"The Sickness"

The call of the wild drives our passion for the outdoors.  That's what drives us to get outdoors as often as we do.  It's primeval.  Every now and then, as one season ends prior to another one beginning, I explain to my wife, when bargaining for fishing time, that maybe this is the last best chance that I'll have for the season to get out and catch or bag whatever it is that I'm after.  Her response is that it's all one big season, that they all run together, and they never end... "So, just go, if that will make you happy.".  

Each season ends and butts up against another one.  It's so true.  And each season can be as addicting as the last, whether it's hunting or some aspect of fishing.  But, my friend Steve and I have one major addiction that crosses all seasons and overrides all other addictions.  That addiction is fishing for rockfish, and it's an all year long affliction.  My friend, Captain Steve Kelley calls it, "The Sickness".

Fishing for rockfish is an addiction.  We call it, "The Sickness".  If you catch a bunch of these, you'll understand.

It's not just an addiction, it's an obsession.  It's grown into this monster that pushes us to get out in extreme (not unsafe) conditions to fill the need to feel that bite, set the hook, and fight fish that just don't quit, even after they've been landed.  

Let's face it, the striped bass (Morone Saxitilis) is one tough hombre.  In 1881, Dr. James Henshall wrote a book titled, "Book of the Black Bass".  Within that book is an oft-quoted passage, that smallmouth bass are "inch for inch, pound for pound, the gamest fish that swims".  Although I agree with the premise that smallies are among the strongest fighters for their size, I have to wonder if Dr. Henshall ever hooked into a striped bass.  If he had, then perhaps he might have revised that statement to "one of the gamest fish that swims". 

"Inch for inch, pound for pound, the gamest fish that swims."  -Dr. James Henshall from his 1881 book, "Book of the Black Bass".  Although I love smallies and understand his passion, it's obvious to me, Dr. Henshall had never hooked into a big rockfish. Pictured:  Bob Barber with a nice Susquehanna smallmouth.

In a nutshell, that's why they are addicting.  Rockfish are so strong that I often hook a decent one and claim that it's a better fish than it is, often shouting to my fishing pals, "This is a good one!" as a little drag peels off, and then realize later in the fight that it's the same size that I've been catching all along.  I'll follow up with a statement like, "well it's a future forty incher!"  

However, when you actually hook into a jumbo rockfish, you can tell it's an entirely different class of fish.  Let me tell you, the big ones can really test your light tackle skills.  No big rockfish is caught until you've either got a hold of it or it's in the net, because they simply have no quit.  

On my last trip out, I hooked a fish on a topwater plug, and it turned out to be a jumbo rockfish.  I hooked it on a medium spinning rod with ten pound braid, and that fish took me around the boat.  My fishing pals were all fighting fish too, so I had no help.  I was on my own to land this fish.  No biggie, right?  I've done it hundreds of times.  This fish was just a little bigger.  With my rod in my left hand raised as high as I could, I eased the lunker rockfish toward my hand.  The huge mouth that could have almost enfulfed my head had my large Stillwater Smack-it all the way inside it's mouth.  We didn't have a net large enough for a fish like this, so I tried to grab it's lower jaw, as it seemed that the fight was over.  

The fish had other ideas.  It took off straight down under the boat like a shot, and my 20 pound Seaguar Fluorocarbon leader snapped.  The fish escaped with my favorite topwater lure, leaving me with an empty line and leader blowing in the wind.  I almost cried.  What an amazing species.  It showed me who's boss!

Fishing for rockfish isn't new to my circle of fishing buddies.  We've fished the tidal catch and release areas for brute migratory rockfish for years.  The exception was this past spring, because our local laws changed to prohibit catch and release fishing in the major tributaries of the Bay.  That was painful.  Prior to last year, it's been an annual April tradition.  

Over the years, those spring runs have produced some tremendous days, with catches yielding rockfish over 40 inches numerous times.  Casting crankbaits has been our pattern of choice for targeting big spring rockfish.  The crankbait bite is truly an addiction within this addiction.  There's nothing like the vicious hit of a rockfish on a crankbait.  It's pretty amazing when a big one smashes it and nearly dislocates your shoulder on the strike.  You work the crankbait fast and erratically, and then all of a sudden, one crushes it.  It feels like you've hooked a bucking bronco.  That feeds the addiction alone, nevermind the ten or twenty minute fight that you have coming.

Crankbaits rock when it comes to catching big spring rockfish.

The truth is that we stumbled on the tidal crankbait pattern.  One day, many years ago, my friends, Bill Dowd, Bill May and I were bass fishing out of his bass boat.  It was a frosty early April morning.  Bill May caught a nice chunky three pound largemouth that hammered a spinnerbait from under a partially floating log, but, other than that, the bass fishing was very slow.  We used the trolling motor to venture out from shore in an effort to mark fish along a drop off or in a channel.  It seemed like it took forever to move from three feet of water to six.  Then, it went rather quickly down to twelve feet of water, and lo and behold, we marked fish.  

Bill May, dropped a green pumpkin bass tube jig down to the bottom and had a nice fish hit it immediately.  That fish came unbuttoned just out of sight under the boat.  We all thought it was a big largemouth.  Then, I hooked up and fought a nice fish as well, and it turned out to be about a six pound fish, but...it was a striped bass!  We repeated the drift and observed the sonar, and noticed them holding in a twelve foot trough for about a mile mile long.  

After repeated drifts down the trough, we caught numerous stripers all day long.  We caught fish on bass lures, mostly four inch tube jigs, Rat-L-Traps, spinnerbaits, small crankbaits, and jigging spoons.  My friend Bill Dowd caught one that went just over 30 inches, and I managed to boat a 34 incher that hit a jigging spoon, which was my personal best at the time.  

After hearing about our trip, my good friend Bob Barber invited Steve and I to fish out of his boat and we found them again in the same "trough".  We caught lots of 18 to 30 inch rockfish by jigging or trolling sassy shads and Rat-L-Traps.  Steve and Bob pounded them all day on the jigs.  

Stubborn me, on the other hand, wanted to fish crankbaits.  I caught a few fish on a Rat-L-Trap, but the action was a little slow on that lure.  The crankbait action was hot the prior trip at the end of the day, and I wanted to duplicate that with more time.  I was frustrated as Bob and Steve landed fish after fish, about three or four to my one.

During the late afternoon, the tide changed and the action picked up, and things started to change for me as well.  Bob fought a nice mid-twenty inch fish to the boat, and, right at boatside, a monster striper rose from the depths and tried to eat the smaller rockfish, and nearly knocked it off of Bob's hook.  We all stood there with our mouths agape.  In the movies, one might say something like, "We're gonna need a bigger boat..."

I immediately dug into my tackle box looking for the biggest crankbait that I could find, and pulled out a seven inch Bomber Long A.  If I remember correctly, it was about the third cast, just as Bob swung the boat around with his trolling motor, a fish hammered my Long A.

I fought that fish for a long time.  It seemed like forever.  In my mind, it seemed like maybe forty minutes, but, in reality, it was probably only ten or fifteen minutes.  I'd have to have Bob or Steve chime in on that.

We were using light tackle, and this big fish fought extremely hard against the spinning rod that I typically used for fishing plastic worms for largemouth bass.  I was using twelve pound Fireline that day.  It took me quite a while to get that fish to the boat after several runs.  It was a monster, a 45 1/2 inch striper and weighed 38.1 pounds!  That fish remains my personal best to this day.  I'm glad that I stuck with fishing crankbaits!  After an excellent job putting that fish into Bob's undersized net, we admired the fish and set her free.  Bob and Steve both tied on big cranks and caught good fish for the rest of the day.

The Long A really turned my day around, as my biggest four fish went 45 ½ inches and 38.1 pounds., 37 inches and 21 pounds, 34 inches and 15.2 pounds, 31 inches and 11 pounds, and I caught several between eight and ten pounds.  It was nice to have a scale to record the weights of the fish.  Because of that day, I have a good idea of how much the fish we catch today weigh.  

I'd love to share pics with you of any of those fish.  But, I can't.  You see, this was way before any of us owned a digital camera or a phone with a camera, and, earlier in the day, we used up all of our film on the smaller fish.  We had no idea monster rockfish were in the area.  The only proof that I have are the eye witness accounts of my friends, Bob and Steve.

What a day!  That changed everything.  That's when the striper addiction started for us, way back in 2002.  From then on, we went back to that area in an attempt to repeat our previous success.  Conditions vary during the spring there, and you have to hit the conditions just right to fish crankbaits for stripers.  The right conditions need to be the right water temperature, good water clarity, light winds, and the fish have to be there.

My friend Bob Barber, Steve and I had a great day back in 2002.  Here, a few years later, Bob lands a really nice rockfish that he caught on a crankbait during a past April catch and release season.

We've had some successful days since then, but, you had to time it right.  Finding suitable fishing or boating conditions doesn't always coincide with when the fish are there.  The weather in April is usually not the most stable.  Wind is the enemy, because, not only does it result in small craft advisories, it muddies up the water.  Dirty water is not a good condition for fishing crankbaits for striped bass.  You need some visibility.  It doesn't have to be gin clear, but clear enough for the fish to see your lures.  

A few years ago, out of Steve's boat, I was nearly able to match that 45 1/2 inch rockfish, with a really fat 44 and 3/4 inch fish.  It may have been heavier than the one that I caught in 2002, but, we never weighed it.  I'll post the details of that memorable day in a future post.

This 44 3/4 inch beast hammered an 8 inch Bomber Long A.  You can see why, when you catch a trophy like this, you're addicted for life and crave ever so more...

After that, we were all obsessed with the catch and release spring striper fishing, so much so, that we'd forget all of those other good fishing opportunities available to us for other species.  I mean, I was a largemouth bass fanatic from way back.  I never thought that I'd pass up fishing for largemouth bass in April for anything.  For the month of April, fishing is good just about everywhere for any species.

Don't get me wrong, the good Lord knows that I love catching three to five pound largemouth or smallmouth bass, or slab crappies, or big white perch.  But, put each of those fish up against a trophy rockfish, and the choice is clear, at least for me, what I'd rather target.

I caught this big largemouth on a Rat-L-Trap off of Captain Steve Kelley's boat also.  We both love fishing for largemouth bass in the spring.  But, our first choice is to target rockfish in April.

When the spring crankbait bite is on, you can't beat the thrill or the action, especially when you have the chance at the fish of a lifetime.  But, the spring trophy catch and release "season" is short lived, as the bigger fish leave the tributaries and head out to the Bay and into the Ocean in a matter of weeks.  In other words, our addiction pretty much ended when that "bite" was over.  It was truly a short term sickness.

Summer traditionally for me was the time to wade fish for smallmouth bass.  I love small stream fishing.  But anytime Steve invited me out to the Bay, the chance of catching a big rockfish trumped stream fishing for bass.  No offense to my stream fishing buddies, but I like variety, and getting out on the Bay was a welcome change.

When Steve invited me to fish the Bay with him in the summer, we always had the goal of getting a few keeper fish and simply have fun.  We'd drift bait back to the bridge pilings and catch a few keeper rockfish mixed with white perch.  It was fun, because you never really knew what you were going to catch.  Rockfish, toadfish, drum, trout, flounder, perch, bluefish, and sea bass catches always kept you guessing.

We were convinced that bait was the way to go to catch big fish, and, although we knew that anglers regularly jigged for rockfish successfully, we clung to the notion that bait was the best way to go.  It's no secret that live or fresh bait will tempt big fish of all species.

Steve with a nice rockfish caught by drifting bait to bridge pilings.  Bait will catch fish, big fish, consistently.  However, learning to catch big fish on jigs really stoked our addiction for striped bass fishing.

After we'd run out of bait, we'd head out and look for breaking fish under birds or find spots with good current and structure that held rockfish.  Once we found such places, we'd toss paddle tail swimbait jigs to catch lots of schoolie sized rockfish.  It was fun, and, although we both heard that big fish may be under the smaller fish, we didn't know how to find them or fish for them.  Still, we had fun fishing the Bay that way.  Every now and then, we'd catch a smaller sized "keeper" fish.  Even though we had fun, we didn't really feel the rockfish addiction as we did during the spring catch and release bite.

We both wanted more.  We tried jigging with limited success around the Bay Bridge pilings, but still were convinced that bait was the ticket for bigger fish.  Steve and I researched the internet to learn more.  We watched YouTube videos about fishing the Chesapeake Bay, read blogs, and fishing forum posts.  

I purchased Shawn Kimbro's books after we watched every single one of his videos.  The books and videos were not only very informative, they were also inspiring.  We did everything that we could do, purchased the right tackle, practiced the right techniques, and did everything that he recommended.  That was the start of "The Striper Jigging Revelation".  

You can read all about that by clicking on the blog post link above, or simply scroll down the page to post below this one.  That article contains information about jigging techniques and recommended tackle.  Each trip out, Steve and I learn something new.  Every time we successfully found and jigged up nice rockfish, it was like  putting the bigger puzzle together, one piece at a time.  

However, it's more than that.  Our growing rockfish success caused us to give up other outdoor activities.  Steve and I both bow hunt.  Since my Brother, Kyle, passed away, Steve's been the only person that I've hunted with on a regular basis.  We each have our own spots too.  Neither of us missed hunting season for anything.  It was another seasonal addiction.

But, last winter, we wanted to catch stripers so bad, that neither of us purchased a hunting license.  Steve typically winterized his boat each year around late October or November or so.  Last year was the first year that he didn't do that.  We kept fishing, and never sat in a tree stand.  We gave up one addiction for another.  That's sick!!!

October though mid-November used to be reserved for bow hunting during the rut.  Now, those months have become addictive striper fishing months.  Now, we fully understand the Maryland term for that time of year, "Rocktober".  Our bow hunting time has been relegated to a late season phenomenon.

Dan Ricker knows the sickness too as he sports a fat slob of a rockfish caught on a Coach Jig Head rigged with a Bust'em Baits Fat Boy.  Dan constantly barks out how he'd rather be walleye or crappie fishing, but you can tell that he's as addicted as we are.

So, for those of you that know this disease and suffer the same affliction as we do, then you recognize the symptoms.  That's when you know you have it bad.  All you think about is the jig, topwater or crankbait bite, and the fight of a big rockfish that peels drag off and fights so hard.  All you think about is how you can find more pieces of the rockfish puzzle to achieve further fishing success.  Instead of watching television with your family, your mind drifts off to another world as you scan the Navionics app on your phone, looking for good structure that might attract rockfish via current breaks and ripping tides.

You can't put down Shawn's books.  You've read them until you've almost memorized them.  You scour the internet and read every local fishing report that you can find, or any web forum post about striper fishing, for that matter.  You can't stop scrolling through the Facebook posts of your fishing groups to read rockfish reports for the days that you couldn't fish.  

Catching fish like this just aggravated Steve's symptoms.  After a fish like this, you'll get "the sickness".  

You go through and organize your tackle and repair the rigs on your striper rods even though you may not have a trip planned yet.  You order tackle on-line, or visit the local tackle shops to get more of what worked for you.  If you're broke like me this time of year, you visit on-line tackle stores and add items to your cart or wishlist, knowing that you can't afford to pay for them yet.  You may visit a local tackle shop to buy some tackle for a fishing friend as a holiday gift, but, of course, you can't help picking up some tackle for yourself.

You find that, while doing other things, whether it's shopping at the local hardware or grocery store, doing errands around the house, sitting in a tree stand, or even other types of fishing, you dream of jigging for rockfish.  You find yourself always checking the weather...not at home.  No.  You check, at multiple locations around the Bay using various weather apps to find out wind and wave conditions for the next ten days.

Check out our buddy Rodger Moran's expression after catching this rockfish.  Think he's got "The Sickness" or what?  

You also call your fishing friend network to find out the latest intel.  When your fishing pals are out there on days that you can't go, you text them constantly for updates, knowing full well that if you were out there and the bite was on, that you would focus on fishing and ignore your phone.

You dream about jigging for rockfish, and you set the hook in your sleep and accidentally knock your spouse in the arm.  Or, perhaps you have a dream where, on every cast, big rockfish are knocking your topwater plug out of the water or crushing it so hard that they set the hooks themselves.  These are recurring dreams, by the way.  

You've got it bad.  There is no cure.  Your only hope is to treat the symptoms.  How?  By going out fishing for rockfish.  

You've got "The Sickness"!