What is wrong with Marty, you say
I'm writing this report for Dan, a CBA member who asked me for some information about fishing. Dan lives in Pa. and can use all the info possible before making the trip down to the bay to fish. I told him I would write a report instead of texting all of this
Todays crew consisted of Lou, Mark (a friend of mine who doesn't get to go out very often), myself, and Bruce (Hook Em). I mention Bruce last because I want to tell you how much easier it is to have someone knowledgeable running the back of the boat. I did it for three years as Capt. John's mate and I now know how he must have felt being able to keep your focus on speed, direction, and avoiding collisions
I told Bruce the spread we were using today (# of bars/weights for each rod) and knew we weren't going to have a bunch of tangles or lures drug through the mud.
We started just south of West River #1 with tons of bait under the boat and birds flying aimlessly overhead. No real concentration of birds, but you knew it was at least worth trolling some lines through the area.
We started with 9 boat rods (three more than I usually run). The wind was fairly stiff out of the NE so I knew we would be doing casual zigzags south). There would be no drastic (Capt John) turns with nine off the boat. If my two light lines had been the major producers, I had one planer board on the roof to be able to switch out several rods off boards. This didn't happen.
All eyes were on the lookout for bird action. Birds were spotted working about two miles south. I bumped the speed up a little to get there and we were the first boat through. Picked up two 25 inch fish off the same rod
Made a slow turn back to my waypoint. NOTHING
Birds and fish were scattered by other charters running through them and more importantly, the fish were moving quickly.
We quickly found out that we needed to drop down to 6 rods so we could turn faster. Left the six deepest rods out. Ran spreader bars with storm shads and umbrellas with buck tails. The rods 10 bars back with 10 oz. weight and 9 bars back with 12 oz weight were our most successful rods.
So many charters to contend with, we also realized that the first boat through the birds had a distinct advantage. Birds would only stay up and working for about a minute or two, then fish would leave.
Someone came up with the suggestion we rack rods and run to the next bird show. With three guys (most of the time two guys) in the back, this meant they only had to rack three rods each max.
We would rack rods, run with the small jigging boats to the next bird show, drop 6 lines 100 ft from the birds and troll through the mix
We probably pissed off some jiggers, but the charters were none to happy about us beating them to each new bird event either.
As I passed by a boat jigging and they yelled "Hey, who are you?", I would yell back, "Rockin Robin"
No, seriously, that didn't happen
We were able to slip the smaller fish back over the side and place the bigger fish in the box. It wasn't uncommon to have multiple hookups with several rods as we passed through the fish as the first (or at least second) boat through.
When the box was full, we headed home still looking for birds. We stopped and jigged a few keeper size fish; but everyone was ready to head for the slip. In all the action, we had neglected to eat lunch
We had a window of about 1 1/2 hours (maybe two) where most of our fish were caught. I believe it was at the beginning of the incoming current. My calculations were dead current at 11 am; we were done by 12:30 I think?
For a while, it was rods and fish all over the deck. Don't you just love those days?
The winds had died down earlier, so running and gunning was no problem. This was the first time I can say I've used this tactic, but it worked today. With six rods being racked and deployed so often, you can see why having Bruce on deck was so valuable. My job was easy; head for the birds!!! Bruce's job, get those rods out now in their proper place and depth; then unhook fish and get them back over for another pass; that was the hard job
The Judge produced fish again; but with Bruce and I both wearing my 5th Tuition yellow shirt, the odds were in our favor
5th
1st pic (shirts)
2nd pic (todays fish)