# Bill Burton Fishing Pier (Choptank River MD)



## SeaFaring (Nov 30, 2017)

This afternoon I took my daughter fishing on the fishing pier across the Choptank River in Trappe MD (I don’t take her fishing in small boats in cold weather). It’s an old bridge with a chunk cut out of the middle over the shipping channel. When they built a new, taller bridge, the old one was still sound, so they left most of it intact as a pair of fishing piers from each side of the river. 

The bait shop had fresh alewives, and the weather and everything else seemed favorable so I thought we’d have an awesome day. 

Things turned out a little differently than planned. Despite fishing 4 rods and good bait, I only had 2-3 hits and only one solid hookup. And just when I got that fish up to the surface (after a pretty sweet fight) it shakes the hook before I can get it up to the pier. It’s hard to tell from 20’ up, but I think it was a 20”+ keeper. 

The main benefit of that fish was that we were packing up when it hit and it encouraged us to stay. 

A few minutes later, we heard seagulls going crazy and saw some schoolie stripers breaking in the better-lit water between the two bridges. So I pulled in my lightest rod and started working a few top and mid water lures. No love for the buck tails, but next I tried a 3.5” silver blue rattletrap that I picked up randomly on sale at Rural King in Illinois this summer. 

We almost immediately caught 2 schoolies about 12”-14” long. No pictures because I was trying to get them unhooked and back in the water ASAP. 

I tried a few other crankbaits, jigs, and spoons looking for bigger fish closer to the bottom, but ultimately just went back to the rattletrap and caught another 16” striper. 

Little guys, but they put up a good fight and really jazzed up my buddy who got to help release them. 

On a side note, I was fishing two rods with Trilene Big Game mono (20 and 25 lb) and two rods with PowerPro braid (20 and 30 lb). I have to say, I’m becoming a full on braid convert. Fishing in the dark, the braid really increased sensitivity and let me feel the action of my lures even when I couldn’t see them in a way the mono didn’t. 

But the real highlight was a 3.5 year old girl who loves fishing, walked a mile and a half up and down the pier, and was gung ho for 5 hours of slow bait soaking fishing...


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## LDUBS (Dec 1, 2017)

Nothing better than a day fishing with the kids. Mine are all grown and out on their own now. Happily, I still get the "let's go fishing" calls, or I guess it would be more accurate to say texts instead of calls. LOL.


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## SeaFaring (Dec 1, 2017)

LDUBS said:


> Nothing better than a day fishing with the kids. Mine are all grown and out on their own now. Happily, I still get the "let's go fishing" calls, or I guess it would be more accurate to say texts instead of calls. LOL.



I am hoping that as she gets older and inevitably had more control over how she spends her time, she will still want to go fishing with me!


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