SRRKC's Best Tournament?

[J.P. Williams]

I don't know which is better, the Aug-Sept Perch Tournament or the Winter Pickerel Tournament. They both celebrate the unique character of our home river. Anyhow, my prediction is that it's gonna take 39" to win the Best Three in this one.

Went out Thursday to pay off a trip CBF & I had donated to the annual auction of the Baltimore Outward Bound Center. Folks on board were an elderly couple who had bought the trip and their fish-obsessed 8-yr-old grandson. It was Izaak Walton's Birthday (his 419th), but with the moon in last quarter, no currrent in the river. Marked plenty of fish on the reefs (Asquith and Capt. Pike's Lump), but they weren't eating our normally infallible teaser rigs. Saw Scott (NoleAnimal) on Aisquith. Things were slow for him too.

The young'un caught a couple of decent keepers on Capt. Pike's (aka CBF Bar & Grill) by casting the teasers and retrieving them diagonally. Also a small spot that Skip would have loved for livelining and the usual small rockfish, but not much more. Finally went back to a couple of favorite friends' docks (w/ grassbeds) and gave the young'un a light rod with a #3 Blue Fox Vibrax spinner to "troll" by walking the boards. He did just fine, decking three 11-12" "green perch" to fill out the box.

Interesting but not surprising lesson--current matters on the reefs. Look for better reefin' on next week's new moon, and never forget how much our perch love grass beds and docks in the summer.

PS Scott, by any chance, did you pick up the orange marker buoy I left on the Asquith Reef?

[J.A. Veil]

Good job on getting some fish for the youngster. I was out just south of the mouth of Weems Creek today and same some temporary breaker activity about 1/4 mile away By the time I paddled over there, the breaking fish were no longer clustered in one spot, but they did pop the surface intermittently. They were a mix of rock and blues -- but were really tiny -- most 6" to 8" size. Rockfish of that size were plentiful earlier in the summer, but I have not seen them recently.

In that size class, they really liked my Kiwi lure that I bought in New Zealand last summer. I have not previously used it this summer. When I used it last year, I had it rigged as a terminal lure with the hook being part of the lure (as shown below). Today, I removed the hook, threaded the hollow, colorful, hard plastic lure onto my line and tied the hook to the end of the line. Rigged this way, the lure could flutter more and even slide up and down the line as I slowly trolled along in the kayak.

I have them in various weights and colors. The one I used today is the third from the right on the bottom row.

[NoleAnimal]

Hey J.P.,
It was great to see you again out there. That was the worst day of fishing I have had in a while. You are absolutely right about current mattering. It seems like everywhere in this fishery (both the Bay and the rivers) current seems to matter immensely. That's something I've really got to adjust to. Anyway- I am sad to say that I did not pick up your orange marker buoy. There were two guys in a boat there who asked us if it was ours and I told them no. Maybe they took that as a invitation to help themselves to it after we left. Pretty frustrating.