Tons of bait!!!!

[lazybuttjay]

Went out yesterday to hunt for the elusive striped bass. Tons of bait around the ship yard in Portsmouth.....and when I say tons, I mean huuuuuuge schools of silversides. There were plenty of terns working the fish but no stripers! Tried a flat near by and no bait or stripers. It was a shame to see so much bait and no hungry stripers!!!

[ConnorR]

I dove Hampton Harbor today and there was tons of bait. Huge schools of silversides. I never saw a single bass though, which was weird. Drove down to Joppa and tried to paddle through 20mph winds which wasn't too much fun. After about 20 minutes of hard paddling I had gone about 50 yards from the ramp and called it a day.

[Solid]

After about 20 minutes of hard paddling I had gone about 50 yards from the ramp and called it a day.

Joppa in a kayak is brutal!

[ConnorR]

It would have been worse wading, at least I could get the wind at my back with the kayak.

[lazybuttjay]

Tons of bait no billy the bass......... where are the stripers???

[Koda]

I'd take a guess that there are a bunch of big ones out on the rips of Monomoy this time of year. I used to get some good ones in June on an 8 wt off Steve's Fortier.

Used to love to watch the blues get under a big pod of pogies and parts were flying everywhere.

A bit unorthodox, but laying the fly over the pod and snagging one then live lining it got some vicious strikes and monster bluefish :)

[Steve H.]

I got a couple stripers fly fishing Joppa Flats yesterday morning. Blew up my Beans Orion 3 8-wt on a 27"-er. Right at the stripping guide under the wrap. Didn't even lean on him that hard....hmmmmmm. Hopefully Beans will replace it.

Sorry to digress....back to baitfish. After fishing Joppa with flies, headed out to Hampton and jigged up more tinker macks than we could handle on 'biki rigs. Filled the baitwells and din't even use half of them. The rest are getting freeze-vac'ed tonight.

There's lots of bait around....and a few stripers too.

[s2ary]

Yeah, that's troubling.

[s2ary]

Joppa in a kayak is brutal!

You need to pick your days there.

Tie up a spoonfly eel with a big'ol rattle and go at night. Killer...