Well today I was able to get out and launched from Crisfield (bayside). The wind was blowing pretty good and there were plenty of white caps camoflaging the crab trap buoys. As I made my way north I was dodging the buoys the entire way (I noticed the water temp was 73 degrees and the tide was outgoing with a north wind). I made my way into some back bay areas around Jane's island and began by throwing a bone colored spook jr. The stripers didn't fail to impress. I was able to pull quite a few out of the back bays, 3 of which were between 23 and 25". I also had something crush a c-eye mirrodine that I couldn't even begin to slow down. Reminded me of a big snook. It took a couple of hard runs, stripping plenty of drag and finally ended up pulling me around a piling and breaking off. I never had a chance to see what it was but it hit and ran like a much bigger striper than what I was catching.
The tide was outgoing and the back bay area beag slowing down and getting pretty skinny. I decided to move south and fish the isalnds south of Crisfiled. I switched to a gold and black DOA cal shad and began catching right away. I was able to pull 3 over 28" off of the islands, along with a bunch of little trout. I did get a chance to switch to the long rod using a nice, sparkly pine island iced tea and caught a few shorts. The coolest thing though was during the battle with one of the dinks, on the fly, a huge striper (way larger than anything that I caught) took 3 swipes at the little one that I was fighting. It was a cool sight but I was kind of glad that he didn't get ahold of the little guy. I was only using my 5wt bass rod (I had two 8wts under the gunnels but wanted to have a little fun with the lighter rod).
All in all it was a great day. Still looking for those stealthy redfish though. I was off the water by noon and cleaned up by 1pm. Great day for a new area.
P.S. I tried to snap a couple of pics but between the fact that I can't do selfie to save my life and the stripers fight til the death I will spare everyone the enbarassing pics. I can't wait to go back.