Stripers Any Which Way You Can - Aug 7

 With the 2 week striper moratorium in the rear view mirror, Brian Gant, joined Mikey D Fishing for a striper outing in the middle Chesapeake Bay despite some threatening weather that was holding south.  Temps were in the upper 70s, and a three fish day predicted by the Nautide app, kept hopes high as we left the dock around 0900.  The best fishing was expected between 11:30 - 1:30pm.  

The plan was to live-line with spot and then opportunistically jig for stripers around the Bay Bridge pilings.  Tolchester Beach continues to report consistent activity, but I would rather work an extra hour for the bite locally than make the long run north.  As we approached the bridge spans, several charter boats were anchored just off of Sandy Point.  Most were live-lining spot and although I didn't see a lot of action as we passed, we marked fish at multiple depths.  

Brian and I decided to drift toward the bridge to see if we continued to mark fish.  The closer we got to the pilings the more the simrad lit up with fish.  Since the current wasn't rolling yet, we both were able to live line.    Thirty minutes in and not much to show for it but some tired spot, we switched to jigs and began our Mikey D Fishing horizontal jigging method to see if we could pick off a few stripers.  As we passed our third piling, Brian's reel began peeling off line so quickly he thought he was snagged at first.  Some headshakes from the striper on the other end quickly informed us that we were back in business.  A nice 16 inch striper again proved the method and we turned back around for another run.

We didn't get far into the second run when I noticed birds working near the main shipping channel.  Some splashes and flying bay anchovies led us to abandon the jigging and head over to the stripers on the surface.  Bucktails tipped with a pink twister, and white paddletails brought multiple fish over the rail.  The best was a fat 19" fish with most being between 16" - 18".  All in all a lot of fun and exciting to think about what lies right around the corner as the water temps peak and the fish begin to gorge for the change in seasons.

Tight Lines, 

Mikey D Fishing