Article by Dale Timmons
It’s getting to be that time of year when shark fishing takes center stage for a while, at least for the offshore boys. The first mako has been caught and the action should pick up as the water temps reach and stay at 60 degrees or above and the big bluefish become more plentiful on the inshore shoals. The beginning of tournament season with the upcoming Mako Mania will also put more boats out there to find out what is going on. I did hear of a reported 16.5 foot thresher shark taken in a commercial gill net last week. Didn’t get a weight, but the tail was supposedly 7.5 feet long…had to be a big female…
While the offshore anglers may be looking for Mr. Black Eye, this time of year means one thing for a small group of hardcore surf anglers—Mr. Red Drum. I heard of the first red that I know of caught in the Assateague surf last week, a 36-inch fish caught and released by Mike “Killer” Hastings. Just to the south, the drum fishing for both reds and blacks has been very productive along the Virginia barrier islands. It’s funny, but while spring drum fishing for both reds and blacks can be fabulous in Virginia, the run on the Maryland end of Assateague doesn’t seem as productive this time of year as it is in the fall. There could be a few more fish caught, however. While red drum in the fall are almost exclusively caught on cut baits such as mullet, spot or bunker, in the spring they are often caught on peeler crabs or even hard crabs. Of course, this may be because the black drum feed almost exclusively on crustaceans or clams, while the red drum will eat just about anything, and if you want to have a chance at either fish, or even a big striper, the crabs are a good choice. Drum rigs are pretty much the same as those used for stripers nowadays, and that usually means a large circle hook (7/0 to 9/0) on a short leader and the sinker on a sliding fish finder or McMahon snap and swivel combination with a bead on either side. The short leader helps with casting distance, and it doesn’t seem to affect the bite. If you are not familiar with peeler crabs as bait, here’s a quick refresher. First pull the back shell off the crab, then cut the crab in half. You can quarter the body if the crab is large, but with most peelers I use half a crab. Leave the legs on (even the claws). Run the hook through the body a little towards the leg end of the bait, then spin the crab around and pull the legs up around the shank of your hook, leaving the hook point exposed. Then take a rubber band and make several turns around the legs and the hook shank to hold it in place. Makes a good bait that should stay in place a long time. Remember, you can also use sand fleas for both red and black drum, even stripers. Simply put three or four on the same hook. Sometimes fleas are a good bait when the sharks and skates are especially bad, because they don’t seem to be bothered as much by these pesky critters…
In last week’s fishing report, publisher Larry Jock passed on a flounder rig used by one of the infamous Hoffman brothers. I think it was the older, wiser one known as Steve. Anyway, the rig was a three-way swivel with a dropper to the sinker of about 12 inches. The hook leader, however, was about six feet long, which is much longer than most people ever use. I use this rig myself sometimes, especially when I am fishing in deep water at places like the Chesapeake Bay-Bridge Tunnel. Some Virginia anglers down that way even use as much as nine or ten feet of leader between the swivel and the hook. The hook can have “hair” such as Mylar or bucktail, along with a spinner and beads, especially when using a large strip of cut bait, but with live bait, such as spot, it is usually fished “naked.” I prefer an in-line swivel to a regular three-way, but they can be hard to find. An in-line swivel also has three eyes, but it is t-shaped, rather than y-shaped, and I think the design makes it stronger, especially since it gives you a straight pull from line to hook. The length of the dropper from the swivel to the sinker snap can vary, depending on the water depth. Generally, the longer drop is better for deeper water, while 6 to 8 inches is usually sufficient for our local coastal bays. I generally tie my sinker drop on 30 lb. mono and use 40 lb. for the hook sinker, though sometimes I will make it 20 and 30. A 4/0 wide gap or octopus circle hook is my preference. If I am using a large strip bait I sometimes tie a tandem “stinger hook” rig with either regular octopus or octopus circle hooks. The rig is a little harder to fish, especially when you are bringing a flounder to the boat to net, but sometimes putting that bait much farther away from the sinker can really make a difference, especially if you like to troll…
Speaking of crabs, and especially peeler and soft crabs, a local crabber told me last week that the nighttime air temperatures have been just too cold for the crabs to really shed big time, which means that the big shed, at least locally, didn’t come on the full moon in May and will probably happen on the moon in June, which is on the seventh. Oddly enough, however, I also heard last week that the soft crab run on the “bayside”, meaning the Chesapeake Bay, especially around Crisfield, has been one of the largest some watermen have ever experienced. Like I always say, just when you think you have Mother Nature figured out, she’ll throw you a changeup, or maybe even a spitter…
This used to be the time of year when the gray trout, or weakfish, run was really starting to come on, and the big “tiderunners” were a much sought after species. Nowadays, however, the “run” consists of a fish here and there, and I have heard of a few lately. A friend of mine even caught a 10-pounder last week, but it was taken in a gill net. Between the fishing pressure and the abundance of stripers and big bluefish feeding on the “spike” trout, especially up north, I’m not sure they will ever come back, which is a sad thing when you think about it. Of course, trout have always run in cycles, so maybe there is still a glimmer of hope…
Contact Dale Timmons at [email protected] or call 410-629-1191.
