Well I was afraid it might be foggy this morning; but it was just as clear and bright as could be, NOT
.
On the was down to Ches. Beach, we kept running into patches of fog. Some not so bad, others dense. When we arrived at the ramp, it was pretty clear. We launched and headed out the inlet to FOG. We could see a couple hundred yards, and I figured it was worth a try
.
My original plans were to run to Breezy, drop lines and troll south to Power Plant. That changed. I was only comfortable at trolling speed, so we dropped lines somewhere off CB in 40 ft of water. I headed toward the channel and we put over just the six umbrellas and two wayback lines. If we had to move quick, we could.
A large white umbrella with 20 oz weight back 75 feet went down hard. Lou grabbed the rod and the line quickly went limp
. Lou reeled in the umb minus one white teaser
. I replaced the teaser and lou said "how far back for this one?". It is a 113H without line counter or "bars". I said it's marked at 75ft, let it out to the knot. I turned around to keep a sharp eye on my foggy course and soon heard Lou say "where the hell is the knot?" I look back and the umbrella looks like it's half way back to CB!!! We all gave Lou Hell and he had to reel in a heavy umb that was WAY back. We got the muddy mess in and reset it properly.
The fog lifted a bit and we finally made it to red 80. In 50ft the same umb sang. We put a nice 41 incher in the box. I circled and again, the same umb went down. Mark was gaining ground, then losing ground to the strong fighter. I slowed the boat and Mark was winning the battle, when suddenly the line went limp
. We checked the umb and all looked ok, just no fish.
There were a bunch of charters south. We made it to 82 and caught a small 24 inch fish with a green tag!!! In the box it went. I text messaged Don (Hunter) to check it out on the computer. He texted back, "I think it is a Va. tag, I have received two hats from them". I passed the info along to Lou (the angler); and we kept fishing. As I rounded 82, the same umb went down and drag was screaming. Our third keeper (a fat 39) went on ice.
We pulled lines and ran back to CB. While I loaded the boat, Lou started cleaning the fish. I received another text from Don that in part said, "there is a reward, but they need the whole fish". I look over and see Lou bagging the filets
.
We showed Lou the text and told him they probably pay $500 for the fish
. He's pissed and dejected. The rest of us thought it was funny
.
All our hits came off the same umbrella; go figure.
Here's a couple pic's from today.