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Fishing Reports
MAY
2012
By Capt. Bruno Vasta
The long awaited start to the Striped Bass season finally arrived on Saturday, April 21st, but several members had been out in the Bay earlier trying some
catch and release fishing. The main concern for many of our SMC members was the fact that we had gone through a very warm February and March which could lead to an early spawning by the Striped Bass. Well, as many of you found out, there were some nice fish taken over the first
weekend but the fishing or should I say the “catching” dropped off significantly towards the end of the month. Many trips resulted in only a couple of keepers and most of us were surprised by so many under-sized (less than 28-inch) fish being caught so early in the season. One catch of note was that of Ron Altman, who on April 25th fishing with a white Daisy Chain on one of his deep rods with 20 ounces got his first fish (a 38.5 inch striper) aboard his boat out in the deep water off Buoy 76. His story on how he was able to bring in this fish and land it all by himself is quite amusing, and Ron should be congratulated for a worthy catch
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The best day in April for many of us was Saturday, April 28th when the fish hit very early in the morning and then as the tide changed after 1 P.M. they came on again. Several nice stripers in the 33 to 39 inch-range were caught. One good thing that was noted by several anglers was the fact that the female fish had already spawned out. The best areas for the early striper fishing seemed to cover the Bay straight out from the Patuxent River and all the way down past the HI Buoy and beyond 72-B and down towards Buoy 72-A. Several charter captains working in the southern portion of our area reported good catches of stripers up to 40 inches. Keith McGuire has some very good articles about catching Stripers in The Calvert Gazette, and has a photo of Martin Stuble with his 40-inch fish.
Earlier this week, at the Captain’s Meeting in preparation for the MSSA Spring Tournament, I had a chance to talk with several of our SMC anglers and most of them said that the “bite” was very early in the morning, and most of the larger fish were heading South. They also confirmed the fact that this early Spring-like weather accelerated the spawning of the stripers and a lot of them had already left the Bay. So, for the remainder of the trophy season (up to May 15th), I would recommend getting out early and fishing a combination of white and chartreuse lures. Don’t forget to try the No. 19 “Tony” spoon out about 300 feet which has proven very effective so far in catching some nice stripers. I believe that there will still be pockets of stripers making their way down the Bay in the deeper waters over towards the
Eastern shore.
In getting ready for the start of the next season on stripers (May 16th), when one can keep one striper 18 to 28 inches and one over 28 inches or two smaller stripers, it is time to scale down your larger rigs. This means going down to your 6-inch Sassy Shads on both smaller buck-tails and parachutes. This should be a good time to begin “bottom-bouncing” for the stripers just off the edges of the channel. In addition, Croaker fishing should pick up with larger fish being caught early in the morning and later in the afternoon with blood-worms and shrimp. Good luck to all of you and please send me more of your fishing reports.
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