Ok; now that Alan (justchillin) has wet your appitite; here's the real story. Left Ches. Beach on a low tide around 7:30 this morning. We were worried about the posibility of fog; but none to be found. The plan for today was to run south to red 80 and drop lines. Ziz zag south to 78A, 78, and wind up by the CP buoy. We kept a sharp lookout for birds in the air or bait on the finder. Just south of 78A we found lots of bait (but deep). We were in 80 ft of water and bait was thick from 60 to 80 ft. Although we couldn't reach it, we decided to make a couple passes over it and hoped it would eventually rise. We picked up one nice fish (38) and were convinced to stay with it. A couple passes later we saw a few birds working on the eastern side of the channel, made pass over that spot and picked up two nice ones (38,39). Somewhere along the line we also picked up a spunky 22 inch fish on a 9 in shad
. We usually don't keep many fish, but Alan's friend hadn't been out since the spring season, so he wanted fish for the winter. We only had room for one more over and as we were bringing in lines; the farthest to the board popped. Line was out 150 ft and down the board 140 ft.
. I handed the rod down to Alan's buddy
; and he proceded to reel in another nice fish. With three overs and one under in the box, I asked if he wanted to keep this one or toss it back. He wanted it so I carried it forward to the cooler; opened the top; placed it on top of the others; and before I could close the lid; it flipped it's tail, jumped out of the box, and slid over the side of the boat.
I look at it as poetic justice that the last fish of the season looked at a cooler full of fish and said FU and jumped back into the water to live and spawn next spring. Herman didn't see it that way
, but we were 9 miles south of Ches. Beach and he couldn't swim that far, even with the wind and tide in his favor.
Got back to the ramp, cleaned the four fish in the box, and headed home. We now have two stories to last all winter. Me trying to net a fish off Mark's (baldzilla) boat and having his 50# braid break; and now, having our last fish give us a sly wink as he flipped over the side and splashed into the cold waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
To anyone headed out tomorrow; best of luck. I think Alan may buy me a fish "billy club" for Christmas. 5th (Marty)