My theory that a water temp of less than 45 degrees makes for terrible COW fishing. Bait was there, but the stripers stayed off shore. The chill from several storms moving across the upper U.S. left lots of snow to chill the upper bay. Stripers fled from the severe cold and some were caught from buoy 40 all the way down to West of the Cabbage Patch. Like within a stones throw of the shipping channel. Not at all unreasonable to expect that the stripers would appear near Cherrystone where there's a deep gut and a shoal where bait might congregate.
Some changes with tackle terminal gear will be made for the coming season.
Weighted Lines
I like small flashers and colorful skirts as attractors to call stripers to my eel. Others want it to be a natural swimming eel. New for this season, I also like the torpedo sinkers with the rubber core that can be fixed on the leader just beyond the ball bearing swivel that attaches to the main line. These can be removed or added as needed to get depth. Early in the season, many successful fishermen were making 45 pulls beyond the cork or planer. Some were going as far as 65 pulls. Dewayne Lamb, (Captain's Quarters at Smith Mountain Lake) fishes from a boat I named the Grasshopper. He has the hydraulic stabilizers on the stern that look like grass hopper legs? He runs up to 14 lines with at least 8 planers, 4 on each side. I think he uses 1 oz egg sinkers on all his rigs. He catches fish consistently, so he must be doing it right. Would be interesting to see him guide his crew using the Accurate reels. These reels have dual drags, 0 reverse, and are beautiful to use and ponder. Mike Smedley, Team Old School, loaned two of the Accurate Boss reels to me to evaluate how they perform. Unfortunately, the stripers didn't cooperate.
Don't want no weights
Yet, Jimmie Beaty, (Team Teacher) doesn't use weights, rather, keeps it tratiditional and just lets the eels swim down. He also used the extreme number of pulls this year and boated a lot of COWs. Along with some brand of camo mono (maybe low stretch) and fluorocarbon leaders. Think he is using very light lines to allow the eels more natural action. His new reels are the Shumano Gold.
Pulls beyond the cork or planer?
Previous years, 30 pulls beyond the cork or planer was adequate over 45 foot water column. Some went to 45 pulls over deeper water near the shipping channels of the gut off Cape Charles. Well, truthing, it is necessary to run lines at several depths to find where the COWs want 'em.
Do or don't use braid?
My use of braid fish line is also a matter of concern. Many use an overshot of mono that gives lots of stretch and can prevent brake offs. Yet, I preferred to use lighter drag to accomplish much the same effect. My lShimano Charter Special TLD 2000 reels have updated lubed carbon fiber drags and sometimes stronger bellevilles to increase the possible drag. Yet, I like to keep the strike drag near 5 pounds and the full drag max of 11 pounds. My rods are a mix of 15-30, 20-30, and 30-60 Ugly Stix custom. I use reel clamps on all reels. Yes, this old dog can be taught new techniques and make corrections.
What about High Viz
OK, I break from the wise and use high viz braid and mono. Others use various camo lines, but with my vision, I need all the help I can get to undo tangles and see where the lines are when deployed. I use fluorocarbon leaders that are supposedly near invisible to the fish eye.
Where to launch?
I usually launch at the Kiptopeke State Park as my annual pass cost is $48 and allows use of all VA state parks. Quite convenient for the Cabbage Patch and buoy 38 or the Latirmer Shoal and beach channel.
If fishing the piles and islands of CBBT, there is a launch near Fisherman's island that will lead near this South Latimer Shoal (beach channel) area from the launch, but will cost $10 a day. Think it's Seaside Road (route 600). the channel may be about 5 feet deep and 60 feet wide. Never launched at this facility, just drove to take a look.
While the Cape Charles launch is a great and free facility where I can fill with alcohol free gasoline, it requires a long run South toward Kiptopeke to run out North to buoy 38 A. Sometimes up to 10 miles North of Cape Charles.. That is, unless you will take the risk running over the reef with less than 4 feet of depth. Scares the peegivers out of my prop. Less so if it's high tide! Buoy 36A marks the area of the channel at Plantation Light.
Then, there's a launch near Exmore, VA called Morley's Wharf Ramp. Never launched there, but it might be best when fishing near buoy 41. It's about 30 miles North of the Sunset Beach Resort where I usually stay. Maybe 20 miles North of Cape charles. Hmmm, 10 miles North of Cape Charles. To get there from Rout 13, travel to Exmore and take route 183 West to Wardstown (route 606 about 2.8 miles). Make a right turn and see the ramp about 1 mile. It is situated on Accohannock Creek that opens to the Chesapeake Bay. Might not be deep enough for my draft. Sometimes less costly to haul the boat to a different ramp than to motor over potentially heavy seas. Yes, the Chesapeake gets rough in a heart beat and you can depend on it happening just when the fish are on the feed.
If and when a bite comes with braid:
Braid has zero stretch! Mono is like a rubber band! What difference does it make? Well, my study of fishing articles reveals that a migrating striper could do a tail slap to stun the eel. This would be seen immediately with braid and might go un-noticed with mono. Grabbing the rod with braid and setting the hook results in nothing as the striper hasn't taken the eel. The next act by the striper is to come around and take the eel. Some say there will be a few thumps evident, expecially with braid. Again, this might go unnoticed with mono. So, what's the proper approach? Well, my study says to let the fish take the eel and do what is natural. The fisherman should not try to set the hook until he's sure that the striper is departing and the drag starts running. This is the time to set the hook with either braid or mono. Braid is unforgiving as it relates to break offs. For braid, the pole must provide the cushion matched with light strike drag. The drag can be run to full on with a lever drag reel, but when the striper is near the boat, the drag MUST be returned to the strike setting. With mono, there's little need for a light drag as the line provides lots of stretch to cushion the hook from pulling out. I use circle hooks that almost always set in the corner of the mouth as the striper takes the eel completely and turns away pulling the line through the closed mouth and thus hooks the corner.
Others might disagree with light drag settings and opt to bring the striper to the boat as quickly as possible and powering it through the set lines. I prefer to take the lines in that might be tangled and let the fisherman try to direct the fish to the boat. A 40-50 pound striper is a powerful fish to say the least and sometimes can't be controlled.
Catching sometimes requires some experience that I'm just now learning.
What about the drift?
I'm informed by other successful striper fishermen that the wind should always be at the stern of the boat. Easier said than done, that's for sure. The Chesapeake current is always outgoing and much stronger than the tide. Yet, try getting gear through a tide line. Taking gear in is always a lot of work and I'm frequently reluctant to do so until hours go by without success. Maybe I should do it more frequently and cover what I consider productive water. I'm a late arrival on the water due to what ever. Yet, before daybreak and just before sunset are the next to best times to striper fish. Some say night is the absolute best, but I have to consider safety and lack of experience on the water at night. The network I get help from doesn't fish at night, but does both early and late fishing.
Wind from the North, etc. along with the current and the drift will be at 4 knots South.. Too fast for stripers? Maybe the eel sees much less than 2 knots.. Takes a good trolling motor or a 4 stroke motor to control the direction. Two strokes and sonar frequently spook stripers. I opt to run somewhat diagonal in this condition with the trolling motor along the top of a gut. Though, I leave the sonar running. I never tried my drift socks, but . . .
Wind from the South, etc. pushes the boat against the current, pointed North. Might be that the best bite in daytime is a 2 hour window around high tide. The trolling motor certainly can't overcome the current and the boat will deploy corks and planers in good order. Yet, the GPS shows that the boat pointed North is moving South at 2 knots? Do I keep the boat moving at an apparent 0.5 knots and drifting backwards?
Do stripers expect bait to be swimming with or against the current/tide? I think not! Stripers are an ambush type of creature and will wait for bait to swim or tumble by.
I think most fishermen will try to drift with the current, regardless of the tide. And many times will make the drift diagonal to the actual current along the top of a gut as I might..
If there's lots of bait in the water, regardless of the depth, fish the bait throughly with the eels. COWs frequently sit below the pod and take in the falling baits. An eel is always more tempting that a bunker or menhaden? Yet, a live bottom may always be better than. Stripers usually feed looking up.
Halocline, Thermocline, Pycnocline, and dead zone are terms that may influence where to find stripers in December. Thermocline is where great temperature differences exist in a water column. Halocline represents where water of different density exists. Pycnocline is where the salt content of stratified water. Well, too technical for my brain. But, the stripers must find a comfort zone that relates to oxygen content, salinity, temperature, etc. Heavy run off like this December likely had water with too low salinity for comfort and the stripers were deep, deep in the shipping channels. Yet, the deep water might not have the oxygen content necessary for striper comfort (the level that bait pods tell the story). So, some where in the water column, there's a salinity (pycnocline) that is a comfort to the striper.
Ah, too many things to consider: the dead zone, the thermocline, the pycnocline, the water column temp, and a zillion other things that I haven't considered. Why do I have fish on when there isn't any bait and no marks? Suspended at 35 feet over 80 feet of water? Sitting on the bottom and the eel must smack the striper in the face? Undoubtedly, there are a hundred other questions to be answered to catch COWs consitently.
Wanna see some of the catches logged at Chris' Bait and Tackle?
Well, it's easy to look at Facebook and see all the happenings and very satisfied fishermen.
More later as I ruminate over this past disappointing season and come to more conclusions for change . . . Yet, I gotta think Lake Anna, John Kerr, and Smith Mountain Lake along with a snow covered boat.
