BB Sun 28 July

[Goody]

Arrived at SPSP around 5:45am in the morning. I saw that Moc, Coop, Spark and Walk The Plank with their yak all unloaded from their vehicles and prepping to go. Later on 22Tango, Mesa and friend, and Nitefly showed up also. There were 9 kayaks all together headed out.

The weather held out for us, no thunderstorm. The temp was around 79 with an overcast majority of the time. There was some wind and lots of chop.

22Tango and Nitefly.jpg

I went straight to the rock. There were some big swells on the way there. Once there, on my first cast live lining, I hooked up into a 19 1/2 to 20" immediately.

20130728_203407_808.jpg

Covered its eyes, seem to calm it down for some reason.
19-20 incher.jpg

Within another 10 minutes I hook up another. An 18 inch. I'm thinking to myself, "I'll just take it easy the rest of time and just have fun". Two keeper, woooohoooo! The rest of the gang makes it out to the Rock and I showed them the rocks I caught. This is when, oooooppppps. I forgot to hook the stringer back on so I lost the whole stringer along with the 2 rocks. So I'm bumped out the rest of the time and tried to catch some more but unfortunately the bite seems to have turned off.

I decided to try the pylon on the way back in. One after another nothing. Finally when I get half way back. Wham.......I got a good solid hit and my drag starts singing....music to my ears. It took me about 10 minutes to bring the biggest Rock I've caught this year. 27 inches....Wooohoooo. I finally go in not bummed out...

27 1-2 inch Rock.jpg Holding Rock 27.jpg

The others will have to tell you their stories...on how they made out.

[chex]

Man, sucks about the lost stringer, but damn a 27 incher is a nice fish! Congrats!

Reminds me of the time I had a 19" tog on my stringer, and he bent it open and escaped. Total bummer.

[toyomo]

Nice report. That scene looks beautiful. Its unfortunate about the 2 rockfish on the stringer, reminds me of some moments ive had myself, but at least you made out with a nice one in the end.

[Shady]

Sorry about the lost stringer, but at least you got redemption in a big way. Get a nice cooler to fit on the yak and you'll never lose keeper fish again.

[Mesa]

Glad to hear that you got some great hookups today but now I'm bummed. LOL! I wish Christine and I could have pushed on and made it out with you guys. Although the conditions headed out were manageable, I was a little nervous about conditions worsening knowing that a storm was on its way. I was a little concerned for myself but more so for Christine in the little Otter. It made me very nervous. When we headed back in we packed up and headed to JG to finish out the day. Unfortunately most of my spot died by the time we got there. Fished for a bit with what we had and after no luck and discouraged with the day, we decided to turn a bad day of fishing into a good day of exploring the Naval Academy and some of the creeks. No feesh but we still had fun and at least I was able to scout out some new fishing holes for the next time I head out to the Severn. Sorry to hear about the stringer mishap - I know how you feel, hence the 38 qt cooler I was toting today; no more stringer mishaps for me!

[mytmouse]

Sucks about losing the 2... but you made it up with a great ONE!! LOL Did you catch your bait or pick up some spot on the way?

[Goody]

I picked up the spots on the way in. The others fished for their spots.

Sucks about losing the 2... but you made it up with a great ONE!! LOL Did you catch your bait or pick up some spot on the way?

[AbuMasgouf]

Oh man! I had a very similar experience. I know all too well how you were feeling the rest of the day after you lost the fish! Truly humbling when you're awarded such a nice fish after you were patient with the disappointment! Congrats my friend!

[Nitefly]

It was great to meet many of you on my first group outing. My day did not got as planned, but I got my first bay experience. I made a few rookie mistakes but still enjoyed a morning on the water. A windy day on the bay is not a great shakedown trip for new gear! I used my trolling motor for the first time and had some issues that will be resolved for next trip. My tiller handle extension bolt came off and I found that I need that extender to be positioned properly in the boat. The weight of a 70ah battery and my body in the back of the yak would bring in water through the scuppers. So, I fixed the tiller extender when I got home. And ill extend the cable and move the battery to the bow and see how that goes.

Despite my motor challenges I started fishing for spot with the group and the down scan on my FF was showing the schools of spot clearly. I hooked my first spot and he swam right under my prop and got tangled. That was the end of my motor for the day and it took out the power source for my fish finder too. Not sure if my battery just died or what, but it all worked when I got it home and charged it. I couldn't safely get the engine off in the swells, so I just paddled back up towards the bridge, but it was slow going. I anchored and fished near the pilings for awhile and snagged some fishing line. So I tugged on it and all of a sudden felt heavy weight... getting heavier... then I realized it was my tangled line from the engine and I managed to pull my engine of the transom! So now I'm thinking.. hmm this is 15 lb line, Im gonna pull up real slow! I looped the line around my hand as I slowly pulled my motor back up. Got it back in the boat and paddling was a bit easier with it off my transom and the weight redistributed. But what a way to start the day!

So I get back to the pilings and drop a line in and get a few nibbles, but nothing in the boat. About this time, I see 4 guys returning to the launch and decide to join them. I chalked this trip up to a learning experience! Despite my issues on the day I enjoyed riding the swells and watching the commercial crabbers work. Next time, I'll get on some fish! Since, I got home at lunch time and my gear was ready to go, I decided to go check out the Piscataway for the evening bite. Ill post a write up that. My wife had homework to do and wanted me out of the house

[J.A. Veil]

Nice job catching some good rockfish, especially the 27" fish. I stopped in Anglers after church yesterday morning and saw that they had live spot for sale. That certainly saves some time.

[jet]

how much is the spot at anglers running?

[mytmouse]

I need to get an aerator ASAP. I asked for one for my b-day but by then the spot will probably be gone! LOL I need to get FISHING ASAP! I don't have the luxury of taking time to catch my bait too! LOL

[moc]

I had one heck of a week. My Mirage Drive cable broke yesterday, but once again, Denise from Backyard Boats in Annapolis, had the part in stock and was able to repair my drive so I could make it out on the bay for some live lining for rockfish. I made it to Sandy Point earlier than I anticipate. After leaving the Wawa. I got to Sandy Point at 5:10am. Coop1486 pulled right in right after me. The two of us seemed to be the first ones to arrive. Since we had some time, we began setting up our kayak for a 6:00 am to 6:30am launch. We did notice that the weatherman seemed to get the forecast wrong again. I checked the forecast at 4:00 am before leaving my house. The weather was calling for temperatures in the mid 80's with an 8mph wind in the morning climbing to 10mph at 10am and 12 mph after 12:00pm. Well, Coop and I noticed that it was blowing on the Bay around 15 mph. We knew that the Bay would be choppy with two foot waves. The protected marina had a strong current.

By 5:30am there were 5 of us, with Goody (Paul) arriving just before 6:00am. By the time that we launched there were 9 kayakers in all. Coop, Sparky, Walk the Plank, and myself headed out first, while we waited for the others to launch. I found a protected calm cove in 5 feet of water with very little current. Walk the Plank caught the first fish there. A small spot for live lining. Once the others began to hit the water, we went out of the marina and fished for spots among the bridge pilings. The water was not too bad by the pilings which gave us some protection along with the southern shoreline. The current was very strong, which made it a challenge for the paddle yaks to fish and catch spots with any regularity. I found plenty of spots in 9 feet of water using a simple drop shot setup with a 1/16 ounce jig head tipped with bloodworm fish bites. I was catching spots on almost every drop. I kept them alive in my makeshift home depot bucket live well. I heard from Goody, who was at the rock piles that he had caught a keeper rock live lining. This was encouragement for the rest of us to brave the 1 to 2 foot chops and four foot swells to make it to the rock piles. Those of us with Hobies arrived at the rock piles first, where we met Goody who now had two keepers on his stringer. He showed them to us, but then we did not know that he forgot to attach the stringer to his kayak, and lost the fish. It was good that he persevered and caught a 26 incher when he was heading back to shore at the end of his trip.

For me, I was able to catch my first rockfish living lining spot from my kayak. It was a fat 21 incher. The bite seemed to die down for a long time. I remembered that the last time that I attempted to live line at the bridge, another kayak should me that he was catching all of his fish at the pilings. So I decided to leave the group and head for the first piling west of the rock pile. Within 5 minutes I hooked up with an 18.5 inch rockfish which went on my stringer. I got my two keepers for today live lining. This was a first for me and a memorable on with the weather conditions that we all faced. Goody and two other paddlers decided to head back and so did I. When we got back to shore, it seemed like the wind died down, the skies became partly cloudy or sunny, and the current lessened. Oh well, the weatherman was partially right, but he was off by 6 hours. It was great meeting and fishing with all of other kayakers.

I gave Coop1486 my 18.5 inch rockfish after taking a few pictures. Now it is time to head home.

[moc]

And some more pictures.....

[Mesa]

how much is the spot at anglers running?

$1.49 ea, $13.99 doz. I ask for 4" or smaller and they usually throw a couple extra in.