Fishing's Fun When You Lose Count

Greg and I braved the weather this past Wednesday to get out and try our hand at Captain Tom's tactics. We watched the radar and NOAA warnings but thought we could get out and miss the storms. I thought it might be a bad sign when an oldtimer sitting in his pickup by the dock said, "testing your luck?" We let it roll and man did we hit the jackpot. Greg drove us to a ledge that he and I found a few weeks ago and sure enough saw fish on our fish finder. We put the rods in and out came the fish. They were at a decent pace but a little on the small size. So we headed to our spot south of Fort Carroll, where we did well last weekend. The screen lit up! We couldn't get the fish off the lines fast enough. We caught 3 Stripers to every 1 White Perch. We easily caught a hundred fish between the two of us. The action continued for almost 2 hours. We had some bigger sized Stripers, at least 10 coming in over 13 inches. I broke my leader twice and lost two Hopkins spoons on what we think was a Ray and maybe a large Striper. Unfortunately, I was having issues with the drag on my rod which I had too tight...ohhh well it's much easier to shrug off when you caught over one hundred fish!

Guided Trip with Captain Tom

It was time to take our fishing to the next level. So we hired Captain Tom Hughes to serve as our guide to learn how to catch more Striped Bass. The trip started out with some worry and disappointment. There was a small craft advisory that had us turning around and heading back for the Patapsco River instead of fishing hot spots on the open bay. All that disappointment turned in to a rabid frenzy of excitement when Captain Tom set up our fish finder and told us that we were on a ton of fish. He said they were mostly White perch but he figured there were some Stripers mixed in. As soon as the first one hit they kept coming at an exhilarating pace. These were some beautiful, but a little undersized Stripers with a few Perch mixed in. We ended up hitting 8 or more fishing spots within the river before the day was over. As a boat we ended up with around 10 White Perch and 40 or more Stripers, with some just an inch or two shy of the 18 inch minimum. Can't wait until next time...

Noah's First Kiss

On June 11th at Stansbury Pond, Noah caught his first fish. We practiced casting, crimped down the barbs and he pulled it as he said, "all by self." Without prompting from anyone, Noah kissed the fish as he sent it on it's way. On the way home, we stopped in Bluefins tackle to get a citation to send away to Maryland's DNR for an official 1st Fish Certificate. Noah met a friend, a little girl, who he shared his rod with for her to catch her first fish. In all Noah caught 3 all by himself and reeled in at least 6 total. Daddy and Dad-Dad were very proud.