Fishing the Mid Atlantic region and beyond for all manner of salt and fresh water species. We cover the lower Chesapeake Bay aboard the "Mikey D Fishing" in search of stripers, redfish, speckled trout, flounder, cobia and chase trout across the classic freestone and limestone streams of Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia.
The week brought opportunities to hook into both fresh and saltwater species. Last weekend I attended a TU regional meeting at the Allenberry Resort in Boiling Springs, PA. About 100 TU chapter and state council leaders from as far north as Maine showed up for wide ranging seminars on all things TU. Of course, there was also some fishing to be had. Friday's itinerary was just that. Members of the Cumberland Valley Chapter of TU volunteered as host guides and took folks out to various streams in the area. I opted instead to fish the Yellow Breeches on the Allenberry property. Fished from about 10:30 AM to noon, took a break for lunch, and was joined by Capt. DiPaola for a few hours in the afternoon.
Fishing conditions were pretty good, given the rain that doesn't seem to want to stop. The Breeches was running about a foot higher than normal, with flows also above normal. But not too difficult to wade, with the water a bit stained but clearing. Stayed right in the section between the spillway and the Meadow Pavilion, about a 150 yard stretch of the creek.
No surface bug activity, so I went with a hopper/dropper rig, with an 18 black bead head zebra midge as the dropper. Picked up 8 fish below the spillway, all Browns, with one going around 14 inches. When Joe showed up for the afternoon session, we fished in the slow water above the spillway. This time I opted to go straight to a chamois worm, and picked up another 4 trout, this time all Rainbows.
On Sunday I headed back to the West Branch Tavern, did some laundry, took care of the cats, and on Monday morning headed to Bethany Beach, Delaware, to spend a few days with Charlie, Lindsay, and the grand kids before Charlie's deployment to Afghanistan later this month. Capt. DiPaola most graciously offered the use of his beach house, and although not a beach guy myself, enjoyed hanging out at several of the local watering holes.
And we also got a chance to wet a line at the nearby Coast Guard station at the Indian River inlet. It's been a frustrating early season on the Chesapeake. The influx of fresh water from the Susquehanna has reduced the salt content in the bay, which has spread out the Stripers . Our usual early spring tactic of bottom fishing cut Alewife has brought nothing but big catfish, which have moved into the bay in large numbers.
So the opportunity to tie into some Rockfish could not be passed up. On two nights we set up around 7:30 in the evening, with incoming tides. By 8 or so the fish turned on, and by 8:20 the action was nonstop. Over the two evenings we (Capt. Dipaola showed up for Wednesday night's fishing) landed well over 30 fish; Stripers, Blues, Joe even landed a Shad. All fish were taken on white soft plastics; twister tails and paddle tales, jigged sideways rather than up and down. Charlie took several Stripers that went at least 20 inches, unfortunately 8 inches shy of Delaware regs. Even his son Eliot (call sign "Bearclaw") got into the act.
Returned to Potter County Thursday afternoon to surprisingly sunny skies and spring-like temperatures. It had obviously rained a good bit early in the week. The West Branch was high, but in great color. A good hatch of Sulfurs, Yellow Sallies, and even a few Green Drakes that evening from about 8:00 pm til dark, Didn't have the rod at the time, but did manage to head down last evening, and brought two Rainbows to the net, on on a Chamois Worm, and the other actually taking a foam hopper pattern. This morning about 7:30 I walked back down to the same spot and picked up another two stockie Rainbows on a purple San Juan Worm, both going around 10-12 inches.
The down side of all this rain is that it can mess up the streams for days. The upside, though, is that for those few days when it's not raining and the water levels get back to normal, the fish are eating. With few anglers on the water, the streams have good numbers of trout, and the cool evenings are bringing on the hatches that should last for a good few weeks at least.
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!
Date: 29 May
Time: 10:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Air Temp: mid-70s, humidity 100% ... rain turning to thunderstorms by 2:30 PM
Water temp: upper 50s
Anglers: Capt. Felker, Bob "The Trout Whisperer" Volmar, Rev. John Kallerson (Col., U.S. Army, ret.)
Water conditions: Great flows for late-May. Plenty of holding water.. Not many risers, but fish were definitely looking up. Flies used: Hoppers with and without Rainbow Warrior dropper, Stimulators, Humpys, Caddis ... basically anything that floated and looked edible brought up a fish.
Fishing: Despite only three hours on the water before the storms chased us off, an excellent day of small stream Brookie fishing. Started out a bit slow. Fish were willing, but it took some time to get the timing down, especially on the dinks. By 12:00 or so we began to consistently tie into fish, some going 6-8 inches, big fish for this small stream.
Other items of interest. Grouse drumming throughout the morning. Spooked a bear on the walk back to the truck.
The thunderstorms that rolled through on Sunday night did a number on the small streams. By Wednesday, though, Fishing Creek, although high, had good color. And with the forecast to be relatively dry over the next several days, Bob "The Trout Whisperer" Volkmar and I decided to try the East Branch of Fishing Creek.
Both branches of Fishing Creek fall into the small stream category. The east branch, however, can be a bit more challenging. With the amount of posted land, access points are not easy to find. And, while showing a lot of character, the stream itself can be challenging, with overhanging trees, root balls, and woody debris just waiting to grab your fly.
If you're into 40 foot casts, this is not the place to be. The trout are there, you just have to work for them. The weather on Friday morning was partly cloudy, with scattered rain in the forecast. Air temps were in the mid 60s, water temps around 49 degrees. We headed up Fishing Creek Road at the gentlemanly hour of 10:00 AM, and strung up the rods at one of the spots that we had stocked a few weeks earlier, a hole that Capt. DiPaola had success on opening day. Bob tied on a chartreuse Mop Fly and a small weight below a strike indicator, and on his first cast nailed a nice 12 inch Rainbow.
After I missed several fish on my turn, we headed upstream to do some trout prospecting. As I said, you have to work for the trout in this stream. But where there was good holding water, there was usually a fish. At least that's what Bob demonstrated, bringing six trout to the net while losing one at his feet. My performance was somewhat less impressive. When I wasn't missing fish, my fly found its way into the overhanging trees. Even saving the fly more often than not left a tangled tippet that required re-tying everything. The fishing gods eventually took pity on me, as I was able to land a 10 inch Brookie on Mary's Chamois Work below an indicator.
Four hours of fishing with only one to the net, not to mention the lost flies and tangled leaders, convinced me that something was amiss. I began to suspect that Bob's Lab Blue had put some kind of curse on me to benefit his master.
Blue decided to opt out joining Bob and me for dinner that evening, but I still sensed the possibility of a lingering Lab curse, especially when I lopped off a small portion of a finger while chopping onions, an "accident" that had me in the emergency room at UPMC that night (after Bob agreeably finished cooking dinner for us) to get the bleeding under control.
On Sunday Bob departed for Pittsburgh, giving me the opportunity to test my hypothesis. Weather was not much different than Friday, with the exception that the forecast showers were a couple of days late. It didn't matter; I was on a mission. With a latex glove protecting my bandaged injured digit, I hit the spot where we started on Friday morning, tied on a Chamois Fly below a foam hopper, and cast up into the head of the pool. Missing the Brook Trout that rose to the hopper literally where I was standing challenged my suspicion. But, even after missing a second fish, I stubbornly resisted the possibility that it was me, and not Blue, and made my way downstream.
Despite hitting very fishy water, I failed to move a trout. And then fortune struck, and I managed to land a nice 10 inch Brownie that was hanging tight against a partially-submerged log.
A short time later I coaxed a Brookie about the same size from under some submerged roots for the second fish of the day.
So, while the score was 2 fish landed out of 4 hookups on Sunday, It just wasn't enough to prove that Blue had given me the evil eye on Friday. I doubt I'd get anything out of him anyway, no matter how many biscuits I offered him. Loyal to a fault, those Labs....
Tight Lines,
Mikey D Fishing
Monday update: Hanging down at the Picnic Table Hole this afternoon, under sunny skies and temps in the upper 60s, a huge hatch (for the West Branch) of Quill Gordons. Dry fly season is quickly upon us!
The state's proscription on trout fishing in the stocked streams is only a month and a half long. But add to the regulations a gloomy, cold, and wet March, and the wait seems much longer. Stocking events break up the monotony a bit, but also increases the anticipation that a new fishing season is at hand.
The 2019 season began last Friday, when Capt. DiPaola rolled in to enjoy another Opening Day, the first at the West Branch Tavern. The evening festivities began with Smokey Manhattans at the bar, followed by a feast of steamed mussels in garlic and white wine sauce and mini crab cake appetizers, followed by a main course of Linguine alle Vongole, and ending with a few glasses of Woodford Reserve (double oaked) and cigars on the deck. The night skies were clear, temps comfortably in the high 40s, indicating most excellent conditions for fishing.
Saturday morning broke with partly cloudy skies and temps hovering in the upper 40s, with the forecast only getting better as the day wore on. We quickly ambled down to the Picnic Table Hole (aka Camp Bearclaw), around 0645, set on staking out the best fishing spot behind the WBT from the hord. Over the next hour or so rods were strung up, the drone prepared for launch, and we enjoyed a continental breakfast, courtesy of WBT co-owner Mary Felker.
At 0800, with the sun just beginning to creep over the mountain, the catching began. We sunk Woolly Buggers and Green Weenies to the bottom of the hole, and were rewarded with enough Brown, Brook and Rainbow tout to make the early rise worth the effort. As the weather warmed, we started seeming a few bugs coming off; Little Black Stone Flies, and even a Quill Gordon or two. But the fishing on this stream seem reluctant to rise early in the season.
By noon the bite was coming to an end, so a good time to send the drone up to catch some action before the bite quit for the afternoon. An earlier fight caught some good video of the surroundings. The second launch, however, proved to be a bit more problematic.
After the crash, Captain DiPaola quickly retrieved the drone from the creek. Amazingly, the battery was still powering the drone. Removing the battery, Joe left the vehicle to further dry out, optimistic that a "little" freshwater wash down would not result in a Class A mishap.
While the drone was drying, and the bite off at the hole, we decided to scout around to find another spot or two on the stream. Driving around the west and main branches of Fishing Creek, we noticed a lot more anglers that we had seen on our section of the west branch. The east branch, to my surprise, was empty. So we hit a couple of spots that I had helped stock with the state the previous week, and in one hole puled out a 12 inch Rainbow and 2 Brookies, one of them a bit too small to have been stocked.
All in we caught and released about 15 trout for the day. Even better, the drone proved fully operational after its Fishing Creek baptism. With Sunday came the thunderstorms that swelled the stream, followed by the cold (and spitting snow on Monday). Spring in Potter County is kind of fickle. But the fishing season is on, and with it hopefully the last of Old Man Winter.
What better way to recover from our amazing fishing trip in Louisiana than hauling buckets of trout to the stream so the "bait chuckers" can pull them out in a week. To be fair, stocking is actually kind of fun, but it's also a workout.
Two weeks ago I helped members of the Roulette Rod and Gun Club stock both branches and the main stem of Fishing Creek. Today it was the state's turn to provide the fish. Weather conditions were not quite as nice as Louisiana. As I headed to the rendezvous point with the truck and WCO, there was about a half inch of snow on the ground, and temps in the mid 30s.
Joining me in the outing was neighbor and fellow TU chapter member Bob "The Trout Whisperer" Volkmar. We and about 7 other vehicles met up at the ABC Motel on Rte 6 at 1015, then headed to various destinations on Fishing Creek.
Not a lot of technique involved here. The driver nets the fish and puts them into buckets, the WCO hands the buckets down to us schlubs, and then we amble off to dump the fish into the stream.
We tossed our last bucket o trout around 1:15 in the afternoon. I think we stocked around 2,000 fish two weeks ago, and added another 1,000 or so today. The big difference between the two stockings was fish size. Most of the fish stocked with the club ran in the 12 inch range. Today we put in a good number of 16-18 inch Brookies, Browns, and Rainbows.
I'm sure that's the reason why many of the folks in the "conga line" of vehicles didn't get out of their cars. They really weren't there to haul buckets. As I said, there are stockers, and then there are stalkers. And then there are slackers....
Author and playwright Mehmet Murat ildan wrote,
“When there is nothing left to learn from the winter, move on to the spring!”Unfortunately, my winter learning curve
peaked in January, and it’s been a long crawl since then to get to spring-like
conditions.Even then, spring in Potter
County is a fickle thing.A few days of
warm temps are easily followed by the return of cold and snow.
Fortunately, Captain DiPaola had the remedy at
hand.I’m sure everyone who reads this
blog has seen fishing shows which center on southern Louisiana.So, when Joe suggested we check out the
fishery in person, there was no hesitation, and we headed off to Venice, Louisiana.
Getting to Venice was fairly
uncomplicated.Southwest flies direct to
New Orleans.From there you simply hop
into a rental car, get on I-10 East, and about 10 miles out of NOLA take
Louisiana Highway 23 south.From there
you simply drive straight another 50 miles or so until you run out of dry real
estate, and you’re in Venice.
Along the way you get an appreciation of the principal
threat to the folks who live in Plaquemine Parish.Not long after getting on the highway you look
to your left and see the twenty-foot high levee holding back the Mississippi.A little south of Belle Chase and you see an
additional twenty-foot high levee that holds
back the Gulf of Mexico.Folks who have
the money put their houses (and the schools, for that matter), on high
stilts.Unfortunately, those with lesser
means are at nature’s mercy.So, while
we know the images of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, you can only
imagine what the 27-30 foot tidal surge did in the lowlands to the south.
We arrived at the Venice Marina, where we had
rented a houseboat (actually, a house on a barge … very comfortable) for the
next two days, just as the offshore and inshore charter captains were pulling
in. Venice advertises itself as the fishing capital of the world.Watching the fish being offloaded, you’d have
a hard time arguing against the claim.Swordfish, Tuna, Red Snapper, and Redfish in large numbers all made
their way to the cleaning stations.Hanging
out with a drink and a cigar under sunny skies and temps in the low 80s only increased
our eagerness to hit the water and experience the fishing ourselves.
That would have to wait until Sunday.Saturday evening, we met up with our guide, Captain
Herman Demoll, owner of Cajun Culture Fishing Adventures (www.cajunculture.net), at “Changes,” a
local restaurant owned by Herman’s aunt and uncle. Over gumbo and boiled crawfish,
we got to know Captain Herman, his history, and the culture of the area. As I mentioned earlier, the area is ground
zero for severe tropical weather.And job
opportunities are also pretty limited.You’re either working the oil and gas rigs, or working the water.It’s amazing that folks choose to endure such
tough conditions.But they do, which is
as good a definition of resilient as I can think of.
Fortunately, Captain Herman is one of those
folks.As I’ve mentioned in previous
posts, although we’ve had a few clunkers for guides, overall, we’ve had more
success than failure.Captain Herman did
not disappoint.A fifth-generation
fisherman, Herman proved to be the consummate guide and angler, and a living
reflection of Cajun history, culture, and hospitality.
For the next two days we experienced firsthand
the amazing inshore fishery in the Mississippi delta.Captain Herman would pull up to the houseboat
promptly at 0615, load our gear, and head off.Both days we fished during an outgoing tide at an area known as the “Wagon
Wheel.”As the name suggests, it’s a circular-looking
area just west of the marina.From a map
it looks only a distance of a few miles to the west.But there are no straight lines to get to the
great fishing spots.The boat ride alone
was worth the trip.Captain Herman
demonstrated the worth of five generations of knowledge as he navigated the marshes. I’m not a great judge of speed, but we were
moving at a good clip, and in some cases in channels that were not much wider
than his skiff.
Within an hour or so he had us set up in what
would be one of two fantastic fishing spots for the trip.The first was essentially a 5-6 acre cul-de-sac
of water surrounded by cane and other grasses.His fishing technique was straightforward.We first anchored at the mouth of the hole,
rigged up spinning rods with popping corks, about 12 inches of leader, a small
weight, and a Kahle hook, kind of an offset circle hook.Since crawfish season had recently opened, live
mudbugs were the bait of choice.Baiting
the hook was simple enough; just push the hook through the tail of the crawdad,
and cast it close to the bank.From
there the technique got a little more complicated.The popping cork is designed to make a
snapping noise when the rod tip is jerked, a noise which is like a dinner bell
to a Redfish.Key to the technique,
though, is slack and patience.Keeping
slack in the line gives the fish time to take the bait and run.Patience improves the chances of a successful
hook up.So, when the cork went under, a
five second pause, followed by reeling in the remaining slack and setting the
hook, usually meant fish on!The technique
took a bit of time to master, with a good number of early misses.But once we figured it out, fishing turned to
catching.And when the bite slackened,
Captain Herman would simply move the boat to another section of the hole, drop
the power poles, and we’d go back to catching.
The action was virtually non stop for about three
hours, and we boated over twenty fish, almost all bigger than the 16-inch slot
limit, and two in the 27-plus inch range that qualifies a Redfish as a “bull.” I even had a brief encounter with a Red on the
flyrod.Unfortunately, the great weather
that greeted us on Saturday failed us on Sunday.A front moved in the late morning, with gusty
winds, cooler temps, and heavier rain than forecast.We had rain gear, but it wasn’t up to the
conditions.So, after hitting a few more
spots with only a few hookups, we opted to get back to the warmth of the
houseboat a bit early.We could have
toughed it out.But the fishing had been
so great, with an improved forecast for Monday, that we could easily call the
day a success.
We hopped onboard Captain Herman’s boat the
next day with clear skies, temps in the low 50s, a bit breezy but seemingly not
enough to keep us from our mission of catching a Red on a fly.We began at the same hole that we had hit on
day one.But unlike the previous day,
while we caught good numbers of fish, we caught much bigger fish, several in
the bull-class.Having circumnavigated the hole, Captain Herman pulled up the power poles to hit a second hole, which
turned out to be the hottest spot of the trip.Again, he zigged and zagged the skiff around and through the Wagon
Wheel, stopping at the entrance of a small creek channel connecting two larger
holes.The channel itself was nothing to
look at; about 60-80 feet long, 30 or so feet wide, 3-4 feet depth on the left
bank, and shallowing as you went towards the right bank.Beyond the channel you could discern a hole of
2-3 feet depth about 80 feet in diameter.But inside the channel and the hole on the other side were an incredible
number of Reds.For at least an hour and
a half we were tying into fish on almost every cast, and again many of them
were better than 27 inches.We doubled
up on more than a couple of occasions, which was somewhat dicey considering the
narrowness of the channel. But the urge to tie into another big Red threw
caution to the wind.
After a bit we decided to try the flyrods one
more time.Captain Herman moved up into
the channel a bit to get us closer to the far hole.From there it didn’t take long for each of us
to claim our first Redfish on a fly.Mission accomplished!
We hit one more spot that Captain Herman was
interested in, but didn’t see much action, so we decided to head back to the
marina.Anyway, the thirty-three fish
that we caught and released suggested a pretty good day.Bidding Captain Herman adieu, we drove back
to NOLA, where we experienced a bit of the French Quarter, had a great meal at
the Bourbon Street Grill, and finished the night with a couple of Sazeracs at
Galatoires.The perfect end to a perfect
fishing expedition.
Our thanks to Captain Herman of Cajun Culture
Fishing Adventures, who made the trip an incredible fishing experience!!!
