Judgement Day 11/8/14
 

Well, we finally did it. I put together a small tournament for Judge owners. With the weather being unpredictable this time of year, I decided to only use two 36 ft judges. Bruce offered his boat (Hook Em) for the Western Shore anglers and Jeff offered his 36 (Justified) from the Eastern Shore. Thus "Judge; East vs West" was born.
More details to follow, but I want to get the photos up quickly. Both boats caught nice fish, but the West prevailed today.

We caught pretty 36" fish that we hoped would win the tournament, but as we were getting the 36 out of the net, a bigger fish crunched a planer board line.

This is the winning fish. Measured between 46-50 inches (that's a story to tell later as well).
Great day was had by all.
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Here's a group photo of all that participated.

Lolo, Alex, Margaret, Dave, Marty, Jeff, Bruce, and Tawn.

Photo was taken back at the Crab Shack on Rock Hall where we all met for dinner and drinks.

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Awesome fish... Did Tawn win the Natural Light drinking contest? :D

Tawn was a perfect gentleman; you would never have guessed he fishes out of Deale:eek:

Everyone had a ball. Plans are already being made to expand the tournament with more boats next year:D
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Nice fish... How many total, any sea lice?

Joe

Joe,
No sea lice
I think total of 8 fish (between both boats)
All keeper size fish
This is the "small" 36 inch fish we released
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Geez, that's a nice fish, congrats!

Marty, Nice fish! I know I'm a outsider because I have a Parker, but were you N or S of bridge. Thanks Tom

A Parker :eek: we were waaaay North of the Bay bridge.....tunnel!! :D

Ok ok, it was an "upper" bay tourney. :)

Certainly not an outsider:D

We were above the bridge. Caught both the 36 and the big fish off board rods on a green umbrella with a ten oz lure out 8 bars and 10 bars.

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Thanks for info, not ready to run boards yet. Going to give it a try tomorrow .

We took it easy today. We ran short boards and only three off each side. We didn't have the whole spread out.

Crab pots just outside the channel keep you limit your ability to maneuver.
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LOTS of crab pots off Rock Hall so be careful if you are giving them a try tomorrow. We didn't start with the boards until we got closer to the bridge. Crab pots can be found as deep as 30+'

The beer store was out of premium Natural Light - had to settle for Busch!

I can only speak for myself but I had a blast in this strange place they call "Above the Bridge".

The story of the day was team work - Bruce provided a gorgeous ride and put us on the fish, Marty put the heat to it, Doc steered the other lines around the fish, I leadered it and Lolo executed a flawless net job.

I guess the plan was catch and release, but she was hooked fairly deep so in the box she went. I would have swore it was 50" and 50 lbs.

As much as I tried to make that fish a 50/50, the truth is, it was a tick under. It was definitely high 40's and would have been a money fish in any tournament.

Thanks again to Bruce, Marty, Jeff and all those who made it happen and to Alex; thank you very much for picking up the tab - you didn't need to do that - Thank You!

Next year we need to do it again with our little boats and base the weigh in on a BAC handicap.

Nice fish! Good to know they are starting to show up.

Glad everyone had a good time and many kudos to Marty for putting it together! Margaret is 1 of 20K people running across the Bay Bridge today. If your in the area, I'm sure it is a a MADHOUSE!!
Best place to be is either side of the bridge today, but not on it or under it. All those runners....someone is bound to have to pee! :eek: :D

BTW- Bridge reopens at 2pm today but until then, it's single file in both directions.

A big thanks to all of the crew for inviting me to join them. Bruce has that dream ride rigged out perfectly for rock fishing and had a great selection of tackle very well organized to make rigging an efficient process. Tawn and Marty are a well oiled team in setting out the spread.
Here's my favorite picture of the featured fish of the day - not so much because Tawn is the best looking member of the crew, but because this is the picture in which the fish looks the biggest.

Congrats on one heck of a fish.

Shame you were not entered into the Fish for Cure tournament - heard a 44 incher won it.

FWIW: Crab pots are out to as deep as 55 feet on east side below Love Point :eek:. Often these markers will go under water on strong current flow.

Congrats men! Sounded like a great time. Next year let's plan the "Judge Event" during fishing season.............not in the middle of the "rut":rolleyes:

With catching fish like that I think you ought to keep drinking Busch! :D

Marty,

That is one heck of an awesome fish for a guy who doesn't fish tournaments and doesn't fish weekends... Congratulations! Now if you entered the Fish For A Cure, you would have come home with $13,000 in calcutta money for 1st and 3rd place fish!

Sounds like one heck of a fun day you put together and I am really sorry that I missed it! But I certainly enjoyed participating in Fish For A Cure, raised $3,100 in 5 days for a great cause, and enjoyed preparing for the tournament and a full day of fishing. The fishing, however, was pretty lousy well south of the bridge with only 7 fish up to 25" after an 11 hour day. I fished the same area that I have fished for the past 3 weeks after I heard Bruce had done well on October 16. Each trip I would come across breaking fish under birds at some point in the day and have several rods go down with 2-4 fish over 30". Yesterday, it just didn't happen... when the birds did finally converge on breaking fish early in the afternoon, I would only get one small fish out of each fish with 17 lines in the water. I was dragging all 9" chutes on the boards with spoons and umbrellas on the boat.

By the way, I love the title of your thread... Judgement Day! I sure hope to be included in the next one.

Jason

Holy crap that is a big fish. Nice going guys. I hear you guys are having a well over due good fall of fishing. Hope it keeps up. Hope to see some of you after Thanksgiving.