Maryland Rockfish Open Results
 

We took 4th with a 29 incher caught early on deep umbrella with 9 inch parachutes that I dropped on best marks I saw all day, by slowing the boat to get on bottom. However, we fished right to the end and couldn't get a 2nd keeper for TWT. It was crazy - waves over the bow with occasional 5 footers thrown in with the steady 3-4's - rough out until after noon when it finally laid down. We fished 85a with a mixed 9-rod spread of spoonbrellas, Tony17s, and big umbrellas with 9" parachutes, while winners fished Love Point with boards and parachutes. Winner was 32 and 24 inch fish, with 14lbs biggest and 21 pounds for two heaviest TWT. Only 11 out of 40 boats weighed in fish with only 7 boats weighing in 2 fish.

I fished all week scouting for the tournament from Belvedere Shoals down to Poplar Island and 83a... when I finally zeroed in on a school of big fish on Friday afternoon when I fished 85a for only an hour, and caught 4 keepers with 32 and 27 that would have taken 1st in main tournament plus TWT on Saturday. Fish just never showed in the rough weather. The small fish came, but the big ones from Friday were absent. Friday all fish were caught on WWB Tony17, so I added 4 more rods with Tonys for the tournament and they all caught only bluefish and small rock. I put out the big umbrella that caught our one big fish with 9 inch baits because one of yesterday's fish had 10 inch herring in belly.

Have to wonder if I had spent one of the scouting days at Love Point whether I would have found the big fish there and ended up fishing the tournament there. I did well there last Fall but several weeks later after the 85a bite had died.

Looking forward to the November tournaments!

Sounds like you put in a heck of a lot of effort at least. Congrats on the 4th place. Remember, if you win ALL the tournaments, people will stop getting in them. You have to "lay down" occasionally to keep suckin' them in. :D

No way being smart - trust me , I hold this to heart.

Just when you think you have fish figured out .............. :rolleyes:


You did good - 4th place is not bad - shame money stopped at 3rd though.

Had you gotten one more nice fish and been in the money - your plan would have been perfect.

Rough water in small boat is tough. I fished a fall MSSA once and had to pull everything in three times. We could only maintain boat speed going with the waves on that day. We'd troll 5 miles - pull it all in - run back 7 miles - put it all back over. Full spread - 22 rods.

Ran trips Sat and Sun. Sat was snotty in a 46' boat - I can't image doing it in a 27. We scrounged up a couple keepers Saturday and came home busted on a half-day trip Sunday. Nothing but dinks and tiny bluefish under the birds we found.

I hear it is a little better today.

The pic is from Sat morning.