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Fishing Report and Mystery - Saturday/Sunday Chester River

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  • Fishing Report and Mystery - Saturday/Sunday Chester River

    Can't get enough of that river I guess. Was at Bogle's Warf launch Saturday at 445 am and the really big lot was mostly full. Trucks and trailers. Must be crabs in the bay. If you've never been to Bogle's you might enjoy it. Very big. Beautiful, peaceful spot in a Federal nature preserve. great concrete ramp and a couple fishing piers/docks. Tiny beach for launching kayaks. You can park 20 feet away.

    Never marked so many fish as Saturday but I could not get them to bite. Threw paddletails, lures, tubes, spoons, umbrellas, jigs. Holy smokes you wait all year to see marks like this and then lockjaw. Maddening but awesome to be out there at dawn.

    Finally around 11am (low tide) I nailed two keeper rock - 22 and 24. Still has me confused why the rock pass up everything in my bag of tricks at dawn and a moving high tide and then eat breakfast at low tide around noon. Go figure the solar-lunar calendar said around 11 am would be the prime time so they nailed it.

    Sunday was interesting. Kayak in the water at 5 and still didn't beat those crabbers to the launch. Went back to the part of the channel where I got the two keepers the day before and found another dude trolling the area. He had found the spot the day before too but he had his limit at 830 am...so while I was throwing everything in my tackle box at great marks 1/4 mile away and could not get one bite on Friday morning he had his limit by 830. So the two of us chatted and trolled in circles. Nice guy. Kayak vs center console. Nobody else in the area.

    But what really made Sunday interesting was 7 consecutive knockdowns with no hookup from 630 - 730 am. Very odd. Got to pondering this and wondered if my switch to light rods caused this. Even with a tight drag, a light rod has SO much flex it's hard to see a good hook-set happening. Even if you have a tight drag AND accelerate the kayak on a knockdown to set the hook, the rod just bends. I made the switch to lighter rods this week. Was using trolling rods mostly before.

    Other thing I think I figured out is that my Ram ball mounted rod holders were slipping with the stiff rods. The bounce of the lure and the stiff rod was moving/tugging hard at the ball in the socket even fully tightened. I realized that the light rod flexes more and absorbs the shock before it gets to the Ram ball mount so now the mounts don't slip. Oh man this stuff is a puzzle.

    Wound up off the water both days before noon, Sunday before 10am. Sunday had a ton of knockdowns, one keeper size had too many sores so never touched it. Shook it off the jighead back into the water. Only other was 19 inches.

    Both days fish were holding at 15 feet in 25-37 feet of water. Trolled at 2.5 to 3 mph

    I've been really lucky lately to have time to be on the water so much, especially at dawn, and always meet cool people of all sorts. Looking forward to going to the tournament in Sept to meet some more. Tight lines!

  • #2
    Great report. Looks like a cool place to go.

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    • #3
      Good report, never fished the chester but it seems like a good spot. Though if I were to fish it I would try to launch around kent narrows, since bogle's would be a far drive up and around to get to it from my side of the bridge.

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      • #4
        Nice report. See Ron Ault's post about sharpening hooks. That can contribute to strikes without solid hookups.

        This time of year when the bluefish are around, it is not unusual to feel a bump but get no hookup. When that happens, I wind in the lure to make sure a bluefish has not bitten off the tail (more often than not, the paddle part of the tail is gone). If blues are around where you are fishing, switch to Z-man soft plastics (more bite resistant) or use hard plastic crankbaits or metal spoons instead. Some times a striper can bang the hook and cause the tail to get stuck on the hookpoint. Frequent checking of your lures helps to keep clean lures in the water.
        John Veil
        Annapolis
        Native Watercraft Manta Ray 11, Falcon 11

        Author - "Fishing in the Comfort Zone" , "Fishing Road Trip - 2019", "My Fishing Life: Two Years to Remember", and "The Way I Like to Fish -- A Kayak Angler's Guide to Shallow Water, Light Tackle Fishing"

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