The shad netting was very slim today, but I expect that was because of the turbulent weather, not so much because the spawn is winding down, although we are most certainly past “the peak” of it.

I was a bit concerned that the fishing would mimic the shad activity, but this was not to be the case.  As we got going right at 7:30, the winds began to pick up a bit and this, plus the grey cloud cover, made for good fishing conditions.

We experienced about 12-15 minutes of a wait between arriving at our first area and seeing the bite turn on as the baits worked below the boat and the chum worked its magic.  Once the first fish hit, we caught fish fast and furious at first (being able to keep up with only 3 rods at a time), then things tapered slowly off to where we could fish four rods but with constant action, then, by around 10:30 our bite died out as the winds went calm after 3 solid hours of action.  During this time we caught 54 fish, including 48 legal (18+ inch long) hybrid striped bass up to 6.00 pounds, 4 blue catfish, 1 white bass, and 1 short hybrid striper.  These fish were in 36 feet of water.

With about an hour more to fish, we searched 3 different areas with sonar, finding “so-so” sonar returns at the last of these areas in 31 feet of water.  We once again got positioned, got baits in the water, got chum working, and then waited for a response.  Fortunately, despite the late hour and marginal winds, a few fish responded, and we were able to close out the trip on a strong note, adding 5 more keeper hybrid striped bass to our tally.