I'm Back from Fishing

Another Cedar Point sunrise.  No fish to be found here at that time. In fact, it was a pretty tough day. 

We fished a lot of shallow water in the lee side of the islands, with only the one fish caught, all the way down to Smith Island. Kenny managed one keeper on a popper. 

At that point, the wind having died down, we headed out to the Middle Grounds near the Target Ship, where we struck out on Bluefish, etc., but I had an extensive battle with a Cownose Ray before breaking it off deliberately.  We fished the bay side of the islands on the way back, only me catching 2 under sized fish. Finally, back at Cedar Point Pete located a few fish on structure, and Tom showed his prowess, catching 2 over size and one more keeper. Trevor and Dennis got skunked. 

Back From Fishin'

Sunrise over the rocks at Cedar Point. A walk on crew with Trevor, Tom, John Veil, and some I guy I had never fished with before, but had been with Pete once before.

I'm not gonna lie. It was another tough day. Our nominal target was Speckled Trout. We never caught any.

A few pesky stripers, some decent size, troubled our lines, but not too many. At a couple of spots we stumbled on schools of big ones, but they had lockjaw. Maybe they're keeping their appetite ready for the big May Worm hatch in a few days.

Back From Fishin!

Today, Trevor, Kenny, Tom and I joined three other members of Trevor's church tried to do something about the Chesapeake Bay's Blue Catfish problem. Kenny picked Chubby Chasers Charters, normally out of Chesapeake Beach, but for the Spring catfish season, fishing out of Goose Bay Marina on the Potomac River.

We got started a little late, thanks to late arrivals. The day started cool, with some frost on the docks, but warmed up pretty well under the bright sun and low winds.

It was not a hot bite, however, and Capt. Dan kept moving, trying to find a better spot. But we steadily picked away, and all of us got more than one opportunity to reel in a fish. Most of the them were Blue Cats, but we also caught 3 Flathead Cats, another midwestern species introduced into the Bay region, and considered invasive. 

Trevor with a fine specimen. The tackle choice of the day was a single or double circle hook with a 2 oz sinker, baited with cut Menhaden, or a bizarre mixture of chicken gizzards stained with cherry Kool-Aid and flavored with garlic. The Menhaden seemed somewhat better, but both caught fish.

Interestingly, Capt. Dan had his two sons on board. Logan, was in his early teens, acting a first mate, and getting yelled at a lot, but he worked pretty hard. Jackson was around 7-8, and out of school for Spring break. and generally just mingled on deck when he wasn't playing video games in the cabin. He's clearly not afraid of fish slime....

Anyway, we didn't solve the Bay's Blue Catfish problem, but we did make a tiny dent in it. 

I'm Back!

Kenny, Brian, Gary, Trevor and I had a trip scheduled with Walleye Pete this morning, but Trevor couldn't make it due to a last minute medical emergency.  In any event, a 5 AM launch got us to Mike's Rocks just before sunrise. 

We got a few fish on poppers there, but none of the target species, Speckled Trout (Striped Bass are currently in their midsummer hiatus from July 1 to July 15)

We tried Magic Cove a little later, and not much there either.

We headed down south into the Main Bay, where we found a bunch of Bluefish, and were steadily working toward our limit of 5 fish each, when Pete suddenly yelled in his best drill sergeant voice, "Get 'em down quick, there's Reds under the boat!" Unfortunately, I was tying on a fresh leader at that second, and before I finished, Bryan, Kenny and Gary all hooked up. Gary's fish spooled him (loose drag), but with much chaos, both Brian (r) and Kenny (below), got their fish to the boat, where I got to net them.

We kept looking for the reds again after that, unsuccessfully, but managed to find a bigger school of bigger Bluefish, and finished our limit.

Back From Fishin'

Good morning from Slower MD. Had a chance to get a walk on with Pete, and dragged Trevor along.

We made our first stop, right at sunrise, at "Location X", where we caught a boat limit of stripers of nice size. Trevor got the biggest one here, 31 inches.

After that bite slowed, we headed to Cedar Point, 

Leaving the cliffs of Calver County to head to Cedar Point, in St. Mary's

At Cedar Point we caught a few more, and some blues under working birds.

We spent most of the rest of the day chasing around to various points along the inside of the Honga River, and down into Tangier, sound. 

As is typical most sites Pete stopped held a few fish, but not large bunch. Again, Trevor caught the big fish at our last stop, Mike's Rocks, before heading back to Solomons.

Back From Fishing

Results from today's fishing trip with Walleye Pete, Tom, Trevor and Andy. Andy was the star of the trip, starting with this small Redfish at Cedar Point, while we were bailing small Bluefish, and a few small stripers.

We moved a bunch of miles looking for a better grade of fish. I think this one made him happy.

A 48 inch bull Redfish, mixed in with smaller bluefish and . . .

At least one Spanish Mackerel. A 27 inch Spanish is a rare fish.

Actually, we had hook on 6 big reds total. Tom lost one to start with, and Trevor lost two, and I lost one, all were fought while Andy worked his.

Then we moved around a little, and, again in the midst of small blues and stripers, I thought I hooked bottom. Then the bottom moved. It took a while but we managed to get this one to the boat.

Touched by the WuFlu

I just found out that one of Trevor's brothers, Donal, who lived in the Bronx, just died of the virus.

Trevor, Devon and Donal had the blues back in 2002

Trevor said he had diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems, so it fits any number of stereotypes.

God Bless Donal.

Calvert County is now reporting 76 cases, with one death.

I'm Back

Another Cedar Point sunrise. No great mass of Striped Bass (rockfish) hanging around the remains of the lighthouse, but a pretty good school of mixed small rockfish and Bluefish nearby, but mostly blues. We caught a pretty decent number of the blues before heading north

 Well to the north, of Parkers Creek, we found another mass of mixed rockfish, blues and Spanish. In the middle of the actions, Tom's rod doubled over, and the drag started clicking.

 I think you can see it out there.

 Another "Bull" Red Fish, like mine from a couple weeks ago, but not quite as large.

In addition to a boat limit of Bluefish, we got near a boat limit of keeper rockfish, and some Spanish Mackerel as well.

I'm Back!

From fishing. Trevor, Kenny and I started at "Location X" around 7. We caught a few small fish but it wasn't hot. After the stiff west wind died around 8:30, we crossed the Bay to Taylors Island, and fished a few points near the mouth of the Little Choptank, and James Island (what little is left of it)

After a few points and fewer fish, Trevor flipped a coin, and we went north. We fished a few points on the way up to the Sharps Island Lighthouse (where we caught one fish off the icebreaker), crossed back to the western side, and  cruised back to the "Location X", where we caught a few more.

Fishing Report, 7/20/18

We left out of South River around 5:30, with the sunrise getting ready behind the trees of the Mayo peninsula

And were well out into the Bay when the sun peeked out over the Eastern Shore

Our first stop was Bloody Point Lighthouse, just off the southern end of Kent Island, and guarding the course into Eastern Bay. One of many places we fished; I think we caught all of 1 fish around this structure.

Trevor, left, consults with Walleye Pete on lure selection. Mike, and Craig (not shown), long time customers of Pete's completed the crew.

 A nice rip rap wall at the southern end of Tilghman Island, where we found a nice school of schoolie stripers, including a keeper or two.

Trevor wrestlers a striper in the waters of the Little Choptank River. Overall fishing was tough. While we caught fish at most of our stops, there were only a few in most cases, and most too small to keep. We ended with one keeper inch, and a White Perch that bit one of my jigs in the Little Choptank.

 Some of the vanishing remains of James Island.

 A close pass at Sharp's Island Lighthouse, the classically tilted lighthouse that guides the entrance of the Choptank River.

A better, unobstructed, view.

June 12, 2018 Beach Report

It was a pretty nice day for a beach walk. Sunny, temperatures in the 70s, and not humid, not a lot of wind.

Unfortunately, even low tide was very high, so we didn't have as much beach to pick through.

However, Georgia found this stunning Cow Shark tooth.

My best was this somewhat nusual Snaggletooth lower, from the side of the mouth I think, which accounts for it's unusual slant.








After lunch, I was off to the Solomon's boat ramp, to help Trevor launch and start the boat I sold him three years ago. While there were some electrical failures, (open boats don't age well in the weather), we did succeed in getting it started and ran it up and down the Patuxent River 10 miles or so.

That's a relief!