Fishing with the Z-Man

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Mid Bay
Location: Between Kent Point and the north end of Poplar Island

Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative program manager Erik Zlokovitz and I took advantage of some Veteran's Day leave to venture out in a pea-soup fog in search of striped bass. It's good to take along the reef guy when you are hunting for some good 3-D structure to fish over.

My fishing log confirms that mid November is usually the best time for light tackle rockfish action on the Bay.

With help from the GPS/Fishfinder, we found our way through the fog to some mid-bay contours and the fish.

Here's what it looked like, and if you check the sonar screen info, you will be able to tell that at one point in the day we were fishing midway between Kent Point and the north end of Poplar Island.

Early on we fished plugs and bucktails over the Poplar Island rocks just 30 yards from the island, and we couldn't see the island through the fog at all. Spooky.

The hot lure for Erik was a tiny opalescent Flex-it jig fished on a 5-1/2 foot jigging rod. My choice was a crab-colored Clouser Minnow on a 350-grain sinking flyline. The jig worked better on the deep fish. But when the fish were popping the surface, the Clouser proved its value.

Late in the day, the fog cleared and the fish rose to the surface to snack on tiny bay anchovies before settling with the sunset. We were joined by a few other persistent anglers, all of whom seemed to understand the protocol�drift in slowly, shut off your engines, keep quiet, stay calm, and fish on.