CBBT report and thanks!!!!

[Fat Jimmy]

I know this is the crabbing board, but it was just a crew of crabbers anyhow- so i'm posting here. First off- a huge thanks to RJ for extending the invitation and putting up with that Butthead character and myself for 24 hours or so! :p Even though Rich fished all day on Friday with another crew- he took us out Friday evening for a couple of hours to give it a shot. We didn't hook up, but it was a neat experience being out under the bridge at night on such a nice evening in December. We headed back to RJ's place in Chincoteague after that, got a few hours of sleep and hit it again early yesterday morning. Tommy (tommytek) and his buddy Shawn met us at the ramp and we were off right around dawn. After a beautiful sunrise and our eels in the water the wait was on. It was a frustrating day many times as the fish would take the eels, but for whatever reasons we couldn't get hooked up.

And then- finally success!! I was lucky enough to be standing beside the rod when it took off and as soon as I picked it up- I knew right away it wasn't an upper Potomac mudcat like we catch up here in the hills! Anyhow- thanks to some expert coaching from RJ and encouragement from the crew we managed to net a 46 inch 38 lb. gorgeous hog of a rock fish. I'll work on getting a picture posted or hopefully Tommy got a decent one and can put one on here. We did get one more nice 36 incher on the eels and with an hour or so of daylight left RJ made a great call to head to the bridge for some jigging. Again- he coached us novices and we ended up putting 8 more fish in the box from 18-27 inches to finish our limit. Tommy really figured out the jigging in a hurry and put the rest of us to shame, but we all caught a couple and had lots more fun.

Thanks again to our most gracious Captain and it was a pleasure to fish with Rod, Tommy and Shawn. Thanks also to Rod for being my co-pilot, keeping me awake on the ride home, and cleaning fish last night at 11 o'clock.

Everyone have a safe and Happy New Year and i'll see you all at snoodefest!! Right now i've got some unbelievable rockfish fillets to get trimmed up and ready for the party tonight- oh yea- and half a bushel Chincoteague oysters!! It's a rough life, but somebody's got to do it!! ;) Thanks again guys!!

[stingray]

Hey Jamie. Nice job on the fish; sounds like a beauty. It IS extremely frustrating when they don't take the hook but it sure makes things interesting. Rich sure does a great job of putting us on the fish (crabs too), but more importantly is a pleasure to fish with.

Happy New Year everybody!!

see ya

[rj]

A great way to end the year,,2 days at the CBBT,great weather and exellent company, and some fish too!
friday with Herb (stingray) ed (noboat) & don (msgrady)
went looking for big ones and we found them 36 to 40+ in & 1 at 27 in, all eelin' called it a day about 2 pm. a great day on the water ,hundreds of boats out on friday most with good catches like ours


Friday eveninng Rod (Butthead) & Jamie (Fat Jimmy) arrived and we gave it a shot at the bridge at night for a few hrs but no hookups, we decided to retire for an early day on sat.

Sat started out with real good weather and calm seas and we were joined by Tommy (Tomytech) and Shawn and again ,lots of boats. went looking for big ones again in some of the same places as the previous day and found a few, managed a 46" , 38 lb fish and a 37" but had much difficulty staying hooked up to the fish,,probably lost about 20 fish that grabbed our bait and ran with the drags screaming but would spit the hook when we tried to bring them in, really got a little frustrating, but my crew really hung in there in spite of this..(thanks Guys!)

& finally we decided to give the big ones a rest and do a little LTJ'ing, so we headed for the bridge and finished filling the box with schoolies fron 19-27 in
annother good day on the water with good company & a few fish too!

here are a few picsfrom friday, one is from the kiptopeake ramp & the line of boats waiting to recover on fri

Tommy has the pics from sat , hope he can post some for us

[b.dog]

nice pic's,you guy's had a great trip and any good news should be welcome here! that's one heck of a fish bustin team.

[Camoboat]

Great report - where is that ramp? Didn't think there were any warmer temps & clear skys around here last week . . .

[noboat]

Wow, what a good looking group
Thanks again Rich. Good time, good company and good fishing.
Ed

[rj]

Bruce
The ramp in the Photo is the one at Kiptopeake state park, located on the eastern Shore just above the CBBT,,the pic shows the ramp and the concrete ships in the background. real nice ramp and plenty of parking..just real busy last weekend

http://www.dcr.state.va.us/parks/kiptopek.htm

[MIKE BURGESS]

Nice seeing some of you guys down there Sat Night/Sunday !!!! Nice fish

[Capt. Dale]

Great job guys
What a way to end 2006
Tommy thanks for the fish heads & bones also the Rockfish steaks, my Cioppino
turned out very good with the help of the fish stock.
See you all at OC or Snoodfest.

[tomytek]

I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but hear goes. Like RJ said, what a great way to end the year. I never thought I would be fishing the CBBT before the New Year in near 60 degree weather. It was even flat calm in the morning. It did seem like we were in the twilight zone when the fog rolled in. Thanks again RJ for extending the invitation to the crabbing board. It was nice to meet you, Rod, and Jamie in person. It was nice to finally put a face to a board name. We had a great crew on the boat. We had many laughs and man those were some good oysters. Thanks for sharing Jamie and Rod.

Shawn and I took the midnight drive and made it to the ramp around 4. We took a power nap and grabbed some breakfast at Stingrays. We then met RJ, Rod, and Jamie at the ramp around 6ish and we were off. This was my first time eeling, so I had no clue of what to expect. RJ was a great teacher and explained the setup really well. It was a little frustrating seeing them run and spit the bait, but it sure was fun to see the float take off and hear the clicker scream. I know I had a hard time with the hookset. I had to force myself to not do a jaw breaking hookset, like I'm flippin' for bass. Jamie was the first to figure it out and reeled in a nice Hog. I think he even said that was his new personal best. Congratz on that nice Hog. I have a nice video of Jamie bringing it in. I will post it as soon as I covert it. I finally figured it out the hookset and tied my personal best with a nice 36' fish. After that, we had a couple more takers, but no hook ups. RJ then took us to the bridge pilings for some LTJ. The fish finder was loaded from top to bottom. I managed to catch a nice 27' out of the schoolies. We caught quite a few fish and had our limit by sun down.

I must thank you again RJ for letting us accompany at the CBBT. That day was definitely a highlight for me in 2006. It was another great day on the water with many laughs and great company. Happy New Year everyone. I hope you enjoy the pics below.

We had a beautiful sunrise.


Check out the nice bendage on that rod.


Nice net job RJ


Here's Jamie with his HOG.


Here's a pic of our spread.


Another nice net job RJ


Here's me with a nice fish


Check out this sail boat trolling with their kicker motor in the fog. Now that was a site to see.


It was a nice sunset from the pilings.


Here's a shot of what Shawn and I took home. Guess what we had for dinner for the New Year?