MSSA day 1
 

Left Annapolis with Gypsy Danger and crew and headed south. Started fishing around Ches Beach and knew we were in the right spot when we passed the Patent Pending with a retired mate working the cockpit. After an hour or so got 2 fish within 5 minutes of each other (a barely over and barely under 28") on umbrellas in 38' and that was it for the day. Trolled all the way to CCNPP. Hit the scales at 4:18 with 10.0lbs Saw the 1st place fish brought to the scales and then released off the Miss Susie II - 47"&42.7lbs. Knocked someone else out at 42.0 lbs. We must be in the right area!!

Spending the night in Solomons and then headed back up the bay in a few hours. Forecast has me awake as is not a pretty one. I'm hoping they don't underestimate it like yesterday. :eek: At 7:00 they are calling for 26mph with gusts to 31 and as luck would have it, the tide will be bucking the NW wind :eek: Should make for a fun ride up the Bay. May leave the boards in the boat today..... :cool:

#JudgeYachtweather???

Its 4:40 AM Sunday Morning. The updated forecast calls for cold beer with a chance of bad 7-11 food.

I skipped yesterdays charter - I wanted a Saturday off for a change.

Today we are going on a fun trip with some our friends and the Gentleman we bought the boat from and his old Mate. They are coming down from NJ to see what this planer board business is all about.

Yesterday Shawn rode around all morning with one fish and then, bang - caught 16 fish in 30 minutes right out front. All on 6" tandems. No tournament fish, but healthy mid-20"ers

As you know; we were "meat" hunting for a charter trip. We didn't have to worry about winning a tournament.
We picked up three fish in the morning pretty quickly:) but then it simply died out there. We tried shallow water, deep water, in packs of boats, getting away from boats, heavier weights, nothing worked. The fish just weren't interested.

Luckily, that's a good time to cook the crab cake lunches on the boat:D I take over the wheel and Capt. John cooks. Normally, this is a time for me to explore waters that Capt. John hasn't covered:D However, on windy days, I need to keep the bow headed directly into the waves to avoid John getting hot oil burns from cooking:eek:

After lunch, we ducked into some shallow water (35'). I noticed my buddy Doug (mate on Backdraft) and whistled over to him and shared a wave. About ten minutes later, I saw Doug get the net. On charters, we lift small fish over the sides and release them, we get the net for quality fish. I told the Capt. what I just saw, and we swung in behind Doug.
Our phones rang and Backdraft was calling to tell us he was "covered up" with nice fish. We were only about 300 yards away when our rods started to go down. I had 7 rods out and 4 bent over. The customers had the boat looking like a "Chinese fire drill" (not meant to offend anyone in this PC climate). I was unhooking fish, throwing back small keepers and tossing nothing less than 25' in the box.
Eventually, all the rods loaded up so they would move from one rod to another reeling in fish. We had a small charter, so we only needed 8 fish total. I boxed the remaining 5 largest fish to end the day with a flourish.
Capt. John put the pedal to the metal and we headed to the slip with a happy crew.

Yesterday morning was a bit breezy, but it continued to lay down as the day went on. With the sun out and a full box, I started replacing lures and leaders on the way in. I've found that the busier I stay, the larger the tip:eek: I want my customers to be thinking, "man, that guy never takes a break".

A special thanks goes out to Backdraft and even Lucky Strike (Tawn and I stayed in contact throughout the day even though he was at home sitting on his couch while his boat was Captained by his partner) for "working" with us today.
5th (Marty)

We caught a few dozen fish on day 1 of the tournament. However largest only went 13.x lbs on the scale. I only had 3 rods with 6" baits out and 2 of them caught 75% of our fish. We left fish for a while to hit deeper water but we couldnt find bait or a bite in the deep. All our fish came in the 45' range.

Capt John and his former mate Ted that we bought the boat from came down from New Jersey to check up on us. We showed them how dumb we are by fishing planer boards in a cold 25 knot wind

When they came on - they came ON. Multiple double and triple headers. For some dumba$$ reason we turned the boat back around through them as we were trying to get the junk out of the water and caught about 6 or 8 more that we had to throw back.

Day 2 of MSSA
 

Sucked!!! 70+ miles into WIND & waves, and no fish to show for it. Oh well, that's fishing.

Congrats to Jason's son Brian who crushed the youth division with 1st place AND 3rd place. He's definitely a chip of the ol' block!!!