on my................................................ .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. ....................Face
Just when I said we were doing so well and with hardly any effort; we get our hats handed to us today
.
We splashed Lou's boat today at Chesapeake Beach at daybreak. We headed across the bay toward Poplar Island. There were plenty of birds flying and looking (a good sign). Lou's hds 7 showed lots of bait but nothing harrassing it. We continued east and stopped in 25 ft of water to use the binoculars. Nothing showing. We put some lines out and ran the edge south toward Sharps Island. I hate to drop lines just to "prospect", but bait was all over the screen.
We didn't "waste" much time; and pulled lines and ran south. Here was my reasoning. Most of the time we are on "Patent Pending" a 46 ft Markley (extra comfy, but not fast). Because we were in Lou's 20 ft walkaround, we could run 25mph toward the Choptank. We haven't explored the Chop much this year (haven't neaded too). With Lou's fast boat, I told him the bait should be leaving the small tributaries and headed to the mouth of the rivers (water temp was 72 this morning and 74 at noon).
We rounded Blackwalnut Point and there in front of us were two hundred birds sitting on the water. I quickly put out our 6 rod spread. We picked up several small rock and a couple blues. We ran back and forth through the birds. Bait was prolifick
. We couldn't believe we weren't hooking up with keeper rock. As we made the birds move or fly, I think I saw their faces with a smirk that said "ha,ha, the action was 20 minutes ago and you missed it".
After we beat that section of water to death, we pulled lines and headed up into the Chop. Across from Harris Creek, we saw nervous water in front of us. We slowed and could actually watch the water "light up" with small menhaden flickering in the sunshine. Occassionally, the water would erupt as if a whitecap had just been blown across the surface. There wasn't a single bird working the bait; and it was acres of bait. You could just drift and watch the bait run under the boat. The hds 7 was screaming "here's the bait". We didn't see much activity (fish) under the bait, but we couldn't resist putting out the rods. We trolled the whole area and watched bait pop up everywhere. With only a few small rock and blues to show for our effort, we continued deeper into the Chop. We got as far as the Lighthouse and turned around. On the way back, we ran into the same bait, still doing acribatic moves on the surface.
Now, fully pissed off, we headed across the bay to just below Breezy Point. We followed the contour line north through 32-35 ft of water. We finally saw another rec angler headed the opposite direction. If it weren't for crabbers, we wouldn't have seen any other fishermen on the bay.
We pulled the spread until around 1pm and finally decided we were beating a dead horse. We racked the rods and headed back toward Ches. Beach. We kept a close lookout for last minute birds, but they avoided our vision.
As we slinked back into the Ches. Beach inlet, we noticed only one slip open among the charters. Either they knew the fishing would be lousy today, or nobody booked any trips
.
One thing we did notice was that if the bait wasn't busting the surface, it was deep (below 20-25 ft). If Lou had some extra rods onboard, I would have been tempted to try some bottom bouncing.
Anyway; that was our experience today. Perhaps, with so much bait around, the fish are feeding once or twice a day, and if you are not there to see them feeding, you have missed the action?
I don't know, what do you think?
5th (Marty)