Spanish: 8/31:9/1

[captrichie]

Spent frustrating evening 8/31 from SOUTH of Mud Leads to 64 loosing several drones to aggressive blues who'd wrap up the tripped lines into one 4-5 line mess - by my self, course mac's got off, blues cut drones loose, etc. (I knew better) Very early next am went across channel edge with a new set-up I came up with for a "solo" mackerel angler.
Took 2 nice spinning rods, 20 lb floro leader on both sides of a 3oz in line weight w. tiny ball bearing swivels each side. Kept leaders bit short, and worked drones with a jigging motion along the top 5-15 ' w. boat moving steady 12h rpm. Eventually found a few macks feeding & came up w. 2 nice ones gigging with the moving boat. They only hit the retrive part of the jig ( increased speed I guess) Were fun on a light spinning rod. The blues with fun too as with this set up for me alone were easier to control. If they didn't spit the drone I carefully removed it ($8 ea). Next time I go alone targeting mac's with probably not use planners. Like this better.

Please keep me updated how you folks out of NN and the Coan do ( #7 and #9 & B Cake, etc). I 'll do the same for you. Thanks!
The mac's I found were spread sorta thin, all the way from the NN to way up in MD above Solomons. Rarely somebody did hit a school. Real action for mac's with large numbers everywhere were at R2 and R4 off out of Rapp., and decent numbers moving into the Mexican Hat and 59A areas, as of 2-3 days ago ---- any day now round here, right?
Captrichie
(Docked at Buzz's Marina, St, Jerome s)

Don't know what forum to put this report on, but any search for mac's brings up all of them. Fair enough, I guess.

[Coan Ranger]

You got the right forum. Will be working the #66 to #72 area late this coming week. Will report.

[Remobeater]

Hmm, we had 7-9 lines off planers without loosing any tackle or getting any serious tangles, maybe you need to change up the spread a little. Its always hard to go solo though. One lure you could try for casting is the got-cha plug, it works great for blues and mackerel for horizontal or vertical jigging. We will be going out of smith point this coming weekend.

[HeyCharlie]

When I fish and have help, I find I don't loose many fish and rarely have tangles, I believe its because we keep boat speed up and keep constant/even pressure on fish. ( but 4 spining blues at one time is hard on even the best)
When fishing alone its hard to keep everything just right :) --- I tend to drop boat speed to much (on this new to me boat)
Loosing fish to cut offs is going to happen, it just means your in right spot! (on the sharp toothed critters)
CaptR, I hope the fish are on the way, for all of US

Remo, I thought you were going to NC

[POUNCE]

For spanish I have upsized my trolling rig to three TLD25s on 6' stand up rods (thats right, light tuna gear). I fish #'s 1, 2 and 3 planers with (various color) clark spoons from 7 to 10 knots (faster when searching - slower once I've found them). When I hook a fish and it trips the planer I will slow to my minium trolling speed - no slower and use the beef in the rod\reel to get the fish to the boat as fast as possible.

Since I started fishing this way, I have not lost a fish and I don't tangle even when fishing by myself.

[Remobeater]

Nope HeyCharlie, just went for a week. I agree with slowing the speed while reeling in. Our first blue/mack trip 75% got off and we realized slowing down would have helped.

[dmattva]

Trolled R2 this morning. Tons of small blues. Couldnt find a mac. A few other boats were there looked like they were into the blues as well.

[Remobeater]

Ya, same with us up by target ship, no mackerel.

[HeyCharlie]

I ran past you guys.. Did Just fine. Waiting on pic's!

[dmattva]

Mine is "La Pauline" Cobia walk around. So did you find those macs around R2? The blues were so thick there the macs didnt have an opportunity. Birds were working over them. Cranked up speed same result. Filleted 20 blues and had an awesome fish fry. Those mackeral are too bony anyway. Haha