late report

[bhl]

I was supposed to fish 5 days Wed's thru Sunday. Cancelled Sunday for wind and rain.
Wed's had the pleasure of taking Cap't. Joe Riley of the "Muff Diver" out of O.C. and his son and mate Shane and some other friends. Joe has retired and sold his boat. We left the inlet at 6:00am and had waves breaking over the bow. Wind subsided and we got lines set by 7:00 by 83 bouy. Had a decent pick of fish and ended with 5 fish by 9:00. fish hit a mix of rods including boat rods. didn't seem to be any pattern.
Thursday, had a crew from my home port of Bowleys Marina. Had 3 quick fish around the 83 bouy and lost a 4th due to an exploding reel Trolled for a few more hours and finally got our 4th fish. waited for a break in the rain drops before we pulled lines and called it a day.
Friday I had a fun crew of guys and one of them butchers deer for a living. I always get a bag of jerky and salami as a gift. We got lines in at 6:30 in front of Chesapeake beach in 41 feet of water and hit a load of fish. Had 7 fish in the box by 9:00am.
Saturday I had a crew of neighbors and the famous "Gypsy Danger" (LoLo) as the wheel man for the day. We went right back to the fish from yesterday only to find 200 boats on top of them. Trolled out to channel and got 2 quick fish then action died as 200 more boats decended on us. After several hours of trolling and phone calls to other CB angler members I got a message that the bite was on about 6 miles south of us. I asked the crew how much energy they had and they all jumped on the rods and we pulled the spread in 15 minutes. Ran south and put spread over again and it took about 45 minutes to find the bait and fish, but when we did we managed 3 quick bites to fill our limit of 5 fish.
It was nice talking to everyone out on the water. It is always nice to have some info from people spread out up and down the bay. I don't think we would have filled our limit without a shout from "Fish Nut" (Rob) and "5th Tuition" (Marty).
One note - Fish did seem to want the boat rods deep after all of the boat traffic started. 4 out of 5 fish hit boat rods on Saturday. 16 OZ umbrellas back 70 and 100' and 20 OZ umbrellas back 50'.
Going to rest for a few days.

[Mako mike]

Sound like you had a few action packed days there Bruce, way to find them and try to stay on them. Yes fishing Saturday was tough with the crowds. I was out with Marty (5th) for an action packed day learning the art of planer board fishing. By action packed I mean learning to set lines, retrieve lines to be cleaned of sea grass, re-deploy them set again and over and over. Had one knock down that came unbuttoned when I handed rid off to co worker who has never caught a trophy. That was it for the rest of the day. I have never seen Marty so perplexed and frustrated as he was on Saturday. So bad that when heading in ha started stowing rods and I said to leave them out so I could wash them and the boat and his reply was "F" these rods and boat. Made him at least hose the boat down before we headed back north with our heads between our legs! Was still a great day on the water with great friends, and as usual learner a lot from the rockfish slayor or in this case savior!