Catches of big stripers throughout the Bay continues, but fishing is switching to smaller lures and shallower trolling. The result is still lots of legal 33-inch plus fish. A lot of fish, according to those cleaning them, still have not spawned, leaving open the possibility for a big catch during the remaining days of the trophy season.
Last week, fishing with Capt. Buddy Harrison out of Tilghman Island and on board the Capt. Buddy (what else?), catches were up to 32 pounds. Capt. Buddy (the man, not the boat), fishing without the “fleet” behind him but guided by 50-plus years of Bay fishing, found stripers around the Gooses. We had no one around us but lots of fish beneath us. We had a big boat too, fishing from Buddy?s new (last year) charter craft of 65-feet long and 20-feet wide. You could hold a spring prom on it.
The trolling was all deep with big white or yellow bucktails behind umbrellas tipped with chartreuse or white Sassy Shads. One exception was a white skirt/purple head bucktail on an umbrella that took some of the biggest fish. The fishing was so good that we were back at the dock at 11 a.m. with our one-fish-per-person limit. We could have continued to catch-and-release, knowing that we might get a big momma but would worry about how she would do on release. Culling, of course, is illegal. We chose to head home.
But that was last week. Anglers now are fishing higher and smaller, occasionally mixing that with deep trolling using big tandem bucktail rigs ? one the size of a cue ball, the trailer a two- or three-ounce lead-head.
By late May and into June, the fishing will change again between fishing high-trolled bucktails and umbrella rigs or switching to chumming and lightspinning gear.
Captains differ in their approach to chumming, with some, such as Capt. Bruce Scheible of Ridge grinding menhaden on board, while others such as Capt. Buddy Harrison leaving the dock with ground chum. Either way, it gets the fish behind the transom hitting a bait-tipped hook or small bucktail.
Admittedly, the stripers will not be as big with this summer shoal water anchoring method, but with limits of two from 18 inches to 28 inches, or one that size and one breaking 28 inches, you can?t load the boat with fish anyway. You just have more fun with light tackle and chumming.
C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally-known sportsman and award-winning writer on hunting, fishing and the outdoors, and he has more than 20 books to his credit. He can be reached at [email protected].
