SMOG- Piney Point Report, Thursday

[ronaultmtd]

We had 2/3rds of the SMOG crew this morning...7 am launch at dead high tide...got the skunk off pretty quickly with a dink...bridge repairs are loud, noisy and slow at the St. George’s Island Bridge...no self respecting fish is within 300 yards of the incessant hammering, pounding and scaling of the steel supports...so we headed out to the mouth of the creek at St. Mary’s River...along the way we came upon a floating gill net anchored in the 12 FOW dropoff around Goose Point in the mouth of Price Cove...in the mouth of the creek in the St. Mary’s River crab pots are three and five deep...naturally they are in the 9-15 FOW curve where we like to troll, but conditions were near perfect today...Big Mike comes on the Radio...”that’s a first..never saw a cow eating the grass in the water there before”...huh? Then I saw what he was talking about..a herd of cattle grazing in the “Chimney” area...first time I ever saw cows there, too...three hours of changing baits, crankbaits, colors, techniques...tide is outgoing and moving...water clarity is good...my Hook2-7TS is working perfectly after my slight modification of the O ring seals...love it..65.7 degree water...not a lot of bait but a few bait balls...lots of blank screens of the bottom and such a clear, crisp display, but very few fish on it...managed three but disappointing..Big Mike got the skunk off with his one fish...great weather, good exercise, good company...the charter boys were bitching on 68...saying the fish are all hiding in Virginia...one 25 throw back...one smug reply of “got a 41 in the box”...Big Mike observed over the radio that we did not pay 650 dollars for a boat ride...30 broomstick rods suitable for tuna and marlin, 100 feet of planner board on each side of the boat pulling 15 rods per side dragging two parachute lures per rod...pound nets, floating gill nets...”got a 41 in the box” then bitching that all the fish are hiding in Virginia...so sad that we are killing our own sport by taking the breeders during spawning season...and as long as it is allowed, someone is going to catch and kill the very last one...and the sad thing about killing a 40(+) inch fish is they are not that great a food fish...back in the day, I caught a 43 pound rockfish at the CBBT wire line trolling at night by the 4th Island hole...we baked it using the traditional recipe for rockfish...it was edible, but very fishy tasting...strong...the crab stuffing was superb and that was mainly what I ate...

[john from md]

I have been fishing for over 60 years and have eaten a lot of fish. Some large fish, tuna, dolphin, swordfish taste great. Rock bass however, I have never found to be a great eating fish and the larger they are, the worst they taste. That's even taking in to consideration immediate bleeding and icing. I can't imagine eating a 42 inch Rock and enjoying it.