Janes Island State Park – 9/27/2008

Having been sick the previous week and weekend – my first truly free weekend since the wedding and my retirement from rugby – I was itching to get out despite hurricane Kyle being right off the coast. I scrambled to get my kayak ready for a serious trip – mainly installing the fish finder and planning my day on the water based off of some info from Capt Matt Tawes. High tide wasn’t until around noon so I didn’t have to rush to get down there, nice since I was up pretty late working on the kayak.

The rain was off and on Friday night and Saturday morning as I drove down, but by the time I got into Somerset County it was a steady downpour. I took my time at the park trying to wait out the rain: I checked in at the ranger’s station and bought a map, I unloaded my truck and loaded my kayak with gear, but the rain was still pouring and there was nothing left to do but just go.

(I really need ot buy a bilge pump! There had to be close to 3 or 4 gallons of water in the boat just from the time I was loading the boat up. Not sure if this extra weight effected the tracking but I did notice the stern of the boat pulling to the right a few times. **It must’ve been the extra weight, I haven’t noticed that problem since then.)

The rain was off and on for the rest of the day. Once I got on the water I paddled south towards town and missed a few fish right away casting along the shoreline. Once I got down and across from the hospital I worked some shorelines where I saw some baitfish working. No takes. If I could do it over again I would’ve cast smaller baitfish patterns on an intermediate line instead of the bigger clouser on my sinking line. I eventually tried anchoring above a current rip and swinging a fly through but didn’t connect with anything there either.

After lunch I decided to start working my way back but wanted to check on things by the hospital bridge. Long story short: low bridge, broken fly rod, no fish.

Working the shorelines back up to the park I finally connecting with a nice striper @ 16″. I worked this ditch for a while – missed a few but landed one more. I tried to establish a pattern in this little piece of water but nothing else was biting. I feel like this was just one of those spots that held fish and that I need to discover others like it.

Not a whole lot of fish but steady action at the end of the trip. I set out to catch fish from a kayak in a new place on flies and light tackle – a tall order by any angling standards and definitely the hard way to fish the Chesapeake – but I did it. A very fulfilling day on the water.