging, having enticed at least one keeper to bite.  About 30 other boats were scattered between the two spans.  Some were anchored and some were on the move jigging between pilings.  Temperatures were in the upper 70s with water temps in the low 70s.

I began by vertical jigging without a bite.  The lack of action was attributable to the slack tide.  With no other variables like wind pushing the water, the tide shift was noticeable.  By 1915, the water began to move on an incoming tide.  The surge corresponded with maneuvering the vessel to the northern span close ashore in 6 feet of water.  I also adjusted to Mikey D Fishing's side jigging technique which involves slowly making way along structure while jigging horizontally.  With a yellow and white sparkled BKD rigged, I felt the unmistakable strike of a keeper striper accompanied soon after with head shakes and a strong pull.  I positioned the boat away from the bridge and horsed the fish from abrasive piling edges.  My reward was the first keeper, a 21" rockfish to the boat.  To verify that the experience was not a aberration, I passed through the same area again.  This time a 25" pig slammed the BKD.  A nice fight ensued with Mikey D Fishing on the winning end of the battle.  With filets in the box, I can't wait to get out there and do it all over again!

Tight Lines,

Mikey D Fishing