Well, I promised you a report from when my friend Bruce came down from Hancock Maryland.
First, the weather couldn't have been better. Light winds and temps in the 80's with water temps dropping into the upper 70's. Coming out of Bodkin Creek, we could run anywhere in my 22 ft WA (and we did). I topped off the fuel tank with $135 (ouch) and got the tackle ready.
We didn't leave the dock until close to noon each day because the first day he was traveling from Hancock, and the second day he had a Dr's appointment at the VA Hospital at 10 am. Bruce was in Vietnam and ran a "tracking dog" unit for the Army. He and his dog either had to "establish contact" with the enemy, or if the enemy was wounded and crawed off into the jungle, they had to find and "neutralize" the threat. When "agent orange" was used, Bruce was right in the middle of it. The common thought of the Dr's is that exposure to the "AO" has caused him to develope a skin disease that causes him problems.
Anyway; we fished at some inopportune times (12pm to 5pm). We roared out of Bodkin Creek and headed over across the bay toward Rock Hall. As we approached, we saw 5 or 6 charter and "hook & line" captains working the Swan point area. We dropped lines and joined in the subtle "dance" on the troll. We only saw small rock and blues being caught.
Good news is that birds were working bait and they would pop up everywhere. Bait was thick. If the bait was below the surface, the rods would "quiver" as the lures ran through the bait. You could catch all the 15-17 inch rock you wanted. By weeding out the little guys, you could pick up a limit of 18-19 inch fish, but we were looking for 22 inch fish for Bruce to take back to Hancock.
We spent about 2 hrs playing with small fish and running from one group of birds to another. Eventually, I said lets leave these fish alone and go look for a better quatity. We wound up the rods and started across the bay towards the Magothy. Acres of bait was seen on the surface. "Nervous water" was everywhere. All the bait was unmolested by either birds or fish.
Suddenly, Bruce pointed out a bait ball that was "Boiling". I slowed and set up above them and let the tide push us closer and closer. I pulled out the jigging rods set up with 1 1/2 oz metal jigs. Great; I have fish breaking, and I'm set up for deep jigging
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Bruce's first cast brought a 22 inch rock to the boat
. For about 30 minutes, we were the only boat working this nicer grade of fish. I made sure I drifted through the confusion with motor off, and drifted way outside the bait before I started the motor and set up a new drift. The fish and bait didn't seem to mind us being there. I had replaced the treble hooks with a single hook, so the fish would hit the lure several times before hooking up. We were laughing and counting the "hits" as we dragged the lure through the breakers. Occasionally, the lure would make it all the way to the boat and just before you lifted it out of the water, a rock would attack it and swallow the hook. Fun; Fun; Fun
Not a boat in sight
We thought we had these fish all to ourselves. But, finally, the action was noticed by someone. Two ospreys joined us in harrassing the fish. Now four of us were working the frenzy.
Nothing lasts forever, and the bait and fish sounded. We only had four fish in the cooler (our limit), but we had a ball playing with that school.
We ran back to the dock, washed down the boat, and made plans to meet again the next day after the Dr appointment.
I wish I could say we found that school of fish the next day, but we didn't. We ran to Rock Hall, trolled up plenty of small fish, but ran to Podickery to "Look Around". Again lots of bait. We didn't see what we were looking for, so we ran to the "sewer pipe" and jigged up some more small fish. I finally ran to "seven ft knoll" and we played with some more small fish until we docked the boat.
We were supposed to fish a third day, but Bruce wanted to hit Bass Pro and Dicks for some fishing gear that's hard to come by in Hancock. We shopped some other local fishing tackle stores and hit Howard's Subway for some cold beers and a late lunch. It was a fitting end to a quick trip down from Western Maryland.
Bruce will be back in the fall and I hope to put him on some fish again. I'm convinced we could have done better if we were out in the early AM or closer to dark, but he was happy with the fish we caught and just being on the water. The bait is there, the fish are scattered but hungry. I'm going to be making some morning and evening trips out of my slip more often
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5th (Marty)
2 day report
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