Monday, April 30, 2012

What a night

I arrived at Dabs house at 6:30 tonight. It was breezy, cold, and overcast, so I really did not know what to expect. He had called me earlier in the day to let me know that the fish had been going nuts the night before slamming silversides on top. The wind was blowing hard from the southwest against an outgoing tide. There were whitecaps everywhere, so we anchored up at the Hillsmere point out of the wind. There was nothing happening so after a half hour or so we decided to give "the spot" a go. The conditions slowly improved as the tide turned and the whitecaps were replaced by a nice rolling surf. Just as the boat began to swing around I picked up a smallish 16 on my new go to weapon "Papa Dogg". I picked up 3 more on quickly thereafter before Dabs switched over to a Stillwater Jr to join in on the fun. It was non stop action for the next hour and a half with nice fat low 20's fish. Tails were slapping everywhere. It was surreal. I finally picked up a real nice mid 20 female with a fat belly full of eggs. This was followed shortly thereafter by a real nice 26-27 class male. Papa Dogg was clearly attracting the bigger fish and the extra weight allowed for a much longer cast. My advantage soon ended though as a big mama broke my my 20 pound flurocarbon leader in half and swam of with Papa in tow. DANG...I loved that old man. We  left long after dark while the school continued its feeding frenzy, with a least 30 fish boated and many many more blowups that missed. I would say that the night was one of the top five of all time at "the spot".
Dabs 


Captain Carl in white shirt

The biggest of the night
Last week I had the pleasure of fishing with Captain Carl aboard the Miss Grace for a little trophy trolling. It was not exactly my cup of tea, but a lot a fun watching the pro's work a 26 rod spread as my buddies and I threw back a few cold ones. We limited out in less than 2 hours with fish between 35 and 37 inches.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Flats season on the South River

I finally found a card reader and was able to download all my pictures since my last post. It has been a very good "South River Flats Season". I did not get my boat in the water until April 15th, so all my fishing was from Dab's boat. The last week of March offered some incredibly nice evenings. I would make the 20 minute drive to his house at 6pm and we were anchored up at "the spot' by 6.30. The temps were in the low 80's and water was like a mirror. Although I personally landed only one 24, there were many spectacular blowups that missed. One night, my buddy James joined us and a massive cow slammed my plug within spitting distance from the boat. The 3 of us stood there amazed as this monster fish smacked the plug four more times without coming tight. That was a show I will never forget.

I did not have much time alone with my boat before the wind rolled in for over a week. Luckily things returned to perfect conditions just in time for a friend of mine from Boston drove down with his son Timmy for their first adventure on the Chesapeake. We hit the water around 1 and found perfect conditions on the bay. The temp was in the high 70's and water like glass. I knew we would have a tough time with topwater mid day, so I had planned a "roadtrip" to the bay bridge. The night before, I had read Shawn Kimbro's new book "Chesapeake Light Tackle" and hit Martys for the all the goodies..9 inch BKD's, 3/4 jig heads, and the secret weapon red garlic dye. As we set out for the bridge , I had high hopes for a great day. We hit nearly every piling on the eastern shore portion of bridge, but came up with one big skunk. It was a frustrating day, but the company, beer, and perfect weather outweighed the lack of fish. We ended the night plugging the shoal followed by a great crab dinner at Mikes.

Dabs boat

The Myerson Boys

Perfect end to a perfect day

Top fish of night
It has been rainy and windy for the past 4 days, so I was anxious to get out tonight. It was cold and windy, but I made a run for the shoal none the less. My first drift was right of the point and on the first cast I had a nice blowup that missed. It was too windy to anchor, so I made a number of long drifts. The action was steady and I ended the night with 4 blowups and 2 fish in the 22 inch range. Tough fishing, but well worth it.


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