Wet feet 6/6/12 5th Tuition

[5th Tuition]

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)