My First Striper

[DRY]

I am 63 y.o. and never caught a rockfish (saltwater striper). My son-in-law owns a business in St. Mary’s County Maryland and decided to take his office staff on a rockfish charter. He invited me. There were nine of us.
We left at 6 AM aboard the Miss Susie out of Solomons, MD.



Our captain was Greg Buckner. Winds were calm but the air temp was 27 deg F. Weather had been bad (windy) for the last 10 days but the fish were there and the bigger cherter boats were getting them. We headed to the mouth of the Patuxent River and then into the Chesapeake and south toward Point Lookout, MD. Between 5 and 9 miles out these started to show up on the sonar.



So we started trolling.
They have an interesting method of trolling. They put out rather large planer boards about 150 feet on each side of the boat. Then they let each rod line out with various weight single jigs, tandem jigs and large teasers with a single jig/hook attached that simulate a school of baitfish. Each fishing line is let out a different distance and depth and attached by a rubber band to a carbineer that is attached to the cable leading to the planer board. There are about 7 or 8 rods on each planer board. Rods are also let out the back, the top of the cabin and there are even two downriggers close in to the boat. There were 26 rods out total. What a set-up for a simple freshwater fisherman like me.
The strikes are vicious. The rubber band holding the line breaks and you grab the rod and set the hook.



I got the first strike and landed this 38 inch rockfish. WOW!! I later got to land another which we released that was 39 inches.



My son-in-law then landed this 41 incher.



One of the smaller ladies on the boat (about 5 feet) landed a 44 incher.

We actually fished for about 4 hours and everyone landed a fish with some landing 2 fish.



You are allowed to keep 1 fish over 28” and one fish under 28”. We caught 14 rockfish with only one being under 36 inches. So each person got to keep one nice fish along with one for the captain and mate.

Striper stuffed with crabmeat is great!!

If you get to the Solomons area and want a captain who knows what he is doing try Capt. Buckner and the Miss Susie. Bill

http://www.misssusiecharters.com/index.cfm
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The future of fishing is in your hands-catch,photograph and release. Thank You!

[Metzger25]

Nice fish. My largest so far out of the yak is 28" and it was a thrill. I have a hard time imagining the 35"+ ones, since as they get longer they also get much wider and more powerful. Congrats!
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