Guys Trip in OC

Hoping to recreate last years great bluefish and striper action at the route 50 bridge, we headed back to Ocean City, Maryland. We thought we had them figured out but with the help of more stout tackle. Unfortunately, this year they just weren't biting. We used the opportunity to try some new techniques catching some undersided Tog in the inlet. To round out the trip we drifted a few times in the west channel and I was able to pull out a keeper Flounder. Not the trip we were hoping for but when our first plan failed we used the opportunity to expand our techniques. Tight lines.

R 

Take It To The Limit

Check out our EPIC day of Tuna fishing with this EPIC video. http://youtu.be/EH6eDVvaJzQ

Noah and his Dad's Flatfish

July 4th was a great day. The fireworks weren't only in the sky but in the water as well. Noah caught his first keeper flounder and his second in the same day. The biggest was weighed in at Oyster Bay at 3.6 pounds. Noah was focused and did everything himself including adding a live minnow to his dual  jig rig. Dad was very proud and also switched it up. By adding a minnow Dad got a keeper too. Below, Noah is featured in the Coastal Fisherman as the Layton's Junior Angler of the Week.

Working Out the Blues.

On Memorial Day weekend I kept hearing that Blues were in the bay. I also have heard how easy the are to catch. When they are biting in a frenzy yes they are easy to catch but other times it can be harder than you'd expect. I went out by myself to the inlet where snapper blues were snapping all around me amongst some feeding gulls. I emptied my tackle box trying to catch them but couldn't covert. I decided to switch it up and head to the Route 50 bridge as the tide had slowed. I tried jigging a Roy Rig at the pilings and BAMMM. The bluefish hit hard and I landed 5 in a few minutes as the tide had just begun to move. It was quite satisfying considering how hard I worked to get them to bite. I enjoyed them as smoked fish dip later in the week. Two myths busted in my mind; bluefish aren't always super easy to catch and when prepared fresh and properly they taste great. 

Memories of His First Keeper

Tyler caught his first keeper flounder all by himself on Memorial Day weekend. The over 16 inch fish faught hard as Tyler brought him up to the boat. He caught him on a white spec rig on the sand bars south of the route 50 bridge. He brought his catch to Oyster Bay where he got his picture taken for the fishing report. The following week to my surprise Ty made the Coastal Fisherman. 

Sunken Dreams

It was the flounder pounder weekend 2015, a weekend I had been looking forward to for quite some time. Seth, Greg and I tried our hand again at the Bahia Marina tournament. We were well stocked with tackle and freshly caught peanut bunker. We signed up for the tournament and waited in the basin until the horn sounded. Just as it was about time for the tournament to get under way the guy in the boat next to me said, "hey your back end looks low." After checking it out with the tournament director we determined that our pontoons were taking on water and we needed to back out of the tournament. We felt lucky that they gave us our money back and decided we would test the boat out for a half hour and see if the issue got any worse. Well as luck would have it it didn't take long until Greg hooked up with a beautiful flounder. We decided to keep a close eye on the pontoons checking every half hour to see if they worsened and they appeared stable. It appears we had a slow leak in the welding that had occurred over time but there wasn't any immediate concern. At that point we decided to keep fishing but switch it up and fish the 50 bridge for big blues and stripers. We had some great battles and were broken off by many big fish at the pilings. We decided to go and have the flounder weighed at Oyster Bay just to see how we would have faired in the tournament.  Sure enough, we had the biggest fish by far and lost out on several thousands of dollars in winnings. We still had a great weekend catching (including a couple of roughly 30 inch blues that were released) but left with an expensive salty wound. Here's the video documenting the action. http://youtu.be/uA9mtjRlAFY

Tails Out Late Summer and Fall Fishing

It was fun in the late season fishing in the Upper Bay around the bay bridge and under working birds. Most of the fish were feeding on small baits like glass minnows. The best baits were 1/4 oz white spec rigs, perch jerkers, bucktails and chug bugs with dropper flies. We used the Go Pro to catch a lot of the action except we didn't catch some of the best blitz action on camera because we were too busy catching. Several days we caught 100 plus fish with many throwbacks but with keeper rock and blues mixed in. Here's our YouTube video. http://youtu.be/9THzi7WxOEs

Disney Bass

In late July we took the family for our first trip to Disney World. We stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort and chartered a bass fishing trip in the resort.  Luca and Noah showed up the adults with some of the best fish.  Our captain was a former first round draft pick baseball player and quite a nice guy.