Monday, July 31, 2017

Popa and Puppy Dog

My youngest daughter Gracie had been living with us since April. unfortunately with her work schedule, coupled with writing her thesis for grad school, there was really no time for her to do the Naptown "summer" thing. Its a shame because she is a true Baltimoron and loves to do it all. SUP, fishing, crabbing, O's games, lax, etc... she is Maryland. She moved to Baltimore a fews weeks ago, so tonight was an actual "visit" and after a little nap in the pool, she joined me early for a little Popa Doggin. I forgot that only one rod  was rigged and to my dismay the only Popa on board was the one on the end of the rod. Luckily I had a fresh, unopened, "Puppy Dog". Same red and white as Popa, just without the big mouth and spitting. Which is a lot like Grace and I. So fittingly, it was Puppy Dog Grace versus Papa Dog. For the first 10 minutes it was Popa all the way as I quickly boated 3 nice keepers and lost a nice 24 at the side of the boat. It was not long before Grace got into the action, From that point on, I would have to call it a draw. There were very few casts that were not met by multiple blowups. I have to give the night to Grace and particular the Puppy Dog who achieved a new feat about my boat. We netted a double of a 22 and a 20. I have had many doubles before but they were always dinks. We cut out of there around 7:30. Grace took a panorama pic on her camera and we counted 15 boats clustered around the spot. It was really cool to see everyone set up in an orderly fashion and immediately begin slaying them. It was a great to have my Puppy Dog home.








Tuesday, July 25, 2017

I ran into one of those life altering events that you get at 56...my ability to upload pictures to this blog. It started over 3 months ago. Since I have done things a certain way since March 2nd 2007, I am lost. Social media is not my thing. So I have not been posting much. It has actually been 10 years since I started this blog!!!. Its amazing to look back at the progression of my topwater fishing from the headwaters of the South River to present day Shoal fishing. When we first moved to Harbor Hills, which is West of the Riva Road bridge, I set out to fish the South River with topwater plugs like I used freshwater bass fishing most of my childhood. It took a while, but when I had my first topwater slam at the rock pile on the southwest end of the bridge, I was hooked. Stripers make freshwater bass look like lightweights. Soon after that I met James ,who had grown up in Harbor Hills, and was a light tackle junkie. The two of us literally had the entire river to ourselves. Even when we made the tedious ride out to the bay, we never saw people topwater fishing. I do remember Billie and my old find Dabs who lived on Thomas Point road, a stones throw from the shoal. Bille would show up in the fall, but rarely the rest of the year. Unfortunately, Jame moved to Cali, and I was left to my own devises. We had learned the shoal very well after 8 years or so and had many an epic night at the rock pile well after dark. So when my wife and I "downsized" my main criteria was to be a close boat ride to the shoal. When we found the beach cottage on Ferry Point point road I knew I had found my final resting place.want. My practice run was on a choppy day and I still made it in less than 10 minutes, That was a commute I could deal with. Unfortunately, the plan was to rebuild, which would take at least a year. No way I was giving up fishing. Luckily a house came up for lease next to Billie and 8 docks from Dabs. Now I could literally see "the spot" from my porch and be there before the engine was warm. Most nights it was two or three boats and we all knew each other. Over the past fews years I have met quite a few others either through this blog or from guys that would simply anchor up because they saw three boats. Most were not patient enough to learn how to fish in 3 to 4 feet of water with a rocky bottom. I ended up living on Thomas Point road for 3 summers due to a few hiccups building the house. I really learned the shoal those summers and met quite a few others of my ilk. However, even last year, it was rare to encounter more than 5 boats in a night. Which brings me to last night. There must have been 15 boats out there during my hour of fishing and quite a few were clearly tossing red and while Popa's...Nice. Which brings me to my point. I am going to post pics to Instagram using #popadogg. It would be great if those readers who fish the point post their pics and identify the make of your boat. Hopefully my social media guru, Grace, can figure out the pic problem.

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