The really long way around...

[Ed D]

Yesterday was the day for the first OC flounder trip, designed more to shake out the pontoon boat for the family weeklong later in July...

Accompanied by my trusted friend Phil (aka: philk999; aka: Nips") and his cousin Gil from Missouri, we left Essex at 5:05.

Made great progress and got to see how bad and widespread the damage from Friday's storms is...convoys of tree removal and utility trucks; streets blocked off; signals out...Angler's was open...on the parking lot with an employee going inside with a flashlight to get stuff.

Decided, since the boat is kept in Roxana DE and low tide was 11am at the Rt 50 bridge, we'd blow into town, have breakfast at the Angler Restaurant and then go down and get the boat...worked fine except the GPS wanted me to go back out Rt 50 and up 113 and I wanted to head out Ocean Hwy since Gil hadn't been in OC for over 10 yeras...the GPS and I had quite an argument with her telling me to make a left at every numbered street...

Got to the boat...first off needed a new tongue jack...find a store, get new jack, install (did I mention we're standing in the field, it's like a thousand degrees and there is no wind movement at all?).

Trailer lights hooked up...not functioning...no problem, Phil AND Gil are both electricians (do I hang out with the right crowd or what?)...oops, ain't got a meter between us...clean all connections, no luck (did I mention it's like a thousand degrees and there is no wind movement at all?).

Attach trailer to back of van...odd...insufficient clearance to raise tongue jack...rear of van way too low...crap, blown shock...OK. boat staying, what are we doing?

Maybe time to make it back to take the Bay Bee for the afternoon? Sunday afternoon traffic, weekend before 4th of July, half the people in the state w/o A/C...not a chance.

We are all drenched in sweat...get in van, put a/c on emergency high, drink half the drinks in the cooler...

Decide to head back...got back around 4, pick up the meter's for Phil's boat, head to his marina...on the Bay at 515pm...trip now 12 hours old and we are finally on the water...headed to spot near Tolchester where Phil found some decent fish Friday morning...several boats there...lots of marks. With a 2oz stingsilver and 10# braid, I can't feel the bottom because wind/tide in same direction...jig for maybe 45 minutes...one 4" rock and a 5" WP...give up, head for deeper water, put out a 4 rod trolling spread...

Finally around 7PM good hit on a spoon...20" but fat; few minutes later, another spoon rod starts dancing...really nice, fat 24"...we take two more before heading in, though one had sores and was tossed back...all taken on green lures trolled near the bottom in 25-30' of water and all taken WITH the tidal flow.

Get back, clean boat, drive home...10:15PM...been gone 17 hours, drove 375 miles to end up fishing on a boat that was 4 miles away; took 14 hours to catch the first keeper.

Phil and Gil were great about it and we caught fish finally...but, it's not something I'd want to do again or recommend.

Find out shocks are $400 each; gotta have trailer lights replaced too and still have no idea if my boat will even float.

What an exciting vacation this is going to be...