Luv2fish
Well-known member
I spent a week fishing out of the Navy Rec Center at Solomons Island. I had to burn a week of vacation and the wife and kids could not make it out so I had 5 days of "just me, just fishing". I covered a lot of territory, averaging about 100 miles per day. I had made up my mind to target the following species: stripers, blues, croaker, spot, flounder and Spanish Mackerel. I did not get any flounder nor macs. I couldn't keep the blues off my line even trolling at 7 MPH.
I started the week trying exclusively LTJ for stripers and blues. As many have said recently I could have caught 100's of dink stripers but I kept moving around to find schools of larger fish. I tried to increase the size of the jig and get below the dinks but didn't have any luck. I found dinks in the Pax, outside of Cedar point rips, some spots on the eastern shore channel and back in the back waters of the Honga river. Got a nice photo of an eagle feeding off Point Patience.
I decided to dedicate some time to live lining and spent time at the gas docks with minimal luck. Had a few blues take my spot, caught a few blues and one striper with some large sores which I released. I heard about the school north of James Island so I headed up there. I was had never been that far north but it wasn't hard to find the spot with about 25 boats running around trolling and live lining. Caught a few fish in that spot but decided I wanted to enjoy the peaceful nature of fishing and not be surrounded by boats. I headed south to find some birds. It wasn't hard and it was the "magic hour". With the bay as calm as it was this week it was easy to find feeding fish, sometimes even before the birds found them. I played with dink rocks and a few blues on my way back down the bay as the sun was setting. Really nice time to be on the bay.
I also spent some time exploring the Honga river area. I poked around in some of the shallow bays with an ultra light rod and some small lures. I was hoping to find a spec or red fish in the shallows but only caught dink rocks. I really like the area since it feels like the land that time forgot. I took some photos along the way but I am not a pro at this.
I also saw a large sea turtle and tried to take some photos. One time he came up right next to my boat but he's faster at ducking than I am at snapping the photo. It was still really cool to see. I don't know how Jet Ski Brian captures those things on camera.
On my last day (Friday) I finally remembered to take a picture of some of the fish. I caught a limit of blues off Cedar point rips. I had already filleted two when I realized that I didn't take any fishing photos all week.
All in all I caught several limits of blues, a few keeper rock fish, some nice croakers and spot that I sacrificed to blues and rocks. I was a great way to decompress and burn some excess vacation time. I wanted to add that the most ferocious bite was the flies on the boat! I heard about the flies but with the dead calm I couldn't keep them out of the cabin.
I started the week trying exclusively LTJ for stripers and blues. As many have said recently I could have caught 100's of dink stripers but I kept moving around to find schools of larger fish. I tried to increase the size of the jig and get below the dinks but didn't have any luck. I found dinks in the Pax, outside of Cedar point rips, some spots on the eastern shore channel and back in the back waters of the Honga river. Got a nice photo of an eagle feeding off Point Patience.
I decided to dedicate some time to live lining and spent time at the gas docks with minimal luck. Had a few blues take my spot, caught a few blues and one striper with some large sores which I released. I heard about the school north of James Island so I headed up there. I was had never been that far north but it wasn't hard to find the spot with about 25 boats running around trolling and live lining. Caught a few fish in that spot but decided I wanted to enjoy the peaceful nature of fishing and not be surrounded by boats. I headed south to find some birds. It wasn't hard and it was the "magic hour". With the bay as calm as it was this week it was easy to find feeding fish, sometimes even before the birds found them. I played with dink rocks and a few blues on my way back down the bay as the sun was setting. Really nice time to be on the bay.
I also spent some time exploring the Honga river area. I poked around in some of the shallow bays with an ultra light rod and some small lures. I was hoping to find a spec or red fish in the shallows but only caught dink rocks. I really like the area since it feels like the land that time forgot. I took some photos along the way but I am not a pro at this.
I also saw a large sea turtle and tried to take some photos. One time he came up right next to my boat but he's faster at ducking than I am at snapping the photo. It was still really cool to see. I don't know how Jet Ski Brian captures those things on camera.
On my last day (Friday) I finally remembered to take a picture of some of the fish. I caught a limit of blues off Cedar point rips. I had already filleted two when I realized that I didn't take any fishing photos all week.
All in all I caught several limits of blues, a few keeper rock fish, some nice croakers and spot that I sacrificed to blues and rocks. I was a great way to decompress and burn some excess vacation time. I wanted to add that the most ferocious bite was the flies on the boat! I heard about the flies but with the dead calm I couldn't keep them out of the cabin.
