The record breaking warm temperatures gave me an unexpected day off - air conditioning piping I was insulating this week needed to be put on line. Managed to get everything ready and headed to Sandy Point about 11:00. It was really nice at the house hooking up trailer but I threw a heavy sweatshirt in the boat. As I crossed the Severn river with truck windows open - glad I did , temperature dropped about 20*.
Only three other trailers at Sandy Point - slight breeze stirring. Small craft was posted at 1:00 but mainly for gusts. Ran SE towards # 86 - good area to try this time of year. Run down was smooth at 29 knots. It was chilly on the water compared to land.
No other boats around - water temp. was 49*. Saw a lot of marks on meter - tried LTJ for about 30 minutes but no luck. Marks were confusing - nice arcs to them but far too thick to be big Rockfish. Gave up on that and decided to troll. This time of year I often don't get many fish but the ones I do catch are most times really big.
Set out port planer board - I can easily watch the lines from helm. Put 5 on the board - mix of colors and started at 110 ' back to 60 ' back. Ran one boat rod WWB at 250 ' with heavy tandem. Most marks were at least 20 feet deep.
This is what meter looked like most of day.
I tried using down and side scan. On these - the marks hardly showed. I've seen bait before on side scan - no idea what the marks were on regular fish finder.
Trolled east / west in gentle chop as outgoing current slowed. Checked the rods - all were clean . Worked as shallow as 35 feet but saw best marks in 50 or deeper. Although VHF reported small craft - it actually got calmer as incoming current started - going with the SE breeze.
Zig zagged and did some hard turns to drop lures deep but no luck. Saw one rubber band bounce funny - but lure did not look like a fish hit it. Trolled until almost 5:00 - then pulled lines and board and ran back to the ramp.
Only saw a few Sea Gulls - no Gannets around yet. I was hoping to get a record setting Rock on a record setting weather day but plan did not work. Still fun to run the boat and just be out fishing.