Better than expected. Sunday evening started with phone calls to Captain Charlie Schneider and Captain Tawn Tipsword
. I had my buddy from Hancock going out with me and I wanted to catch him some fish
The third angler was Mr Sunshine (Lou)
Both Captains had the same bad news, big fish were quickly disappearing, downsize your baits. My plan was to run south as far as possible to try to catch up with a couple trophies. We left CB at 6am and ran all the way down to the Gas Docks before dropping lines. I put out the full spread with only a few remaining 9 inch shads. Wind and tide were against each other and made for a sloppy morning. Water quality was very good down that far
. We tried 45-75 ft looking for a straggler trophy. The small umbrella back 200 with no weight sang. My friend picked up the rod and EVENTUALLY brought a nice 36 to the boat. While he was fighting the fish, he asked if I had a belt onboard. I told him sure, I always had one ready for the ladies
The fish liked taking drag and my buddy would gain 20 ft and lose 10
I told him to get the fish in before the hook rusted!! When we dipped the fish, he flopped back into a deck chair (no not the fish).
The 10/10 umbrella (lg umbrella 10 ounces back 10 bars) bounced and continued to thump, thump, thump. A 23 in. under went in the box.
Then a long dry spell (2 hours). I had been working my way north and kept seeing three charters working shallow water off Flag Harbor. With nothing working on my plan A, it was time for plan B.
We worked our way into 35-37 ft. The finder lit up and two rods went down. A 25 came onboard, the 19 went back over
. Swung around and went back through and another keeper came over the gunnels.
Not the trophies we were looking for, but good eating fish. Wait, what was that splashing, could it be, yes it was, breaking fish
this is the earliest I remember seeing breaking fish. They were small, but keepers mixed in. We had one trophy and four nice mid twenty fish, when a deep umbrella 20 ounces back 50 ft started taking drag
. Both my buddies looked toward me, and I brought in the final 32 inch fat rockfish.
We brought 10 fish to the boat and kept the best 6 for a fish fry in Hancock
The ride back to CB showed breaking fish in 37 ft all the way from Flag Harbor to Parker's Creek!! We also had to dodge lumber from an outgoing tide
I was not always successful, but slowed enough to avoid damage.
I'm soon off to bed, fish were left biting. Back at it tomorrow, any guesses where we are headed?
5th
P.S. no fish caught off board lines. All caught off boat rods with the 10/10 rod being the hottest. Storm Shads or Captain John's Spoons would have been the lures of choice, but I didn't have any rigged and ready this early in the season
But tomorrow........
Monday 5/19
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