Mac Attack!
August 14, 2019 Royal Oak 3 photos

Trip Summary

Mack Attack! What a day! Had a blast. The plan was to do a variety of techniques. Live lining, cast and jig on breakers and trolling for Macs. We put a dozen spot in the tank and off we went. Stopped at the bridge to live line, had a few hits and 1 run off but lost it. The birds were working South of us and I couldn’t take it anymore. Off to the birds we went. Loads of mainly 18 inch Rock. Moved around trying to find some keepers. Put a spot over while casting and jigging and sure enough, the drag starts peeling. Dave got it in and it’s a 21 inch rock fish. Sweet! We kept working with the birds and got 2 more by casting jigs. Awesome. We needed 1 more for a limit. Birds were all over the place but just couldn’t get anything to bite. We decided to troll and see if there are any blues. We put out 4 rods and couldn’t keep up with them! Finally after about 10 throwbacks a nice 20 incher. That’s a wrap for the Rock. Let’s go look for Macs. South bound and down we go. Got to where I wanted to try and didn’t see anything happening. No breakers. No boats. Just a few birds here and there sitting. We put out our 4 rod spread to see what happens. Nothing here let’s cut across and up. Few small rock at 5mph! Ok speed it up. Come up on a ledge and I turn as I didn’t want to be too shallow. Bam Fish On! It’s a Mac. Dave had never caught 1 before. Get it close and as I leader it in and go to swing over the side of the boat. Yup you guess it Dave still hasn’t caught 1! I lost it. That’s alright make a turn go back and fish on! Dave grabs the rod. I grab the net this time. Uh oh no Mac it’s a bluefish. Ok let’s try again. Few minutes later fish on! It’s a Mack and Dave got his first Spanish Mac! Yea mission accomplished! Now let’s see if we can get some more. Sure enough we worked the area over and got 8 total and lost some. It wasn’t hot and heavy but it was steady. The were concentrated in that 1 little area. Go North or South and nothing come back and fish on. Never saw a breaker or another fishing boat. Coming back in and birds are still working at the first place from the morning. I will say the rock that we caught today were pretty for sure. Fat and healthy. Hard to believe it’s mid August already. Summers almost gone. We still have a few dates available. Half day $350 can be AM or PM. Full day $450. Live lining, casting and jigging, and troll for Macs & Blues. If you want to do a specific technique just let us know. We always try to accommodate.
Richard Phippin
Royal-oak, Maryland, United States
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Opening day of Striped bass season!
Opening day of Striped bass season!
May 18, 2025
Casey, Colby and Trey joined me me for opening day and what a great day it was. We left the dock at 6AM under cloudy skies with possible showers in the AM. High tide was expected at around 8AM. perfect conditions for some shallow water fun. We hit our first spot which has a mix of sod banks and tree stumps. The stiff SW wind made it hard to stay close for too long. Then we got an alert on the VHF about a severe Thunderstorm cell crossing the bay to the south of us. We weren't finding what we we looking for so we moved to another location. This provided us with protection from the SW wind and still gave us clean water and current. It wasn't long before Casey felt some weight on the line. At first he thought he was hung up. But then the line went in the opposite direction the fish realized he was hooked and the fight ensued. He made quick work of it and harvested a nice 22 incher to put in the box and get the skunk off the boat. We continued to work shallow water structure and marsh banks. But weren't finding much. This is a game of seek and destroy. It can be nothing 1 minute and game on lights out the next. When it happens it is a blast. It sure beats trolling and sitting watching the rods and hoping. You are constantly casting and when a fish hits the lure you feel it all. Then it's just you the fish and the rod. We drifted making a few casts to each spot. If we didn't get a hit we pulled up and moved on. These fish are prowling looking for bait fish or soft crabs or anything washing away as the tide drops. We had a few showers but they didn't last long. We worked a lot of fishy looking areas. Finally Colby gets a hit this time it was next a rock pile with some sod banks mixed in. After a nice little fight a 19 1/2 incher goes in the box. We drifted that spot a couple more times but only caught 18 that had to go back. The limit is 19 inch minimum 24 inch maximum. So we continued to move. The sky started clearing and the sun was coming out. We hit a spot with a dock and riprap wall with marsh and sod banks along the shore line. Trey got a hit then another. Then on the third cast bam. Another nice healthy 18 incher. Back it went. We cam up for another drift and everyone started getting hits. The Colby got a reallly big hit. This fish was definitely bigger. Not only did it swim the opposite direction but it started trying to circle the boat. After a brief game of tug of war I netted a beautiful 26 1/2 incher. Absolutely beautiful fish and great catch. The fish was released after a brief picture and swam away healthy! It was game on we drifted this spot for an hour catching and releasing numerous fish. After a few casts I decided to cast myself. No sooner did I engage the reel and start to retrieve the lure WHAM! Holy crap he hit so hard he went airborne 3 feet. It happened so quick I didn't even think it was a Striped Bass. I asked Someone to get the net and Colby did a great job of netting my fish for me. Another over slot at 26 1/4. Beautiful fish. Once again it was released healthy and swimming away. We left them them biting as time was up. Everyone caught multiple fish and they were able to take 2 nice size slot fish home for dinner. We were a good ways from the dock and with the wind more than it was in the AM it was gonna take a little extra time to get to the dock. As I said in the beginning it can be nothing then its game on. That's exactly what happened. Thanks for a great trip Casey, Colby and Trey and Thanks for not giving up. We didn't see any Speckled Trout or Redfish today but I know they are around.
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