Bramble's Guide to Fine Living

Key West Fishing

2009-05-19T20:40:00.002-04:00

Blue Water

Bar Jack

My Permit

Releasing the Permit

Silver King

My Tarpon, all 140lbs

Big Mouth

2009-05-19T20:37:00.002-04:00

Holland's Island Humming Bird

Eyeing up dinner:

Wearing Dinner

A few recent Pictures

2009-05-19T20:31:00.003-04:00

Lousiana Redfish

2009-02-10T21:02:00.003-05:00

Flew into the Big Easy for a little fishing with Jeremy Mercer. We were after jumbo red drum, and we were not disapointed. Fish were big, dumb, and plentiful. We were stalking the brutes on the shallow flats of the bayous, in the areas between the Mississipi and the Gulf. We were sight fishing, so we spotted the fish first then made our casts.

Our guide, Capt. Brian, poling us in search of Red:

Standing ready for a fish:

A tail, sure sign:

These fish were dumb, you could plunk the fly down as hard as you wanted, and as long as you didn't smack them on the head, they would see it as food.

A take:

Battling the brute:

Landing him:

Photo op:

Another fish, despite the look, Jeremy was happy:

Release:

Jeremy also caught Black Drum:

Even I caught a fish or two:

Flora and Fauna
White Pelicans:

Oyster eatin' 'coons:

Roseate Spoonbills:

Oysters, so many beautiful oysters. How I wish they grew like this on the Bay:

Parting Shot:

James Island

2009-01-03T18:10:00.003-05:00

Hunted Bobby and David Connolly on their yacht, Lucy. They took me to a Chespeake island several miles north of Hoopers, called James Island. James is separated into three islands, we hunted on the southernmost island, which is also the largest.

Bobby docks Lucy:

The next photo was taken looking to the next island North. All the islands have a strong stand of evergreens, but not much else. The banks are undercut, and the trees are being dragged off by erosion:

I brought Cobi and Fin today to retrieve our birds. Cobi is a puppy, and loves retrieving, but she hates giving up. If she can't find a duck, she will usually grab a decoy. Here she grabbed a whole string and spent 10 mintutes trying to pull it in before we could get to her in the boat and make her release the string:

The hunt was slow, however, we had a raccoon visit us. Odd to see a raccoon in broad daylight, as they are nocturnal, however, it appeard healthy:

First View:

It had no fear of us, I think it expected to pick up our scraps. It never threatened us, though it would not leave.

Coming up on the boat:

Checking out Lucy:

We tried to chase it away, but it was intent on holding its ground. We threw a rock at it, which landed in the water, and it chased after the splashes, trying to retrieve the stone:

It swam back to shore, and unconcerend with our presence, dried itself on the bank:

We chose not to kill it, though as a bird hunter, that was probably a mistake. Because it was getting late, and we were worried about the dogs tangling with the coon, we packed up to leave.

Dave spied a crab buoy behind the raccoon. He wants the bouy for a project, and went after it to carrying a tomato pole in case the varmit attacked. The coon held its ground, and made no moves towards Dave, however, it did stare him down:

As soon as the boat pulled off shore, the coon made its way to our blind site, and started scavaging for scraps. Bobby had trouble with trailmix, and the coon reeped the rewards. However, a few bits of nuts didn't satisfy it, so it went for our decoys:

It gave up on the decoys, and swam back to shore. We decided to give it one of our ducks to see its reaction.

Evaluating our gift:

We thought it would bite the duck, instead it grabbed it with its "hands":

The duck in its paws, it then dunked its head to mouth it:

Once it had the duck, its curiosity with us was over, and it took off for a private dinner. I'd hoped it would come up for a shot with the duck in its mouth, but it was in flight mode, and I was only able to capture a brief glimpse of the bird:

Field Hunt

2009-01-02T20:03:00.004-05:00

I've been hearing many reports of good shooting for ducks in corn fields. I've shot ducks in fields in Canada, but never in Maryland. Today we set up for it, the key to success is mojo ducks, which are a decoy with a motorized wings, ducks love them.

We hunted out of layout blinds in standing corn:

We ended up killing 10 mallards, and 10 geese. We had a once in a lifetime visitor as well. Mojo duck worked so well, it attracted redheads to our field spread. Redheads are a diving duck, meaning they feed by finding vegetation and and invertibrates by diving in ponds, lakes, rivers, etc. For them to come to a field was unbelievable. I took the only shot at the group, and unfortunately did not bring a bird to hand.

Casey Owings, Dave Sikorski, Dave Connolly, Bobby Connolly, and myself with the day's bag:

Hunting and Swans

2008-12-28T11:20:00.003-05:00

Went hunting to the Bay Islands with Dave Sikorsk and Bobby and Dave Connolly. We have not seen good numbers of ducks this year, despite the best weather conditions in the last 3 seasons. However, we were able to shoot a few ducks on this outing, including a widgeon for Dave Connelly, his first:

We had a few swan decoys out in our duck rig. Swans are illegal to shoot in MD, however, hunters use swan decoys as "confidence decoys". Ducks see swans and know the swans are eating grass, meaning there is food. There are plenty of swans where we were, and they loved our decoys:

This swan was totally fooled, he came within 20 yards of our blind:

Ghosts

2008-12-13T00:05:00.002-05:00

A pair of ducks, framed in the almost full moon's light:

Bluefish

2008-08-10T20:41:00.002-04:00

Headed out of Hoopers with Butch Baker for some fly fishing. We got a late start Saturday, and because of the heat, I figured our best bet would be to find breaking fish. We searched for almost 2 hours, but finally found some big schools of bluefish marauding on pods of silversides. We were casting a bunch of flies, but by far the best action came from topwater.

Butch at the Target Ship, untangling a mess:

Popper:

Pop:

Bang:

Slash:

Inhale:

Hooked up!

Even birds like poppers:

And what's an entry without the house at Hollands?

Bachelor Party

2008-08-07T19:42:00.002-04:00

Headed to Virginia Beach again, but for my bachelor party. We went down on Wednesday, and fished through Saturday. Fishing was ok, the cobia aren't really hot this year, though we did see two. However we saw some other things:

U.S.S. Roosevelt:

We watched this boat cruise into the mouth of the Bay while we were fishing between the 1st and 2nd Islands of the Bridge Tunnel. It moved far faster than its size would indicate. The whole time it steamed towards us, Blackhawks were buzzing all over the place:

As the ship closed in and was about to pass us, this blackhawk hovered about 200 yards off our starbord. From where we were, we couldn't see any guns, but I'm sure there was one pointed in our direction:

I figured out the name of the ship from its Bridge Number:

A little history on the vessel:
http://www.tr.surfor.navy.mil/default.aspx

We did do some fishing, more often than not around the pilings of the Bridge Tunnel:

We mostly caught spadefish, like this one proudly displayed by Jeremy:

We aslo saw a ton of dolphins:

This brings us through the fishing, but we were there for a bachelor party. Unfortunately, strippers forbid cameras during the show...

Kiptopeake

2008-06-21T00:18:00.002-04:00

Headed down to Virginia's Eastern Shore to catch fish. Went down with Dave Sikorski and Jeremy Mercer. We were there for cobia and red drum. We saw neither. We did catch some other things.

Such as blacktip sharks on fly:

Dave and Jeremy with Jeremy's blacktip:

I even caught some fish, two black sea bass on one lure, I'm that good:

Jeremy took a nap, we decided to wake him:

Some black and white shots.

a shark:

Pelicans

Cobia

2008-06-12T20:43:00.002-04:00

This is my new puppy. She's Fin's daughter. I'm naming her Cobia, Cobi for short

Kendra and Cobi

The whole litter. All yellow, 10 total, only two females

Cobi's ma, Starr

Scolding and Beat-Down

2008-05-25T20:23:00.003-04:00

Explanation?

Catching up... Arkansas!

2008-03-13T21:20:00.003-04:00

Got to do some catching up...

Went to Arkansas for a week of duck hunting. We drove out, doing the entire 18 hour trip non-stop. On the way, those of us who didn't have to drive decided to imbibe.

Ben and Karl, enjoy a six pack

Karl informs Ben he has to go to the bathroom. Ben informs Karl we aren't stopping:

Karl takes matters into his own hands:

However, we finally got to Arkansas, and were greeted with fields full of birds. Here are some speckled belly geese in a rice field:

We found our lodge, it was a converted school house:

Our first hunt was in a rice field:

We hunted out of a pit, basically a long metal box buried just above water level:

Here Ben holds a pintail we killed out of the pit, while Marshall, Karl, and Dog look on. For those of you who know Matt Flaherty, don't be confused, that is Ben holding that duck:

Sunset from the pit, over the rice field:

Here we all are post hunt, from left to right are Marshall, Karl, Casey, Dog, Ben, Me:

One night, we played Poker, while Karl and I eat, Casey organizes the chips:

Ben is pleased with his cards, he has no poker face:

Karl went head to head with Ben, despite Ben's inability to hide anything, and lost:

Ben doesn't know how it happens, cause it just does:

Karl finds solace:

and is happy:

We also hunted flooded timber. It was wild, we got to take four wheelers to the hunting spots. Dog, Ben and Coot:

In the timber, we just stood against trees and tried to blend in. from left, Karl, Ben and Dog:

Karl and Ben see one. By the way, this is staged:

So is this one:

We did get a few though:

Coot was a big help:

Coot and Casey:

Trip was great, Rice was better than Timber, as we killed most of our birds in the Rice fields. Here's a good post hunt shot. From left, me, Ben, Marshall, Dog, Karl, Casey. Oh, and for those of you that can count, this was a combination of two hunts, and not close to the daily possesion limit:

We found a mascot, I swear to god we did not do this but found this guy like this on the side of the road:

Our trip tally:

Another Hunt

2008-01-12T11:05:00.000-05:00

This post is a week late, but here goes...

We again hunted out of Hoopers. I was with Dave Foote and David Sikorski, and we were doing something a little differnet. We had heard rumors of a lot of ducks in a cove we hunt, so we headed there. The rumors were true, and we were treated to a lot of ducks:

The black line in the middle of the picture is a raft of a thousand ducks at least. There were several species, black ducks, widgeon, pintails, bufflehead, blackhead, redhead and cans.

Here is a picture of some widgeon coming in to the raft:

All the ducks were drawn to this flock, and wanted nothing to do with our rinky dink spread of 60 decoys, so we decided to break out the scull boat.

This boat is Sikorski's, and he and David Foote are on board sculling to the birds, trying hard to look like an innocent log. Basically, both guys lay on their backs in the boat, and the guy in the front of the boat is the gunner, while the guy in the back of the boat is the sculler. The sculler uses a sculling oar, which is a 10 foot long paddle that he places out of the back of the boat, and swings back and forth in the water to propel the boat. Though slow going, this method of hunting relies on stalking and sneaking up on the birds to get close enough for a clean shot.

While they were on the way out to the birds, I was able to get two good picturs. The first was a sunrise:

The second was a flock of about two hundred redheads coming into the raft.

For those who like to try and ID birds, there are at least 4 canvasbacks in this picture as well.

Unfortunately my battery died in my camera before I could get anymore shots, but the scull was succesful, and they ended up with a very good drake redhead.

Mixed Bag

2007-12-18T13:27:00.000-05:00

Hunted out of Hoopers with Dave Sikorski and John Willey. We had a great morning. Though we did not end up with a full limit, we had better variety than I have ever had in Maryland. It was an awesome hunt.

We hunted out of layout blinds on the shoreline, here John Willey sits up for a stretch from his blind:

I nailed my first MD redhead, which Fin retreieved, like the redfish earlier in the summer, shooting a redhead is not an easy feat because of their rarity in this area:

By the way, propecia doesn't work...

Fin Retrieves a pintail:

We shot this bird over Dave's hand carved cork pintail decoys:

This is a picture of our bag for the day, we ended with 3 gadwall, 1 widgeon, 1 redhead, 1 pintail and 1 black duck. Not pictured is the merganser I shot:

Back at SHTS, the wall shot. Shannon and Jeremy (not pictured) also shot the same area and had a good morning as well. The birds on the wall are all the ducks shot that morning. Standing in the picture, from left to right are me, Dave Sikorski, John Willey and Shannon Brockmeyer:

Hoopers, Thanksgiving Weekend

2007-11-26T18:09:00.000-05:00

Hunted Hoopers last Friday and Saturday, after Thanksgiving.

On Friday, we trekked to Bloodsworth in the morning and hunted Great Cove. There is not much grass in Great Cove, so we did not see as many birds as we normally do on Bloodsworth. So the shooting wasn't great, but I did learn that I will never bother heading back there again.

Here is a picture of Sean with his dog Gretel:

In the afternoon, we hunted Prossner Point (formerly Gunner's Point) on the Lower Island. We saw a lot of birds, but did not convince any to toll. However, did see a pretty moonrise:

On Saturday, Greg Prossner, John Ashton and I went on a sea duck hunt out of the layout. We set up at the mouth of the Honga, and put out a rig for Old Squaw. Here are a few that buzzed the decoys:

a pair of hens:

Greg took a shot at this bird, he was a little behind:

He got it on the next shot:

He didn't kill it, so John Ashton had to finish it:

Then John went to pick it up:

That Green boat is the new SHTS club boat. Its a 25 foot Parker with a cuddy cabin.

RED DRUM

2007-10-08T22:31:00.000-04:00

I passed another milestone in my fishing career. I caught a red drum, on fly, in the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay. Catching this fish ranks high in my angling accomplishments. Catching a red, on fly, in MD is like hitting a grand slam.

I was with Jeremy, and we fished the rip at the barge at Holland's Island. Here is the spot:

We anchored in the current, and I caught him using a white gonzo fly fished on the bottom using a heavy sinking line:

Here's a closeup:

He may be small, but its a big first.

We fished several other spots, and caught rockfish and some blues. Here are some random pictures from the rest of the day....

Rippons Harbor, it was super calm:

Terns on a pound net:

Hoopersville in gold:

Big sunset:

These are some turkeys I saw the other day, its a mother with some poults:

Big Blues

2007-10-01T18:03:00.000-04:00

Headed back to Hoopers yesterday for a little fishing. Day was dead calm, no wind at all:

We were hoping to find breaking fish, but never did. My guess is that the breakers were scared, some big blues have moved into the area:

These fish are so big they are eating other predators. I found this fish because it was attacking a rockfish on the surface. I casted a deciever type fly to him and he took, awesome fight. Fish weighed in at about 6.5 lbs.

This is the other part of my catch for the day:

Fly caught seagull, he was pissed, and got me back by leaving a little gift on my just cleaned boat.

First Annual SHTS Invitational

2007-09-25T21:26:00.000-04:00

The South Hoopers Tolling Society hosted our first annual fishing tournament last weekend. Here are a few pictures from the event:

Karl Zierfus, he was my partner on my boat. If he's the end of the rainbow, then there is no hope:

Dave Foote, Andy Hughes, and Dave's friend Chris on Chris's 25 foot Regulator. This boat is sweet:

The Regulator on plane, this is the catalog shot:

Richland Buoy. The ripples in the water are schools of bait fish, the land in the background is my favorite place on Earth, Lower Hoopers Island:

Jeremy Mercer holds up the two winning Rockfish. 1st place was 28", second place was 27". Both caught by the Mercenary boys (Tyler and Jeremy) aboard Jeremy's new boat, the "Flaming Butterball":

The Spanish Mackeral I caught that won the "Other Species" Division:

All of us at the end of the day, this one will be hanging in the clubhouse:

Some party photos from the event:
Greg Prossner and his uncle Rich share a moment:

Greg Prossner demonstrates how much fun the outdoors can be:

Jeremy dispensing misinformation:

Tyler and Dave, I know Tyler is not that funny:

And finally, hanging out at the bonfire:

Toys

2007-09-11T20:19:00.000-04:00

I decided to upgrade my camera, here are the first pictures:

A flower, from the woods behind my office:

A closeup of Fin:

A woodduck box, in the swamp behind my office:

Corn Stalks, almost ready to be picked:

A dragonfly trapped by a spider:

I don't think these are masterpieces or anything like that, but I did no editing on them, and for that reason, I am pleased with them.

Richland Bouy

2007-08-28T10:41:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, Kendra and I went fishing near Richland Buoy, which lies about 2 mile from Hoopers Island. We had an awesome day, as we found fish chasing bait on the top of the water. Fishing does not get any better than that on the Bay, as you can see the schools of fish attacking the bait:

This picture more or less shows what a freeding frenzy looks like. It does not do the scene justice though. The predators herd the bait to the surface, and then go to town on them. Often, the fish are jumping out of the water chasing the bait. Its an incredible scene. The gulls get in on the action as well, picking off scraps. For a fisherman, there is no better sight then seeing 10 or 15 birds wheeling around in circles, you know the fishing will be excellent under those birds.

We caught countless bluefish and rockfish. Kendra caught the biggest bluefish I have seen in many years. It was easily a ten pound fish. Unfortunately, just as I grabbed the leader to pull it on the boat, the leader snapped, and the fish escaped. Technicaly, touching the leader counts as a catch during fishing, however, that did not suit her. Here she is looking at me with disgust for not pulling the fish on board.

She did catch a keeper rock though, which was good for me as she pretty much forgot about the fish I lost:

I was able to catch my first ever Spanish Mackerel in the Bay. These are a fish that enter the Bay in late summer. They are fun to catch, and make excellent fish tacos:

I also caught my biggest weakfish to date:

Here is my creel for the day, all good fish.

Uruguay

2007-08-08T21:55:00.000-04:00

In mid-July, I traveled to Uruguay with my father and some friends from Chestertown. We headed to the "Switzerland of South America" to enjoy the excellent bird shooting found there. Our targets were pigeons and perdiz.

Pigeons in South America are a homogenous breed. There are no mixed and multicolored varieties like you find in the States. Basically, they resemble a big dove:

Our guides would set up blinds for us in grain fields where the birds were feeding. The blinds were burlap wrapped around stakes, as seen here with Bill Bowdle:

And my father looking for birds from his, with his bird boy helping:

We would hunt large farms, often over 5000 acres that were mixed use, both grain and livestock:

Often, we would be shooting right overtop herds of cattle. Here Joseph poses in front of a few cows:

My father gets a visit:

Pigeons will toll like ducks to decoys. At most locations, the centerpiece of our decoy spread was a mechanical "fan" that took 4 dead pigeons with their wings spread and made it circle our spread:

Decoy spreads would contain a few plastic decoys, then the rest of the decoys would be made up of birds as we shot them. Our bird boys would mount the carcasses on stalks of corn, milo, or even fence posts:

These crude decoys worked well:

While pigeon shooting, we also had chances to shoot at ducks. These pictured are called Brazilian teal, or Patos Picasos in some regions:

Dad and I posing with a bag of about 20 ducks taken during a pigeon shoot:

We would also see wild parakeets flying around:

Because of crop damage, we were told we could shoot them as well:

I only shot a few parakeets because the guides would just leave them lay. We ate the ducks, and the pigeons were collected and given to farmers for pig feed.

We stayed in two different lodges, the first was on the coast in a city called Playa Del Este. Here is the view from our lodge:

Our lodge was part of a huge condo complex, here is the complex:

The second bird we targeted in Uruguay were perdiz. These birds are similiar to quail, except the prefer areas with less cover. We hunted them in large fields that were for cattle or horse grazing:

As shown in the above picture, the cover that hide perdiz is sparse, however they were almost invisible, and we would not see them until dogs jumped them for us. Unfortuately, I enjoyed perdiz shooting to much to trade my shotgun for my camere, so I did not take many pictures, but here are a few.

My father and I with a few we shot:

Other animals used the same cover:

The perdiz shooting was awesome, it was not unlikely to kill over 30 birds in a morning hunt. Here is a group photo after a good perdiz shoot:

we ate a lot of perdiz...

Our second lodge was part of an enormous estancia owned by Germans. According to our guides, they owned approximately 40,000 acres of land. The lodge was pretty impressive. It was an old mansion:

It even had its own church:

This trip was awesome. Uruguay is a bird shooters paradise. On pigeons, a case of shells (2500 rounds) per hunt was the norm. The perdiz shooting was unbelievable, and we also had ducks. I can't say enough about the shooting. We were treated well also. Here Rumina opens one of many bottles of wine for us:

The local wine is excellent, and the food amazing as well. At the second lodge, we were treated to grilled steaks. Their grills are a little different:

Though Dr. Aquila is blocking the grill, it stretched 4 feet long and hung from the top of the chimney, suspended over the coals. The coals were gathered from the wood burning in the right hand corner of the above picture. As embers fell off the logs, they were scraped under the grill. I would love to have one of these in my house.

Dinners were always great:

Here are a few other shots from the trip...

Joseph and Mr. Mercer, enjoying drinks

Mr. Mercer telling George, our guide, how its done:

Mr. Mercer, after George implemented his suggestions:

Joseph and I decided to hang out and party with the serving staff at our second lodge:

Sunrise over the hills of Uruguay:

They have wild Emu's in Uruguay, they call them Reis:

A few other birds:

A bird nest, these were on posts and telephone poles everywhere:

Modern farming:

Two quick shots

2007-07-12T06:53:00.001-04:00

Fawn are popping up everywhere on the Eastern Shore:

Pelicans from a rookery on Hollands Island, in the Chesapeake. There are hundreds of them on this tiny island:

Ghost Ship

2007-05-30T21:22:00.000-04:00

These are photos of the American Mariner. She's a Naval target ship about 13 miles south of Hoopers Island. Wikipedia explains her past; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAS_American_Mariner

A deserted hulk, and I'm not one to find out if she's haunted or not:

The bow:

Looking North from mid-ship, she's been hammered by Naval training:

Opposite side, this portion of the ship is exposed to the elements, and shows the wear from wind and violent seas:

Her Stern:

Supposedly, this wreck will hold good numbers of fish. On the day these pictures were taking, we didn't catch anything. However, it was early in the season. I'm anxious to get back and try to fish around her again. Supposedly, there is another ship sunken close by, but it is only visible on the lowest tides.

Fish on

2007-05-16T21:30:00.000-04:00

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:

Winter Report

2007-02-18T14:50:00.000-05:00

End of Duck Season
Duck season ended a few weeks ago. On the last day, I invited a big group to come and shoot at my family's farm. We had an excellent shoot. Limits on blackheads, and geese, and we shot mallards, widgeon, buffleheads, and goldeneyes. It was great way to end a slow season.

Skip retrieves one of our mallards:

Me, Eddie, Dave and Jeremy. We did not kill all these birds ourselves, there were 7 other people who shot with us, we just made sure we were around for the big picture:

Overall, this hunting season was good. The warm period in Decemeber and January made for some challenging conditions, but we tried some new spots with good success, and made the most out of a season that many waterfolwers I've spoken to called the worst ever. I thought it was a good year!

Quail
Hunting is done in Maryland, but not in Florida. My dad and I were invited by Florida Rock to travel to the owner's private ranch, Chinquapin Farm, in Lake City to shoot wild quail. This type of shoot is becoming rare in the US. The quail is more susceptable to habitat degradation than most animals, and all over the country, wild populations are disappearing. Modern farming, and the McMansion craze are hell on these birds. Fortunately, there are those with the means, such as the owner of Florida Rock, who enjoy hunting wild quail and manage their land to ensure that the wild population thrives. When I become a billionaire, I think I'll do something similiar. At any rate, here are some pictures from the shoot:

We hunted behind pointing dogs. These animals are impressive. They run hard, so hard that we had to follow them in a truck and on horses. Chinquapin has a kennel of 50 dogs that are all hard core hunting machines. Through the course of a day, we would hunt over 10 different pointers, as the guides rotated the dogs on a regular basis to rest them and ensure they did not over-exert themselves.

Hunting:

Following the dogs on horseback:

When the dogs find quail, they "point" it. Basically, they stop and stand still, nose pointed at the birds, and wait for the hunters to come and flush the birds:

There are water buckets spread throughout Chinquapin to allow the dogs to get a drink, and jump in to cool off and take a break:

The dogs are followed all day by the guides. They tip off the hunters as to when a dog is on point by raising their hats in the air:

To flush the birds, two hunters will walk up behind the dog, and scare the birds out of hiding. A group of quail is called a covey, here Mike Day flushes a covey and and gets a shot on one:

Me with a quail:

This trip is great, and the best part is the private jet that takes us down and back. I did not get a picture of the jet, but took some pictures from it.

Clear burning woods outside of Lake City:

Bay Bridge:

Cold
It has been freezing in Maryland. Cold enough to freeze the Chesapeake:

The Patuxent River:

When the Bay freezes, the ice sucks the water up and out of the tributaries, causing extreme low tides. This boat got stuck on one of these tides:

I can't wait until its warm enough to hang out at this tiki bar:

Ducks
I've traded in my shotgun for my camera.

Canvasbacks at dawn:

Canvasbacks, with geese on the ice in the background:

Mallards startled during a feeding frenzy:

Blackheads, taken from a bridge:

Canvasbacks and Mallards:

Canvasbacks diving for food:

Canvasbacks have great eyes. The gray one is a hen:

Hen Canvasback in flight:

Hen canvasback with PMS:

Mallard Drakes:

Mallards in a feeding frenzy:

Speckled Belly Goose. This is a rare bird in Maryland, and the first one I've ever seen:

Weekend Weather

2007-01-21T20:44:00.000-05:00

Hunted Hoopers Island over the weekend. Saturday turned into one of the windiest days I've ever experienced on the Honga. With gust up to 45 miles per hour, the water was churned up, and whitecapping. In the channel of the river, wind and tide were fighting, creating plumes of spray up to 30 feet in the air:

This shot was taken from the blind. On the right, sunshine, on the left the leading edge of the cold front:

We did have some ok shooting, which inlcuded Bufflehead, Mergansers, Blackheads, and Black Ducks. These Black Ducks swam into the decoys. They were a hen and drake pair. The Hen is on the right, the drake on the left. Though they look similiar, drake black ducks have a yellow bill, while Hens have a mottled bill:

Today, it snowed in Annapolis:

My best shots from the last few weeks

2007-01-15T22:33:00.000-05:00

Taken in the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge, on the road to Hoopers Island

Same road, just a mile further down:

Decoys:

Bag Limit:

Hoopersville Sky line at dusk:

Marsh Grass, early morning:

Moon over the Blackwater:

Fin at dawn:

Moonset at sunrise:

And Finally, Christmas at the Bramble Household, its all about Peace on Earth:

Bathing Eagle

2007-01-15T22:29:00.000-05:00

Driving into Chestertown, I noticed this eagle in water up to its belly. I'd never seen an eagle in water, so I stopped to take a picture, and he gave me a show:

Hunting

2007-01-15T20:58:00.000-05:00

Been about a month since my last post, its time for some new pictures. Here are hunting pictures from the last few weeks. By the way, hunting is integral to fine living.

Ryan Beard, Brent Prossner and Jeremy, hunting in Teal Alley at Hoopers Island:

Post hunt shot:

Goose Hunt in Tolchester with Karl, Mark, and Joseph:

We were able to collect some jewelery:

Brent also hunted geese with us in another blind:

The following sequence came from a blackhead hunt on the Chester River:

He came and joined us for a drink:

From the same blackhead hunt, my father flashing his gang affiliation:

A closeup of our bag:

Everyone is happy:

The following pictures are from an all day shoot out of Hoopers Island. This hunt will go down as the most memorable for the season. We shot pintails, widgeon, gadwall and geese. This is the first hunt I've ever had where we did not kill a black duck or a mallard. These birds, except for the geese, are an anomoly in my hunting experiences in the land of pleasant living:

Dave Foote, aka Gay Hannibal, with a widgeon:

Me with a second widgeon:

Dave Sikorski with a Pintail:

Skip brings in two pintails at the same time. An impressive retrieve:

Our bag limit, 10 geese, 3 widgeon, 3 Pintail, 1 Gadwall and a Merganser. The shooters were Dave Foote, Dave Sikorski, Jeremy Mercer, Avery Draper, and myself:

Next day, we had a lousy shoot not far from where we had the great shoot. We hunted a sandbar. Here is the bar at low tide:

The same sandbar, midway through the incoming tide:

We ended the day with a bluebill, which Fin retrieved:

and a fox:

Lips and Assholes

2006-12-14T19:53:00.000-05:00

December 14, 2006: I caught this raccoon trying to raid my trash cans. I found him in Annapolis, not Hoopers Island. I scared him off, and he moved on to the neighbors cans. I chased him from there, and he fled up my neighbor's tree.

Climbing the tree in my backyard after I caught him in my trash cans:

Climbing down my fence and cruising to my neighbor's trash cans:

In my neighbor's tree. Raccoon eyes:

Layout Hunt, boat problems

2006-12-11T21:48:00.000-05:00

Dec. 9: Did another layout hunt out of Hoopers Island. Jeremy and Tyler Mercer, Shannon Brockmeyer and I set up our rig about half a mile off of Barren Island, a small island just off the Northwest corner of Hoopers Island. On the way out, and throughout the hunt, we dealt with serious boat problems. The engine would not draw gas, and all morning long caused the rpms to continualy lower. With water temperatures in the mid 30s, boat problems are unwanted, and dangerous. Regardless, we continued hunting, and ended up with 17 birds, 4 Old Squaws and 13 scoters.

A hawk tried to make lunch out of our ducks, here he eyeballs the feast:

Brent and Greg Prossner, and Andy Hughes headed down to Applegarth and went hunting for deer. Their main targets were sika deer, a small statured import from Japan that is a close cousin to elk. They also had boat problems, and on the way back to the club had to walk their boat back 2 miles before we saw them and towed them in. They did kill a sika though.

Jeremy tows the Prossners:

Greg, and the guy who ate Brent, show off their Sika:

Successful Sea Duck Hunt

2006-12-04T21:07:00.001-05:00

Nov. 24 - 25, 2006

Tried to sea duck hunt again, this time did it our of a layout boat. Layout boats allow the shooter to have a low profile on the water. You lay on your back in a saucer shaped boat that only sticks up 6 or 8 inches above the water. Ducks, not being the smartest animals, don't realize they are flying towards a trap until it is too late:

Here is an old picture of Jeremy and I in the layout boat:

This boat, though great for hunting, is a bitch to tow in the water. It's shape makes it a natural submarine, so towing it to the hunt, though preferable is out of the question. We tried it, the boat submarined, the fiberglass cracked, and we decided to never do it again. However, we did get it to where it needed to be, and despite leaks, we had some good shoots. On the way out, I photographed a flock of shorebirds:

First, as a test run, we took it just off the beach at Hoopers Island, and hunted for Buffleheads for an hour. After I killed one, I started taking pictures:

Here's a Buffy that got away:

Dave Foote's last shot at the same bird, again a miss. In this picture, notice the shot in the upper right corner, with the wad not far behind.

Following day, we took the layout and set up between Richland Buoy and Applegarth. We targeted Old Squaws:

Dave missed these birds, and I caught it on film. Notice the shot and wad on the water in the left corner, the green blurry projectile is his shotgun shell ejecting across my camera lense:

White winged scoters buzzed our spread. These two are the first I've seen in the Bay. Dave knocked one down, but it dove on impact and vanished:

Back at SHTS, we posed for a shot with our bag, 7 old squaw and 1 scoter:

Sea Ducking

2006-11-21T16:52:00.000-05:00

November 18: Decided to go sea ducking this morning. This type of hunting is different than normal duck hunting. All the hunting is done over big water, such as the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, from boats. The birds do not require as much finess or realism to convince to toll to a decoy spread.

The most common types of sea ducks we shoot in the Chesapeake are Surf Scoters and Old Sqauws. In this photo, the all-black bird with the white head markings is a scoter, the other birds are Old Squaws (also called Long Tailed Ducks):

Today we were going to target Scoters. A proven tequnique for attracting these birds is to flag them. Jeremy demonstrates:

It requires such little finesse to shoot these birds that we use black crab buoys as decoys. They toll to shapes, so anything the same size and color will work:

However, they have to be around...

We are used to large flocks of birds divebombing our spread, and I decide to go sea ducking today on the strength of a solid report from Jeremy Mercer of a great shoot yesterday, but the ducks never showed up today. Disapointing. Jeremy's quote "They were here yesterday"

We got bored, so bored that Jeremy turned on the decoys:

Returned to Chestertown, and hunted in the afternoon with Steve Picarde, Brent Prossner, Pat Stedman, Rob Hooper and Mark Prossner.

It was a better hunt:

Storm Surge

2006-11-17T17:08:00.000-05:00

Last evening, a nasty storm hit the Chesapeake Bay. Wind gusts to 40 miles per hour, heavy rain, tornado warnings, and a strong storm surge. Excellent duck hunting weather. Jeremy Mercer and I hunted Hoopers Island. I did not take my camera on the hunt because of the rain, but the shooting proved excellent. In 2 hours we limited out on pintails, black ducks, and mallards, and also killed 3 geese. I did take some pictures of the storm however.

Waves crashing over the road at the causeway. This picture does not do the power of this scene justice. At times, my truck was covered by water as the surge broke over the causeway. I drive a large pickup, and the waves shook it like I was driving a cardboard box.

We had to take a boat in this weather to get to the blinds. Rough ride.

Even today, water from the storm surge still flooded my neighbor's yard.

Season Opener, 2nd Split

2006-11-14T18:14:00.000-05:00

November 11, 2006

Opening day of the second season in Maryland; I shot on my family's farm near Rock Hall, Maryland. In the morning, I joined my father, Casey Owens, and Jim Burgess for a woodduck shoot on the Galehouse Pond. Because I am a moron, I showed up to the hunt 40 minutes late. That 40 minutes proved to be the best of the day. Supposedly, and I was not there to see it so I cannot verify this story, over 200 woodducks tolled into the pond just after legal shooting time. They came in groups from 2 birds to 25 birds. According to Casey, he'd "never seen anything like it". I don't know, I wasn't there. At any rate, I was there for 2 tolls, of woodies, with only 1 duck killed, for a total of 7 this morning.

In the afternoon, I shot the Gresham Hall Pond with Paul Spies, Renee Prossner and the Prossner brothers, Mark, Brent and Greg.

The crew:

We had a great shoot, killing 27 mallards.

6 birds tolling into the spread:

Birds, after the first shots, flushing in all directions:

This one did not get away, notice the feathers trailing behind him:

Renee, a first time shooter, takes aim. Her belly shirt was awesome in the blind:

The hunters and retrievers, Fin and Panzer, with the bag:

A Hoopers Weekend

2006-11-08T17:33:00.000-05:00

November 3 to 5, 2006:
I spent this last weekend at Hoopers Island, trying to take advantage of the waning fishing season. I arrived Friday night, just before sunset, and ran out into the Honga for a half hour. I found some birds working on fish breaking the surface, and landed a 19 inch striper. As it was getting too dark to see, I called it a night and headed to the club.

Saturday was cold, below freezing in the morning, and the wind was blowing about 15 to 20. I started out early, leaving the house with John Ashton at 6 am. We found no birds, or fish, and at 8 am called the morning. I went back out on my own later in the afternoon. The wind had died, and the conditions seemed right for some more frenzied action with birds on the surface. After about 2 hours of searching, I finally found some birds on fish. As I jammed the boat in gear to race to them, the engine quit, I was out of fuel, and had brought no backup gas cans. So I sat and waited in the river for about an hour before I was able to flag down a waterman who towed me in. So far no fish for the day

Waterman towing Fin and I into the Harbor:

I refueled the boat, and headed out to catch the last of the evening bite, or at least I hoped. I motored up to the causeway, and found fish. I caught a few on my spinning tackle, then switched over to my fly rod, and caught several more.

Causeway at Sunset:

Sunday, I went out again with Kendra Richardson. We searched for fish for several hours, and just as we were about to call it a day, we found birds on breaking fish in the middle of the Honga. We both were able to catch a total of about 9 or 10 fish.

Here is another net picture, these things fascinate me:

Hunting and fishing with Mark and Dan

2006-11-07T19:29:00.000-05:00

Dan Sheats came into town the weekend of October 28, so we decided to go hunting in Delaware on Saturday. I met up with Mark Henderson, and we went to Dan's parent's house in Odessa. Saturday morning, we headed to the top of the Leipsic river, just south of Smyrna Delaware. We saw some birds, and had one toll all morning. We came away with a hen woodduck, and a mallard drake. Fin made a great retrieve on the drake, it was a cripple and swam across the pond. Fin grabbed it against the opposite bank after swimming across the pond after him.

Dan and Mark, Dan doesn't know what he's doing, neither does Mark:

Dan and Fin:

Mark and Fin:

Fin and I:

All of us:

Saturday evening, we headed to Hoopers Island for some fishing on Sunday. We met up with Jeremy Mercer, drank a lot of brown liquor, and woke up late. We started fishing at about 11 am. Wind was smoking, blowing at least 25, so fishing was not easy, but we tried...

Dan and Mark at the Big Creek:

Dan at Big Creek:

Looking down Big Creek, Dan in Front, Mark in the middle with Fin, and Jeremy off in the distance:

We caught no fish, so we gave up an did some exploring on the Island.

Mark, crossing the field, lagging behind:

Jeremy wishing he had a quarter to ride the tractor like a big kid:

Maryland, 1st split

2006-11-07T19:19:00.000-05:00

Only hunted two days of Maryland's early duck season. I went down to Hoopers Island. With me were Dave Foote and his two buddies. We shot mallards, teal and pintail. Overall, a good time, but the shooting was slow due to poor weather conditions. Ducking is best when its windy with an overcast sky, and even some precipitation. We had wind, but it was bright and beautiful.

The blind where we shot Friday Evening:

Some of the birds we shot Friday:

On Saturday morning, we hunted in a creek on the Island. The tide was way out:

Fin, hiding in the weeds:

Fin, slogging through the muck with a retrieve:

Also down were Brent, Karl and Rutledge. They went deer hunting and killed 3 deer, two does and big buck. Rutledge shot all three:

Next duck season starts November 11, this Saturday!

On the way home, I drove through the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge to see how many ducks were there. I saw many mallards, teal and pintail, but the real excitement came from this eagle who let me photograph him for about 15 minutes:

Manitoba

2006-11-07T18:43:00.000-05:00

The trip to Canada was a success. In a weeks worth of hunting, we shot our limits every day and ended up bagging pintails, mallards, gadwalls, widgeon, blue wing teal, green wing teal, buffleheads, blackheads, redheads, canvasbacks, mergansers, canada geese, and snow geese. The intensity of the hunting surpassed any I've done in the past. Everyday involved hunting a spot we scouted the day before, often driving for hours before finding birds, then locating the landowner, and then obtaining permission. Naps were a luxury and rare with the schedule we kept scouting for spots. However, all the work paid off, and we killed many birds.

Finny exploring his aboriginal roots:

After First Hunt. This was at a pond, killed lots of gadwalls, a few mallards, and blue winged teal:

Also from first day, wish I had the camera in color, but this was a beauty of a blue winged teal:

This is Jeremy and I after shooting a Ducks Unlimited project:

About the third day in, we experienced layout field hunting for ducks. Though common in Maryland for geese, it is far less common for ducks. In Canada, we found this to be the most effective type of hunting. This was basically a mallard only game, with a few pintails in the mix. The first picture of the two is a typical flock of mallards over the decoys.

This is the bag shot after a good field hunt:

Can't wait to get back next year!

Going to Canada

2006-10-06T11:15:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow, I leave for Canada with my buddies Jeremy Mercer, John Finney, and Shannon Brockmeyer. We are going up there for the lackadaisical marijuanna laws and the cheap hookers.

Kidding, we're gunning up there, a solid week of duck, goose, and maybe partridge hunting. I'm pumped, we've been planning this trip for a year, and finally, its time. This will be my third year to Canada with Jeremy and Finney, first year with Shannon. In the past,we've gone to Long Point, in Ontario. This year brings a new destination, Manitoba, center of the "Duck Factory", as DU calls it.

In light of this trip, and the kickoff of the 2006-2007 duck season, Here are some pics of ducks and past hunts:

Canvasbacks:

Canvasbacks Tolling into the decoys:

Bull Can:

Blackhead:

Goldeneye:

An American Classic, a Winchester Model 12 in a duck blind:

Duck and goose calls:

Fin and his father Sam:

The Prossner Twins, Tony Lecompte, and myself on S.H.I.T.S. after our first good hunt down there:

Black Duck Decoy, Long Point Canada:

Banded Blackhead, Long Point:

Post trip shot, Long Point:

Finney "Blowing" his goose call:

Jeremy with a poor defenseless Bufflehead:

Get Ready!

A Hoopers Island Bag:

These guys are hardcore:

Blackheads and a Buffy:

I've never seen anyone miss a bird with too much lead before this:

Jackasses:

Sea Duck Hunting:

Fin with a goose retrieve on a cold day out on the Chesapeake Bay:

Fin and I, Gresham Hall Pond:

Standing in the corn, waiting for the big picture

My dog Fin, who can't come to Canada, which sucks! He loves hunting:

Dove Hunt

2006-09-20T21:40:00.000-04:00

Went for a dove hunt this afternoon at a gravel pit. Dove's freaquent gravel pits to "gravel", meaning they eat grit to help crush seed for digestion. Today's hunt did not go well, as the birds have been scattered due to cooler weather, and widespread corn picking, however I killed a few.

The gravel pit:

Fin after a retrieve, he loves feathers in his mouth:

My Winchester Model 42 .410 gauge, my dove seat, my dog, and the four birds I shot tonight:

A close-up of my bag:

Hoopers Weekend

2006-09-18T22:02:00.000-04:00

Went to Hoopers Island over the weekend to build duck blinds and do a a little fishing...

a little striper, but fun to catch. Unfortunately, this fish was one of just a few caught all weekend. Weird weather scattered the forage fish, and the predators followed. However, we caught all our fish casting to shorelines, meaning that the fall pattern of fishing, arguably the best pattern, is beginning.

Big Fish

2006-09-11T16:44:00.000-04:00

Went out fishing one evening last week with my father. We caught several nice rockfish, but the brute pictured here won the trophy. The fish measured 33 inches and weighed 13.5 pounds. I caught him on a red and white surface popper. Using topwater lures adds excitement to any fishing trip. I watched this fish jump out of the water as he inhaled my lure! Nothing matches the violence of a predator attacking prey.

Been a while

2006-09-06T10:09:00.000-04:00

since I've posted.

AS THE summer of 2006 fades, I think a recap is in order. I spent a week in Colorado, catching trout with Dan Sheats (see his blog). My best fish measured in at 24 inches. That's a good trout, and I had a blast landing him. Here's a few pictures from that trip with Sheats in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison

My monster

My favorite camode in all of the Americas

Sheats fishing the Gunnison

And here's another picture of the Gunnison:

I ALSO did some fishing this summer on Hoopers Island. On this blog, I've posted several pictures from the Island. I love Hoopers Island. It is quiet, peaceful, and isolated. Cell phones do not work there, and as far as I'm concerned, no finer living can be found anywhere in the whole world as that found on Hoopers Island, so long as you don't mind relentless hoards of biting flies. Here's a few images taken down there this summer.

This is the house. It is an old hunting club called South Hoopers Island Tolling Society (S.H.I.T.S.). Unfortunately, this picture turned out blurry, but I like the colors, a thunderstorm was on the verge of bearing down on the island:

Net Poles at sunset:

Hoopers rests just north of another chain of Islands . The last in this island Chain is Hollands Island, once inhabited, now deserted. This abandoned excavator rests on Hollands Island, someone tried to slow down erosion with this machine, but the remote location of Hollands (10 miles from any road), and the harsh salt water beat the machine. Now an osprey calls it home:

My dog, Fin, explores one of the many salt ponds that pock Hoopers interior:

A great horned owl decided to nest in this spar which marks the channel into the harbor at Hoopersville. Later in the summer, Ospreys drove her away. She did not belong over the water anway:

Perwinlke snails abound in the Island's marshes:

Pine trees dominate the landscape. There are few non-conifers on the island:

My buddy Jeremy Mercer caught this stingray. We used him for bait:

Shannon and I caught these stripers at Sharkfin Shoal, a rockpile at the top end of Tangiers Sound, just south of Hoopers. These fish are small stripers, but keeper sized, and we ate them later that evening:

We often catch and steam blue crabs. No finer seafood exists. Anyone who wants to subscribe to my guide must enjoy blue crabs:

Hoopers Island Light, there is no lighthouse keeper anymore, but an automated horn and light:

This egret is just one of the many birds that reside on Hoopers:

Workboats on Hoopers Island, waiting for 3 AM the next morning to crab and fish for the Seafood houses of Baltimore:

MY LAST accomplishment of the 2006 summer is the completion of the Annapolis Ten-Miler. As my first long distance event, I am pleased with my finish of 1215 out of over 5000 participants. I finished it in 84 minutes and 41 seconds. I'm not convinced that long distance running qualifies as fine living.

Here is pic during the run, sorry it turned out so small:

Fine living involves seafood

2006-06-01T12:16:00.000-04:00

Appetizers, the meal openers. Apps set the tone for the entire repast. A time tested proven method of pleasing from the start involvess steamers. Shrimp and clams, when steamed in vinegar, beer, and water, then dipped in butter will garner excellent results.

This is Tuna caught off of Ocean City Maryland. My favorite way to prepare tuna is either Ahi style, or pan seared on a white hot iron skillet and rubbed in salt and pepper. Add some wasabi, and viola, instant culinary satisfaction.

This is a large striped bass caught earlier this spring in the Chesapeake Bay. These fish taste superb when filleted and pan fried in butter and spices, especially Old Bay.

Shark, an oft overlooked seafood with a nasty reputation. Mako steaks, much like swordfish, contain the texture and taste made for fine dining. Grilled and flavored with soy sauce, then topped with a mango relish or salsa, mako will please even the most conservative of eaters. Note, the shark pictured is a bull, I don't recommend them to anyone.

Some pictures from the Land of Pleasant Living

2006-05-25T16:12:00.000-04:00

Abandoned work boat, Taylor's Island MD

Striper Fishing, Chesapeake Bay

Fish Net Poles, Hoopers Island MD

Opener

2006-05-25T14:28:00.000-04:00

Fine living, as seen through the eyes of a native of Maryland's Eastern Shore