Not Skunked - 3/13/11

After a number of trials and tribulations, at last the boat was ready to fishing.  I left around 2 PM.  The wind and waves had come up a bit since the morning, but it  was still pretty nice.  This is a shot of the green marker buoy about a mile off the harbor.  It marks the western side of the channel up Chesapeake Bay,

Fishing was pretty good.  It started slow, but by 3 PM I was catching stripers pretty steadily.    Most of them were smalls, measuring 18 plus or minus a couple inches.  For reference, the green plastic bait is 7 inches long.

 


However, number 11...

 ... who hit around 4 PM, was a pretty good fish, 32 inches and probably 10-12 lbs.  It took me a few minutes to land.  I didn't have landing net, having busted my last one retrieving my glasses from the water yesterday while trying to put the canvas on the boat, so I had to lip it.  It left a rough spot on my finger.

After that, there was a flurry of activity, with one fish after another for about a half hour.

I ended up catching a total of 18 fish.  I lost one that might have been a big one, from the amount of drag it was pulling out before it pulled free.

It started to get a little rough, with water sloshing over the rails, so I bailed about 4:45, before a chance for any sunset pictures.