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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