snaggedline.com

I’m on the hunt for the elusive Upper Chesapeake Bay Spanish Mackeral. Every Late August, them seem to, at least, hopefully make their way up as far as the Bay Bridge. I’ve been reading everything i can about ways to catch them by casting. Kayakers just can’t get fast enough for long periods to troll for them. At least I can’t, even with the Hobie. With the right knowledge and gear I posses, hopefully I can get into them before they leave town. First problem, getting on the water…

image credit to the fishermans life blog.

Changed the lube in my zeebaas reels yesterday…ah, nice, clean and ready for Fall…

I had the day off on friday so hit up the bay bridge for some jiggin, trolling and even soaking some bloods. Too bad when I got there, I realized I forgot basically all my tackle! Fortunately, I still had some parachutes and a wood plug from a couple weeks ago in the hatch, so the day wasn’t lost. Of course I wanted to sleep in so I didn’t get on the water until 11AM with an outgoing tide. I trolled the east side of the main span, zig zagin between the two spand and even went north and found the sewer pipe. Marked tons of fish and schools of bait on the fish finder but only one 12lb, 30 incher wanted to play. I was stopped twice by DNR. The first Officers checked my license and asked to see my lures to make sure the barbs were crushed and check if I had the necessary safety equipment. The second Officers just wanted to make sure fishermen were aware of the new regulations, being no stinger/trailing hooks, crushing your barbs, and NOAA card. Both were intrigued that I was fishing from a kayak. lol They were cool and I’m glad they are out patrolling. Anyways, I was off the water by 3pm.

Saturday Grilled Sardine and I hit up the bay bridge. on the water around 930am. I trolled and threw lures at the pilling and only caught a dink which had a growth on it’s eye. i ended up going to the sewer pipe to through some lures and during that time, grilled sardine landed a 42+ trolling a 6oz chute. bastard.

Sunday I was planning on going to SPSP by myself with the yak and soak bloods after doing the mom easter thing. Well, plans changed as my girlfriend was on the eastern shore and she wanted to go fishing so we met at spsp around 330 and had lines soaking by 4. Damn dinks wouldn’t even give me a shot. I would either hook up with dinks or they would take my bait. I only had one bag of bloods which lasted less than 2 hours. I tried some fishbites but the dinks didnt even want those so we packed it up at 7.

I did see a bunch of fish caught on the point.

More pictures are posted in the forum…

Here are some pictures from the other day of one way I travel with rods and 2 kayaks. Only time I put the kayak on the roof rack is when I travel to the surf and want to keep it locked down over night to kep sticky fingers away…

Kelly wanted to go fishing today, so off we went to Sandy Point State Park. I need to get her a kayak…but it’s too dangerous for her to kayak the bay..yeah, thats it…too dangerous..Kelly, you stay at home. HA. Anyways, by 630am, we were on the sand with quite a few people already there. Last year around this time we had some pretty good luck and from the recent reports, I thought we would have a pretty good chance at catching some Rocks. It just wasnt in the cards today. Only had 2 hits until we left at 1pm. Seems like that was most of the story for others there today, other than the one nice fish i saw caught on the point. I must add that it was freezing this morning, mostly because of the BRUTAL wind. Good job Kelly for being such a trooper. We’ll try again soon.

SPLASH!

TODAY was my opening day, in the hunt for rockfish. Check out the story on the forum by clicking on the link below…

http://www.snaggedline.com/boatyard/showthread.php?p=1000#post1000

So last year I was sick of rods banging around in the bed of the truck or having them angled in the truck taking up precious space. I already had a roof rack to be able to transport the kayak and keeping the bed open for other stuff. I bought some ski holders and slaped them on. The perfect way to trasport rods and it locks!

Well, after not fishing since August…don’t ask…I’m dusting off the Snaggedline Hobie and getting ready for spring because the Cows will be migrating into the bay real soon. Well, maybe not as soon as other years if it doesn’t stop snowing already! I’ll be working on a Braggin’ Rights Tournament for this spring, so check back soon for updates.

Since Jan. 1, 2010, Maryland Anglers, along with most States on the Coast need to register with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) before fishing this year. Anglers can register for free online at www.countmyfish.noaa.gov

It is said that this will allow for accurate information and condition of fish stocks, to then be used to determine appropriate regulations. Since it’s run by .gov, I doubt it will be used in an effective and efficient manner. Check out the forum for more discussion on this topic.

For some reason, bait size spot are harder to catch than keeper rockfish. It’s funny, last year, I complained the all the spot were too small and I wanted larger ones. This spot is begging me not to feed him to stripes…this one got lucky and ended up swimming away freely.

For a full report of this past saturdays launch with pics, click below…

http://www.snaggedline.com/boatyard/showthread.php?t=115