2 days on the bay...

[bwoodhouse]

Spent 21 hours on a boat this weekend on the bay (not including 2 hours on Friday night crossing the bay from the Magothy to the Chester and back looking for breaking fish without results). On Saturday Otter and I took my boat out of the Magothy to chum for rock for the first time and to look for breaking fish as we ran around. We ran to Thomas Point light and chummed in the morning for about 3 hours without a bite. We ran around looking for fish for a while and then settled in at Love Point outside the mouth of the Chester and chummed for another 2 or three hours with only two HUGE cow nose stingrays to show for it.

We were chumming with a one gallon bucket of frozen chum we took the lid off of and hung in a mesh bag with eight ounces of weight from the back of the boat which hung down probably about ten feet under the boat. We were anchored in about 23 feet of water and we had four rods out with fresh bunker on 2/0 and 3/0 circle hooks - 2 with once ounce weights and two with virtually no weight - maybe an eighth of an ounce each. We tried letting the lines drift out a long way behind the boat and we tried’em closer in. Later in the day we broke out a second gallon of chum and thawed it out and ladled it out on top. What were we doing wrong? How much chum do you have to use? Is one gallon melting in a mesh bag enough to get a good slick going? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

On Sunday, PJDSR and I trailered his boat down to Solomon’s Island to drift for croaker and look for breaking fish. In the morning we took a quick jaunt out into the bay from the Pax River and didn’t see much of anything going on either on the surface or on the finder. We headed back in and fished the mouth for a while without results. Then we went in and anchored up inside the river on the south side in between green buoys 5 and 6. Caught a spot or two but it was pretty slow so we headed up to buoy 5 and drifted back up towards buoy 6 (at river’s mouth) and picked up a couple fat croaker and a few spot. We anchored up just in side the mouth and got into a honey hole of jumbo spot which were pulling in right and left for a good while. We then did the buoy 5 to buoy 6 drift again and picked up some more croaker and spot. Near the end of the day we went west of the route 4 bridge and did a couple of drifts in deep water which scared us up 3 or 4 more croaker and a few spot and some white perch. By the end of the day we had caught 8 fat croaker, 27 spot and 5 white perch. We (actually PJDSR) kept all but one croaker which was a little short (but still fat), none of the perch (all were small) and about 18 spot. We saw a few fleeting instances of breaking fish but nothing sustained. Real nice day on the water.

[bwoodhouse]

Bait on Sunday was bloodworms and fishbites bloodworms - nothing touched peeler or squid.

[Lipyourown]

Ladelling seems to work best, try to get fresh chum. Use 2 buckets: one to store the chum and one you have sea water in and add chum to make soup, ladel soup and forget the bags. Every so often through out a chunk or 4...like the one on your hook. Try to get your bait to drift back at the same speed as the chum...baitcasters are good for this as are baitrunner spinners. In ideal conditions, you need no weight on a couple of lines (should sink if you are slowly letting line out-key when the fishing is slow or the fish are smart), one with a half ounce (carolina rig) and one on the bottom (whole head). I like 3/0 Owners with the shank bent so it isn't offset, use 30# 3'-4' leader (floro). As soon as you see a ray, reel all lines in and move or wait through one cigarette completely stopping the chum line. Gizzard/gut is best piece but doesn't last long. Jig bucktail in the mess for big mama. When wind and current go in seperate directions, lite troll looking for birds. if there are 100 boats chumming, go down current from the last boat...don't even need bait at that point.

[catman]

I do it pretty much the same as Lip with some slight differences. I like to also sink a chum block right on the bottom and use a 8/0 wide gap circle for the LY heads. Jigging a bucktail in the mix is a good tip. Red & white works well for me. Ebb tide seems to be the most productive.

[bwoodhouse]

these are some great tips guys - thanks so much - the wind and current going in opposite directions was one of the things that I couldn't figure out - sounds like a good time to do as you suggest and look for birds.

[PJDSR]

Bwood had a hot hand yesterday. The fishing gods must have appreciated his offering with Otter on Sat with a day chuming and no keepers to show for it. They sure rewarded him with lots of action with croaker and spot. The croaker were decent length, not huge, but plenty fat, lots of meat on them. The spot were about as big as spot get. Perfect for the frying pan.

I can't say enough how much of a difference it makes having an experienced skipper on my boat with me. As much as I love fishing with my family, I would have been freaked out when the OB konked out in the mouth of the Pax. Fortunately, BWood and I put our heads together and decided she was flooded so spent an hour or so catching more fish and then fired her up after a couple tries. Getting the hang of this thing!

Back to fishing, more often than not yesterday, there were fish all over the finder. Most showed medium or small profiles and were in the bottom third of the column. I also saw what looked to be several big fish near the surface. That was odd because we saw no blitzing fish, working birds or topwater fishermen. Bwood did cast to a few boils with no result. I wonder if I'm getting a false reading from jellyfish or something else. The FF is a brand new Garmin 178C.

I am no expert on chumming. Is it better to anchor and create your slick or are you better off drifting with the current??

Congrats, Brad, on one of the best days on the water ever.

[bwoodhouse]

thanks man - and thanks for taking your boat - that Merc 125 Force moves that thing along real well - nice boat and a nice ride.

[Otter]

We had a pretty rough go of it on Sat. as far as the bite was concerned. Still had a good time though man, thanks again.

[Lipyourown]

Chumming does meaning anchoring most of the time.

Poormans / Nature Boy Chumming:

With all them spot and croakers in the cooler, move to a striper looking area. Cut up 3 or 4 of those fresh panfish in real small pieces and place pieces in ziplock, add a couple of cups of seawater. Mash the pieces up so they are really "juicing". Take another pan fish and use for bait and set your lines out. Start with chunking over a head, then occasionally spill a mess of your "broth" overboard while using your 4 lines. Great way to end a day if you are bored with the croaker and don't want the full hassle and mess of a full bucket of chum and that fresh broth is just deadly. Dip your bucktail in the broth too.

[bwoodhouse]

It even ocurred to us that if we wanted to clean all the fish on the boat to take home and eat we could have chummed with the guts and the heads.

[PJDSR]

Next time, we'll have to catch the panfish early and then go anchor up on the shelf and try for Rock.

My wife was sure glad we cleaned the fish on board, though! :)

[catman]

It even ocurred to us that if we wanted to clean all the fish on the boat to take home and eat we could have chummed with the guts and the heads.Be very carefull cleaning your fish onboard. You're not allowed to have any fileted fish on board unless you save the whole carcass with head and tail intack. For every two filets you'd better have a whole carcass to go with it. You can however gut the fish and use the insides for chum.;) Even at that some DNR police still might cite you as they interpret the rules differently. It's not worth going to court over.

[bwoodhouse]

I knew that about rockfish which makes sense given how strict those limits are. Thanks for the heads up.

[Lipyourown]

Thanks for the comment Catman. I'm wondering if I'd get in trouble with a fish (spot) that has no size restrictions? You got me all nervous.

[catman]

Thanks for the comment Catman. I'm wondering if I'd get in trouble with a fish (spot) that has no size restrictions? You got me all nervous.I would think that spot would treated like bait fish with no restrictions. Might be worth a call to the DNR.;)