Upper Bay/Susquehanna Flats Fishing Report 4/19/07

[Capt.Karl]

Capt. Karl’s Upper Chesapeake Bay/Susquehanna Flats Fishing Report

Thursday, April 19th, 2007

Welcome Aboard! Combine below normal spring water temperatures with a good-old Nor-Easter Storm & you have a recipe for some “SLOWwwwwww” fishing, in muddy water on the Susquehanna Flats area.

The water temperature in the North East River has been running about 2 degrees higher and this is where we have found the Big Bucket Mouths at this last week, flipping Case Plastics Sweet P’s in Roadkill color with the paddles dipped in chartreuse dip-in-dye, rigged on the Dave’s Tournament Tackle ¼ ounce Spot Hopper.

We concentrated our efforts on the Susquehanna Flats area today out of pure determination, we had to work hard to find the bass but they were there and the Case Plastics Brush Puppie came to the rescue for us this afternoon. Rigged on a Dave’s Tournament Tackle Round Screwball Shaky Head (jighead) Roadkill color with the paddles dipped in the chartreuse dip-in-dye. We were fishing the smaller profile baits in the morning but we were missing a lot of bites as the fish were there but having trouble finding the baits. I decided to try the Brush Puppie as it had worked for me last year in the muddy water and once again it worked, as we went back over the area’s where we were missing fish and we were able to catch them.

All of our bites this week were very slow and soft, as many times we would not even feel a peck or see our line move but with total concentration the bait would seem to have a slightly heavy feeling, and then we would slowly set the hook by steadily increasing the pressure on our line.

We were using scent on all of our baits. We were applying CB’s Hawg Sauce Bass Honey (gel) about every ten cast’s and CB’s Hawg Sauce Sweet & Sassy water base spray about every 5 cast’s. I think this was critical to our success, as if we didn’t keep the scent pattern going or success would slow down considerably.

We did not fish the Susquehanna Flats “Catch & Release” area for striper/rockfish this week due to the high winds and muddy water. I did get reports of some guy’s having limited success using live & cut-bait.

Water Temp. 45 to 46 degrees
Water Clarity: less than 6 inch's

Thanks & Good Fishing, Capt. Karl