Atlantic Ocean Striper Chase, 2/1/12

[Sea King]

Rounded up my Uncles and Father from as far away as Cape Cod & NH to meet Capt Greg and Capt Lee aboard the Fin Finder for a day of LTJ in the ocean yesterday.

We left the dock at 8am as the light tackle bite sets up later than trolling and we proceeded to spend the first 2 hours in the cabin out of the stiff SW wind with no fish.

Then about 10:30 Capt Greg used the radar to locate the first school of....birds! A cloud that showed up on radar was a couple of miles North and we chugged in that direction. As we came upon the action you could see huge stripers flashing through the 2 ft waves on top just below the mix of terns and gannets above. As we grabbed our very light rods with 10# braid, mono leader and either swim shad or BA we were all hooked up on first or second cast. The drags were screaming as we all fought to land our first fish of the day! My Uncle, fireman from South of Boston lands his largest rockfish ever, a near 40# beast on 10# test, seen below with Capt Lee, our first mate for the day.



Most of us had caught one or two at this first stop and then they were gone! We were able to locate the fast moving pods a little further North with more of the same, we would all hook up, catch a couple each and down they went racing North. Plus a stiff SW wind didnt help.

All we could say was WOW!

We kept chasing the schools, using radar to locate the bird clouds that would appear 2-3 miles North each time until we found a huge cloud of gannets even further North. These were consistently larger fish that stuck around long enough for us to land 6 or 7 fish each. This is where I hooked into my best for the day.



Another fish!



As the day wound down you could see the Delmarva peninsula to our West as we had chased these fish to about 40 miles North of the dock. Capt Greg and Capt Lee did a great job putting our crew on nearly 50 trophy fish! ALL of which were returned to the sea for the Spring migration.

Another epic day that was made even more sweet for me to be able to hang out with the old salts of my family.



Here are 2 videos taken during the melee:






I believe Lee and Greg have tomorrow open before the Fin Finder returns to Solomons on Monday. Call Greg or Lee to book tomorrow if you want to experience striper fishing at its absolute finest, 301-873-1327.

Or book with them for the Spring trophy season. I have fished aboard the Miss Susie with Capt Greg and his predecessor John Montgomery since I was in college with my family and have learned a ton about rockfishing from them.

www.misssusiecharters.com
www.finfinder.com

;)

[Chesapeake TJAM]

Nice report and nice videos. Looks like everyone had a blast with some nice feeeesh!
Mike

[TerpHeels]

pretty work...u up as far as Quinby or u run up bay?

[Sea King]

pretty work...u up as far as Quinby or u run up bay?

Not sure where Quinby is, we were about 40 miles N or Rudee inlet though.

[J.A. Veil]

That sounds like a great day. It is hard to beat large fish on light tackle.

[Wild Bill]

Captains Greg and Lee are some of the very best. You made a good choice. We were in the Parker up at that northern most spot on Wed. We found them south of there on Tues. Looks as you had a super day. We ran up the bay first on Wed but did not locate that big school. They may have moved way north. Only fished the ocean in the afternoon. Those fish are great on light tackle.

[Hillbilly Boater]

That's some sweet action. Nice pics and video. Only problem is that a good ocean striper bite will ruin you for life. Thanks for the post.

[Salmo trutta]

Very nice and thank you for releasing the fish. Just a question, why did you release the fish? Most days that boat keeps the full load, captain and mate's too as seen on facebook every day.

[Capt Brady Bounds]

Pretty work !

[mrobertson]

Very nice and thank you for releasing the fish. Just a question, why did you release the fish? Most days that boat keeps the full load, captain and mate's too as seen on facebook every day.

This is something i argue about alot. Embarrassingly, i have been on charters probably 20 - 25 times in the last 10 years. All but one of those trips, i have never been given the option to release a fish. It's always "we'll get rid of them".

Anyways - i have been fished on the Miss Suzy one time with Captain Greg. Before departing he gave us a run down of what was going on, and asked what we wanted to do with our fish (if we caught any).

I'd be willing to bet that the OP wanted to catch and release, and Greg and Lee were happy to comply.