Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Craig · Aug-26-13 1:12PM

My in-laws offered to host a sleepover for our kids on Saturday night so that my wife and I could get out for a fish early on Sunday morning. We left the house around 4:45am and pulled into Chesapeake Beach around 6am. The weather forecasts called for 0-5 knots which sounded perfect for my small tin boat. I love coming over the hill on Chesapeake Beach Rd and seeing the big American flag dangling straight down with only a light occasional ripple - very reaffirming!

We picked up some bloodworms, launched and had lines in by 6:30am. The Spot bite was much slower than in previous weeks, and coupled with my wife's inexperience, it made catching bait a little more time consuming. I'd heard that the Bluefish have been tearing up baits so I wanted to make sure that we had enough to get the job done. We waded patiently through a ton of Croakers to fill the live well with 20 Spot. About 10 were peanut sized and the other 10 were jumbo sized. By now it was 8:30am but the calm bay waters made the crossing rather quick, and we were anchored up on the outskirts of the fleet at the mouth of Eastern Bay by around 9am. It didn't take long to get a couple of run offs but my wife was having a little trouble hooking up. The 3rd time dropping down was the charm and she proceeded to whack them pretty steady once she got the hang of it.

It quickly became apparent that the peanut sized Spot were only catching undersized 15-17" fish so we switched to the jumbos and that resulted in the larger 22-23" fish. I pulled the hook on one fish at the boat that looked to be around 25" but I've been happy with the gamakatsu circle hooks and found they have worked well this summer. We only gut hooked one small fish at 18.5" so we kept him and three others around 23".

Beautiful day out there and nice to catch a few with the missus. Fresh Rockfish for dinner tonight!

Ernie · Aug-26-13 2:34PM

Craig- you have this game down to a science. Well done.

Good thing you went Sunday 'cause Saturday was a bit dicier.

Bryan · Aug-26-13 6:02PM

Very nice! Do you use any weight when you live line those spot?

Craig · Aug-27-13 6:09AM

Thanks fellas.

Bryan, I have been using a small egg sinker above a swivel and about 3 ft of line to the hook. I've been anchoring when live-lining and even though the bigger Spot don't usually need the help to get down off the surface, the smaller ones typically do. I've been using the same weighted rig for both though - usually just drop straight over the side down to the bottom and take a couple of cranks back up. One thing that has seemed to help if the bite ever goes cold is to nose hook the biggest spot and drop them down to the bottom and raise them back up and down the water column a couple of times. You can see when you raise the bait back up close to the surface just how much shiny light they reflect.

I've been fortunate to have been fishing the massive school of Rockfish that have hung around that area all summer and while there are absolutely much more sporting ways of targeting them, it is hard to argue with the live-lining technique as a relatively reliable way to put some meat in the boat in a short amount of time. Being a "weekend warrior" in a small boat that is relegated to fishing that part of the bay on days that are sub-10 knots, I have to say it is nice to be able to find steady action for a couple of hours and be able to catch a feed.

Pacemaker Fishing Forum

#1 Aug-26-13 1:12PM

Chesapeake Beach Livelining 08-25-13

#2 Aug-26-13 2:34PM

Re: Chesapeake Beach Livelining 08-25-13

#3 Aug-26-13 6:02PM

Re: Chesapeake Beach Livelining 08-25-13

#4 Aug-27-13 6:09AM

Re: Chesapeake Beach Livelining 08-25-13

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