[satterly]

A couple of my friends who hadn't done any rockfishing before wanted to give it a try today. We started up around the freshwater line and landed one small fish and that was all. Moved out to the route 3 bridge and managed to jig up another small one and that was all for there. We then decided to run out to the mouth and see what it was looking like around Gwynns Island. When we got around Stove point we noticed a good amount of birds working out from Jackson Creek about a mile or so. We ran over and put some tandem bucktails out on medium spinning rods. Rigs were 3 - 4 ounce bucktail up front with small quarter ounces trailing with chartruse shad and twister tails. First pass around the birds we picked up a couple fish at 20 and 22 inches kept working around the birds and picked up a total of 18 fish and kept our 6 from 19 to 24 inches. The fish looked to be schooling up good on the fishsinder, nice arches stacked up on top of each other and bunched together nicely. At one point the entire screen was covered by fish with small pods of bait scattered throughout.

--John

 

[Pat Pennell]

Mouth of the Tank

Thanks for the report. My dad and I have fished the mouth for the past two weekends. We just casted and had the same results. Staying in the river beats going halfway up the bay any day.

 

[Jenna]

Got 2 keepers there Friday....tried trollin around Sat and Sun w/only 1 dink...were the birds near the oyster bar on the Mathews side? Isshhh...why doeswork have to come in the way of rock season??????????

Good job!

 

[paddywagon]

we were out there today as well but could not muster up a bite. We saw the birds and trolled around them for some time with no takers. There was a lot of bait down there but we could not get one. Will give it another try tomorrow.

 

[satterly]

Paddywagon : Make sure your baits are on the bottom, we only picked up one fish from the middle of the water column. The rest of them were all caught with the lure bouncing bottom. I like to let the line out till it hits bottom, then a second later let it out again till it hits bottom to make sure it is all the way down.

Jenna : We stayed in front of Stove Point the entire time and everything was in 24 to 26 feet of water.

From the size of some of the marks we saw today I may drag one of my larger umbrellas next time to see if anything bigger is hanging out down there with an appetite.

 

[rappahanockman]

Thanks for the report John!! I hope they are still holding the same pattern this Saturday.
This is shaping up to be a Good Rockfish season!

 

[paddywagon]

Paddywagon : Make sure your baits are on the bottom, we only picked up one fish from the middle of the water column. The rest of them were all caught with the lure bouncing bottom. I like to let the line out till it hits bottom, then a second later let it out again till it hits bottom to make sure it is all the way down.

Thanks for the tip Satterly. Will give it a try next time.