Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report: From the Bay to the Breeches

While tidal flows are certainly important to know when saltwater fishing, water temperature, especially in the fall, is critical to bay striper fishing.  As the water cools into the low 60s and upper 50s, the fish begin gorging themselves on the schools of bait fish that are getting ready to head south toward warmer waters.  But get below 58 degrees, which seems like the magic number, and the fish seem to start turning off.  From there it's only a matter of days until they also head to warmer mid Atlantic waters.

We were literally at that point on Veterans Day, with "clents" Brian Wagner and Joe Baylog.  Brian was the high bidder for an outing on the Mikey D auctioned during the TU Northeast Regional rendezvous last June, and brought along his chapter president to see if we might put a few in the box.

Since we were marking a lot of fish in Whitehall Bay, it didn't seem to make sense to leave fish to find fish.  And, on the upside, the weather was as good as it gets for fall.  Temps climbed up into the low-60s, with sunny skies and light winds.  The down side was the good weather had been preceded by a cold snap that dropped water temps down into the low to mid 50s.  Consequently, the fishing was definitely challenging.  We had several hookups, but not as many as we would have liked.  We did avoid the skunk, boating a 10-12 inch Flounder that took a Gotcha jig (a first for the boat), and one keeper Striper that went 19 inches.  Yet, despite tough conditions, we were fortunate that we had a great pair of anglers to spend a day on the boat.  It was certainly a pleasure fishing with Brian and Joe, and we promised them another opportunity in the spring. But the day was certainly a sign that it was time to pull the Mikey D and start looking ahead to spring.

Three days later we shifted from the salt to the fresh.  Our long-standing Navy football tailgate crew got together at the Allenberry Resort in Boiling Springs, PA, to enjoy a weekend and watch the Navy-Notre Dame game.  The resort is a little less than two hours from Annapolis, and sits right on the Yellow Breeches, one of the iconic trout streams in PA.  While some of our crew hiked the AT, and others chilled out, several of us tried our luck on the Breeches.  Weather was not bad; sunny skies the whole weekend, temps in the 50s on Friday, and low 40s on Saturday.  Water was very low, and the fish were spooky.  Which probably accounted for the lack of numbers.  Mary and I got skunked on Friday.  Saturday, though, took a different turn.  While Mary decided to hike, I, along with John Hupp, former White House colleague Mark Ponicsan, and Capt. DiPaola, made our way up the Breeches to fish "the run," a 200 yard or so creek that flows from Childrens' Lake into the Breeches.  The section normally hold a good number of trout, some real lunkers.  But these fish are also pretty savvy, as the stream is no more than 10-20 feet wide, shallow in most parts, is gin-clear, and easy to access.

As numbers go, it was an okay day.  I picked up two 12-inch Rainbows on a Rainbow Warrior, and tossed off a small wild fish as I was stripping it in.  But Joe enjoyed honors of the catch of day and the week.  We noticed a big fish just below the bridge that crosses the run.  It was so big, that its back was sticking out of the water at times.  It also had seemed to have something wrong with its mouth.  We left to head back to the resort, and Joe remained to work the fish.  It wasn't much later that he netted the 20-21 inch Brownie, caught on a tandem rig "dynamic nymphing." (high sticking for all you old timers).  Even in the thin water the fish was a challenge getting it to the net.  He even did the trout a favor, and re-positioned its jaw, which had been dislocated.

The afternoon was spent watching Navy get its clock cleaned, enjoying the company of great friends,  great food and adult beverages, followed by cigars and brown liquor at the fire pits.  If you're looking for first-class accommodations within a stones throw of great trout fishing, the Allenberry needs to be on your list.  As for the Mikey D, while the bay reports have unfortunately come to a close for a few months, the cold weather doesn't seem to give the trout lockjaw.

Tight lines,
Mikey D Fishing