Wow
12 pages of responses! I'm Mike Wood (mrmoray someplace else). I'm 39, and live in Damascus MD with my wife of 10 years, 14 year old stepson and 8 year old son.
I've fished the bay, on and off, since I was about 8 myself. When I was young, it was mostly the the Kent Island area from Bloody to Love Point, through the Chester and Eastern Bay. I remember catching nothing but bluefish in the 80s, the moratorium on rockfish, then the first half of the 90s when the rockfish returned. I got away from fishing in the late 90s as I met my wife and then eventually got married. While that was a good time for me, from what I gather, I may have missed some of the best years, in recent memory, for the rockfish. Sounds like the early 2000s were great from what I read.
Anyway, in early 2005 I got my first boat. Its a family boat...22' Searay, but I do what I can to fish on it too. I now fish mostly the upper bay, from the bridge north, but I have ventured below the bridge during spring trophy season. I had never heard of LTJing before I got my boat but have been working to learn that technique more than any other since I started fishing again. I prefer light tackle, and bait fishing on my boat is difficult, so LTJing works best for me right now. I'm not great at it, but I think I get a little bit better each year. 2009 was definitely my most successful year so far. My 8 year old, Ryan, officially became hooked on fishing this fall, especially after catching a 34" rock on light tackle....all by himself. So these days when I'm out there, he's usually standing next to me.
I've not fished with anyone on the board, yet. I'd love to HO sometime to accelerate my learning curve..mostly on LTJ, but maybe trolling as well. Trolling on my boat is difficult, but I manage.
Thanks for listening,
Mike
P.S. If anyone has any convincing arguments to help me trade in the Searay for a more fishing friendly boat, I'd love to hear them. My wife loves the boat, so we spend a great deal of time on the boat as a family, in non-fishing situations, which the Searay handles just fine...it just doesn't fish very well.
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