Report - MLK Day - 21 Jan 08

[Mike Avery]

Wow - what a day!!!!

Plan A - Fish with Tony (Tonydivefish) on Reelaxin out of Rudee with Robert (Playin Hooky) and Dennis (Hookinfinger). Met up with Tony at 6:15 am at Owl Creek at a cool 18 degrees....brrrr. Port engine won't stay started. Wire shorting out. OK -- Plan A out....thanks Tony for the invite. Sorry about the engine. Hope you are back up soon. You can fish with me anytime.

Plan B - Drive from Rudee back to Hampton and pile on my boat and run North. Starboard engine not peeing, line is frozen. Little warm water fixes the problem as it's just the rubber line that is exposed outside the engine. Robert, Dennis and I decide to run North. Bay is still sloppy and I thought the ocean side ES might be calmer with a North wind but looks a little NE and this are still sloppy. Run past ship shoal inlet. Fish finder is blank all the way out to 3 miles. Thousands of those dang black duck looking birds flying everywhere. At a distance they look like working gannets but no bait, no fish. So plan B ain't working either and the morning is gone.

Plan C - Run South until we find fish. 30 miles South. But with no fish in the box, we don't stay inside 3 miles and run straight there. At 5 miles outside Rudee, get pulled over by a VMRC boat. They ask if we have any striper on board. I say no, I'm flying a skunk flag. They don't check taking my word for it. Get about 2 miles South of Rudee just inside the 3 mile line and the gannets start going off. Schools of bunker are everywhere.



Got some great video of the birds going off that I'll put up later. Lots of bait but few fish in this area. We did manage 4 nice fish losing 2. Since we got there late in the day, didn't have all day to find more fish.

Robert with his fatty.



Dennis his nice on cranking way back on the umbrella.



Long day, long run, lots of driving too, we decide to pack it in early and run back to Hampton.

One the way back, get pulled over by the CG. Geez, what is this, check on Seaduction day. All they wanted to know is if we had any weapons or weapons of mass destruction aboard. I say no and they, like the VMRC boat, take my word for it and do not check for themselves. Hmmm, I guess they assume a poacher and a terrorist will always tell the truth.



At the fish cleaning station, the striper had of course bunker in their bellies.





Great day on the water. Glad we were able to salvage plan C and get some fish. Good to fish with Dennis and Robert and meeting Tony.

[cmacdol]

Thanks for the Report!

Les

[OJ]

We were out there with you just south of Rudy. Only managed 2 fish. Like you said alot of bait.

OJ

[tonydivefish]

mike thanks for your & robert's patience. that's what i get for bragging to someone about not having even a hiccup on my motors in the last 18 months. really glad you all found some fish, you definitely paid the dues for em. after a run like that i'm just gonna stay @ home & keep calling you til you've found em. sure will save me a lot of time!way to make a lemonade out of lemons!

oh ya, for everyone's info mike & robert drove from hampton to owl's creek by 615 am & never even batted an eye about a spoiled trip. just went for another boat. class.

[finnfur]

Surprised that nothing north? Long ride and plan C worked. Catching and better than working.
Great report. Thanks

[wet stix]

great report glad you got into some fish man those sure are nice clear pictures of that camera

[b8 boy]

Got off work early and I had to head for the oceanfront to see what was biting or not. I saw Seduction come under the Rudy bridge and I pulled in the old Lighthouse Lot to check out the view and wave like some crazy person at you. Glad you guys got into the fish and had some fun. Hope everyone else is going back to work tomorrow cause I am off and hope to find the fish where you left them. Thanks for the report. Martin

[Here We Go]

WMD's?

Must have been that shady character Robert you had on board....a little more hair and he'd be a Bin Laden look a like

Great report Mike and good pics

Congrats on the catch

[ReelEscape]

Mike you got to be careful hanging around Robert......he does have that suspicious look about him, that beard action going and that funky looking chartruse mojo looking hat........

anyways, glad you guys made the best of the day and found some nice fish......Robert's ok to fish with, but Dennis, i always enjoy fishing with Dennis he's a class act and fun to hang around too. Happy MLB,MKL....whatever holiday it was........some of us had to work you know!!!

[c-note]

i need to get a gun mounted on the bow of my boat incase anyone crosses my lines....Way to salvage the day and thanks for the report.