A One - Two Punch for Mikey D Fishing.  2nd Lt Salt Life was graciously granted his OOD underway qualification and departed Burley Creek at 0700 with two other young salts, Marshal and Jamie, both fellow employees at Anglers.  They proceeded directly to the pilings at the Bay Bridge to jig for keeper Stripers.  The fishing was steady and good with clear skies and a breeze that slowly dissipated over the course of the morning.  The highlight of the half day of fishing was landing a 50 pound black drum that first presented itself like a snag.  After a 20 minute fight, solid teamwork landed the beast.

The second punch came in the afternoon when 2nd Lt Salt Life and company turned over the helm to CC and Joe.  We followed suit by jigging Bay Bridge pilings on the Eastern Shore side of the bridge.  Joe landed an undersized striper on a chartreuse bass assassin.  Not satisfied with the frequency of the bite we anchored a few hundred yards north of the bridge spans to chum.  After an hour without so much as a nibble, a change was in order.  We decided to ease back toward the northern bridge span to enable us to jig and chum.  With the anchor holding our position, we restarted the chum slick and dropped alewife strips astern of the boat.  Almost immediately we had fish on!  The action continued throughout the remainder of the trip.  Infrequent lulls in the chumming action did allow for CC to get a hook up while jigging on what must have been a 30+ inch fish before breaking off.  Joe lost another in the pilings.  The rest was all success.  Eight fish over 20 inches to the boat including a nice 30 inch hog.  We tossed several back with lesions and scrapes but still kept a beautiful 27 incher and two others that provided thick fillets for the table.  CC boated one keeper when the tackle it was carrying from a previous melee with a fisherman snagged his line.  A perfect metaphor for the day was that we landed alewife that became ensnared in our lines just as we exhausted our supply of bait.  Excellent timing on a day when all the elements came together.  Classic Mikey D Fishing!