Today's fishing

[Sanity]

Well, for some folks tomorrow never comes. Sometimes that's a good thing, but not in our case. Had a chance to meet "tober" henceforth called Toby at a nonPizza Meeting. The fellow travels alot and misses many of the get-togethers, but today was a nonPizza event.

We greeted a doggone beautiful day. Coulda been a bit overcast to suit me and I prepared them for disappointment based on recent results. Better to have it start out with pessimism and brighten it up then to have it start with optimism and have our hopes dashed.

I hadn't been out in the boat for over a month, so I knew it was going to be a bit cranky about holding power, even though I got the engine temperature up to 170. It has been my experince that under those circumstances she might conk out and that's embarassing not to mention potentially dicey. I pulled out of the slip and sure enough, it did and set it's sights on a Parker berthed across from the slip. We hit it gently though adroitly on the port side. No damage at the speed I was going until we ran forth to prevent damage. That lowered the bow enough to hook the Danforth on the siderail and take a couple of dings out of the gelcoat. I made contact with the fellow later and he was quite decent about my misadventure and repairs such as they are with reparations will be made.

We headed for the High Rise with a bucket full of lovely eels. There were already boats there and the usual "best spots" were taken so we tried to anchor up farther down the span. Seem the tide had just gone slack and we actually drifted around the anchor with a limp rope and the eel hung straight down from the boat. This particular eel had no desire to show us his swimming capabilities.

With plan one not looking so good, we went to plan 2, which involved going up the Eastern Shore side of the bay to the Concrete Ships. There we were greeted with bait balls and diving gulls. We hung out with the birds for an hour or so with no hook-ups, though some of the bait was really thick and the birds were eating their fill. No predators were there except us. A couple of other boats joined us but they didn't do anything either.

So it's back to plan 1, hello High Rise. By this time the tide was running stronger and we pulled into the ocean side down from the eelers and started trolling since we were rigged for it anyway. Huge bait balls with fish that pinged off the lines were there and Toby got a hook-up. It was a decent 30 inch fish. Nice fish...bad slot. Over you go after the photo op.



We continued to work our way around the other boats and several eelers pulled anchors and started cluttering up the troll by drifting their eels or just plain anchoring right over the bait balls. Couldn't blame them, but it made the trolling harder to maneuver around them. There was one other boat that was consistently hooking-up and they were well mannered and we worked well together. They fared better than we did and for our efforts, Mr. Shoulson managed to get a Menhaden to strike a bucktail with a curly tail trailer. His effort is shown below. Apparently the filter feeders are getting tired of being on the bottom of the food chain.



The crowd got thicker and the fish more picky with no further hook-ups of any kind, so we moved on to trolling down to the islands. Not "those" islands but the thingies connected to the bridge. No bait balls and no fishies.

We then tried to 4th, 3rd, and 2nd casting lures. No dice.

All in all it was a beautiful day on the water. Boat ran like a champ after it's initial crankiness and we made one last stop on the way into Lynnhaven to see if there really were fish under those gulls. Nope!

As for the parrot, I left him off in downtown Norfolk where somebody captured his laison with his friend. I think that he put one over on his date who doesn't really SEE things the way that they are. When he came back to roost, he had a smile on his face. You have to ask the dog about that.



Nice "fishing" with you, Toby....and if anyone had to be the one who caught the fish.....I'm glad it was you.

[tober]

thanks for the invite. Its great to be able to meet new people that just want to have fun and go out on the water with the mind set of catching fish is a bonus. we do need to get the fish strecher fixed. it was truley a great day with great poeple i had a great time
again thanks for the invite

nice meeting you tom!
chuck i hope your hand feels better but im glad you left the space open for me to fish with these good guys maybe i will meet you next time

glad the parrot made it home safe with a smile, what kind of breed will you call the puppies

[Hamweiser]

Toby,

This is Marty Hamilton....are you the Toby that used to hang out with Ben James...how are things.

Marty

[doug johnson]

Doc

Looks like you carried on the fine tradition that was established last year It was a beautiful day to be on the water and I know you and the crew had plenty of stories to tell and I'm sure there was no lack of excitement.

I dug this up from last year and there must be an addition of getting the boat out of the slip.

From Doug Whalen on the "Old Man's Fishing Trip"

The JoAnn Sea is available for an occasional trip in the Bay for those deserving (or not so deserving) anglers who 1: Have nothing better to do! 2: Who don't care if they catch anything or not! 3: Who belong to the story tellers and liars club! 4: Who don't need a hassel on a fishing trip. 5: Who have trouble getting in and out of boats, when sober! 6: Prefer to fish on the days when there is no weekend hassel! 7: Have a touch of gray in their hair or if there is no hair there then on their face!

Congratulations to PAWPAW and Toby just to have the adventure with with you.

No storms!!!

[racn35]

and they told me there wasnt any fish out there.......you guys are done good I tell ya !!

[tpaulino]

Nice report, You didn't happen to snag my Shimano LTJ combo while trolling. Lost it between the high rise and 9' Shoal.

[ruger77]

Sounds like a great day, and you managed to keep the 'adventure' limited to a short round of bumper boats.

So the parrot packs a pistol to keep the skunk out of the boat? Nice slottie!

Thanks for the report!

James

[J Lavender]

Glad to hear you had a good day fellas. That's a nice fish Toby has there and it looks like the water was nice and calm for the boat ride across the bay. Paw Paw that's one of the nicer menhaden I've seen caught on hook and line this year!

If you could have seen me on Saturday I'm sure you would have had a good laugh watching me simultaniously driving the boat while trolling and casting to the pilings on a solo trip. My efforts resulted in two hook ups but neither came to the boat but it was a beautiful day to be on the water!

[Joe Bowers]

great report with some nice pic, thanks Doc

[pawpaw]

Thanks again for the invite Tom. Although the day got off to a rocky start, things picked up once we cleared the inlet. It was pretty cool finding those massive schools of Menhaden and hopefully next time we'll find the Stripers.

Toby, sure was good to meet you today and I hope that Tom didn't scar you mentally!