12/23.. Plo

[B-Faithful]

anyone fishing?

[Breakaway]

Anything to report from yesterday? I'm hoping to fish on Friday 12/26. Give me something to get excited about

[5th Tuition]

All I know is I woke up around 7:30 am and it was foggy. I had a couple of buddies come over around 10 am and it was still foggy. We hit Clyde's Bait and Tackle and then Bass Pro Shop; and it was still foggy

I don't have radar on my boat, so I was glad I wasn't sitting in the parking lot at PLO still waiting for the fog to lift

Best of luck on the 26th.
5th

[B-Faithful]

Fishing sucked for me! I have my Friday trip cancelled in hopes of seeing good Friday reports before driving all the way there for a Saturday trip.

We left PLO just after 7am and the plan was to run down to 65 and catch and release before going over the line to play for keeps. We hit the fingers by 65 and after about 15 min of looking in the heavy fog we found a pod of fish. We ended up catching one fish fairly quickly that was close to 30" on the only 10" BKD we were using (released MD waters). However I had a sick member of the party (flu) and they asked me to run him home as I started the boat for another drift through the marks.

It took about an hour to run the gentleman to the dock and get back to 65 in the heavy fog where I had marked some pods on the GPS. (visibility was less than 1/2 mile, maybe 1/4) By then, I couldn't find the fish again. There were only small pods of bait around but we were marking fish just off the bottom but couldn't get them to bite.

We ran down to smith point and searched from the shallower water by the light house (where we found our fish last time) to the deep water. We found bait in the deep water and started casting out, letting the bait sink, and retrieving up through the column. Two guys got hit on the first drift and one guy didn't come tight and the other broke the 15lb test braid on the line before we got the fish in the boat. We moved around a number of times again without a tap and didn't see the trolling boats catching eith.

Got word of a bite last Sunday on the south side of the Potomac across from the PLO state park. Like a bonehead, I chased an old report and ran up to inside Potomac from Smith Point. We found ZERO marks in the Potomac so we ran back to the channel edge looking for fish with no luck either.

Hindsight, I should have just kept running south as a buddy had better luck down by the mouth of the rapp.. (but you know what they say about hindsight).

It was a very very discouraging trip for me as I had a party on board and did not have good success. I made a poor decision of not continuing to run south, had to have my eyes buried in my radar all day, and spent too much time running and not fishing.

I did hear of a decent trolling bite up the Potomac in the deep water. However that was second hand info. The bite certainly was tough for most as I talked to several people and other than the one guy, everyone came up empty. There were a few guys who trolled back at the ramp empty handed too.

We had 41-42 degree water all day and zero visibility.

Not my best experience chartering.. The guys on board were a good group of guys though.

[5th Tuition]

Certainly sounds like a tough day. Don't beat yourself up about second guessing your decisions; we all have days like that
5th

[bhl]

Some days it just doesn't gel. Sounds like you kept your party safe and dry in some less than stellar conditions. I hate running by radar and looking at the fog all day, it takes a toll on your eyes. People that have never run a boat in those conditions will never know how much concentration it takes.
By the way, was the guy with the flu still on the pier when you returned at the end of the day

[B-Faithful]

I certainly had a headache at the end of the day. Between the stress of not finding a good bite when it had been on fire the last month +, staring at the radar screen all day, and driving nearly 2 hours each way towing in the rain on the way down, etc. I am still frustrated today.

I hope to hear that the sun and hopefully some warmer temps will turn the bite back on so I can end the year on Sat with a good trip.

Catch them up Friday guys so I can go into Sat with hope. If not I may cancel the trip.

[Breakaway]

At least you were fishing, that's more than I can say. We've all been there.....coulda...shoulda Even when fishing is decent but not great, I still second guess myself thinking I could have done better in another location. Unfortunately in the PLO area there is SO much water that, unless you get some help from the birds, it's tough to know where to fish.

[5th Tuition]

Originally Posted by Breakaway

At least you were fishing, that's more than I can say. We've all been there.....coulda...shoulda Even when fishing is decent but not great, I still second guess myself thinking I could have done better in another location. Unfortunately in the PLO area there is SO much water that, unless you get some help from the birds, it's tough to know where to fish.

Last day of the season was comical; fish everywhere, but anytime we saw you pick up and run, we threw the binoculars up to see what bird action you were headed to We could find a different group to check out on our own, but we most of the time knew where you and Greg were

Our last group of fish were so nice that I called Greg over, however, he had just run threw them trolling and picked up several overs out of the group we were jigging
It's nice when we have a couple boats to scout the area; like you said, that's a lot of water down that way:roll eyes:
5th

[Tawn]

It's a tough deal taking folks money when the fishing sucks, but it's the nature of the business - it has happened to everyone and it will happen again.

I have been on expensive trips to Canada, the Great Lakes, the Keys and Costa Rica when the fishing sucked - the Captain/mate/guide busted their asses but sometimes you're the windshield, somedays your the bug.

Don't beat yourself up over it.