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Got up Friday morning and checked NWS to see that 2-3 and turned into 3-4, but left Odenton at 4:00 AM anyway and met the second half of my crew at Kipto Inn. John, my brother's friend from high school, informed me that the vasectomy he had gotten a few days before was not looking forward to the small craft advisory.
Despite sings of MAJOR rainfall (most cornfields were under water) the boat cover was in tact and not holding any water... thanks to my pathetic mcgyver PVC pipe running from the transom to the windshield under the cover (more about that later).
Shot over to Kipto ramp to find the docks under water and a strong W-NW wind and seas that I definitely was not going out in. Went to Chris' to see if they had crabs and we could tog around the inside of the ships, but no go.
Went to stingrays and wanted to vomit by the amount of country bacon I saw scarfed down when a tour bus from Hampton Roads stopped by en route to Atlantic City.
Shortly before noon, we launched from wise ramp so we could have a shorter run to the bridge in the mess. It had laid down some, but it was still snotty out. Plus, the outgoing tide and the W-NW wind had pushed a lot of water out of the bay, and we actually touched bottom right after we went under the first bridge... I was running over the previous track I had used from that ramp and I had never been in less than 5 feet of water.
We looked at some pilings on the way out, but there was no way I could have handled the boat around the pilings in those conditions. Eventually, we made it to the 4th island and ducked into the lee on the ocean side, and parked it there for the rest of the day. We had a steady pic of footballs, and Jon actually managed one 43.5" fish on a 6" chartruese BKD and 1oz jighead late in the afternoon. I'm quite sure pulling against a trophy rockfish on light tackle for 5 minutes was not in John's post-op recovery plan, so I was pretty proud him for releasing that fish to swim another day after all that straining. It was caught casting right against the rocks and swimming back to the boat, not jigging on the bottom... the fish took the jig RIGHT against the rocks. We did not see another boat the entire day, until Walley Pete showed up around 3:00.
Pete made a smart move and headed for the barn before the sun went down, and made the classy move of stopping by and asking if I was okay getting home, if I wanted to run back with him through the snot (I think he knew where it would lay down the most based on bottom countour, etc), and even told me that if we had trouble with low water again, I should run all the way up to Kipto and give him a call and he would drive me to wise ramp so I could get my truck/trailer :thumbup::thumbup:
Stupidly, we declined because we were planning on setting up for a little evening eeling at the high rise. We were one of only 4 boats out there, and with the strong wind and now incoming tide (against each other), I couldn't hold bottom or get a decent spread out. Plus it was pretty snotty and I have to say I'm never eeling again unless I have the rods pre-rigged (we were trying to tie in that mess and it sucked). We struck out there and after about 90 minutes just called it a night.
We ran back to the Wise Ramp and thankfully with the VERY full moon I had enough light to see the breakers coming at me the entire way back. I got a lesson in throttle control and it was a good experience... giving it a little gas up the wave and then pulling back while we came down the other side and wave after wave after wave just barely avoided stuffing the bow. I've taken a few waves over the bow in less snotty conditions, but am starting to figure out the piloting/captaining thing and we made it home soaked only by wind-blown boat spray. My speed on the way back was always between 3 and 7 knots, so it was a long trip.
The next day we did it all over again, but were able to run all over the bridge (although it was still pretty snotty). We caught fish steadily all day, but only footballs. Fish jigged up in 6 feet of water at the shoals all the way to 60 feet of water near the 3rd island - all 27 and under. We checked all my favorite pilings and hundreds of other random ones all the way to the 2nd island, but found more of the same.
On the way back to the ramp, just to keep me humble from what I considered to be excellent boat handling in the rough stuff for the past two days, I made a naviagation error and was very confused as I was running at 4,000 rpms to see the water depth on my meter go from 8 feet to 3 feet to 1 foot in about 5 seconds. Then I felt the bump and throttled back all the way while trimming the motor up as fast as it would go, only to find myself THOROUGHLY stuck on a sandbar with an outgoing tide. Turns out I had missed the cut back to the wise ramp (I have no idea how - have launched there plenty of times) and run up onto the flats.
Two of my HOs had waders on and hopped out, but the boat wasn't going anywhere. I bit the bullet and decided that since I had gotten us into this mess, and since I'm fat and wasn't helping the boat float off the bar by being in it, I hopped out too. Let's just say that 48 degree water was refreshing. It was only shin deep, but it began creeping up my long underwear like a sponge.
30 minutes later, we had the boat into thigh deep water and we were able to get back in the boat and head back to the ramp without further incident. No damage done, other than a shot to my pride. Fortunately, no boats came through the cut while we were pushing her off... they wouldn't have been able to help, so I didn't need anyone laughing
Got her tied up at the ramp and noticed as I was walking to get the car that the water in my boots was actually starting to feel warm like in a wetsuit. I didn't want to change into dry clothes until after we had her all washed up (where I always manage to get wet), because I only had one extra set of clothes and wanted to be totally dry when driving home. As I got into the Pathfinder, I saw the icing on the cake. The PVC boat cover support I had mcgyver rigged gets put into the truck when we use the boat. It barely fits in the truck... and when the hatch had been closed earlier in the day, the PVC had been kicked forward and actually put about a 30 inch diameter spider web in my front windshield!!!!!
The rest of the day was uneventful, so I crawled into bed about 5 hours later licking my wounds and dreaming of calm seas, a steady pick of bigger fish, deep channels, unswollen balls, greater freeboard, deeper Vs, bigger anchors, and new windshields.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far. I'll post pics tonight, but was too tired (or too scared of breaking it somehow) to unload pics off my camera when we got home.
Despite sings of MAJOR rainfall (most cornfields were under water) the boat cover was in tact and not holding any water... thanks to my pathetic mcgyver PVC pipe running from the transom to the windshield under the cover (more about that later).
Shot over to Kipto ramp to find the docks under water and a strong W-NW wind and seas that I definitely was not going out in. Went to Chris' to see if they had crabs and we could tog around the inside of the ships, but no go.
Went to stingrays and wanted to vomit by the amount of country bacon I saw scarfed down when a tour bus from Hampton Roads stopped by en route to Atlantic City.
Shortly before noon, we launched from wise ramp so we could have a shorter run to the bridge in the mess. It had laid down some, but it was still snotty out. Plus, the outgoing tide and the W-NW wind had pushed a lot of water out of the bay, and we actually touched bottom right after we went under the first bridge... I was running over the previous track I had used from that ramp and I had never been in less than 5 feet of water.
We looked at some pilings on the way out, but there was no way I could have handled the boat around the pilings in those conditions. Eventually, we made it to the 4th island and ducked into the lee on the ocean side, and parked it there for the rest of the day. We had a steady pic of footballs, and Jon actually managed one 43.5" fish on a 6" chartruese BKD and 1oz jighead late in the afternoon. I'm quite sure pulling against a trophy rockfish on light tackle for 5 minutes was not in John's post-op recovery plan, so I was pretty proud him for releasing that fish to swim another day after all that straining. It was caught casting right against the rocks and swimming back to the boat, not jigging on the bottom... the fish took the jig RIGHT against the rocks. We did not see another boat the entire day, until Walley Pete showed up around 3:00.
Pete made a smart move and headed for the barn before the sun went down, and made the classy move of stopping by and asking if I was okay getting home, if I wanted to run back with him through the snot (I think he knew where it would lay down the most based on bottom countour, etc), and even told me that if we had trouble with low water again, I should run all the way up to Kipto and give him a call and he would drive me to wise ramp so I could get my truck/trailer :thumbup::thumbup:
Stupidly, we declined because we were planning on setting up for a little evening eeling at the high rise. We were one of only 4 boats out there, and with the strong wind and now incoming tide (against each other), I couldn't hold bottom or get a decent spread out. Plus it was pretty snotty and I have to say I'm never eeling again unless I have the rods pre-rigged (we were trying to tie in that mess and it sucked). We struck out there and after about 90 minutes just called it a night.
We ran back to the Wise Ramp and thankfully with the VERY full moon I had enough light to see the breakers coming at me the entire way back. I got a lesson in throttle control and it was a good experience... giving it a little gas up the wave and then pulling back while we came down the other side and wave after wave after wave just barely avoided stuffing the bow. I've taken a few waves over the bow in less snotty conditions, but am starting to figure out the piloting/captaining thing and we made it home soaked only by wind-blown boat spray. My speed on the way back was always between 3 and 7 knots, so it was a long trip.
The next day we did it all over again, but were able to run all over the bridge (although it was still pretty snotty). We caught fish steadily all day, but only footballs. Fish jigged up in 6 feet of water at the shoals all the way to 60 feet of water near the 3rd island - all 27 and under. We checked all my favorite pilings and hundreds of other random ones all the way to the 2nd island, but found more of the same.
On the way back to the ramp, just to keep me humble from what I considered to be excellent boat handling in the rough stuff for the past two days, I made a naviagation error and was very confused as I was running at 4,000 rpms to see the water depth on my meter go from 8 feet to 3 feet to 1 foot in about 5 seconds. Then I felt the bump and throttled back all the way while trimming the motor up as fast as it would go, only to find myself THOROUGHLY stuck on a sandbar with an outgoing tide. Turns out I had missed the cut back to the wise ramp (I have no idea how - have launched there plenty of times) and run up onto the flats.
Two of my HOs had waders on and hopped out, but the boat wasn't going anywhere. I bit the bullet and decided that since I had gotten us into this mess, and since I'm fat and wasn't helping the boat float off the bar by being in it, I hopped out too. Let's just say that 48 degree water was refreshing. It was only shin deep, but it began creeping up my long underwear like a sponge.
30 minutes later, we had the boat into thigh deep water and we were able to get back in the boat and head back to the ramp without further incident. No damage done, other than a shot to my pride. Fortunately, no boats came through the cut while we were pushing her off... they wouldn't have been able to help, so I didn't need anyone laughing
Got her tied up at the ramp and noticed as I was walking to get the car that the water in my boots was actually starting to feel warm like in a wetsuit. I didn't want to change into dry clothes until after we had her all washed up (where I always manage to get wet), because I only had one extra set of clothes and wanted to be totally dry when driving home. As I got into the Pathfinder, I saw the icing on the cake. The PVC boat cover support I had mcgyver rigged gets put into the truck when we use the boat. It barely fits in the truck... and when the hatch had been closed earlier in the day, the PVC had been kicked forward and actually put about a 30 inch diameter spider web in my front windshield!!!!!
The rest of the day was uneventful, so I crawled into bed about 5 hours later licking my wounds and dreaming of calm seas, a steady pick of bigger fish, deep channels, unswollen balls, greater freeboard, deeper Vs, bigger anchors, and new windshields.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far. I'll post pics tonight, but was too tired (or too scared of breaking it somehow) to unload pics off my camera when we got home.
