For Virginia's Chesapeake Bay anglers, May doesn't arrive soon enough.

Captain Steve Wray catches trophy stripers throughout the spring season by drifting live trout over the tunnel tubes of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Photo by Charlie Coates.

It's the month the bay comes alive, as large specimens of game fish from the Atlantic Ocean start pouring into North America's largest estuary.

But while many anglers wait in ambush for favorites such as red and black drum to arrive from the sea, a loyal contingent of striped bass aficionados will be looking for action coming from the other direction. The object of their attention is the return of striped bass, many in the 40-inch class, from their spawning chores in the upper reaches of the bay's tributaries.

From May 1 through May 15, anglers are allowed to keep one striped bass per person measuring a minimum of 32 inches. From May 16 through June 15, possession limit is two fish between 18 and 28 inches, or one fish between 18 and 28 inches and one fish over 32 inches.

The early part of the season is especially appealing to anglers in Virginia's upper portion of the bay. Accustomed to waiting their turn for migrating fish to reach them from the ocean, they welcome this rare opportunity to get the jump on their lower-bay counterparts.

SMITH POINT
No Virginians are better positioned to take advantage of the early spring trophy season than those in the Smith Point area. Situated at the uppermost portion of Virginia's western shore and surrounded by water on three sides, this peninsula known as the "Northern Neck" is ideally located to intercept post-spawn fish coming down the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, as well as those leaving Maryland's bay waters. As an added bonus, during springs when cool water temperatures delay striper migration (such as in 2005), a reciprocal license agreement between the two states allows Virginia anglers to fish the more productive nearby Maryland waters until the action moves south.

Because the larger stripers are moving rapidly in the spring, and not holding in any particular area, trolling is the favored method for catching them during the first few weeks of May. With menhaden ranking high on the striper's preferred diet, lures that imitate them are usually most successful. The short list includes 6- to 12-inch soft shad bodies (often pulled behind umbrella rigs) and similar-sized bucktails or spoons. White and chartreuse are the most popular colors.

Early post-spawn arrivals to the Smith Point area are usually following the main shipping channel down the bay, and most can be found in the upper portion of the water column where the water is warmer. That makes trolling the edges of the channel with menhaden imitations staggered from the surface to 20 feet deep a solid game plan.

Of course, fishing is rarely that simple.

"If there is an abundance of bait in the shallower water off the main channel, the fish will go there to feed," said Captain Ferrell McLain, who runs a charter boat out of Smith Point. "And it never hurts to run a line or two down deep. One deep rig on each side of the boat won't interfere with your main spread of lures, and you may just catch that monster lurking in the deeper water."