Paul Buckmaster, 45, live in Ellicott City with my wife of 15 yrs and our three sons. My twins are 11 and the little man is 6. Working on getting them into salt water fishing but for now the pond across the street from our home has their interest. We fish the pond for "Big Mitch". Mitch is the boys name for the Largemouth Bass that patrol the water. The boys liveline sunnies while I work on using the baitcaster and topwater plugs. My wife is our most revered angler. Couple of years ago her and some friends from the beach went out 73 miles to win the "Poor Girls Open", a C/R marlin tournament held the week after the White Marlin Open. She brought home a nice check and never lets me forget about it
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I'm co founder of Main Street Realty in EC. We are a full service brokerage offering 1.5% listings and a 20% buyer rebate. Business is a lot slower now and it gives me more time to fish. Gotta take the good with the bad
. If you ever have questions about real estate I'd be happy to lend an ear. I'm most happy being self employed as it gives the flexibility that I crave. I used to own a Crown gasoline franchise.
I started fishing on the Bay when I was 7-8 yrs old with my father and grandfather. My father was a school teacher at Mervo in Balt City and had the summers off. My fishing addiction was inherited from both of them. They had it bad too! My grandfather owned a Winnebago and we'd spend just about every summer weekend driving from the Bodkin to Ches Beach in search of big rockfish. My mother and grandmother would load up a cooler full of Jack's Corn Beef sandwiches, a Lexington Market landmark, and drinks for the weekend. We'd mainly troll and drift soft crabs for our fish. I don't remember what the limits were but like most others we helped over fish the bay. We never wasted our fish, but looking back, we definitely took too many. I also fished with my dad in OC a lot. We'd rent a room in the Oceanic Motel overlooking the jetty. The conditions were poor but access to the fish overcame all obstacles. I was fishing for sea trout on the concrete sea wall with my dad when Elvis Presley died.
Way back then, catching fish in the upper bay was no problem. By the time I was in my early teens we had to move south to find them
. We'd plug the Winnebago in at Buckmaster's Crab House (no affiliation) which was located in the Chesapeake Beach Rod and Reel Club parking lot. We would get on the water before sunrise and fish all day. We had a very good relationship with the charter captains. We would hang out with them on the back of their boats in the evenings comparing notes. They would eagerly share info on where, when and how to catch fish. I have a lot of respect for charter capt's. Most are humble guys with no political ties.
Maryland and Delaware instituted a moratorium on all striped bass fishing in 1985, following the collapse of the fishery during the early 1980s. We stopped fishing during the moratorium. Then in 1988 my dad suddenly passed away and I all but forgot about fishing the bay. It was easily 10 years before I decided to buy a boat and get on with life. Now I fish as often as I can on my 20' Sea Hunt CC or joining guys I've met on TF or old friends. I also prefer cold weather fishing for BUBBA and do not care much for summer fishing. I"m kind of quiet on the water and I"m not a big HO guy as it makes me nervous to fish with some internet stranger( I don't consider regular posters strangers ).
Nice post Mark and its helpful to get some background on all you fishing crazies. See you on the water.