Fishing, What Else ?

Capt Brady

New Member
Reply To Rane's Question Regarding Seatrout

Weakfish, Grey Trout, aka Seatrout, will bunch together in certain places of Chesapeake Bay in the autumn and will be available to fish, sometimes until after Thanksgiving.

I could give you the long BS, beat around the bush explanation, but in short , there are a few well known places to look for them which I will reveal and there are other places which you are going to have to discover for yourself.
It is far better to teach you how to find them yourself, because each year the exact locations change.

Here's the first place : the Mud Leads are a deeper crease in the bottom of Ches Bay between the target ship on the Middle Grounds and Smith Island. All around the target ship, the depths are about twenty feet deep, of hard sand except this crease or basin which has a soft mud bottom, and drops to thirty-eight feet or so. It's about a mile long and a quarter mile wide, aligned appx NNE to SSW. In the fall , seatrout go there to feed on little mud crabs , spot and any small baitfish like bay anchovies that they can find.

Here's the second place : any sharply defined dropoff beside a channel. This could be on the east side of the Ships Channel of the Ches like around buoy 76 to 74, or buoy 72 or just east of the CP buoy.

In the Potomac River, the submerged stone piles in Cornfield Harbor, the channel off Dolly Parton's.

Here's what you are looking for on the depth finder : a pile of fish hugging the bottom , usually on the side of the dropoff, that looks like a pyramid.

Here's another way : find a school of breaking stripers , go right there, and with the engine off let them move away. About a few minutes later the telltale pyramid will come along following the breakers on the bottom.
From now on any school of breaking fish might have seatrout under them on the bottom.

This year has not been a banner year for seatrout. They have been downright scarce and unpredictable, so if you find some, enjoy the moment, and congradulate yourself.
 
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