MuleyMadness Hunting Forums

This has been a dream of mine since I got to Virginia in 2008! There are Rockfish, or Stripers, that migrate up and down the Chesapeake Bay in the spring and in the fall. In the spring they are there to spawn, there are more in numbers, and easier to locate/catch, but they are smaller in girth as they are coming off of winter. I've heard they also don't fight very hard in the spring, at least not compared to the fall. In the fall they are in the bay on a feeding frenzy before they head for warmer water down south. The biggest fish stay in the bay the longest because they aren't as effected by the cold as the smaller fish are. An ex-Marine contacted me that knew I had been dying to get out on a boat after these beautiful fish and he invited me on his. He had been going out since the first week of November waiting for the fish to migrate into the bay, trolling full days 3 days a week, sometimes in horrible weather, getting skunked every time. He was a die hard and I loved it! This guy knew his stuff though! As luck would have it, the fish were in on the weekend he invited me! We had perfect calm weather all 3 days I went out with him, and it was perfect timing cause most of the smaller fish had started south so we were able to focus on just catching some monsters! It was an awesome expereince, one I've been wanting to have for a long time, and we were far more successful than I ever expected to be. Here's some pics...


First Rockfish ever!




This 40" had a research tag in it!

Man, that looks like FUN! Thanks for sharing these cool pics.------SS

That's awesomeness, fun and a great fishing in the same time.