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Some thoughts
I agree with a lot of what has been said, yet I’m as puzzled about where they come from as everyone else. Let’s face it, until they start talking and telling us what we want to know, it’s all conjecture…and god knows, I’ve interrogated a few of them…they just won’t crack.
A visit to Google Earth will reveal a lot. The shallow sloping pocket of sand sits with a compass heading that guarantees it will warm up fast and the breakwater “heat sink” theory might even hold water. Yes, like all abrupt walls alongside a beach there is a certain amount of corralling of bait, however in the early spring there isn’t always an abundant of tiny finfish in the area.
One of the reasons I think the wall gives up a lot of early season stripers is the abundance of sand shrimp in the area…the place is loaded with ‘em. A plain old fashioned bucktail jig, even one that isn’t garnished with pork or plastic will produce fish, especially if you allow it to bounce of the sandy bottom (when shrimp take off out of the sand they produce the same ‘puff’ of smoke like effect that a jig creates when it hits bottom. The addition of a plastic tail only heightens the allure of the offering. Small teasers are also very effective off the wall as they do a good job of replicating these tiny crustaceans.
According to a recent journal on the Seasonal Distribution and Abundance of Sand
Shrimp in the York River-Chesapeake Bay Estuary Maximum concentrations occurred in winter when bottom water temperatures were between 5 C and 11 degrees C (41 - 51.8 degrees Fahrenheit) The concentration of shrimp was reduced in spring when the temperature exceeded 15 C (59 degrees Fahrenheit). This sounds about right for the spring conditions along the wall.
There are also a ton of green crabs and lady crabs to feed the somewhat larger linesiders and tiny lobsters use to cover the bottom like nightcrawlers on a wet lawn.
Fishing the wall is akin to opening day of trout fishing, it’s not the size or the quantity of fish that matters; it’s simply the fact that you’re out there doing it again. Maybe I’ll run into a few of you there.
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