[Dr. Bob]

I caught a few croaker about an hour before dusk Saturday night standing on my brother's dock on Carter's Creek in Irvington, bottom fishing with bloodworm fishbites and chicken livers (ibelieve it or not). Then, for the heck of it I switched over to casting different lures. I caught a striper with almost every cast, no matter what lure I used. The water depth is approximately 7 feet off the dock but I could even jig the lure so it was still visible in the water and see them flashing up to bump it. The largest one was about 12-14". What a blast! Of course, I released them all. Then on Sunday my son-in-law and I fished both sides of the Rappahannock and caught and released at least 50 schoolies. Some we caught over the oyster bar just downriver from Parrot Island and some were in the little cove just downriver from the oyster reef at Mosquito Point. We had to quit because of the oncoming front, but I don't know when I've had more fun.[excited][excited]

 

[warrenahrens]

That is great fun, Doc. and welcome aboard!! Nice report and good to hear the river is full of future keepers!!.....fish on...aye...aye

WA

 

[TLT III]

I fished the same reef down from Parrots Island yesterday with similar results. I launch out of Bush Park Creek, and that was the last place I fished before the storms. Love those stripers on six weight fly rods.
Great report! [grin]

 

[jwas1]

Hope to get out tomorrow evening. I fish out of Locklies Cr with Parrot Island within reach of my 15' skiff. They are fun to catch in 4' of water on 8lb spinning gear, too.

 

[riverwatcher]

Thanks for the encouraging report on the schoolies. I live on Mosquito Creek, so I will have to see if I can find them tomorrow afternoon.
Now for the rest of the report, I fished for flounder in the Rap this afternoon without a bite. I switched to trolling for stripers and was rewarded with a 34 &1/2 inch wide bodied striper. There were bunker schools near the mouth of the river and I trolled around the bait for about an hour with one good fish on a pearl colored 6 inch shad on an umbrella rig. The fish was about half way down in 30 feet of water. I never did get all the way to the channel because the bait was so thick in the 30 foot range today.
The good news is that we don't have to run way up north this year to get a shot at some of the larger stripers.