Fishing report/ A day of first's
 

I had a friend of mine who needed to learn how to use his new planer boards. So this was his FIRST day of learning. I convinced him to go south from Sandy Point, because the channel is much wider below the bridge than above it, and I didn't want him to be "practicing" in shallow water. Before we put our spread out, I called on the radio for the FIRST time asking if any cbanglers were out. Butch was kind enough to respond. Nice talking with you Butch. After the spread was out, a rod went down hard!!!! We weren't hooked on a pot or on the bottom. We could gain line, but with dificulty. This was either a monster fish, or something else. It was something else. We had hooked a crab basket!!!! It must have been slightly submerged and floating in a ripping tide. This was my FIRST crab basket, but too nasty to have mounted. After we got the spread reorganized; I noticed we were dangerously close to a crab pot marker. I pointed it out to my friend and he moved the boat slightly to port. We were trolling east/west with the tide ripping. Did I mention the tide was ripping? He was passing the pot upstream/uptide and the planner board missed the pot by a good 25 feet. I held my breath, crossed my fingers, and said a quick prayer; but soon I heard the rod closest to the board screaming. We had hooked the pot. He said; I missed that pot by a good 25 feet! I told him; another FIRST lesson. Your lines are influenced by the tide as well. They track very straight when going with or against the tide, but swing wide when being pushed by the tide. After we got the spread out again, we hooked a nice fat 35 inch fish off a single chute on the board. His FIRST with the boards. We had lines in the water from 10 am until 1 pm; but only fished about an hour and a half because of all the cluster mucks. I don't know if he thinks using boards is worth it or not. Does anyone want a set of boards cheap? Just kidding, he trolls with me and we do fairly well on my boat. I told him it takes time to learn all the little tricks with pulling boards and he could learn all he needs to know next year during the PSCR fishery. Oops; maybe not!!!! Guess he better learn this fall. Might be a good reason to use his boat and his gas this fall. Lots of pots off Kentmore Marina in 35,45,55 foot of water. Be careful. 5th (Marty)

Marty,
Good job getting the one! I can just see you chasing to find which rod was hooked up only to realize it was a crab basket!!
See you tomorrow!

marty... nice chatting with you yesterday.what a whip to hook up that basket. could you have taken it home and steamed, then ate it?
nice going on an otherwise dull day. the few trollers in our area didn't look like they had a banner day, either.