[Rockin' Robin]

After 36 hours of fishing in 3 days for MSSA Tournament during which we caught a total of 9 fish and nothing worthy of weigh-in, I took off Monday to rest (and work). After hearing of a great Monday bite from a good buddy who makes a showing on this board occasionally, Robin wanted to get in on the action with the perfect weather forecast for Tuesday.

So Robin and I got a late start Tuesday, launching at 9:30, right at slack before outgoing. We fished in an area between TPL and BPL in 37-50' of water. We landed the first few fish while we were setting lines and caught fish consistently from 10am to 1pm when we started pulling lines in. We landed 10 and missed 2, with Robin catching her personal best at 40" for her 1st striped bass release citation from MD DNR. I hardly had a chance to get a drink or a sandwich... a good problem to have! Board lines from 35-75' back caught fish, as did the deep umbrellas on the hip rods. With just the 2 of us, I didn't put out the 2 deep rods in back of boat. There was no preference for white or chartreuse. We saw good marks but very little bait on the sonar throughout the depth range we covered.

Wednesday I fished on a charter out of Solomon's with 10 other guys trolling 40+ lines. Bite was wide open from 7-9am, catching 14 and missing 3, but then it turned off and we got only one more fish around 10:30 before we pulled lines in. The mate put all board lines on his side out 3 bars, while the captain did 3-6 bars on his side. It seemed that most fish were caught on the lines out 3 bars, as expected. We failed to get our limit for the 1st time in 4 years with this charter, putting only 7 fish in the box. Yes, even with 40+ lines, the new slot limit kept us from getting a limit.

Thursday I was back on my boat ready to have a repeat of Tuesday, and try out keeping most board lines only 35' out as I had seen on the charter. I had my friend Andrew and his 85-year old dad, Bob, with me when we left dock at 5:30am and headed out on a bay that was flat as glass for the 3rd morning in a row. We got to the area that Robin and I did so well on Tuesday by 6am but didn't find much to get excited about on the sonar. So we searched a bit and ended up a bit northeast in 55-75' of water where we found the screen loaded up with fish marks and bait and it stayed that way all morning. Lines started going in the water by 6:15am and we had already landed 3 fish with a 41" and 35" in the box by 7:30am when we finished getting all 19 lines in the water. In the 5 hours we had lines in the water we ended up getting 20 bites with 15 fish landed including a 41, 41.5, and 42. Andrew and Bob who is an avid fisherman both caught personal best fish and had never seen anything like the action that we had and assured me that they would be talking about this trip for a long time. I heard Bob on his cell phone several times already bragging to his sons and buddies as the great bite continued. The bite was consistent throughout the incoming and into slack when we started pulling lines at 11:15am, despite the huge fleet of boats that gathered around us throughout the morning. A nice fleet of Judge 27's was out causing someone on the VHF to remark, "What's with all these Judge boats out here? Did they have a sale at the Judge factory or something?" It was great fishing out there with 5th Tuition, Overcooked, and Just One More. Nearly all 19 rods got hit, color didn't matter, and 1/3 of the bites were on deep umbrellas. My WWB 13/0 crippled alwive got hit by a VERY big fish for 3rd time in past 2 weeks, but once again, I somehow managed to lose it.

Well, I am sure it comes as no surprise that I was back at it Friday morning again leaving the dock at 5:30am, this time with friends Joe and Roy. There was thick fog as we ran out to the area where we fished on Thursday, and it would last until mid-morning, but no problem with radar. When we arrived in the area, we found very little bait, but pretty good scattered fish marks. We caught 4 fish from 7 - 9:30, but then the bite turned off and we didn't get the last 2 fish of the day until 1:45pm and 3:15pm. Fish ranged from 1 short at 24" to several unders and 38 and 39" in the slot. Roy and Joe were happy to bring home a 34" fish each. The bite wasn't on fire like it was Tuesday, bit still good fishing with a pair of Judge 36's nearby when we were in the shallow water, despite the fact that there were hundreds of boats in the area - seemed more like a Saturday than a Friday... I guess word got out about the great week we were having in that area. We caught fish in 50-65' and 35-38', on board rods 35'-45' back and on one deep umbrella. End of incoming was good, beginning of outgoing was slow.

My boys, Brian and Darin, and Robin, were really anxious to get out and enjoy the hot bite and catch some BIG fish, so when Saturday came, nobody complained about the plan to get out early to beat the weekend traffic, and we left the dock at 5:15am headed for the same area from previous trips through the fog on flat calm seas once again. Beating the Saturday crowds seemed like a good idea, but despite having a good 2 hours before it got crowded, we didn't have a single knockdown all day and ended up with a skunk. From about 8am to 12:30pm when we called it quits and headed home, the boat traffic was crazy... much worse than opening day. I tried to get away from the crowds, but just couldn't do it an kept getting squeezed and pushed around by boats that had no common sense, courtesy, or knowledge of the rules of the road. It culminated mid-morning when I realized that I had a boat pulling boards to my starboard keeping me from turning to starboard, and a sailboat under power bearing down on my port bow about 150 yards away. I quickly realized that turning wouldn't get me out of the situation, grabbed my air horn (which I always keep at the helm), stuck it out the port window and gave 5 short blasts. No response from the sailboat. Another 5 blasts and still no response. The 3rd set of blasts finally got the folks on the boat above deck and at this point they were no more than 100 feet from my bow, inside my 125 foot port board. I started screaming like a maniac now that he was within earshot, "Turn your boat! Turn hard to starboard. I've got boards and lines you are going to hit. Turn your boat! Turn your boat!" He finally started his turn to starboard not more than 50 feet from my bow, and straightened out before he was clear of my port board and hit it with his starboard bow, snapping the planer line and taking my furthest out tandem rig with him. He never stopped, never apologized, but did get yelled at by his wife! My crack crew sprung into action and reeled in all the deep umbrellas to get them out of the way, and reeled in all of the 5 remaining port board lines, while untangling and pulling in the broken planer line, while I steered the boat back to pick up my planer board. Then I made a securite announcement on 16, warning boats trolling about the rogue sailboat, Nauti Pleasures. He immediately got on the radio and complained about dodging fishing boats all night and morning as he sailed up the bay and that he couldn't avoid every boat that crosses his bow and fisherman need to avoid him or risk losing gear. A bunch of folks who saw the incident jumped all over him on the radio and I didn't have to say another thing. Once I settled down and realized I only lost a planer line and a single tandem, I raised him on the VHF to let him know that I had calmed down and only lost a planer line and one tandem which was most likely on his keel or rudder and that he might want to look out that it doesn't cause any damage. I thought perhaps he might have the decency to apologize and offer to pay for my loss, but he just went off again as if the incident was my fault. Later I called the coast guard who told me to call the DNR instead. DNR told me they have several such incidents every spring and that it is a civil matter and nothing they can do about it, short of contacting the guy and telling him that he ought to learn the rules of the road. Anyway, we continued trolling the rest of the morning with just one board and boat rods, with nothing to show for it. We were marking bait and fish throughout the morning... but couldn't get them to bite.

Saturday night was the Awards Party for the EVAN's Tournament. This is a great tournament where 100% of the $100 entry fee goes to a small organization that seeks fund research of a rare form of pediatric cancer as well as provide toys/treats for children and families currently battling the disease. Prizes are provided by sponsors and everyone who enters gets a prize. All you have to do is photograph fish you catch from opening day through last day of MSSA tournament and send them in. I entered fish for myself, Robin, and each of the boys. Darin and Brian got 1st and 2nd for Youth Division and Robin got 1st for Ladies Division. My 40.5" fish got 11th place overall, but earned me a prize of free entry to Fall MSSA Tournament ($175 value). Robin and the boys got Under Armour hats and very nice gift certificates to All Tackle. Anyway, the party was fun and we need some competition for next year - you all ought to enter next year!