I only got out twice last week and the fishing was good enough to make me wish I had gone more often. Thursday night(10-20-2016) the Chester river produced several nice Rockfish for Ange Harclerode, Dan Kilroy and myself. We caught fish many different ways including “Top-water spook type lures”, paddle-tail swim baits, X-Raps, metal jigging spoons and snap jigging BKD’s. We caught a  boat load of smaller fish and kept moving looking in different places until we found a group of mid-twenties fish willing to play. Catching was best where creek mouths met up with the main river. We found some better fish there and had a fast bite for about 45 minutes on BKD’s and paddle-tail swim-baits. This 27″ fish hit a skirted jig with a paddle tail swim bait attached.

Dan Kilroy followed up with a 32″ fish taken snap jigging BKD’s…

Light tackle trolling X-Raps (xr-12) produced several fish while trolling, looking for fish. After catching a few like this, we came about and started casting on the school of fish. The bigger fish were taken casting not trolling. The fish below is typical of the fish we caught trolling.

These two lures have been working very well this week RAPALA, X-RAPS, (xr-12) in BUNKER color… all the colors have been catching  but this color has been best.

On Saturday (10-22-2016)  I fished the 3rd Annual CCA Rocktober tournament,the tournament was hosted by Little Havana Restaurant.I really like the “no kill” tournament format, which encourages Catch & release of the entry. No need to kill a fish to enter. All entries entered by catch, photo and release (CPR) A great job was done by all involved. Thanks to CCA for having the tournament and Little Havana for a really tasty buffet, and after fishing all day in wind and cold it was right on time! The conditions were brutal on the water. The northwest wind howling at 25 mph and gusting to 40 made for miserable  conditions. Jesse Rossmann and his friend Jerry rounded out our fishing team and high seas and salt spray were the norm today. Jesse Captained his 21′ Parker thru some very rough conditions, boat control was an issue. We used the anchor to hold us in position to cast to structures with no luck. We tried drifting but the drift was so fast could not hold bottom with 2 oz. jigs. As a last resort we started trolling X-Raps along a contour edge and soon started catching a few just under size fish, then a few keepers. The bite was fast until the current died, then we lost the fish and never found them again. We had a couple nice Rockfish but nothing in the money, fun day of fishing with  friends though.

The tournament was won by a some very good young fishermen who like us, fished sheltered creek mouths up in a river. Congrats to Ron Mcmorrow, Joey Hurly and Nick Garrott… on the awesome win in difficult conditions!

Locally, the fish and crabs are here… Crabbing is slowing down but the quality of crab is excellent. The biggest crabs of the year being caught right now. Striper fishing has been generally good with nice fat fish up to 30″ being taken by anglers casting lures on channel edges and creek mouths. The Elk, Bohemia, Sassafras and Chester River all have Stripers willing to bite. I’ve heard of some good fish being caught around the Susquehanna flats area too!  The fishing is good now and this cold spell will make it better. Let’s go fishing!