Fish on

Since my last post, winter has left, spring has come, and summer kicks off in a few weeks. With the change of seasons, I've turned to fishing. I've been on several trips this spring, each has been excellent and full of rewards.

The first good trip of the spring was opening day of the Trophy Rockfish season here in Maryland. I fished on Steve Picarde's boat out of Oyster Harbor, just south of the Severn River in the Chesapeake Bay. Trophy season is all about trolling, not my favorite way to fish, but its the only game in town for the Trophy rockfish in the bay. During this season, fisherman target ocean run striped bass coming into the Bay and its tributaries to spawn. These fish are not schooled up, so you need to cover a lot of ground to catch them. That's why trolling is the best way to hook up. Besides myself and Steve, we also fished with Brent Prossner and Ryan Hughes.
Brent on the left, Steve at the Helm, and Ryan on the right:


Another fishing boat, at sunrise:


Here Steve sets out the lines. This lure is called an umbrella rig, it mimics a small school of bait fish:


Ryan was up on the first fish, he's a champ!


And his fish, a 34.5 inch rockfish:


Ryan was the lucky one, and reeled in our only fish. Some may call one fish in several hours of fishing a bad trip, however, we were in a small tournament with some friends, and this fish ended up being the winner. Our one fish earned the boat $800.00. Yeah, that's right.

The winners back at the dock, with out trophy:


By the way, that puppy held by Steve is Fin's son, Macon. I'm looking like I may need to miss a meal or two.

Next good trip took me and my family down to Key West. I love Key West, best place to fish I've ever been. Water is blue and clear, and the fish are big and plentiful. If I ever become a bum, I"m migrating to Key West with a fishing rod.

In Key West, I fished the shallow flats searching for Tarpon, Permit, and Bonefish. Those are the big three flats species, but there are many other good fish to catch. Sharks, Jacks, Grouper, Ladyfish, Trout, Redfish...

...and Barracuda:

They guy on my left is Steve Impallomeni, our guide. I used to think I was a good fisherman until I met him.

During the trip, I also did a little reef fishing, here I am with a Red Grouper. Even though it only weiged fifteen pounds, this fish nearly pulled me overboard:


I did a little fly fishing for tarpon. I had one tarpon grab my fly, but I pulled it out of his mouth and he didn't hook up. To make up for it, we caught some Jacks:

These fish fight hard!

The trophy of my Key West trip was a 27 pound permit. Steve took me to a channel running between some flats. The permit were cruising the channel looking for crabs pulled off of the shallows by the outgoing tide. Using a live crab I hooked up and fought the fish for 20 minutes. Very strong and determined fish.

Here I got him close:




But he was not ready to quit:




Fish was tough, and I had a lot of getting him close, and he would run out my line, but finally I got him:




I was happy:


My last fishing trip was to Hoopers Island last weekend. Turned into one of my most memorable trips on the Bay yet. I fished with Andy Hughes, and we caught many rockfish:


Catching the rock was awesome, but what made the day great was I passed a milestone in my fishing career, my first Chesapeake Speckled Trout:

These fish, though common in the past, are not so much anymore. In 4 years of fishing the waters around Hoopers Island, this was my first. My goal is to catch every fish there is to catch in the Bay, this guy is one more off that list.

The day did not end there. On the way home, we found fish crashing the surface, chasing silverside minnows (or bay anchovies, or rainfish, most the time, I just call them bait). Rockfish were crashing the bait on the surface, pretty much every cast ended up with a fish, and Andy and I had many double headers. Here Andy caught me releasing a smaller rockfish, I think its a good picture:


To end this post, here's one I took of the Blackwater Refuge on my way to Hoopers: