Maryland Rockfish Open Results
We took 4th with a 29 incher caught early on deep umbrella with 9 inch parachutes that I dropped on best marks I saw all day, by slowing the boat to get on bottom. However, we fished right to the end and couldn't get a 2nd keeper for TWT. It was crazy - waves over the bow with occasional 5 footers thrown in with the steady 3-4's - rough out until after noon when it finally laid down. We fished 85a with a mixed 9-rod spread of spoonbrellas, Tony17s, and big umbrellas with 9" parachutes, while winners fished Love Point with boards and parachutes. Winner was 32 and 24 inch fish, with 14lbs biggest and 21 pounds for two heaviest TWT. Only 11 out of 40 boats weighed in fish with only 7 boats weighing in 2 fish.
I fished all week scouting for the tournament from Belvedere Shoals down to Poplar Island and 83a... when I finally zeroed in on a school of big fish on Friday afternoon when I fished 85a for only an hour, and caught 4 keepers with 32 and 27 that would have taken 1st in main tournament plus TWT on Saturday. Fish just never showed in the rough weather. The small fish came, but the big ones from Friday were absent. Friday all fish were caught on WWB Tony17, so I added 4 more rods with Tonys for the tournament and they all caught only bluefish and small rock. I put out the big umbrella that caught our one big fish with 9 inch baits because one of yesterday's fish had 10 inch herring in belly.
Have to wonder if I had spent one of the scouting days at Love Point whether I would have found the big fish there and ended up fishing the tournament there. I did well there last Fall but several weeks later after the 85a bite had died.
Looking forward to the November tournaments!
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