Pacemaker Fishing Forum

A friend of mine took some really good notes of two of the speakers at yesterday's fishing Show in Frederick.

Enjoy!

Lenny Rudow:  Cobia and Redfishing

He is editor of Fish Talk magazine and puts out weekly fishing reports (FishTalkMag.com) from top to bottom of the bay. 

Cobia:  Two types of fishing- sight fishing and chum fishing.  Chum is by far the most effective.  Fishing for cobia is a southern bay thing (Point Lookout to Cape Charles). Having a tower is the only way to sight fish- standing on a cooler doesn't cut it. Need to be up high.  For sight fishing you use a 1 oz jig with 50# line and leader.  Cast 5-10' in front of the fish and let jig freefall.  Can also use 4-6" spot or eels for casting.  If second cobia follows the hooked cobia to the boat, have another fisherman draw figure eights in the water with their jig (muskie fishing technique) to get a strike.  For chumming, use cut bunker, put in a chum bucket with a 5# weight and send to the bottom (if you chum on top you will get only blues).  Fish typically are in 20-30' of water near wrecks or structure.  Uses 8/0 circle hooks.  Set up two rods on each side of the boat with 2 to 4 oz sinkers (can use egg sinkers or fishfinder sliding sinker rig) and put two with cut bunker and two with live spot.  Two other rods should free line spot (no sinker).  Only time to fish is end of tide (2 hrs. on either side) and mid-June through August. Don't bring fish to the boat right away- let him tire.  They go crazy when out of the water and damage your boat (bent his net in half and broke a rod holder).  Hit on head with club if you got a keeper for the cooler.

Redfish:  Fishing the shallows will get smaller (12-30") redfish.  Tangier Sound is best place.  Redfish love gold blade baits or spoons, spinner baits with gold blades, or Mepps spinners with gold spinner, and shrimp.  Recommends buying supermarket shrimp (uncooked with shells on) and using a popping cork (like done in LA/TX) and hooking the shrimp to a light jig with a short hook.  The larger redfish come into the mid-bay from mid-Aug thru Sept. and are found typically at 40' or deeper.  When seeing breaking rock and blues, should send heavy metal (~2 oz.) to the bottom to jig up these bull reds that hang on the bottom.

Walleye Pete: 2017 Year in Review

Fished 240 days in 2017.  Facebook page has 2017 year in review in pics. Burns lots of gas going up to 71 miles in a day.  Likes 6'8" spinning rods from Backyard Custom Rods.
Jan.: Warmer in 2017 and Point Lookout was good using 3.5oz lil bunkers and 2 oz jigs with skirts in 40-60' water

Jan-April:  Calvert Cliffs PP time.  1.5 to 3 oz. jigheads with 10" BKDs and no skirts.  Use chartreuse on sunny days and purple glitter on cloudy days.  March was best month for 40+" fish as his boat got 82.

April: Fish skinny water once it gets >60F and used 1/4 oz jig heads with 3-4" paddletails and topwater (Smack-its, Chug bugs, spooks and black plugs on dark days). Use medium speed retrieve with paddle tails and a twitch every 3 reel revolutions or so. Caught first spec on April 19.  Fished the islands (i.e. Taylor and Barren islands) looking for current and structure. Good success too with Rapala X Rap 12.

May:  This is spec month.  Again 3-4" paddletails with 14# braid and 20# leader.  Good success at Spring Island really good at full moon on the Honga River.

June-July:  Fishing out of South River.  Finding suspended fish in the main stem of the bay.  Love Point humps were real good.  Avoids trollers and chummers. Skirted jigs are a must with 6" bkds.  Popular Island also good but avoided construction on east and north sides. 

Aug.:  Moves back to Solomons. Caught 40"+ bull reds at mouth of Patuxent in 35' of water.

Sept.: Lots of activity with stripers, blues, spanish, and reds.  As temp goes below 78F, fish go shallow with 60-70F being primetime.  Fishing curves in island passages was good such as Bloodsworth.

Oct.:  All about island fishing.  Again using skirted jigs south of the target ships.

Nov.-Dec.:  Bigger stripers at mouth of Potomac.  Find gannets is key and fishing in 40-50' of water using 10" BKDs anywhere from Buoy 72 to Smith Point.