Piney Point stripers, 12/4

[ictalurus]

I met up with fellow kayak fisher, Ron, yesterday to try for some bigger stripers. I thought Piney Point would be a good place to try since the channel is relatively nearby, there's structure to jig, and it's fairly protected. In hindsight, given the distance we covered (12 miles for me, much more for Ron) and how calm it was, we should've launched out of PLO or Buzz's.

We fished from about 10am to about 4:30pm, which was from late flood to late ebb. Trolling was the way to go yesterday, as Ron showed by the end of the day. He had 6 knockdowns and landed two fish, a 27-incher and a super-fat 28-incher. Most of the fish hit a red and white Stretch 25. I ended up with a skunk. While trolling around, I would see scattered marks between 20 and 30ft and more consistent marks at 45ft all the way to the bottom. The fish seemed to be the most concentrated along the 50ft line. I trolled a 1.5oz chartreuse parachute with a 6" chartreuse shad out to the pier in the morning. Later I trolled a chartreuse Stretch 25, which went untouched. I guess they didn't want chartreuse. I also trolled a #18 Tony spoon with a 4oz inline sinker and half a reel spool's worth of line out. I had a really solid hit on that combination, but it didn't stick for some reason. That was all the action I had for the day. Ron even lent me the lucky Stretch, but I guess I didn't present it properly because I didn't have any hits. I hope that lure isn't cursed now that I've touched it.

I spent a bit of time jigging BKDs and casting Rattletraps at the pier without so much as even a sniff. The flood tide seemed to move pretty well, but the ebb never seemed to amount to much, even at max ebb. I also tried jigging in about 55ft, but I would only get two bounces before the lure was behind me, and it was tough maintaining contact with the lure.

Now for the pics:

A bunch of pelicans at the pier:

I think they blew my chances at the pier (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it). There was 50 or 60 of them standing on it originally. When I first approached it, they proceeded to all jump into the water cannonball style. It was like fishing in an artillery range. In fact, I thought a bunch of them were going to fly into Ron as he trolled by.

Ron in the distance with his first fish:


Ron's first fish a bit closer:


Ron's fish on shore (sorry about it being blurry):

That photo doesn't really do the fish justice. They were some of the fattest stripers I've ever seen at that size, especially the one in his left hand.

A nice December sunset:


It's always good fishing with Ron, and it was perfect day on the water. The water temp read about 52* most of the day. Given the amount of distance we covered and how calm it turned out to be, we could've launched at Buzz's or PLO and headed out to the channel in the Bay. Actually, we could've gone across the Bay and back in some places and have it be less than 12 miles. The nice thing about Piney Point is that the channel edges are really steep in places, which I think helps concentrate the fish a bit. The 50ft contour is pretty well defined, so we could follow it pretty easily.

[wjzink]

Good report Bill. Don't feel too bad...we stunk up the boat Saturday AM. Tight lines!