Striped Bass Sunset

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Eastern
Location: Poplar Island Narrows

Poplar Island Narrows was on fire in the early evening with blitzing stripers mixed with bluefish crashing small shoals of bait under an orange Samurai sun. Shawn Kimbro of Old Stevensville and Jaime Gill from the South River brought me along for fun in this escape from the sweltering shore�104 degrees in the shade.

As we peeked around the southeast corner of the island complex, we spied the scattered feeding frenzy splashing on the mirrored surface. There was nothing to do about it except ride in to rescue of the hapless silversides by distracting the rockfish with some hectic light tackle casting.

In a situation like that, it�s pretty much impossible to fish wrong. Wrong lure, bad cast, tangled line, wrong spot, and inattention seemed to make no difference. The fish behaved like young Labrador retrievers anxious to eat anything without regard for whether it would ever be digestible.

But this doesn�t mean that there was no value to fishing right. Kimbro brings a genetically engineered set of TVA techniques to the party honed over generations of Tennessee bass anglers on lakes west of Rocky Top. While Gill and I steadily cranked in our victims Chesapeake Bay-style, come what may, Kimbro had a lead-headed hunk of yellow plastic doing some kind of hoochy-coo under the top-water bonanza below the pesky blues where the big stripers lurked. It was like watching the Maestro conduct a symphony with a bullwhip.

By the time the sun set, we had lost count of the fish. The effective lures included Bass Assassins, a red/white crank bait, Specialized perch bait jigs, a feather jig, a Crippled Herring, Stillwater Smackits, Chug Bugs, and a chartreuse Lonely Angler needlefish plug that had the size and action of a runaway channel marker.

Everything worked.

We can�t promise that they will be back tonight or tomorrow. But, you can bet we will.