Tidelines Fall 2017

C onsidering how difficult this year’s spring season was, there’s quite a good possibility that this fall will represent your best opportunity to catch trophy-sized stripers in 2017. There is no way to predict, of course, whether the bulk of those big sea-run fish will decide to hang a right-hand turn when they hit Cape Charles as they head south for the winter or not. But some surely will, and considering how much bait is in the Bay right now, those fish should have plenty of temptation. On top of that, a healthy number of 30-inch-plus rockfish have already popped up this fall. Whether or not you should go after those big stripers is a foregone conclusion—the question isn’t will you, but how you will choose to do it. Fall Flash-back Historically the best way to target sea-run fish coming back up the bay is by trolling a spread very similar to the one you towed for spring trophies. Like spring trophies, these fall fish usually aren’t schooled (though you will encounter tight pods of them at times) nor are they often relating to structure. That means trollers should use standard spring “collision fishing” tactics. Dust off your planer boards, strain the water with as many lures as you can handle, and hope a fish runs into one. There are, however, some subtle differences between spring and fall trolling. The biggest one is the unpredictability of the fish, themselves. Some seasons the big fish show up north of the bridge, other seasons they’re down by Point Lookout, and some seasons the best bite is somewhere in-between. To try to predict where they’ll show up ahead of time this fall or even to state that they will show up for sure would be going out on a limb, to say the least. Another thing that varies is where you’ll find them in the water column. Again, like spring most of the seasons most of the fish are caught relatively close to the surface. But not always. Old-timers will remember a decade or so back when there was a nice fall run of big fish near the Bridge, which stayed deep and were most effectively targeted by up-sizing your weights and trolling umbrella rigs down near bottom. Older timers will remember that almost three decades ago cow stripers swarmed around the base of the bridge rockpiles. The bottom line? Don’t just set a spring spread and troll, troll, troll until the cows come home. Yes, you want your top producers for spring set behind the boards—mostly tandems dressed with shad,

of course. But also get some lines as deep as you possibly can, and have a few running at mid-depth, too. When you see fish down deep and can’t seem to reach them, pull the throttle back, shift into neutral for a moment, or pull an abrupt turn to cause your lures to sink. Jig a Pig If trolling isn’t your style, you may want to try jigging on big fall fish. And if you’re after the large resident fish or if the big fish are orienting to structure more than usual (a possibility this year, especially if water temperatures continue to run higher than normal) than jigging is probably a better bet anyway. The where-to part of this equation is, again, a toss-up. That said, channel edges, wrecks and other structure in the 25’ to 35’ range can pull in decent fish at this time of year, and sometimes as we get extremely late into the fall the powerplant warm-water discharges will attract some hefty stripers. One important item to note: if the fish are widely scattered in open waters, trying to jig them up is usually a longshot. So keep up to date on the fishing reports. (It won’t shock anyone to hear me say I’d suggest going to FishTalkMag.com, Fridays after noon). If what you’re hearing about is trollers picking up scattered fish in open water, jigging won’t be your best bet. No matter where the fish may be hanging, you’ll do better on the larger fish in specific if you leave your four to seven inch soft plastics and those half-ounce heads in the tacklebox and instead reach for eight to 10 inch baits and one to two ounce heads, preferably skirted to offer the largest profile possible. No, you won’t catch as many 20 to 24 inchers with these bigger baits, but there’s no doubt that in chilly water, the fish over 30 inches just aren’t terribly interested in expending a lot of energy chasing morsels. They want the whole meal. Generally speaking you’ll want to use a slower retrieve or allow for a slower drop than when water temps were high. Sometimes late in the year, you’ll spot good marks sitting more or less inactive, right on bottom. In this scenario, rigging with a soft, flexible paddle-tail that has a lot of wiggle without needing much speed, then dragging it along just off bottom, is a good move.

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