Spring Rockfishing

[garlien]

Marty,

Thanks for the information...

Glad you are able to get out all the time...Great way to spend retirement !



Mike

[Rivercat09]

Originally Posted by Skip

FWIW: Solomons guys are catching and roughly 1/2 have not spawned yet.

Better so far then 2010 but no where near 2002 to 2009.

I opened one of my first ones, and she had eggs. I was afraid to open up any of the others; I was afraid of what I may have seen.

[Rivercat09]

BTW. Marty, thanks for the detailed post. I am going to have to be more proactive in goosing the spread throughout the day andshorten some of my lengths.

Don

[5th Tuition]

First day of the MSSA Tournament. We were worried that the large numbers of boats would ruin our streak. Not to worry.
We left the pier at 6 am. Radar showed lots of boats off CB. We found some bait and dropped our lures short of the fleet.
Water was pretty calm, so I put out the spread and included two of my "dipsey divers". I love these and run them whenever I can. They act as a poor mans downrigger. In choppy waters, they keep popping and won't hold properly, but today was a classic diver day.
I estimate the lure was down 25 ft and it got HAMMERED. The first guy up on the charter grabbed the rod and drag was being taken. He said "What do I do?" I said hold on and don't drop that rod tip. After a short run, we started to gain ground and netted a 42" spawned out female for our first fish of the day.
We continued south on the troll and a second fish hit a mid depth umbrella. Good two in the box before the low tide at 8:30.
We hit a dry spell and I told the customers I didn't expect much action until about 9:30. When 9:45 came around, all he11 broke lose. I couldn't keep up with putting rods back in the spread. I even had to cut a few lures off the leader and place the fish with lure intact in the box in order to get the next fish to the boat. With the tide now moving and the sun shinning, the single chutes out 4 bars were smoking.
We quickly filled the box with our six fish, and I slowly began bringing in the spread. One of the customers said, "You want us to help you bring the rods in?", and I told him "The slower I bring them in, the more chance you have to catch another fish".
Bang, a roof rod goes off and our first C/R fish gets kissed and sent back to the deep. Thump, another roof rod bends with authority. Second C/R fish swims away. I was wrapping the rods after they got hit, but the customers were loving it. Whack; another rod pops a clip and after the third C/R fish is released, the captain said "Get the rest of those rods in and lets get out of here". It was 10:30 am
Back at the pier, pictures were taken and everyone was talking about another trip (like I could reproduce this one). I got a larger than normal tip from the group (I think they really liked the C/R part of the trip and the fast action at the end).
I know several of our friends were out today and had success as well. I hope they post.
Most of our fish are falling in the 36-38 inch range, nice fish, but not what the tournament guys are looking for.
5th (Marty)

[crabby and son]

Make sure you have a Bayer aspirin on you Marty. I'm gonna start callin' you Little Charlie Hope all your days are like this one..............Gary

[Breakaway]

Yeah today was pretty amazing. By far the most incredible day I've ever had trolling!

[5th Tuition]

Chew, chew (cough) (cough), chew, chew, (cough)

Boy crow is hard to swallow. What a terrible day. Sat. morning started with a stronger than predicted wind, but not a big challenge for a 46 ft Markley. However, the scotty clips decided it was just a bit too strong and began poping on their own.
Now I have the option of rubberbands, but I figured if I just sink them a little deeper, the problem will be fixed. Good, now the clips are holding tight. Set both sides of the boat and begin to sit back and enjoy the sun in my face. We should have a fish on soon.
I hear a loud pop and think we have the "bubba" that all the MSSA guys are looking for. What the f^&*; the planer board line has snapped and all the rods on the starboard side are laying limp in the water and the planer board is floating away from the boat a steady clip.
Lucky for us this happened when their was no tournament going on and seven hundred boats were not on the bay. Oh; yes there was. I start realing in lines like crazy while the captain tries to get back to the floating board that is getting smaller and smaller.
We eventually get the board back and I feel sorry for the "mate" because he has a mess to deal with. Oh wait, that's me.
The crimp at the board must have weakened the line, because the snap was still attached (along with a slight pigtail of planer line).
I get that side back out and figure the other side was dropped down in the mud, so I reset the port side as well. We have pretty much lost the morning because we had a low tide at 9:30 am.
No sweat, after the tide change we will smoke them. Well we saw great marks and no hookups. Threw everything and anything at them, Raised the lures and dropped the lures. Added weight and took off weight. Nothing would entice them to bite.
Finally picked up a 38 inch fish for a 15 yo kid we had on the charter. But, it was the only one of the day.
We went from limiting out (even on two charter days), to lucky to get one today. Maybe the coldfront, maybe the boat traffic, maybe we missed the morning bite, but we sucked today.
Back at it tomorrow, hopefully with better luck.
5th (Marty)

[5th Tuition]

At one time, I used to coach lacrosse and I had a habit of always wearing something yellow (It's my favorite color, and brings me good luck).
When the alarm went off this morning, I saw that my lovely wife had replaced my original shirt with a yellow one. She had heard all about the miserable day we had on Sat. and this was her way of telling me today would be better.
Left the pier at 6am and headed to a different location (somewhere less crowded). Dropped the lines and had a deep umbrella rip a few feet of drag off a reel. I yelled "fish on" and everyone stood around like you get it, no, you get it. The fish got off. Then a green planer line poped and I handed down the rod to the closest customer. The skunk was off the boat.

The day was not fast and furious, but a steady bite allowed me to stay in contact with another CBAngler who was working the same general area. We were both producing fish, so no need to run to each other, but good to know we had a friend out there who I consider one of the best fishermen on the board. If we got into trouble and needed one more to fill our limit, I knew he would have some good information to pass along.

Lucky, we didn't need him. We had a few more pull downs with out hooking up, but we eventually caught our limit before the tide slacked and headed in.

One cool thing was we had our photo taken today by the helicopter. Our group said "Is that a helicopter so close to the water?". And I told them they could have their photo taken and they could buy it off the internet. "Hell yeah" they said. We only had two in the box at that point, so they picked up the fish and posed for the camera. I'm interested to see how it turned out as well.

It sounded like today was definately easier than yesterday for most anglers. I don't know what will win the tournament, but most of our fish remain in the 36-38 inch range.

I have Monday off, I'm sleeping in.
5th (Marty)

[mlag]

Saturday was surely a tough day. I am feeling much better about my 2 fish outing after hearing about your crews one fish day and Charlie S taking a skunk. Worked for them 2 fish I tell ya. Phil and I kept joking that if we kept working south with that dang wind much longer that we were going to end up at the cbbt. Today was definately much easier and much much more enjoyable. Thanks for the continuing report..................Mark

[Hockleyneck]

That sure was thoughful of your wife, glad you guys found some fish. A few days of getting up at 4:00Am and standing on a rocking boat will wear you down.