PLO 12/6/15 with photo's
 

Well; great day in Southern Maryland. Mako Mike and I towed our boats south this morning. I led the way because Mike had never fished the PLO area. We had our fingers crossed that the light winds would not mean heavy fog:eek: As I traveled down 97, I could see a haze around the street lights. We crossed the South River bridge and visibility was pretty good:) We had hope.
Our plan was to arrive at PLO around 7:30 am. I figured all the locals would be hitting the ramps at first light and this would give us more access to the ramps. As we got closer to Solomon's, the haze got thicker. When we reached the Solomon's bridge, the fog was thick:mad: Even on top of the bridge, it was thick. Well, no sense in hurrying the rest of the way. We stopped at WaWa for fuel, food, and drink. The sun came up over the horizon and I hoped the fog would burn off quickly.
We turned into the park and saw that the water was flat and visibility was good (not perfect, but good). We splashed the boats and Mike let me lead the way out toward red 66. On the way out, we saw lots of small birds working. We stopped and jigged small (shorts) rock for a few minutes. Mike and I stayed in radio contact, so I said we needed to scoot to deeper water and we were headed to the channel (thanks Greg for the info from Friday).
I got close to 66 and saw several boats trolling. We put out an 8 rod boat spread and picked up a few small legal unders. We set a self imposed limit of nothing under 25 inches. All the small unders went back.
I phoned Breakaway (Jeff Banks) and asked if he was out. He reported that he had quality fish (up to 30 inches) further north. We racked the rods and sprinted to red 70!! I dropped lines again and we were hooked up in less than 5 minutes:D
Alan's son was with us and he was pretty much a rookie. This was a nich fish and it kicked his butt (it was out 18 bars:eek:) The 30 incher was netted and boxed after a quick photo (see below). I got the BELT out for Steven and we all kidded him about a young guy needing a fighting belt;)
The traffic was fairly heavy in this area and as I dodged and weaved boats, I came across a nice school of fish. One,two, three, four, five rods go down. Several of the umbrella's had two fish on!! No time to net fish under 28 inches:eek::eek: Grab the weight just ahead of the umbrella and swing the fish onto the deck. Get them unhooked and if bigger than 25, toss in box. One pass found us with 4 fish in the box (2 overs, two unders).
I had the spot located on the GPS, but it was difficult to get back to the spot with the boat traffic. As I approached, I alerted the crew I was marking fish again. The short deep rods bent, then the mid length 12 and 16 oz rods bent, finally the shallow 10 and 12 oz rods tugged against the power of stripers.
We had rods, umbrella's, net, and fish strewn across the deck. Pick out the best fish and get everything else back over. It was too early to fill our limit, so I could hear the crew (mostly Lou) questioning Alan's decision to toss back 25 and 26 inch fish:eek:
I called Mike over to our "hotspot" and tried to "share the wealth". This school was Quality with a capital Q. We swung back around and loaded up again. This time, we had not only doubles on the umbrella's, but some were 30 inches.
I watched Steven and I could tell he wasn't gaining any ground on his fish. I slipped back and tightened his drag:) One went 31 and the other was about 27:eek:
We filled our limit on that last pass, and decided to rack rods and go look for birds and breaking fish. It was time to jig:D
This was the slowest part of the day:mad: We found lots of birds and bait flipping on the surface, but not quality under them. There were enough small (shorts), but not the 26 inch fish were were looking for. Alan did pick up a couple nice fish on a 10 inch BKD, but for the most part, these fish were shorts or just legal fish.
We at lunch, waited for the current to turn, and went back to chasing birds until 2:30 pm. We ran for the barn, loaded the boats, and headed back up the road.
I pulled into the driveway (backed into my wife's favorite tree:eek: and split the small tree into two:mad:) in the dark(6:20pm).
I've got the boat parked in front of the house (not in driveway) because it was too dark to see. Looks like I need to wash the boat, fix tackle, and pull out a broken tree (small, no damage to boat) tomorrow.
If you have the opportunity to get down to PLO with your boat (or charter Greg) do it. The fishing can't be better. It's just a shame we have to go so far to get in quality resident fish (we did have some sea lice, not a lot).
Best of luck,
5th

Here is an example of what the deck looked like on multiple occasions. These are small fish that were in the process of being tossed back overboard:D

We really didn't have time to take photo's.
5th

Looks like everyone had fun. Nice job. Did Mike get his fish?

I believe he did:D But Mike's day started off with a "bang" not three miles from picking up the boat at 4:30 am:eek:
5th

As always. Nice job Marty.

Glad you got to get down there and have a great day !

Light winds, no fog, and lots of fish... you know how to pick your days! Sounds like a great trip... And a good decision to go with only boat rods so you could pick up and run to the bigger fish!

Yes we did indeed get our fish! However ........... My day was not as pleasant as Marty's! Like he said my day did start with a "bang"! Not far from hook ink boat up I crossed paths with the most stupid buck in Anne Arundel county. The dump ass crossed the road in front of me( plenty of room) well when the dumb ass cleared the roadway and on edge of woods he turns and charges the truck. Bam! Right into the side of the truck bed in front of rear tire. Amazingly only two small dents that probably can be pulled with a suction cup. Fog at patuxant river was reidiculous. Launch boat and headed out to flat calm seas. Fishing was slow at first but after Greg told us where they were it was game on with multiple hook ups until current slacked. Really enjoyed ourselves and could not believe how clear water was. Only other mishap was at the ramp when I went to hook winch cable to bow hook I noticed it was broken right where it enters the hull. Thank god I have a drive on trailer. Normally don't trailer that often and looking at the amount of corrosion on stainless steel hook it had been cracked for some time. I would like to thank Marty for leading the way and Greg for putting us on them. We were a little more greedy and didn't keep anything under 23". Plan on another voyage Friday down there if anyone is interested. Trying to talk Marty into taking his as well

A shot of the "great one" Marty scooting across calm seas! Sorry I was close to him when I grabbed camera but the he saw birds and turned to starboard.

One big difference from your reports and our experience on Friday is that birds started going nuts just before slack and it was non-stop action right through slack for about 3 hours until we had to leave them biting. Did you guys have lots of birds showing you the way while the bite was on? How bad was the boat traffic? On Friday we probably only had about 10-15 boats to contend with at the peak. Can't imagine what it must have been like on a weekend.

There were birds working here and there while on the troll and later in the afternoon as tide started to turn they started going nuts but could only manage smaller fish. Marty said they got one 27 in the afternoon jig on birds and best we could manage was about 23"-24" fish while jigging, granted not bad fish but was looking for something of larger quality. Didn't much mater since we both had our over/under limits already it was just a stop on way back in before heading home. As for boat traffic there were a lot of boats but everyone behaved and it wasn't bad, except one guy in a Judge that came so close one time trying to keep me off of "his fish" I could see the color of his eyes! I won't mention any names! Marty and I managed to protect our little piece of real estate rather nicely. All in all it was a great day.and thanks again Jason for the Intel you provided Friday evening, it was put to good use.