frustrated!!!
 

if you read my other post in the reports section, you would have seen that we got skunked today.

now it has only been 2 years since we got our boat, which is not a long time by any means. but, i am becoming increasingly frustrated when i spend so many ours catching spot to use for bait, and drive around all day looking for fish only to not even get a strike when i feel like i have found a spot which shows signs of fish on the bottom and bait near by.

i try to go out in to the bay, when weather permits but there are days that i am held to the river due to the small size of my boat.

when i look for fish, i look for channel edges, points, holes, and drop offs. can anyone offer insight on how to locate fish for livening.

any and all help is much appreciated.

Sometimes structure is not necessary. Striped Bass can be caught on flat bottom. More important is current. Striped Bass rarely feed in still water.

FWIW...Here is what works for us in no particular order.

1. Find a ledge or drop off and zig-zag along it watching the meter.

2. We only anchor up on solid marks. Sometimes it's a clear cut, no mistaking it, big school of rockfish, other times it may only be 3 or 4 marks but never set up without seeing something to work on first.

3. There are times when we have spent hours looking around before ever dropping down a bait.

4. Rarely ever have we had a "wide-open" live lining day in a crowd....we intentionally get away from the fleet. Sometimes we don't even have to get that far away.....sometimes just getting 1/8 - 1/4 mile away makes all the difference.

5. If we set up and don't at least have a run-off within 15-20 minutes, we pull up and keep looking. We have had minimal success trying to "wait out" the fish.

6. If it's one of those beat your head against the wall kind of days, try chumming with a few cut up or even live spot on marks that refuse to bite...just be aware that as the bluefish get thicker this will have diminishing return.

Hope this helps.
Tawn

thank you for all the help. i am gonna keep trying,and i will use your tips.

thank you very much

This is the only thing that concerns me. Livelinning has been very good the last two years, but mostly in the bay. Last year off Sharps Island Light was good. This year, several places in the bay have been good. All around Poplar Island has been good, and in the mouth of Eastern Bay has been good. I don't know which river you are referring to, but maybe there just aren't enough rockfish in the area you are fishing.
I don't here many reports of success livelinning in the rivers. Smaller rock seem to hang in the rivers and bigger rock (for livelinning) concentrate in the bay proper.

However, that being said; many jigging enthusiasts seem to do well in the rivers with jigs and top water plugs in low light situations.
5th (Marty)

What area are you fishing?

i fish out of solomons

i try to get out into the bay when the weather is permitting. but some days it is just too rough so i have to stay in the pax river. much like this past weekend, i didnt want to deal with the rougher currents so i stayed in the river

There's a reason that many of the Solomons charter captains have moved their boats recently...

As "Barefoot" stated, many very good charter captains from solomons have moved their summer operations north to the Deale, Chesapeake Beach area as it seems most of the rock are concentrated north this year. When the "best of the best" leave for greener pastures, you and I are going to have a tough time catching consistently. Good luck......................Mark