Calvert Cliffs 8 Dec

[FRED driver]

Given the calm weather decided to make the much-anticipated trip to the nuke plant to fish the ridiculous discharge. Met up with my dad and buddy and launched around sunrise in heavy fog. A very challenging spot to jig given the ripping current and 30 ft depth. A much heavier jig is required. Difficulty was enhanced by idiots on boats motoring straight through the rips all day. Tough to say how degraded the fishing was due to that; it was painful to watch at times and crowded 4-7 boats all morning and afternoon.

Despite the challenges, I got 6 fish including 2 keeper size and 1 17" red. My dad had 2 25" fish--quite healthy and fat, great battles. Saw one guy on a boat catch 2 37" fish early morning before the clown show boat circus arrived.

I am convinced this place will improve with colder water temps and fewer boats. The best season of the year starts soon (catch and release) which should cut out a lot of traffic and make for fantastic weekday fishing when the schedule allows.

Hobies are the perfect platform to fish the rips--you can hold your position silently while fishing and drift whenever it suits your cast. All the boaters looked on in perplexed envy

[CB kayak 02]

Where did you actually launch from?

[FRED driver]

Ah yes, the launch. Little did I know during the preparatory stages that the small beaches in long beach (2 mi north of ccnpp) are parking by permit only; signs there warn that towing could happen if non-permitted. We talked to a couple residents before we launched and left a note on the dash, but when we got back found a note that said we needed a permit next time. Long story short wouldn't recommend it. Will have to find a better answer next time

[scorpioreno]

Thanks great report. I was going to look around the area to search for a launch point. I looked at google earth and found some potential spots near the plant. This boater called Walleyepete has some great footage from there.
http://youtu.be/-6KINxwTmw0

[FRED driver]

Here are some pics from the trip

[Nobrifly]

great one,litigation borne of Congress's National Environmental Policy Act eventually spawned one of the most celebrated environmental cases in American history, Calvert Cliffs Coordinating Committee, Inc. v. Atomic Energy Commission, forcing the Atomic Energy Commission (now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) to consider the environmental impact of building and maintaining such an atomic energy plant.

[J.A. Veil]

great one,litigation borne of Congress's National Environmental Policy Act eventually spawned one of the most celebrated environmental cases in American history, Calvert Cliffs Coordinating Committee, Inc. v. Atomic Energy Commission, forcing the Atomic Energy Commission (now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) to consider the environmental impact of building and maintaining such an atomic energy plant.

Another piece of Calvert Cliffs trivia is that the amount of bay water passing through the cooling water system is about 3 billion gallons per day when all units are operating. That amount of flow is larger that all the rivers entering the Chesapeake except for the Susquehanna and Potomac. A power plant has a fixed amount of heat that must be removed from the units to promote efficient power generation. Steam from the boilers is passed through turbines then is sent to condensers that are cooled with water. This results in the water leaving the plant being somewhat warmer than the bay water that just entered the plant. Designers can build the cooling system to use a high flow rate and a low rise in temperature (known as delta-T) or a low flow rate and a higher delta-T, or some combination in the middle. In the case of Calvert Cliffs, the engineers designing the plant in the late 1960s conferred with biologists and came to the conclusion that the bay would be better protected by having a very high flow rate and a very low delta-T (I think it is only 5 deg F). I don't know if today's scientists would reach that same conclusion or not -- but that was the way the plant was built.

Years later, local fisherman take advantage of the huge flows from the submerged discharge at the plant (known as the rips). In addition to the large flow, the discharged water is a few degrees warmer than ambient, and any small living creatures that are pulled through the plant's cooling water intake screens are most likely killed, providing additional micro-food for the small fish living near the rips. These smaller fish provide the food supply for the large rockfish we enjoy catching.