Ft. Smallwood Thursday 7/28

Launching at Ft. Smallwood around 6-6:30 am Thursday morning all welcome.

[J. Rentch]

See you at 6:15

[Mark]

A cold front is coming.

It's only going to be 89 degrees that day.

See you guys then.

[On the fly]

A cold front is coming.

It's only going to be 89 degrees that day.

See you guys then.

Might need to pull out the dry suit��

[Dimo]

Most likely in

[tech11165]

Let me know how you guys do. I went today 7/27. Trolled the 10-16 foot range. Plenty of baitfish but no rock. Lots of Rays. Snagged one; that was an adventure. I trolled from 10:30 to noon. and caught the incoming tide. I made a loop around white rocks then stayed in the 14 foot range.

[mike o]

I'm planning to fish there Friday.

[J.A. Veil]

I fished there for 2.5 hours this morning. The water was flat calm. My FF screen had good looking marks all morning long, but whatever they were, it was not hungry fish. I told the other guys that I caught a singing group this morning -- "Ray and the Five Dinks". The largest striper was 12". I hope the bite picked up for the other guys after I left.

[Mark]

I fished there for 2.5 hours this morning. The water was flat calm. My FF screen had good looking marks all morning long, but whatever they were, it was not hungry fish. I told the other guys that I caught a singing group this morning -- "Ray and the Five Dinks". The largest striper was 12". I hope the bite picked up for the other guys after I left.

John,

The bite did not improve.

I also caught a musical group by trolling: Ray and the 4 Dinks. Fortunately, your point and pull method quickly detached me from the ray. The other good news is that it took only a jig and paddletail, not my Rat-L-Trap.

As you were saying, my screen was often full of fish:

P1010811.jpg

But getting sizable fish to bite was another matter. Here two members of my singing group:

P1010816.jpg P1010817.jpg

I also got bites I couldn't land:

P1010824.jpg

Clearly, blues were among the fish I saw on my Lowrance. I had two bite-offs today. Do you ever wonder how "bite-off" blues can come so close to the hook and miss it?

Since the stripers were disappointing, Harry and Don targeted white perch along these rocks. They had some success. Harry got a 10 and 11 incher among his catches.

P1010821.jpg P1010822.jpg

I got 6 white perch with a jig spinner along the shoreline a little bit east of Harry and Don but I couldn't crack 9 inches, Here is my largest:

P1010820.jpg

I decided to head to the White Rocks. Often perch are active around them. But I caught none there. I never even had a tap. I had a few spectators, however:

P1010826.jpg P1010829.jpg

I also ran into John coming out of the haze near the rocks:

P1010830.jpg

John left shortly after this photo. I went back to Harry and Don and fished a little more for perch. We all left soon thereafter.

So there are definitely fish present at Fort Smallwood. My Lowrance's screen was busy all day. But whatever was on my screen had lockjaw.

Good luck to others who go there. I hope the fish are more agreeable for you.

Today's Conditions: Hot, hazy and humid and the tide was falling during most of our outing.

Lures: I trolled two lines approximately 4 miles. One had a 1/2 oz. jig with 3 inch paddletail, the other a 1/2 oz. Rat-L-Trap. I caught two dink stripers on each lure and a CNR on the jig. For white perch I cast a 1/8 oz. jig spinner to the shore while sitting in 3 to 4 feet of water.

[supfisher01]

Hello. I'm new to this forum and actually not even a kayaker. I stand up paddle board and troll for rockfish. I'm in the Severn River but a rockfish is a rockfish.

I was also using 1/2oz rat-l-traps and had no success with landing any rockfish bigger than 13 inches. I stepped it up about a month ago to a full 1oz chrome/blue and 1oz chrome/green and started slaying them. I'm trolling two rods, one deep (12-15ft) and shallow (7-8ft) all in about 25ft of water and have had great success with both depths. I see them working top water but the bigger fish seem to be below the the top water fish. Hope this insight helps with your striper slaying near ft.smallwood.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[On the fly]

Hello. I'm new to this forum and actually not even a kayaker. I stand up paddle board and troll for rockfish. I'm in the Severn River but a rockfish is a rockfish.

I was also using 1/2oz rat-l-traps and had no success with landing any rockfish bigger than 13 inches. I stepped it up about a month ago to a full 1oz chrome/blue and 1oz chrome/green and started slaying them. I'm trolling two rods, one deep (12-15ft) and shallow (7-8ft) all in about 25ft of water and have had great success with both depths. I see them working top water but the bigger fish seem to be below the the top water fish. Hope this insight helps with your striper slaying near ft.smallwood.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Glad you been having good luck with stripers and welcome to Snaggedline

[supfisher01]

Glad you been having good luck with stripers and welcome to Snaggedline

Thank you!


Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[mike o]

Wow, I can barely stand on one of those let alone fish from one. Thanks for the info. Hopefully the rain will hold off tomorrow and I will give it a try. I did troll a large rattle trap type lure there last week with no luck. It is made by Sebile and looks just like a menhadden to me.

[supfisher01]

Wow, I can barely stand on one of those let alone fish from one. Thanks for the info. Hopefully the rain will hold off tomorrow and I will give it a try. I did troll a large rattle trap type lure there last week with no luck. It is made by Sebile and looks just like a menhadden to me.

Haha! It becomes second nature after the first couple of years. They really like the big flashy chrome and also the early early morning bite (right at or just before sunrise) has produced the best for me, hence this 21" rockfish sunrise from this morning. Good luck and let me know how it goes.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk