8/26 Thursday
A friend of mine owns a glacier bay crusing style boat (only four rod holders) and had wanted me to get him out on some fish. Great, four rods is all we need with these planers. I call him and tell him we (Lou and I) will bring all the rods and tackle necessary for blues and spanish.
We met at his boat on the South River at 6 am and headed directly to Bloody Point. Half way across the mouth of Eastern Bay, we drop lines and quickly pick up a very nice bluefish. Shortly thereafter, another rod gets hit. My friend (another inexperienced angler) grabs the rod and proceeds to reel in the fish. His last experience with us was fall fishing on some nice size stripers. Using his fall striper technique, he pumps the rod back and trys to wind on the downfall. He found out that just giving the rod a little bit of slack will reset the planer
. The fish gets off while he tries to bring in a "set" number two planer
.
We hook up several more nice blues and a decent (23 in) rock on one of our turns. Saw three pods of breaking fish today (five yesterday) and had a good day on the bay. Alas, no spanish today; but for a inexperienced crew (three times for me, two for Lou and one for Bob) we are getting the hang of this mackeral thing. I'm learning more each time out.
When we get back to my friends marina, he asks us how to filet the catch. Lou takes my friends NEW (never been used) filet knife and shows him how to filet rock and blues; and his FINGER. Nothing a few cuss words and a bandaid wouldn't fix
.
Today, I had a #1 planer that just would not stay "set". I could set it and it would pop every 15-20 seconds. I eventually got frustrated and ran only #2 planers (everything deep) which may have cost us some opportunities for spanish.
Because, we were so close to Marty's Bait and Tackle, I ran over to see Jim about what I was doing wrong with the #1 planer. Jim took a look at it and pointed out that it was a little off center, and that was probably the cause. He said "give it to me and I'll replace it"
.
I told him I would straighten it out and try it again, but he insisted it was no problem to replace it with a new one
. Now don't go taking all your old beatup planers over to Jim; I had just purchased this planer two days before, and it was the first time I had it in the water
. Jim says occasionally someone will step on a planer on the deck and throw it out of whack. I know we didn't step on it, but I figure I probably did something to misalign the planer. So for you other "newbies", check to see that your planers are "straight".
So I got one replaced, and I bought another one.
For any other "newbies" out there (to spanish trolling); see Jim and support his store. Jim consistantly goes the extra mile for his customers (freshest bait, staying open past closing time if you call and say you're on your way, carrying the best selection of usable lures for bay fishing, and now replacing my planer that was probably just fine when new and out of the package.
Jim also has a diagram of his spread that he gives to us novice spanish trollers.
A big thanks to Jim for all the help;
5th (Marty)
Chasing Spanish Mackeral 8/25;8/26
. He says he left all his "new spanish" tackle in the truck
.
). Off to the mouth of Eastern Bay. Because our guest (Michelle) was new to fishing, we encouraged her to bring in as many fish as possible.
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