Kayak Trips and Fishing Reports 2012

[storminsteve]

Beautiful fish. Look at the belly on her. Great job dark!

[DarkSkies]

I want to document that the head on this fish in post 15 is the smallest of the bigger fish I have caught since Dec 2011.
There's a reason for this documentation here.

Over the Winter I've been catching fish of similar lengths, with different size heads and tails.

At first I was theorizing that these were Hudson fish mixed in with the Chesapeake fish.
I've had similar conversations with friends and some members here,,,,,and I thank you for your input...


There are lots of folks who might dispute this....
But after seeing a few hundred fish in a compressed time period, I feel differently.





Lately I've been getting some feedback from some old-timers that there are some additional spawning biomasses, different than the Chesapeake or Hudson strains. (and different from the fish in the Northern rivers of the LI Sound.)

As time permits, I'll be developing an article on my findings and posting the results in a different thread.
Some may think it's ridiculous or delusional. That's OK, I have thick skin for the folks who want to disagree with me....

At this point I think there's enough anecdotal data, to at least explore the possibilities.
Stay tuned, people....

[albiealert]

fantastic catching Dark!

[Monty]

Awesome report Dark, great catch.

[DarkSkies]

Thanks very much, all....

[DarkSkies]

The strong 20-25mph wind conditions caused me to re-think my strategies for launching and fishing in the next few days.

I went to a place I hadn't been in awhile...and had never kayaked.
Did the Dark Skies Grandstand Circus and Promotional tour....

Re-connected with a lot of the old-timers,,,
And met quite a few new people.
Some of them were hardcore fishermen. Others were about as mentally stable as Charlie Manson....


Found a slight lee from the wind.....launched before dusk on the 2nd trip with the stretch plug experimentation...

This time I covered more ground and trolled a lot of open water....it was tough, to say the least.
I covered about 4 miles total, and lots of varying depths.

The spot I chose to fish is a big fish highway,,,,but it's primarily a bait area,,no kayaks fish there and no one fishes artificials.

My first and only fish came after about an hour of trolling....a small legal-sized bass, released.
Continued to pedal another 2 hours after that until my toes were partially frozen in the 48 degree water.

When I got back to the launch area, I saw that guys had been doing pretty well on bait.

Overall Analysis...
1. I didn't reach my goal of hooking a migratory bigger breeder...
2. but I did catch a fish in a place where they generally don't fish artificials....
3. I think the water being 48 degrees made it difficult to attract the fish to artificials, where I was.
4. They are feeding, but are still sluggish nonetheless.
5. I think in the next month or so this area will be red hot.

Back at it soon, the clock is ticking for the fish migration...

[ledhead36]

Don't feel bad dark. You were out 3 times so far in the kayak and got fish all 3 times?
Who cares if they weren't all monsters. Man I need to get a yak! I read how much time you put into it, so congrats. That 25lb bass is a beaut.

[storminsteve]

Yeah you're batting 1000 so far. I'm jealous Catch em up!