Mid Bay Trolling Skunk April 23rd 2013
Summary
This does not happen to me very often, but we did not get a single knockdown the entire day and were at a loss for words.
We marked a lot of bait, and what appeared to be a fair amount of fish in the form of individual arches. Most of the marks were on the western side.
With me today were Norm, Scott, and Dave, and we were setting lines east of the #1 green marker at the Rhode/West by 8:30 am. At about 9 am, we snagged a 9-inch menhaden on a board line, and that’s all the action that we got the entire day. We worked the line between Thomas Point and Bloody point for about 4 hours in the morning, took a lunch break at Mike’s Crab House on the South River, and then worked the same area for another 3 hours in the evening during the outgoing tide.
There were about 30 or 40 boats in our general area spread out and in small groups, and we saw a total of one fish boated by anyone the entire day. The company was good, the wind and waves eventually died down, and the food at Mike’s was excellent. We had a relaxing and fun day on the bay despite not catching a thing.
Conditions
Water temperature was 55°, and morning air temperatures were in the mid to high 50’s under overcast skies and climbed to the mid 60’s with mostly sunny skies by the afternoon. The wind started out in the morning out of the northeast at a steady15 knots with gusts to 18 to 20, but subsided to 5 to 7 knots by the afternoon. We were greeted in the main stem of the bay by a 1˝ -foot chop under 2 foot rollers, but by day’s end, the waves had subsided to a gentle 1-foot chop. Low tide at Thomas Point was at 10 am, high tide was at 3:37 pm, and the moon was 88% visible and waxing. The salinity at Annapolis was about 7.5 PSU, down from about 12 PSU over the last two weeks.
Trolling Spread
Board #1
100’, 2/4 oz white tandem Alien chutes
80’, 2/4 oz chartreuse tandem Alien chutes
60’, 6 oz all-white Alien with silver tinsel with a 9” see-through green glitter shad in tandem with a 2 oz Alien with a purple head and chartreuse hairs with a 9” pearl shad
40’, 6/9 oz chartreuse tandem Alien chutes
Board #2
100’, single 2 oz chartreuse Alien chute
80’, single 4 oz white Alien chute
60’, single 6 oz chartreuse Alien chute
40’, 12 oz Chesapeake Bay Lures paddle tail with a 4-arm white mini umbrella
Boat rod #1, 40-50’, port, 24 oz Chesapeake Bay Lures paddle tail in chartreuse with a 6-arm chartreuse umbrella on a BPS offshore rod fitted with Pop’s old Penn reel from the 1970’s
Boat rod #2, 50-60’, starboard, 20 oz torpedo chute with a 6-arm white umbrella
WWB, tandem 11/0 silver crippled alewife on a 30-foot leader with extra Sampos, and a white 3 oz chute on a 9 foot leader way, way back at about 325’.
Mid Bay Trolling Skunk 4/23/13
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