On Friday we were joined by Joe's long time friend and hunting buddy Paul Carmen, and soon to be Coast Guardsman Jonathan Edmonston, son of friends and fellow tailgaters Bery and Clare. Friday was the last of the high fish days for the month, so we were optimistic that another limit was in the works. We departed the dock around 1100 and headed to the western spans of the Bay Bridge. We marked fish so, decided to drop anchor and give it a shot. For some reason, anchoring proved to be a chore, but we were able to get hold and get lines wet. It didn't take long before Jonathan boated a nice 24 incher. Unfortunately, things slowed down from there. That and the presence of Cow-Nosed Rays (seemed kind of early) told us it was time to head north.
We cruised up to Podickery Point, on the western side of the bay, but didn't mark enough fish to merit stopping. We took a gander further to the north and east and saw "the fleet" anchored up at Love Point, so we ziggied up and anchored up with the crowd. Conditions were better than the previous days; the 20 knot winds had abated to 5-10, seas were 1 to 1 1/2 foot chop, with water temps in the low 70s. While we boated five more keepers over the next 3 hours, the fishing was kind of tough. A lot of missed takes, which we could only attribute to the quality of the frozen alewife bait, which didn't hold on well to the hook. We attached small rubber bands to secure the bait to the hooks, which seemed to improve our ability to hook fish.
Our plan for Saturday was to do a little crabbing, but our failure to limit out on Saturday inspired us to head out one more day for Stripers. Fortunately, the bait shop had fresh alewife and soft crabs, so we felt pretty confident when we left the dock at 1030. We headed to the bay bridge, but didn't see much going on, so we headed up to Podickery. Marking some fish, we decided to anchor up, but after an hour of zero action we decided it was time to move north. We spied a lot of boats up at Love Point, so pulled anchor and headed north. But as we neared the point we saw a guy in a 23 foot Trophy waving his arms, and turned to see what was up. Turned out the lower unit on his motor had failed, and he was stuck about 6 miles from his put in point. We gave Sea Tow a shout, but as you might expect on a Saturday in the Chesapeake they were busy taking care of members, which the boat owner was not. So we decided to tow the boat and its 4 occupants up to Rock Hall, which at about 4 knots took us about two and half hours to get to the marina. On the up side, we marked a lot of fish, and figured we would head back out after we got them in safely and try to salvage the day.
We got into Rock Hall about 1230 and got the Trophy close enough to the boat ramp to allow the owner to kedge the rest of the way. After topping off the gas tank, we decided to grab a bite and headed to the Harbor Shack, a restaurant in the harbor. We dined on crab cake and soft crab sandwiches, washed down with cold Dogfishead IPAs, and were fortified enough to head back out and catch some fish.
So we figured our good deed for the day would be rewarded with a few fish in the cooler. Not long after dropping anchor north of Love Point, however, we hit slack tide, which turned the fishing off (for us at least) completely. We say there for over 2 hours, probably longer than we should have, with not even a nibble. At that point it had been a long day, and we could have just pulled up and headed for the dock. But there was still a lot of daylight left, so we decided to give it one more try and join the boats at Love Point.
We "anchored" up around 1745. I say "anchored," because we just couldn't seem to get the damn thing to bite. No matter. There wasn't much wind, the tide was only starting to move again, we weren't drifting down on anybody, and our drift wasn't messing with our lines. So we just kept fishing. And that's when the magic happened. Over the next 45 minutes we boated five keepers, and put our 4 in the box; a 32 incher, a 25 incher, and two that went 22.
I guess persistence kind of paid off. We stuck around until the water started moving and the bite turned back on. But even if we hadn't caught fish today, that wouldn't have put a damper on what was 4 great days on the Chesapeake. Overall we caught 37 Stripers, put 20 in the cooler, caught 3 over 30 inches, and three more 25 and over. Best of all, we got to spend time on the water with great friends and got to send them home with a few tasty fillets. If that's karma, call me a believer.
Tight lines,
MikeyDFishing
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