Holy Cow

We finally ran into a big fish this spring, after a few unsuccessful days. Our excitement turned to concern after seeing the fishes big belly. We worried that perhaps it was a female filled with eggs but realized it was too late to send the fish back. We were very excited to find out that the 35 inch fish was gorging itself with lots of baitfish. It looked to be almost a dozen 6-12 inch Menhaden that came from its full belly. The fish was caught deep on a white umbrella/tandem with a 6 inch shad. 

Finding Nemo

Good anglers fish a lot.  They are out on the water enough to know the seasonal patterns as well as the small changes that move fish around from week to week. Three weeks ago we limited out in the Patapsco in an hour, fish were everywhere, bait was everywhere. Things seemed different today as we had to work to find the fish. It seemed that the bait was much more sparse and the Stripers were more spread out. The only Rockfish we saw grouped together seemed to lay on the bottom in 50 feet of water. Its great to have a quality fish finder (we use a Lowrance Hds) that is dialed in ( thanks to Captain Tom Hughes). It's also important to have a network of anglers to call and read reports from so when you can't get out as regularly as you'd like to you can stay on top of the ever moving fish.  Using the information gained from sources was helpful but nothing replaces time on the water.  Thanks to being able to pick up and run though we were able to find a keeper each in a few hours on both sides of low tide. 

First Light, First Bite

Saturday November 2cd, was the perfect fall fishing day. We hit the boat ramp in the dark and navigated a couple hundred yards from our ideal fishing spot in the Upper Bay, giving us enough time to set out our trolling setup-or so we thought. The water was flat as a lake and the light was just starting to paint the horizon, when our first set rod hit, as we worked to get out a tandem rig. It was a tony 17, (thanks to the TFers for help in how to run these) that brought the 19 plus fish aboard.  Greg commented that he felt like he couldn't relax as we quickly had a two man limit within one hour while he struggled to get out our six rod spread. We decided to use a "boca style" grip to take care in de-hooking, while leaving the fish in the water and released several fish. This is a great tool to have in your arsenal.  In just a few hours we caught 9 Rock, all over 18 and up to around 24 inches. 

Fall River Trolling

With the cold crisp air starting to set in, it was time to break out the trolling gear once again. Weeks prior we had done some light tackle trolling but now it was time again for tandem rigs with six inch shads. We had three knockdowns and amongst them landed a 25 and 22. Our hottest lure was a BFG tandem in white. Captain Chuck makes these rigs and is a good guy who is willing to talk with you at his many area appearances to help fine tune your spread. I have asked him and his wife many a question and they have always given a friendly answer. While I still tend to enjoy fishing with a rod in hand it's nice to boat some fish late in the season with some different tactics. http://www.bfgtackle.com/images/tandem_white.jpg

Right Bait, Right Time, Wrong Tools

It was the last day before putting the boat away for season. We switched up our coastal bay fishing, aiming for Tog and Redfish instead of flounder. This meant a different game plan, different locations, different bait, different terminal and fishing tackle.  Our plan was to hold close to jettys and bulkheads dropping sand fleas straight down. We used the sensitivity of braid to feel the bottom dropping the baits into deeper holes where the Tog seemed to hide. We caught three Tog, two large fish, one heavy fish that was an inch shy of the 16 inch minimum.  One large fish snapped off as I grabbed the leader because we didnt have the net at the ready. The other two fish were netted together because the hooks got tangled up in the net. That was a first, netting a fish with a fish already occupying it. We ended up with some smaller Seabass but also broke off several rigs with the Tog pulling us into the rocks. We had most things set expect our tools weren't up to speed. We needed a net at the ready, many more rigs, weights and heavier rod and reel combos to seal the deal. Unfortunately our next chance at them will have to wait until spring. 

Flounder Pounder 2013

In September we decided to try our hand again at the annual Bahia Marina Flounder Pounder. The first time we fished the tournament we ended up with a nice 3+ lb. keeper. As we left the dock to the sound of the fog horn we realized we wouldn't be able to keep up with the speed of the other boats so we decided to navigate some skinny water that our pontoons could handle to get us into prime fishing early. This decision paid off as we caught a weighable flounder within 45 minutes of the start. The rest of the day ended up with a couple of close shorts but nothing noteworthy. As we headed for the scales our excitement started to build as people seemed to talk up our fish. We heard, "oh that's a big fish", "you better get that to the scales" and nervously, "my fish is on the leader board and that looks just like my fish." It weighed in at 3.15 lbs just short of 4 pounds but my biggest flattie thus far. I'm guessing it was about fourth at the time we weighed it in but ended up probably seventh or so after all the big fish were weighed. The winner took home around four thousand dollars, not too bad for a day on the bay.

More pictures from the Bahia Marina Flounder Pounder by the Coastal Fisherman
http://www.coastal-fisherman.com/gallery.cfm?c=313D1349-5056-9F21-09D95218AA27BDFD#

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