3/23/13 South of Bridge

[5th Tuition]

I had this trip set up for a couple of days and I kept watching the winds and hoping they would lay down long enough for us to get out on a scouting trip The winds for Sunday looked better, but I am busy tomorrow.

I would guess we had about a 12-13 mph NW wind, so I figured the run south would be easy. Allan (just chillin) and I met Mike (garlien) at my slip at noon. Allan and I had the gear all loaded and when Mike arrived, all we had to load was Mike's beer

We took a lazy ride south and dropped lines at Matapeake. Trolling south we marked very little bait or fish from 30 ft on the eastern side to 30 ft on the western side There were several anchored ships off the Severn, and we noticed SOME bait around the ships in 60-65 ft. Certainly these were not big baitballs, but at least I knew the FF was working

We had whitecaps all afternoon I ran four rods off a single planner and two deep rods. Good news, no snot Water was nice and clear (as it usually is in winter). I didn't see any ospreys out in the bay propper, but we were witness to a bird show of sorts in Bodkin Creek as we headed out. We saw two ospreys (one carrying his fish dinner) when out of the blue sky came a larger bird and harrassed him until he dropped the fish. It was a bald eagle

We didn't see any gannets today either(we did two weeks ago off the west river).

Our trip back (into the wind) allowed me to try out the trim tabs and when I dropped her nose a little, she ate up the chop and reduced the spray considerably. The water was turned on today at the pier, so I guess I'll wash her down tomorrow.

Jerry (hillbilly deluxe) lives close to my marina so he came by and had a beer while we unloaded gear and flushed the motor. The wind was cold standing on the pier. It was warmer on the boat We talked bay fishing and ocean fishing Jerry is selling his 27 Judge Chesapeake because he has been bitten by the offshore bug. We got an invite to go offshore with him later this year

So to summerize; water temperature was 42 degrees, bait looks to be in deeper water (65ft), no snot, no gannets diving (bait is 40 ft deep), and no rockfish in large numbers yet. We did see three other boats trolling (spoke to one) and they didn't do anything either.

I guess this is good news If the fish take longer to get here, they should hang around longer. I'll try again later and report.
5th (Marty)

[Chessie27]

Well at least you got out; I bet it was a little bumpy today. I thought I was 21 again last night and as a result spent half the day in bed today I did get all my rigs made up for the real season tonight though. We are gonna head out for a quick ride tomorrow afternoon just to make sure everything is working properly. Thanks for the report

[Rivercat09]

Marty,

Thanks for the post and intel. Hopefully, the snot will be minimal this year, but I've heard varying reports. I also hope that the rock stick around for a while, but I heard another speculation that we could get a sudden warm up at the beginning of May, and the rockfish will vanish.

Don

[mlag]

Thanks for the report there "ole retired one". Just finished insulating the fish box. What a pain in the neck, but turned out pretty nice. Cut 1.5 inch styrofoam insulation to size and then sealed with 4200. Then covered with plexiglass and resealed with 4200. Hope to fish by end of the week.
Mark