2015…..A Great Year It Was!

2015 is in the books!  I fished from well above the bay bridge to well south of Point Lookout and many places in between. Just added up 205 fishing trips in the book!  Great year considering I did zero trips in Jan/Feb.  Boat sat in 10″ of ice for 45 days!

         

nothing good here!  17 Feb 2015

 

2015 didn’t start great……..Jan and Feb had plenty of snow and cold along with more ice than I’ve ever seen in Maryland waters.  I finally broke out of the ice on March 14.  Typically my year starts at Calvert Ciffs Nuclear Power plant in January or so.  I check for any numbers of fish in the outflow often during the winter.  If they are there in numbers I’ll do trips….if not any numbers I don’t do trips.   Jan/Feb 2015 had a few fish in the outlflow for hearty anglers who spent plenty of time for few numbers of fish.  The fish caught were nice ones for sure…..no numbers.  My year started with a bang for sure.  On March 19 I did the first guide trip of the year………off the hook!!!

I have hundreds of Pics from this year…..wish I could show them all!

Take a quick look!

March/early April

From March 19 until April 5 I had 97 Stripers caught and released over 40″, 9 at 45″ to 49″ and one at 50″!  After April 5 plenty of great Stripers were still at the plant to catch.

 

MID-April-May

When the catch and kill season opened on April 16 I was able to catch keepers and then run to the islands to catch some nice shallow water Stripers.  While the “Trophy Season” crowds are out icing large females I was in the islands with lot’s of action on decent fish up to about 34″ or so.  When the spring sun warms the shallows of the eastern shore islands the area springs to life big time!  Beautiful place to fish in April/May!  If Specks are going to be around in Maryland waters we start to see them in late April early May.  This year my boat saw very few keeper size Speckled Sea Trout…..I did catch some…..not many though.  Here’s a few pics from Mid April-May…..

 

                                                            All the Specks aren’t dead!  2015 had very few….here is one!

 

April/May produced some great light tackle jigging/plugging for sure!  Hoping for the same in 2016!

 

June/July/August

The summer fishery started out for me out of Solomons and progressively moved north.  By mid-june I moved the boat up to Deale and fished the waters of the Bay Bridge and north many days.  I sure learned lots about the bridge fishery and fishing in and around crowds.  Overall the fishing was very good up north this past summer.  By late July I moved back to Solomons and crushed it for the rest of the summer outside the crowds.  Hoping 2016 some fish stay to the south and out of the Bay Bridge crowd…..weekends were real tough!  Starting around mid-july the breaking fish began and never looked back.  Not one day went by where I didn’t locate huge numbers of fish in and around breaking stripers and blues.  Great summer fishing!  Here’s a look!

 

                                                             Koz Family Fun

 

The summer bite from June thru August was very consistant with huge numbers of fish with some really good ones mixed in.  All in all a really good summer.  No complaints from me and I’m the biggest critic…..hoping for a great summer of 2016!

SEP-OCT JOY!-  The 2015 FISH OF YEAR came from September…..not a speck or a Striper!  

My island fishing typically fires up in early September.  This year with water temps high, 80 or above until mid-September I fished the main stem of the bay out of Solomons until mid-september…..once the water reached the mid-70’s and below the island bite lit up like crazy!  Great stuff big time!  On many days we never took off the surface plugs.  Just awesome topwater fishing on Stripers up to 34″.  Most Stripers were 18-25″……very fiesty aggresive fish for sure.  Often Stripers would be feeding right up to the sod banks in some areas.  Baitfish would be flying out of the water, sometimes landing on the bank!  This early September I had a run on huge Red Drum like I’ve never had before.  In a 10 day period I had 17 giant Reds landed and many others lost before seeing the boat.   Truly amazing stuff to see and incredible catching for sure.   Here’s some shots from September…….

Had many Reds over a short time in September.  Along with the Reds came countless big Blues, some great Spanish Macs and many many Stripers.  All this on light tackle using surface plugs, BKD’s on lead heads, LIl’ Bunker Spoons and Hardhead Custom Baits spoons.  As soon as a cold front hit and the water temps in the islands dropped into the mid-70’s and below I was in the islands.  What an absolute beautiful bunch of catching in the remote beautiful islands in the second half of September……. Take a look!

September sure was great but October was better! The bite in the shallow water islands actually maintained at a very high level thru mid-November.  We even poked into the islands in December and caught some Stripers!  We had very stable weather…..not overly cold and not to much wind.  The favorable weather made for incredibly clear water, lot’s of bait and preditors hungry for our baits.  Was great stuff for sure.  Take a look at a few October thru mid-November pics:

 

September 15 thru about November 15 was absolutely on fire in the islands and main stem structure.  I don’t think skinny water fishing could have been better.  2015 was really hot for sure.  Hoping 2016 maintains like 2015 for Stripers.  2015 we had an abundance of very small speckled sea trout in our waters.  Hoping they survive the winter and realize average growth.  If they do we will see some 17-20″ Specks this year!  That would be great!

When the water temp in the islands fell back in the low 50’s the baitfish roll deeper and so do the Stripers.  Not all of them but a good majority.  I few times in December I slipped into the islands while waiting for the tide to turn……boy was I surprised when in mid-deember we caught a fair amount of Stripers in the shallow water of the eastern shore islands.  Late November-December my boat was stationed at Buzz’s marina.  Catching great Stripers on light tackle was just incredible.  Every trip out (except one) during this timeframe the bite was off the hook great!  vertical jigging Lil’ Bunker Spoons and  3-4 ounce spoons from Hard Head Custom Baits along with 6″ and 10″ BKD’s was unreal……..fish 50′ thick was not uncommon!

 

This was a shot in late December out of Buzz’s Marina…..(Temp is not right, about 22 high, Lol).

Mid NOV thru DEC

The bite in this time frame was so good it’s hard to describe…….many days we did catch nice fish all day!  Barely any dry spells.  The numbers were great for sure.  Size wise…..well….we had none over 40″ but huge numbers of 27″-32″ and some up to 35″.  Was just incredible light tackle fishing!  Here are a few shots from Nov/Dec…..

Thanksgiving 2015 is in the record books!  This trip was a short half day walk on trip.  Guys came out to light tackle jig up some nice fish for a few hours on Thanksgiving morning.  These guys came out and it payed off quick! On everybody’s first cast they caught the fish in the picture.  First cast we had all our over 28″ers…….Never had 5 guys/girls all get a big one on the first cast………WOW!

 

The pictures could go on and on and on from Nov/Dec out of Buzz’s Marina!  Was a great 2 months for sure staying at a wonderful Marina…..Buzz’s Marina is the bomb diggity!

 

FISH OF THE YEAR

Every year for the last several years I’ve declared a “Fish Of The Year” on my boat.  Last year a huge 30″ Speckled sea trout was the big winner…..this year it wasn’t a Speck or even a 50″ Striper.  The 2015 “Fish Of The Year” was a tremendous fish caught and released to swim another day by a guy who certainly puts in his time and is a great fisherman!  Not only is the fish a huge accomplishment but the tackle he caught it on made it that much more special.  80 year old Billy Brenner worked over this huge Bull Red with a 6′ Custom Rod from Shore Tackle and a Shimano Stradic 2500 reel.  Really light tackle!  Way to go Billy!

There you have it!  My 2015 year in review…..a great one for sure! Couldn’t possibly put in all the pics!  Hoping 2016 can match it…..I’m excited to say the least!  Hope everybody had a great year and wishing you all spectacular fishing in 2016!

 

 

                                                            Hope to see you all on the water in 2016!