Lost my Dummy Line
 

Went out of SPSP on Sunday. The plan was to go to 88, set the spread and head down to Bloody and Tolley's. Never made it that far because my low oil alarm went off. I had a couple of inches of oil in a spare bottle, poured that in, wondering the whole time how much more time we would have. So I decided to stay north and close to home.
Shortly after putting the spread over, my HO says what's that. You guessed it, it was a string of crab pots in 60'-75' of water. I grab the wheel and throttle and make some evasive maneuvers, No snags, WHEW, but then I hear my dummy line, I tell the other guy, we got one. He checks and the cord is broke about 5' down. The whole day we wondering what the hell happened. Was the cord getting worn rubbing on the boat? Was it a big a$$ fish? Was it a submerged crab pot? Who knew.
We left the ramp at 7:00, decided to pack it in at 2:00. total score: 1 near catastrophy, 1 lost dummy line, 1 knockdown and 1 22" on the other dummy line as we decided to rack the rods.
After the boat is on the trailer, Jay and Ray say we figured out what happened to the dummy line. Hanging off my prop is about 3' of shredded dummy line. I am lucky to have only lost about $25 worth of gear, the motor, prop and seal seem to be fine.
It was a slow day to say the least, but a day fishing is never without a little excitement.
Til Next Time,
John

That's the main reason I won't run a dummy line. I'm glad that it didn't tear anything more expensive up. We had the oil alarm yesterday also but he had a 1 gal container on board so we were good. We were out yesterday for 5hrs and only got one 24''. We didn't hear anything going on as a friend of ours was running planers with a total of 22 rods. He fished from 6:30a til dark and only got 3 keepers.

Sounds like my Sunday as well....Couple of hours...Not a bite....

Even the birds are starting to look like they have not eaten in weeks....

:(

Drag about the dummy. I'm probably going to give those up myself, eapecially with the luck I've had lately with crab pots.

There seems to be a lot of "liar birds" this year with little or nothing underneathe of them.

I was also out today on a friends boat. We launched from Ches. Beach in a light fog. Headed to red 78 where I got into some nice resident fish last week. Dropped lines east of 78 and saw a bird show about a 1/2 mile ahead of us. I thought "good, lets pick up three unders and then spend the day looking for bubba". We trolled around the edge of the birds; NOTHING. We trolled through the birds; NOTHING. Several other boats saw the action and came running. They jigged over the birds; NOTHING. Other boats trolled through the birds; NOTHING. $hit; what's going on here? We stayed in the area for a few more passes, but no hookups. Off towards the CP bouy we headed. Along the way we saw three charters working just southwest of the deep Choptank channel (false channel?). We dropped in among them and none of us did anything. We worked E/W down by the power plant and marked the most bait of the day on the western side in 35 ft of water. Still nothing. The gannets we did see dive, were all singles. You would spot one here and there, but never several diving in one place!!! The most we could hope for was three or four sitting together. We pushed them into the air, but still no fish. Decided to run back towards home and check out the Sharps Island light and CR bouy. No birds, no boats. So we headed to the radar towers and 35 ft of water. Trolled between Breezy and Ches. Beach without a knockdown.
We didn't run boards, only seven lines (three high and four deep). But still, we should have pulled in a couple fish. It was soooo slow, I called a friend who fished from a charter yesterday. He said they were out of Solomon's and only picked up 7 fish all day. Called another friend who lives in St Mary's county (Slayer) and fishes out of Point Lookout. He confirmed the fishing has been sporatic at best with rare good days and lots of mediocore days further south. He still has hopes of the main bunch arriving before the end of the season. I'm giving it a rest until Dec. 1st and I run my full spread.
I better not hear one newspaper person (Candus) or guide (Chris Dollar) talking about private boats "looking like porcupines" with 15 rods sticking out of them:eek:. It appears that I need 15 rods to catch a damn fish this year:D.

See you on the water (after Thanksgiving); best of luck.
5th (Marty)

At least I am not alone...Although in this case I would not mind it one bit...

We have all had a tough year...A shame I thought a good fall 09 would make for a good 10...

Think I am leaving mine in for two at most three more weeks..

Dont want the inboard to freeze anyway.....

:(

Ona Positive Note
 

Jigging has been pretty good. I have good intel on some fish schooling in a couple spots on the W side and 1 on the E side. Pretty much all bites have been like a summer/fall bite very late in the day. Soooo to me it looks like it is going to really come together a couples days before the season closes,this cold snap this weekend should help. Better luck next time! Just MHO :D Johnny O

FWIW: Good idea ( if you got room ) to keep a one gallon jug of 2 stroke oil on the boat - with a long neck funnel. I keep it in the bilge area.
Saved my a$$ one trip - damn Yahama guage was stuck on 2 bars - roughly 2/3 full.

Alarm luckily sounded.

I appreciate you all sand bagging the reports :D - work has me locked down too tight to fish.