Weekend Choices

Sometimes life is full of difficult choices. Yesterday was opening day of early bow season for deer in eastern Virginia. On the other hand, the striped bass (rockfish to folks on the Chesapeake Bay) are beginning their run out of the bay into the ocean.

I went fishing. As much as I love hunting and shooting, salt water must run through my veins. Just the thought of putting out some trolling lines and searching above and below the surface for big fish just gets my heart pumping. I really don’t have good trolling tackle anymore. I had given my trolling rods to my dad years ago when I didn’t have a boat. Dad loved trolling for years, but he had done less and less over the last few years as gas money got tight. When he gave his boat away, he threw in the rods as well.

Still, what I have will work, just not as well as more suitable tackle. I use spinning reels for surfcasting and I have a couple shorter rods for boat use, so I moved the big reels to the boat rods and spooled them with 40lb test Cajun line. I really like the Cajun line because it is easy to see above the water and really disappears in water, especially the cloudy water of the Chesapeake Bay. Because it is nylon monofilament, it is so easy to work with, unlike a superbraid.

Ease of use is important when I am getting rigs ready for the kids and my wife. She can tie knots, but she doesn’t understand why you can’t just tie any old knot any old way on a fishin’pole and have it work. That’s okay – she still won’t touch live bait or a live fish, either. But she has patience and a great sense of feel. Bottom fishing, she routinely out-catches everyone – with a proper rig. . I have learned to pre-tie several rigs ahead of time so I can replace them when they get broken off or snagged.

The boat is ready. I had to replace an anchor I lost on a snag that chafed right through the small 3/8” rode I was using. Why so small? That was so my youngest son, aged 12, could grip it. I have upgraded back to ½ inch three-strand nylon spliced to the chain. Sure seems like overkill for a 10 pound anchor, but that is doing it right.

The engine has been started on muffs and run for 10-15 minutes once a week to keep it clean, lubricated and ready to go. It’s a 22 year old engine, but nothing kills a carbed 2-cycle engine deader than neglect. If it is run on a regular basis, it keeps fresh gas in the carbs and the internals lubed. Even though it has not been in the water for over a month, it will fire right up.
We will be fishing the Rappahannock River near the mouth of the river. My boat is tough, but has too little freeboard to be safe in the bay, even on a calm day. Although, we do have nearly 60 knots available at our disposal and speed has saved my butt more than once on the bay! The rockfish will still be coming down the river for a few weeks yet, since it has been so dry and the weather has not cooled off yet.

I’ll start off trolling four lines, two flat lines in the center holders with a tube eel and a spinnerbait. Go ahead and laugh, but a bass is a bass is a bass! On the outboard rods I’ll go with a Storm shad lure and another soft plastic, probably a Berkeley Gulp minnow or big grub on a lead head big enough to get neat the bottom. If it’s more than 25 feet or so, I’ll add an inline weight or a three-way rig. I’ll be searching the surface with binoculars for any signs of feeding birds or fish breaking the surface; then it’s off to the races! Get the lines in and hammer down!!

I keep a couple of medium spinning rods rigged with a soft plastic, a crankbait like a Rat’L’Trap or a spinnerbait ready to go as soon as we arrive within casting range of the school. I’ll keep the boat outside of the school so as not to break it up or drive the fish down. Troll the lines along the edges of the school and try to work to the front of the school to keep the bait in the strike zone for as long as possible. Watching the birds, the sonar and any other boats nearby and I have a full-time job! No fishing for me, unless I put her in neutral and cast to the school as we drift.

When casting to a school. It’s tough to be patient when you feel a fish hit your bait…but if you let it sink just a little more, sometimes you will be rewarded with a solid hit from a much bigger striper coming up from beneath! Keep your lines tight and good luck!