With an interim stop in "God's Country," it's about 2638 miles from Whitefish, Montana to Cape Charles, Va. Mary and I arrived home early Friday morning from our Big Sky trip, which gave me enough time to do some laundry, cut the grass, pack, and then head to Annapolis to pick up Captain DiPaola. From Annapolis we lit out for Cape Charles and our fourth Cobia outing with Captain Kenny Louderback, owner of Fish Freaks Guide Service (https://www.facebook.com/fishfreaks2014/).
Athletes, pilots, and anglers are all creatures of superstition, and one of the most important factors for success across all three is routine. You figure out what works and never, never, deviate. So, by year three we had a solid routine that had by the end of our previous outings had resulted in Cobia in the box. And this year we stuck to the plan. Stop at a seafood restaurant on the way down for lunch. Accommodations at the Hotel Cape Charles. Drinks at the Cape Charles Distillery, followed by dinner at the Shanty Seafood Restaurant, followed by bourbon and cigars at Kelly's Gingernut Pub. Breakfast at Stingrays before meeting up with Kenny and putting fish in the cooler.
The weather for Monday portended good fishing. Highs in the upper 80s, with clear skies, light winds and relatively calm seas. Perfect for sighting-casting to Cobia. So we met up with Captain Kenny at the Cape Charles marina, and got underway around 8:45 in the morning.
While the fish were a few weeks away from schooling up in the lower bay, Kenny noted that enough fish had moved in from their spawning grounds in the northern bay reaches, and the fishing had been good, including a good number of keepers. So we were psyched to continue our string of success. Kenny's target area was just off Cape Charles, a few miles north of the bay-bridge tunnel. Just outside the marina, he noticed a pretty wide band of red tide. A bit concerning, as Kenny thought it might have pushed the fish further north, but he pushed through the oxygen-depleted water and into the search area.
As with our previous outings, in late summer Cobia come to the surface when the water warms. So the only real way you're going to spot them is from a tower.
Once spotted, the captain casts a live eel on a circle hook in front of the fish. The eel's movement gets the fish's attention, which quickly moves on the tasty meal. Once the fish eats, the captain sets the hook and hands down the rod to the angler, who fights the fish to the boat.
We arrived to the search area a bit early; on previous days the Cobia had not started surfacing until late morning, with the 12:30-2:30 pm period being the most active for sightings. And Kenny was not far off. We spotted our first keeper Cobia a little after 11:00. Kenny got a great shot out to the fish, which quickly moved on the eel. He got a hook set, but before I could get my hands on the rod the fish broke off.
Now, there are three factors that no angler or guide can control. The first is the weather. A forecast is simply that, and no guarantee. The second, and especially important when targeting a particular species, is the presence of said fish. The last factor, which is again particular to saltwater fish, is whether they are on the bite.
Karma and superstition are the only forces that can govern all three. And, for the first time in four years, both let us down. The weather did not proceed as forecast. Calm seas and light winds turned to 15 knot winds and 2-3 foot seas during prime time and through the afternoon. The fish were there; we saw over two dozen fish from 11:00 to 3:30 or so. Maybe not in the numbers as we would have seen later in August, but enough keepers to more than get out limit of three.
Which brings us to the last factor. The bite was definitely not on. You put a live bait in front of a fish and it ought to eat. Not this day, though. Maybe it was the choppy seas, maybe the fish don't eat on Mondays. Who the hell knows. Kenny worked his ass off, and we helped as much as we could spotting fish. But the best we could do was bring a 36 incher and a 24 incher to the boat, both too short for the box. Were we in Florida, the 36 incher would have been cause for celebration and fillets on the table. Off Cape Charles, while offering a nice fight, it was nothing but a throwback.
You will find a no more determined captain than Kenny Louderback. He was prepared to stay out there as long as it took. "Just a few more runs." But we had a 3.5 hour drive back to Annapolis, so around 3:30 we bagged it for the day. We hadn't been skunked, and it's always a great day to be on the water with Kenny. But at the same time there was a palpable sense of disappointment among all three of us.
Consequently, the drive back to Annapolis was quiet, interspersed with brief perspectives of what happened. To add insult to injury, the Bojangles we stopped at had no ice; the machine had broken. You don't realize how important cold ice tea is to Bojangles chicken and biscuits until you have to choke them down with warm brew. You'd think that someone would have run next door to the Wal Mart and picked up a few bags of ice. Whatever.
We returned to a humid Annapolis a few hours later. Over bourbon and cigars we began to piece the trip together to see where things had gone wrong. Was it the slow service at the Portside Seafood Restaurant in Cambridge? (Although the crab cake club sandwich was excellent!) The slow check in at the Hotel Cape Charles? The excessive wait at the Cape Charles Distillery? The screwed up breakfast order at Stingrays? The red tide? At the end, we could only conclude that we were following through on something akin to the five stages of fishing grief, which in context amounts to nothing more than a first-world problem. The only viable solution to reach acceptance is to look to next August and another opportunity to fish with Captain Kenny.
Until then, I've decided to go with haiku therapy:
The cooler's empty
Cobia refused our eels
Tilapia sucks
Tight Lines, eventually...
Mikey D Fishing
Note: Striper moratorium on all Maryland waters begins on 16 August and lasts to the end of the month. No targeting of Stripers permitted, not even C&R.
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