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Shallow water action, Piney Point, 9/11

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  • Shallow water action, Piney Point, 9/11

    I finished the first round of this weekend's chores early enough to get in some evening fishing. I also figured out what is wrong with my fish finder, which I have to fix today (loose negative connector).

    I launched at Piney Point at 5pm, which was high tide. I fished until 7:45, which was from the beginning of the ebb to almost max ebb. Water temperature was 78* and salinity was 16.5, which was a lot higher than the previous two years, I think.

    Since the tide was high, I started off looking for spot, perch, and puppy drum. No jumbo spot at the usual place, but I caught some 4-6 inchers at my perch/redfish spot on Fishbites. No luck finding any redfish, but I did see something coppery jump a few times. It was probably my buck fever making a bluefish look like a redfish. I found a 10" perch by some large woody debris, but only one:



    It was weird finding a solitary perch, but it was the only hit I had in the entire area. I caught it on a 2" white twin tail grub on a spinner arm. Nothing hit the chartreuse Gulp grub I tossed around with and without a gold spinner arm.

    At 6:45, I started heading toward my topwater spot. I trolled a 5" shallow diving Bomber minnow (black back, orange belly) under the bridge and caught a 18.5" striper. Fighting the fish in the current by the bridge was interesting. I released it since I thought it was a sign that bigger fish would be biting.

    As it turned out, my topwater spot was on fire. No fish were rolling, nothing was hitting my Chugbug, but I couldn't keep fish off the Bomber. I caught another 18 incher upon arrival, which I released, and the next cast brought in a 20 incher:



    The fish was bleeding, and the lure got all tangled up in my anchor trolley, my pants, etc., so I kept it. As I untangled everything, I noticed that the hook on the Bomber was bent. I straightened it and kept fishing. I caught three more fish in the 17-18 inch range, missed/lost three or four more more, then I caught a nice 22-incher, which I kept:



    It was about 7:30 at this point, and, for some reason, I started catching much smaller fish in the 14-16 inch range, so I decided to troll back to the launch (without any hits). Every fish I landed bent the hooks, even the smallest fish, and even after I loosened the drag. That's pretty unacceptable.

    I had a nice sunset and saw a sundog that foretold of this morning's rain:



    It was a good thing I quit when I did because the wind picked up quite a bit. There's been a solid southerly breeze every time I've fished Piney Point this year. Anyway, it was an awesome evening, I caught enough fish for several dinners, and my manly man baitcaster got a good workout. It was funny that the fish only wanted subsurface lures. Also, I have to do some hook swapping today, apparently.
    Yellow Hobie Revo Rube Goldberg
    Yellow Tarpon 120

  • #2
    Nice report! Good action there, Bill. Nice... After yesterday's slim pickens in the morning I got to thinking maybe we should consider an evening outing for a M&G. In my surf days evening and nights were always better. Well, not always!

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    • #3
      Hey John--

      I was thinking about an evening M&G trip. Piney Point might be a good place to do it because there's good fishing close by, relatively little boat traffic even on weekends, and there are a variety of species to fish for in the summer. There are also some nice lights on Stewart's Pier. We should keep it in mind for next year.

      I seldom have as good luck during the day, probably because I don't get out there early enough. Either that or I just know the evening patterns and not the morning patterns. I have caught lots of nice blues, flounder, and almost legal redfish during the day at PLO in the past, but I haven't had that much luck there this year. My striper luck seems to be a dawn or dusk thing with only a few exceptions.
      Yellow Hobie Revo Rube Goldberg
      Yellow Tarpon 120

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      • #4
        Great report and excellent pics. Its amazing how easily those bomber hooks bent. I guess even the smaller stripers have a good amount of clamping power. Either that or they gain leverage on the long bodied lure. I know the northern plug guys swear by the 3X strength trebles. Those are larger plugs though and they would probably kill the action of the bomber.

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        • #5
          The bent hooks blew me away, too. I even keep a loose drag in case they bolt at the boat. I'm switching them out to singles, but I'm not sure what kind would be best. I had some open eye siwash hooks laying around, which I'll used until I find something better. Some of the higher end trebles are shaped almost like circle hooks, so I might give something like that a try.
          Yellow Hobie Revo Rube Goldberg
          Yellow Tarpon 120

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by ictalurus View Post
            The bent hooks blew me away, too. I even keep a loose drag in case they bolt at the boat. I'm switching them out to singles, but I'm not sure what kind would be best. I had some open eye siwash hooks laying around, which I'll used until I find something better. Some of the higher end trebles are shaped almost like circle hooks, so I might give something like that a try.
            Back in my manic surf fishing days I carried a bag with a whole assortment of redfins & bombers. And needlefish and Gibbs & Danny plugs. And metal and tubes and rigged rubber eels, etc, etc.

            We always, always, always changed the hooks on the redfins and bombers to 4x. The stock hooks were always crap. We also removed the middle treble altogether. Sometimes would switch out the tail hook with a white or yellow deer hair single hook. Did that more on the wooden surface swimming plugs.

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            • #7
              Glad you made it out and had some fun man.

              TJ

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              • #8
                Great report! Sounds like a blast with all that action right at dusk!

                I'd be up for an evening/night m&g as well.
                Hobie Local Fishing Team - Backyard Boats
                Locations in Annapolis, MD and Woodbridge, VA
                https://www.backyardboats.com/

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