WHAT A BUST!!!!

[fish-aholic]

Well the weather was absolutely perfect both Sat and Sun on the bay. The only waves we had to deal with were the ones created by the cargo ships going up and down the channel. Let me start this report with a HUGE VENT!!!!! IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO OPERATE A BOAT OR BE COURTEOUS WHILE OPERATING ONE....DON'T BUY ONE AND STAY OFF THE WATER!!!!!!!!! I swear there were more idiots on the water Sat than I've ever seen in my life. It was a constant battle of 90 deg turns because some idiot either turned right at you or after coming from a mile away you were both heading straight for each other and I swear, NO ONE but me gave way to the other boat. It was always me who had to move....Here's a scenario....I had just completed a u-turn around Bouy 72A and was heading back north along the edge of the channel (50' of water) Some idiot in a Parker W/A decides he's going to make a turn and start heading towards me....Now remember, I was on the EDGE of the channel.....This guy comes in, because of his angle I couldn't get out any deeper without cutting him off, so I figured he'd give way.....NOPE!!!!!! This guy got 50 yards off my Port side and stayed there forcing me into shallow water, hanging up my umbrellas and caused me to have to stop reel everything in and even back up to free one from a Snag!!!!! All this guy had to do was turn west 5-10 deg and I could've stayed in deep enough water to troll....but no...he just pushed me out....To make it worse, as all this is happening the CPT's fishing partner walked to the stern of the boat and folded his arms and stared over at me like it was ME who was too close to him......Constant issues like this on Sat with all the MORONS on the water....Now, not wanting to insult anyone out there, I have to say that with the # of boats on the water there were plenty of people who I'm sure didn't cause a problem.....And I guess I did see them, because they are the boats who I DIDN'T Stand at the cockpit and Cuss and Swear at.... Now onto the fishing report Sat, we were on the water out to 72 A somewhere between 8-9am....As we arrived we listened to the Chatter on the VHF and heard several boats say they were limited and heading in.....We thought this was a great sign.....Within 30 min I had a knock down, Ciara (my fiance) grabbed the rod and threw on the belt....As she was reeling another rod went down......Yeah no such luck....The fish swam into another line tangling them. So with Dad and Ciara reeling in the two tangled ones apparently some slack hit the line and off popped the fish....So, trolling south in 80-90' of water toward the bouy I noticed my cousin's boat had just turned 90 Deg instantly, I jumped on the Radio and asked if they were ok.....NOPE they found the crab pots.....I swear someone dropped them at the edge of the channel (and I'm sure if we wanted to get technical, a few of them were in the channel) I immediately looked up and saw them.... there they were and we were passing one to the starboard side......and what do you know, 4 lines managed to find it....Stop, unhook from it get away from them and drop again....Well that crab pot cost us a fish....We never put any real pressure on the lines once we noticed we were tangled.....but it was enough to tear up the line on at least one rod...and yup, you guessed it....that was the next rod to go down....Dad grabbed the rod and started reeling.....He said "wow, this is a strong fish"...then POP!!!! Line snaps...$30 umbrella and probably a nice striper (I like to think) gone... Felt the line and realized how damaged it was (then we proceeded to check the rest). Finally, I let my first mate drive for a while (my cousin's friend from work Sopaul) I walked to the rail to stretch out and noticed the dummy line was tight!!!!! Woooohooooo 32" 12lb Striper in the box..... One more knockdown, and it was lost because of a tangle (those 90 deg turns to avoid the idiots can tend to get you tangled alot)....Total Tally for the day was Two 32" stripers, one on each boat....Sun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a beautiful day to be on the water, if only the fish had cooperated.....Not so many idiots out on sunday, no where near as crowded....and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING...we trolled water 45' to 125', we tried Trolling n-s, s-n, e-w, w-e, nw-sw, sw-nw, well you get the picture.....and NOTHING.....not even a knockdown on our boat.... As soon as the lines got in the water on the other boat, They had a 34 1/2 in the box, hooked up to one more that a was lost....and that was it.....Oh well, its called fishing not catching. It could've been alot worse, the weather and water conditions could've been miserable and not catching anything All in all, it was nice to get out on the water, I'm considering going again this coming weekend, but who knows......I got the kids so who knows where I'll end up.....

[Randy Stinchcomb]

WOW, sounds about right for opening day Jeff
I heard the same reports from others too
now Im glad I chose to work on saturday instead of fish
I did a road-trip on sunday, down to Solomons Isl and worked my way north and saw quite a few boats wwth fish, I'll try my luck this weekend

[fish-aholic]

Yeah, don't get me wrong....The fish were there, I've never marked so many fish on the finder during trophy season before....They just weren't eating ANYTHING We heard reports of fish being caught, just not like the past years....Also, apparently the slot was the ticket to cut down on the # of fish being kept so we don't go over quota again...I would say 1/2 the boats saying they had a fish ended up being thrown back because they were in the slot....Charter boat Cpt's were complaining very loud about the slot....I'm sure it damaged their business and I'm sure once a year guys who only come out for a charter during trophy season, and who don't understand the big picture, were very vocal about having to watch a 40" striper hit the water after fighting it to the boat. I did hear some reports yesterday that guys fishing from shore had been catching some nice fish....maybe all the feeding fish went shallow yesterday...who knows, all I know is its not the trophy season I'm used to in the past....

[WorthandSon]

Heard of the good fishing everyone had on Saturday, so we decided on Sunday to launch from Rock Hall. We started trolling up at Hickory Thicket, went from there to Love Point. From Love Point to Sandy Point channel. Then tried the Dumping Grounds towards the Bay Bridge. In and out of the Bay Bridge along all the edges we could find. Ran south towards a group of boats about a mile from the Bay Bridge and ran across and along the channel. In total we spent 5-6 hours trolling and ended up with a big old SKUNK. The day not only cost me the gas we burned, but my son dropped one of my better rod and reel combos overboard. Oh well that means that I get the free pass to go buy a nicer combo.

In talking to others from Rock Hall no one caught anything, even talked to some people who made the run all the way down to Bloody Point, where they had been catching a bunch of big fish, all they caught Sunday was 1 non-keeper.
I'm not sure when the state opened the Conawingo Dam, but the debris floating in the upper bay was terrible. Just one more thing you had to watch for, along with the crab pots and the Pennsylvania navy.
Oh well I guess thats fishing. I might have to take a day off this week to try again before this new front blows through.

[fish-aholic]

We were WAY WAY south of you.....Point No Point actually. Just north of the mouth of the Potomac River Trolling between bouys 72 and 72A....Sorry to hear about your rod/reel, but nice that you can get a better one

[Flatfish]

Fishing was poor last weekend due to spring tides. I have never done well then. I camped over the weekend and flounder fished IRB twice and didn't even get a sniff. There was a large fleet and I saw very few fish caught, maybe two.

[fish-aholic]

This was very out of the ordinary for our usual spring trophy trip. The past 3 years we have always limited by noon everyday we were out....Not sure what it was last weekend, but very few people seemed to have had much luck.

[Charkbait]

pretty much a dead weekend all around, even the best captains struggled for a limit. The fish are still stacked in the rivers due to cold water temps. The spawning trigger is usually 56 degrees, next weekend should be good with temps rising this week.

[Randy Stinchcomb]

Originally Posted by Charkbait

pretty much a dead weekend all around, even the best captains struggled for a limit. The fish are still stacked in the rivers due to cold water temps. The spawning trigger is usually 56 degrees, next weekend should be good with temps rising this week.

ok, understand, now what are your plans for this weekend wanna' go for a boat-ride

[Charkbait]

not sure yet, may be at AI Thurs-Sat if someone puts a couple on the beach SE @15 looks good to me if there are fish to be caught.

If I'm home I believe I need to pay the piper for my upcoming trips, SWMBO is not happy with my current plans.

[Randy Stinchcomb]

ok, gotcha' lmk if you chang your mind

[DumBbaSS]

All those boats on opening day weekend =fishing zoo

Monday fishing=nice day leisure fishing but not many fish