Yep, that's right, 5th Tuition, not Patent Pending.
With the calm winds predicted for today, I just had to get my boat out and try my hand at those fish off CB. I saw the weather report and knew they were calling for extra high tides today. I checked the tide chart and found high tide at CB at 6 am
. Well, if I can't get under the bridge with my hardtop and anchor light (it doesn't swivel down); we can go to Breezy.
So my first stop was CB ramps. Water was into the parking lot
. So off to Breezy we go. Now I realize it's going to be flooded too, but at least I don't have a bridge to contend with. As we approached the bottom of the hill, water was all over the road and the entrance was flooded
. Water as far as you could see. So I turned around, and the guys with me said, "I guess that was plan B, do you have a plan C?" Well as a matter of fact, I did.
I didn't want to get too far away from CB and the fish, so off to TriState in Deale to use their ramp. My 22 ft walkaround was fine, but I wouldn't want to go much bigger
. Their ramp is pretty steep, but with the high tide, I knew I didn't have to back the trailer down very far to float the boat. However, the piers were under water about 3 inches (not bad at all).
The truck tires didn't even get wet
and we finally launched and ran toward CB. We marked some bait in 35 ft and I put out a 7 rod spread of 5 spreader bars and two small umbrellas.
It wasn't long before the first fish hit a deep rod (20 oz back 7 bars) and the skunk was off the boat. We circled back around and within 200 ft of my waypoint, a rod with 10 oz and 10 bars back went off.
We lost our bait and I tried a little deeper toward the channel. Another rod gets hit. Three in the box and only on the water for a few minutes. I called Capt. John and he had a late start today (7:30 am) and I told him where I was (not that it was a secrete, there must have been 5 other charters in there with me. My bite slowed, and John tried further east of us. The radio crackeled, and John invited us out for a nice bite in deeper water. We picked up our last three fish in quick order (thanks Capt).
We also had three hard knockdowns. Two were enough to pull drag
. I checked the rigs and all looked fine. We reset our 7 rods and BAM, I fish hit so hard, that the portable rod holder was jerked down. Almost as fast as it hit, it was off. Now this rod was a roof rod with less weight and I know it wasn't bottom or a crab trap. When I pulled in the rig (small umbrella) one off the teasers was missing. Not only was the teaser missing, but so was the snap swivel you attach it too
.
We did see some rays (didn't hook any
) But with a full cooler and plenty of time left for the tide, we ran off to try some jigging. I swear, when you don't know what you are doing, that is some tough fishing. With only one jigger onboard, Lou and I decided to call it a day early and go to Lou's house, clean fish, and drink beer
. Nice way to end the day.
5th (Marty)