With Thanksgiving behind us and the Christmas season looms, we are lucky to be in a fishery that still offers respite from the to-do lists that tend to dominate the month of December. A lot of productive fishing is still yet to be had, and local anglers are proving that with larger speckled trout being found and more striped bass coming to hand locally.
The speckled trout frenzy of November was great, but if you were like most of us, it was dominated by smaller fish. The current push of colder air and water is sending the fish deeper, but the ones being caught tend to be larger as well. December is usually the month when river anglers switch from wading through “dinks” to catching fewer but much higher quality fish. To key in on these fish, focus on identifying the productive depth and an appropriate lure… or, more importantly, weight… to offer a good presentation to these specks. While sunny and warm days can quickly bring them up shallow to warm, some of the best days to hook up with gator specks are those rainy/cloudy days when you’re hiding from the wind. When this relatively shallow living fish is deep, low barometric pressure can turn them on. As the water temps fall, lure speed needs to slow, as well, and one of the reasons suspending baits can be so effective. When you think you’re going slow enough… slow down. Fly anglers can try to replicate this with large deceiver flies or gamechanger-style articulated flies on a sinking line. Pay attention to the sink rate of your line, and use that to create your countdown to estimate fly depth, repeating a portion of that count after moving the fly.
Striped Bass are being caught off the CBBT near the high-rise, around Cape Henry, and fingers are crossed that they’ll stay close to the shore this year. For those of us that tend to stay in the rivers and backwaters things are warming up as they cool down, as well. All of the Chesapeake Bay tributary rivers are seeing fish near their mouths. The James, Back River, Rappahannock, and York, along with the creeks and inlets of Mobjack and Plum Tree, are fishing well on this side of the Bay. The first structure inside the inlets on an incoming tide is a great place to start, and any jetties are in play, too. Protected areas, like undercut banks, that set up well with the tides are great inside the marsh, particularly if they’re close to deep water. Paddle tails should be fished with just enough weight to still be affected by the current, and flies should include enough weight to impart significant “jigging” action. Rockfish hit on the fall, so give the fly or lure a pause to entice a strike out of a follow.
With that action heating up, it’s on to redfish, where the action is slowing down. That’s coming off some of the best action that we get all year, so it’s to be expected. While there are always exceptions, the resident drum are all schooled up. Protected areas with muddy bottoms are great places to find fish, and once you’ve found them, consider different approaches to those areas, as they won’t likely go far. The winter is one of the few times that I’m likely to use a MirroLure on redfish, but they’re very effective in mid-depth (2’-6’) water. On warmer days with high sun, when the angler has the sight advantage, flies present best to these spooky fish. I downsize from the 1/0 or 2/0 size used through most of the year to size 2’s and even 4’s. Natural colors reign supreme, and having a softer body that traps air to land softer (think Borski Slider or Redfish Crack) helps to quiet the fly when landing near the fish. Just like lures flies need to be retrieved at an appropriate speed for these colder fish.
The Lower Bay is still in the low 50s at the time of this writing, but that will undoubtedly fall as the month goes on. Both warm and cold days and overnight lows can have a big impact on fish activity. Take those and the fish’s metabolism into consideration, and you’ll find yourself with tight lines through Christmas and into the New Year.
Thank you to everyone who supported me and VB Backwater through 2024, and I’m looking forward to the opportunities and experiences we get to share in 2025!
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