West Branch Fishing Report: Fall is in the Air in God's Country

Highs in the upper 60s, lows in the high 30s to low 40s.

No need for a narrative.  Pics tell the story....

             

And a cooperative Rainbow

Tight Lines,

Mikey D Fishing

Potter County Fishing Report, 10 September: When the Steelers stink up the room...

 Grab a fly rod, go outside ...

And maybe the fish gods will be kinder...

Tight Lines,

Mikey D Fishing

Cape Charles Fishing Report, 26-30 August: Trust the Science

The last couple of reports focused on conditions that can make the difference between fishing and catching.  What's also important is a source that takes all that info into account and provides a reasonable forecast for fishing.

We normally refer to Tides4Fishing (https://tides4fishing.com/us/virginia/old-plantation-light) and Nautide (the T4F app).  It's almost information overload, but provides enough gouge to decide whether to hit the water (and when), or hang out at the bar.

Are the sites accurate?  Experience this weekend kind of points to it.  This past weekend Clare and Bery Edmonston hopped down from Annapolis to do a little wade fishing.  I checked the T4F site to get a sense of overall conditions.  The solunar activity indicated slow or poor fishing.  Weather conditions, though, were plenty good enough to wade around.

So we hit the water on Saturday and Sunday mornings to take advantage of the outgoing tide.  Saturday was a bit windy when we arrived, but the winds and waters calmed as the morning went on.  Water clarity was okay on Saturday, but excellent on Sunday.  A lot of baitfush in the water on both days.  We fished a variety of soft plastics under popping corks.  Total for both days was some undersized Reds and a couple of small trout.  Bery was the only angler to put a keeper in the bag with a 21.5" Red, which filetted up nicely.

And, when the saltwater fish aren't cooperating, there's always golf course pond bass to get some more action....

On Wednesday, Capt. DiPaola stopped by for an overnight while enroute from NC to Bethany Beach.  He finished his last meeting around 5:00 PM.  Too late to put the Mikey D in the water, but a short golf cart ride to get a couple of hours of wade-fishing in before dinner.  

The solunar calendar indicated better conditions.  Skies were overcast, but the water was completely flat.  Air temps in the low-80s.  We fished the incoming tide.  Not my preferred, but you get what you get.  We fished popping corks with Berkley Gulps (in Nuclear Chicken color) and Z-Man sented Shad (Slam Shady ... kind of an off white) baits.  Joe got us off the schneid.  On his third cast the cork disappeared, the rod bent, and the drag sang.  After a great fight he landed a nice 24-inch Red, then followed up a few cast later with a 14 inch Flounder.

While there was a lot of bait in the water over the weekend, it was nothing compared to yesterday.  Every time you popped the cork, a dozen baitfish would jump out of the water.  I put my Slam Shady in the right place and time, popped the cork, the baitfish jumped, and the cork went down.  Another great fight and another 24-inch Red to the bag.

High winds and rain today foiled our plan to put the boat in and explore some spots.  But, once the water calms down in a couple of days, the fishing should pick up.

Wading around is fun.  You see all the critters that inhabit the inshore waters. (Which is why wading boots are a must.  Some of those critters can put a hurt on you).  But the idea is to catch fish while enjoying nature.  So check the solunar calendar.  Worse comes to worse, a cigar and an adult beverage is not such a bad Plan B.

Tight Lines,

Mikey D Fishing

Indian River Inlet Fishing Report, 07-12 August: Conditions Matter: Chapter 2

 Friday Aug 11

What a difference a day, or two, can make.  As the next weekend approached, I was excited to get back on the water to try some of the drop-offs and holes that may provide excellent habitat for flounder waiting to pounce on bait moving with the incoming or outgoing tide.  I finally got the Mikey D launched again on Friday evening.  With the sun rapidly setting, I headed straight for the south jetty at Indian River Inlet.  There were 30 minutes left in the incoming tide.  I had a mixture of gulp and live minnows to pursue flounder and a handful of eels in case I saw stripers on the either of the jettys leading to the open sea.  

I was just a few feet off of the jetty on a nice drift with a top and bottom rig when a throwback flounder took the minnow before my first cast hit the bottom.  After fumbling with tackle and fish in the dark I hooked into another before the twilight turned to darkness.  

I decided to use the lights along the Coast Guard station to make the fishing a little easier and to see if there was any activity in the area.  As I approached the sea wall, I was not disappointed.  Schoolie stripers were slamming bait on top and slashing at silversides and bay anchovies just below the surface.  I grabbed and eel and threw it directly into the melee.  Seconds later I felt a tug and then the rod bent hard to the water.  The fight was short lived as the striper cut the eel in two.  The same thing happened on subsequent casts, but with darkness closing in and the tidal flow increasing, I decided to head back to the ramp and get ready for a full day on the water.  

Saturday Aug 12

Saturday brought light winds and a cloudless sky.  Long time friend Phil Weglein and son Connor joined me on an excellent day for a charter excursion to find flounder on the ledges around Indian River Bay. We started with a quick lunch at Dockside co-located at the Indian River Marina.  A perfect way to start a day on the water!  Conditions were close to perfect.  An incoming tide set us up on several nice drifts along the south jetty and the sandbars around Burton's Island.  Armed with minnows and gulp on top and bottom rigs, we soon started getting consistent hits.  The flounder seemed to be attracted to a mix of nuclear chicken gulp, white gulp, and live minnows.  Several hours of drifts produced 3 flounder over the rail, an alewife, and lots of short takes.  Connor was quick to bring rod to hand as he dispatched the flounder back in the water after the necessary hero shots.   No surprise that most of the action took place on ledges and drop-offs where the depths varied from 8' to 25'.  

While no keepers ended up in the cooler, the action just made me look forward to chasing the flatties back in the inlet or maybe down south in Cape Charles as Mikey D Fishing shifts HQ to the Southern Outpost.  Stay Tuned!

Tight Lines,

Mikey D Fishing

Indian River Inlet Fishing Report, 07-11 Augusr: Conditions Matter

Yes, a bit dated.  But as Thoreau wrote, "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in."

Wind, tides, precip, water temps, lunar phase, water clarity.  All can turn fishing into catching, or just fishing.  Pretty much the experience earlier in the week.  We were supposed to be down in Cape Charles for our annual Cobia outing with Capt. Kenny  Louderback of Fish Freaks Guide Service.  Unfortunately forecast high winds forced us to cancel the charter.  So instead, we made an audible and put the Mikey D in at Indian River Inlet on Monday and Tuesday for Flounder. 

Conditions both days were tough.  While we had sunny skies and no precip, wind speeds were in the dobule digits.  That not only made it tough finding good drifts, but also contributed to cloudy water.  On Monday good friend and fellow angler Bery Edmonston joined us.  We drifted with top/bottom rigs tipped with live monnows and Berkley Gulps.  Although Capt. DiPaola was able to put us on good drifts, we only had a few bites, and only put one keeper Flounder in the boat.

Conditions on Tuesday were  even worse.  Winds were in the high teens.  Joining us on this outing was friend and fellow HSL 42 squadron mate Russ Knaub.  We boated only one Croaker and a small Flounder before lunch, and decided fighting the winds just wasnt worth it.

While a bad day on the water is better than a good day at work, you want some cooperation from the weather.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case early in the week.  Fortunately, the Dockside bar and restaurant at the inlet marina offered some consolation from the tough conditions...

Indian River Fishing 29 Jul

For those suffering from withdrawal due to the dearth of Mikey D Fishing blog entries, I share your pain. The past few weeks were a reminder that despite being a faithful fishing machine, the Mikey D Fishing started to show the expected signs of her 9 years on the water.  A series of minor maintenance issues over the past month hampered fishing opportunities.  Repaired and refitted, I could not wait to get her back on the water where she belongs.

So it was with great anticipation that I launched her at the Indian River marina this past Sunday to learn the water and see what I could bring over the rail.  The weather was almost perfect.  Water temps were in the upper 70s which though high were a few degrees cooler following the passage of severe storms the night before.  Winds were manageable out of the North at 10 knots.  An almost full moon meant weaker tides, but by launching late morning, I would be able to take advantage of the full incoming tide.  As avid readers know, most of our time has been spent on the Chesapeake, where tides are more subtle and often fickle.  The Indian River Inlet is a natural cut between Delaware back bays and the Atlantic Ocean.  The inlet was a natural feature that was enhanced by the Army Corps of Engineers almost 80 years ago.  The massive amount of water that flows in and out of the inlet each day has scoured the bottom to form a 100 ft + canyon with all kinds of weird hydraulics in and around the main channel.  

I decided to start on the south jetty to target flounder.  The key was to find a spot on the edge of a channel where wind and tide did not conspire to prevent a drift that was too slow or too fast.  It had been a while since I felt the tug of a flounder, so I decided to try a little of everything to see what worked best.  I began with two top and bottom rigs.  The first had white hackle from Aqua clear and the other was the deadly double in orange by Fish in OC.  For each rig, I tipped one hook with a white gulp and the other with a live minnow.  For kicks, I also tossed a standard bottom rig with a 1/2 oz sinker and a live minnow.  

Action was minimal at first with a couple of light hits.  So, I decided to move further inside of Indian River Bay and drift along the main channel.   Almost immediately I was rewarded with a keeper sea trout.  Soon after, I found myself in a school of croakers.  After landing 3 or 4, I decided to keep moving to avoid expending all of my live bait on these fun fish from the drum family.  While they were hitting the gulp occasionally, they were tearing up the minnows.  And yes, for those who haven't caught a croaker, they really do make a croaking sound when they are out of the water.  

Heading a little further southeast, I found a spot that looked very promising next to Burton's island and green buoy #25.  The incoming tide allowed me to slowly drift west starting in about 6' of water to a maximum of 25'.  On my first drift, I picked up a nice flatty just under the limit at 15.5" (the limit is 16").  A second drift produced another flounder at 14" and a third soon followed.   Great fun!  Flounder are amazing predators, provide a fun but brief fight and are excellent table fare.  A great day on the water and typical of Indian River inlet, a day that produced multiple species.  

So happy to once again say to all, Tight Lines!

Mikey D Fishing

Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, 31 May-5 June

Thinking that after a couple of weeks the water in the lower Chesapeake Bay would have certainly warmed up, I headed back down to Cape Charles for another crack at Reds.  Unfortunately, the unseasonably cool weather still kept water temps below the magical 70 degree line.

But ... since I was down there, might as well fish.  On Wednesday I fished in the morning during the theoretical "magic period" on the outgoing tide.  Air temp was in the upper 60s.  Water temp in the upper 60s.  Clear skies, with little wind.  Comfortable wading conditions.  Rig of choice was a popping cork with a "Electric Chicken" colored paddletail.  But not a fish to be hooked.  Didn't notice much in the way of batifish swimming around either.

Thursday was one of those days where I was simply in the right place at the right time.  Hit the water a bit earlier on the falling tide.  Weather was overcast, but air and water temps remained unchanged from the previous day.  The water was moving, but still fairly deep.  On the first cast my popping cork immediately went under.  Took me a second to realize it, and after a pretty decent fight landed and released a 26-28 inch Red.

On the next cast the cork again vanished after it hit the water.  This time, however, the fish cut the line on oysters or rocks.  I quickly grabbed my second rod, armed with a Dyne XL suspended swim bait, and within a couple of cranks had my third fish in, another nice 26-28 incher.  

After that ... nada.  Like I said, right place at the right time.

Fortunately, the golf course pond Bass were more than willing to eat during the afternoon.  A Strike King shad imitation did the trick.  Color didn't seem to matter.  Who would think a lime-green lure with black stripes would catch fish?  But a few cranks to get the lure to dive, letting it wobble to the surface, and the bass smacked it.

Friday I was joined by Annapolis friends and fellow Navy football tailgaters Clare and Bery Edmonston.  We fished the incoming tide that afternoon, but to no avail.  On Saturday morning we made the required trek to Stingrays for breakfast ($9 for eggs, scrapple, grits, toast, and coffee), then hit the water right around 10:00 AM, just as the water was beginning to move.

We fished just about all of the outgoing tide.  The day was a bit warmer, and I did see fish moving through the grass flats.  But nothing really eating.  Then about 2:00 pm, while I was hanging out talking with Clare, we noticed Bery, who was fishing near the mouth of Plantation Creek, walking backward.  Splashes a few feet away from him gave away that he was on.  So we "hustled" down to him in time to land a nice 20 inch fish.

Bery noted that the Red jumped on baitfish near the surface (a good sign!), and sight-casted his paddletail to the fish.  A two-fer for Bery; his first Redfish, which also became is personal best.

And that was it for Cape Charles.  After a great evening hitting the Cape Charles Distillery, AJs for apps, and HooK@Harvey for dinner, I closed up Cape Escape Sunday morning and headed to Bethany Beach to meet up with Capt. DiPaola.  While the point was just to run the Mikey D through its paces, we did bring a couple of rods with us.  We drifted on a fast incoming tide right off the seawall at the Coast Guard station on Indian River inlet.  We weren't expecting anything to happen, but while jigging a bucktail tipped with a white/pink paddletail, we were surpised with two decent fish; a 12-inch Tautog and a 20-inch Striper.

The cool weather can't last for long, and the saltwater fishing should pick up.  On the up side, the weather in PA has cooled considerably.  There may be a West Branch fishing reprt looming....

Tight Lines,

Mikey D Fishing