Well, I was waiting for Don to post, but it looks like he's busy (probably washing boat
) so I'll post about our trip yesterday (12/28) out of Point Lookout.
This might be our last trip of 2012 so I'll write one of my longer reports to help get us through the winter
.
Don (Hunter) and Dan (1morecast) met Mike (Garlien) and me at the WAWA in Edgewater. Not only do we pick up breakfast and lunch there, but we get our "secret" weapon for catching fish; Strawberry Twizzlers
. Now you might laugh, but they have saved me from skunks on more than one occassion.
Don had his boat all prepped, and we were off for Point Lookout in a jiffy. We took the long run down Rt 2 and over the Solomons bridge into St Mary's County. As we hit Rt 235 (three notch road), there is another WAWA that we all hit to relieve ourselves and again pick up some last minute coffee. As our crew gets older, we are making more stops than when we were younger
.
We arrived at Point Lookout State Park and the parking lot was empty!!! We launched the boat and quickly dove into our ski bibs, coveralls, boots, hats, and gloves. Next time I am going to keep my extra clothes in the warm truck instead of in the cold boat. We headed out of Cornfield Harbor in the dark and the slight wind had a small chop on the Potomac River. Don had the radar up and running, so we ran out toward the bay at a good clip.
Once we hit the bay, the winds affect on the water was much more evident. Luckily, we had the wind at our stern and we progressed toward Smith Point Virginia. The steady three footers tried to play havoc with our search for bait, but Don's 25 Maycraft was up to the challenge. We knew the weather reports were calling for the wind to fall out later in the day, so we took the rocking and rolling with a grain of salt in the morning. It was a minor inconvenience, but we put the spread out in choppy seas. Dang, my fingers were cold
. With Mike at the helm, Don, Dan, and I got the spread out quickly. This is the first time I've seen Don's new downriggers in action; what a sweet way to get some lines deep in the Cheaspeake.
With the spread deployed, we ran back into the comfort of the pilothouse. If you want to know the speed at which we trolled, it was 1.5mph up the wave, and 3.8mph down the wave
. Our first hit came off the umbrella 200ft back. Dan grabbed the rod and the big fish put a woopin on poor old Dan. Don lipped the beast and into the box she went.
It wasn't too much longer, when a planner rod popped and Mike brought in another "Over" to keep the first fish company
.
The tide slowed and the bite slowed. As expected, we started telling stories, jokes, and sombody had to be a smartass and say "smell my fingers". Mike is quite impressed with Kate Upton. We all said "Who"? Well I guess we all showed our age when Mike had to explain who she was and why she was so popular. If you don't know who she is, check out her photo's and video's on the internet. I have to say, Mike's smartphone had us all huddled around it watching Kate "dance". I was very impressed
.
We stuck Mike out back in the wind and cold to "watch" the rods, and he said to me, "this one looks kind of heavy". I picked up the planer board rod and felt "something" on the line. Could it be a fish, plastic bag, or other debris? I told Don I was going to pop the rubberband to check it out. The damn rubberband must have been infused with titanium. It wouldn't break no how much I pulled. We reeled in the closest board line so I could reach out to "snap" the band on the second line with the heavy rod. As I reeled, I could feel a headshake and then a "bucketmouth" appeared on top of the water. We all cheered that it was a fish, and a 38 went in the box
.
About 40 minutes went by, and the twizzlers came out. We needed on more fish for our "over" limit and everyone grabbed a few except Mike. He said all licorice makes him puke. I had to think for a moment as to whether this was worth seeing, but eventually decided against it. Mike and I hit the "bar"; his cooler is always filled with a variety of adult beverages.
Greg (B-faithful) called Don on the phone to compare notes (Greg was fishing the same general area as us yesterday); and as often happens, while Don was on the phone, his fish hit a deep umbrella out 75ft. The fish are always "green" when caught on these short lines, so care was taken to get this fish in the boat. Our last "over" went in the box.
We still had plenty of fishing time left in the day, but we all agreed it was a long ride back to home, so we racked rods and ran back to PLO on much calmer seas. Back at the ramp, we found the water turned on for the fish cleaning station (a pleasant surprise). Dan and I cleaned fish as Don and Mike loaded the boat.
I took a few photo's at PLO; but couldn't get anyone to hold both their fish and mine at the same time. These big fish are "heavy". The photo's are at the end. First is Don's boat, Second is the crew with fish, last is Mike with his fish.
I have to thank Don for the invitation. Every time I'm on his boat, I come back with something else to do to mine to make it more "fishable". I even noticed a few things on his boat that he took from being on mine. Pool noodles on the bottoms of his planer boards to keep from scratching the deck, and a foot cushion under the helm to soften the shock of the waves and keep the feet warm from the cold fiberglass deck were just two ideas he got from my rig.
Other than the dry spell we had around Thanksgiving (when the big fish were not here in any appreciable numbers), it has been decent year. No question we had to work harder and longer to get results, but we always had fun on the water.
Have a great New Year; I'm glad the Myan's were wrong.
5th (Marty)