So the first thing to worry about on this fishing trip was where to ramp and where to fish right? Of course not, it was will my truck be fixed in time to get the boat to
OC. After replacing the fuel pump
I find that I have also blown an intake gasket and my engine has filled with water
. So I replace the intake gasket finally finishing up at about 9:30pm Friday night. Should I trust my truck to pull the rig all the way down to
OC, no I didn't, luckily my buddy has a nice new Chevy to pull the boat with.
Its Sat. morning 4:00am time to get moving, I wake my boy up(it only take me saying his name once, how come he doesn't get up like that for school
). We head to my buddies house and take off. We leave Chestertown about 5:00 and hit
OC about 7:00. Pehaps a bit late but according to the tide charts just right to catch the incoming tide. Finding the public ramp is a breeze(thanks to all of you for the directions) While motoring out we rig up with some top and bottom rigs, fish finder rigs, and store bought fluke rigs. For bait I have brought squid and live minnows.
Never having been here before, we take our time to read the depth finder and try to find some edges. While motoring toward the Route 50 Bridge there is one lone Carolina Skiff who is running a drift from the 6mph buoy(can) out by the inlet to the 6mph can by the bridge. We decide to ask a question or to and low and behold while tlking to them, they hook up with a beautiful flattie keeper. Well I have seen enough and give them plenty of space but hop in the drift with them.
One bait or another didn't seem to matter, the flounder would bite just plain minnows, plain squid or a combinaton of both equally well. The key was the size of the bait, the flounder wanted big baits, I was cutting the squid in 5 to 6 inch lengths, and the bull minnies caught better than the small minnows.
So back to the fishing report, On our first drift my buddy Steve hooks up with a 15" flounder, back he goes, On our second drift my son David hooks up with a 15.5" flounder, in the box he goes. Then OMG did all hell break loose, we hit the blues and man did we hit the blues!!!!! We were catching blues so fast that when we finally took a break to motor back up to the inlet can for the drift, we had to look up the regs on how many we could keep.
We made about three drifts and had the majority of the blues in the pic in less than 15 minutes. The draw back was when the first Carolina Skiff and Me started catching so many fish so fast, We got swarmed by about 20 other boats, who had no manners and would cut me off in mid-drift or motor right through the group of blues that were working and had birds over them. It completely disgusted us, instead of waiting to jump into the drift with everyone else they, just cut you off and then give you a hard time because we were to close to them. Just a big ol bunch of a-holes
.
So with all that said and vented(sorry about that) we decide hey why not run up and see if we can find some of the other hot spots. Through the bridge we go and toward the Thorofare? went left following the channels past the bridge and drifted with a few other boats along a section of houses and their piers. I caught a beautiful blue here and we saw the Bay Bee catch a nice flounder. Other than that not much happening there. By now we are in slack tide and hungry so we motor back up to the Rt. 50 Bridge(where there are only about 3 boats now) and go towards the sandbar and toss anchor to eat. After some delicious fried chicken, pasta salad, chips, and a visit from our friendly neighborhood DNR officer, we notice that the tide is starting roll out. Back to the drift except the opposite way. Lots of flounder, but no keepers. About 3:00 we are back at the ramp for the 2 hour ride home.
Now for the best story of the trip. We are drifting the Route 50 bridge, I am holding my baitcasting rod when I hooked something big, I thought perhaps another horseshoe crab. Anyways, when I hook up the baitcaster spinsin my hand and splash, right overboard it goes. Oh man thats the second rod and reel combo thats gone overboard this year. After nearly hooking it as slowly floats to the bottom, and basically taking ever other rod in the boat with a hook on it and casting it towards the sinking rod, I give up and count the rod as lost. I grab another rod and say a few choice words about my donation
We head back to the can for another drift. Halfway through the drift Steve hooks something solid, no could we be that lucky? As he's reeling in I see the butt section of my rod sliding through the water towards us, He's caught it. Steve says that he thinks there may be fish in the end of my rod cause he can feel it tugging every now and then. I get my hands back on to my rod and start to reel in and holy cow there is a fish. I end up pulling in a decent sized skate. Unbelievable that when the skate pulled the rod out of my hands all it did was settle to the bottom and wait for another meal.
All in all we had an absolute blast, a great day of fishing with friends and family. We can't wait to do it again. Here's some pictures hopefully.