Report From the Mistic Lady II Out of Little Wicomico

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Southern
Location: Lower Chesapeake Bay

On Friday we chartered the Mistic Lady II Out of Little Wicomico with Capt. Jack. We rode the 2-3 inch chop all day with a cold north wind. We watched a 30 foot cockpit cabin sportfisherman, which had been following the charterboats, roll about 60 deg trying to troll across the wave train! The wave passed under and she came back. A marginal day for small craft.

There weren't any working birds north of Smith Point light but lots of baitfish from midwater down. We chased birds on radar for awhile south of the line. Then we found a huge gaggle diving on bait, but only young of year which were small stripers. We then worked the bait NE of Smith Point. There weren't any big marks on the fishfinder nor striper schools, just small marks scattered very deep on the bottom.

Part of a charter trip is to increase your knowledge on locations and fishing techniques. I learned a good technique for keeping trolling rigs on/near the bottom from a rig the Captain put together the night before which caught half the fish. Although, the bait size and bait color mattered also . Out of four anglers, we pulled in 11 schoolies; 8 were keepers (7 were 20-21"; one was 24").