Making a rockfish jig

I'm way behind in my blogging, but I'll try to get caught up in the next couple of days. I recently learned that it's relatively easy to make rockfish jigs using an in-line lead sinker. Since trolling is very popular on the Bay, all the tackle stores sell them. Even though I'm not much for tying flies, I have carved a few top water plugs back in the day, so I know how satisfying it is to make your own baits. This afternoon I stopped by Anglers Bait & Tackle on Rt 50 and picked up some one and two ounce in-line sinkers. Anglers sells them for 25 cents an ounce. I also got some Mustad hooks, split rings, powdered lure paint, and stick on eyes. I checked in my old bass box and found some Colorado blades and crappie jigs. Here's my experiment:

1. Arrange supplies on wife's copy of Sunday's New York Times.

2. Heat sinker with butane lighter.

3. Dip in charturse paint powder (available at Bass Pro and many bait shops).

4. Atttach hook with split ring.

5. Add accesories. I got a little carried away and included stick-on eyes, a Colorado blade, and crappie jig for hook dressing.

6. Admire finished product.

7. Drop in Bay, catch fish.

Okay, so it's not a very big fish, but I swear he hit it on the first cast. It was a tough bite tonight. Water levels in the upper Bay are still very low and there's virtually no current. I managed 4 fish in about 90 minutes fishing the outgoing from 7:00 until 8:30 PM. The biggest was barely 18 inches. By the time the water started moving the light was nearly gone. I missed a lot more bites. In review, I need to revisit my hook dressing as those crappie jigs slide off the hook too easily. I used a 3/0 hook which may be too small. The Colorado blades are purty, but didn't make any difference in the bite and increased instances of the hook tangling with the line. Nevertheless, I have to say the experiment is a success since I only had about a buck a piece and less than 10 minutes invested in each lure, and by-gawd, they work. In the future I will look for gold and silver paint, and I'll experiment with different types of in-line sinkers. I'll keep you posted on how they work out.

Rock n Rollin' @ the Rockpile

The sky looked threatening, but I'm out of town for the next few days, so couldn't resist heading out about 6:00PM last night. 4 ft rollers met me at Sandy Point Light and I had to slow to 5 knots. First time my little Sea Ray actually climbed up swells. I put on my PFD. (To a formerly landlocked hillbilly, those are dern big waves.) Outgoing was rolling pretty good, and the wind was coming up the Bay, so I could hang over the sweet spot fairly easily. Crockett climbed up on the seat and went on point right away. Maybe he just liked the wind and the waves, but I dunnoo........ I'm just sayin'. First drop produced this 21" and I was bailing them in the 17 - 22" range for the next 20 minutes.

Two boats using "bent rod radar" headed my way when they saw the fish, and one guy even pulled up and asked what I was using. He had his kid on board so I was happy to help, and I showed him where the fish were. He hooked up right away, but then the rain blew in. Everyone left, but I didn't hear thunder so I hid behind the big concrete piling and waited it out. Crockett got down in the cabin, but I had to stay out and keep the boat from hitting the bridge.

After it slacked off the wind got up, so I had to do more drift fishing. There were still bites on every pass. If anyone was around listening they probably thought I had Tourett's Syndrome because I missed or lost a lot of fish. I think Crockett felt sorry for me, cause he gave me a big kiss when I landed this 26 incher. Then, he decided to kiss the fish too! I lost count, but probably had 25 or 30 fish. I think there were only two that wouldn't have been keepers, but they all went back. This was the best night I've had yet at the rockpile. I've caught bigger fish, but not consistently this size. For someone who loves to fish like I do, this is about as good as it gets!

They're still biting!

I've made a couple more trips to the Bay Bridge rockpile. Can't say that it's every cast, but there are some good fish hanging in there. Here's my report today:

I got out in time to catch the end of the outgoing this afternoon. Tide was ripping when I arrived at the bridge, it looked like class III rapids swirling past the rock pile. Got a good strike on my first drift, then hooked up on the next three. Fish were in the 17-20 inch range. Mostly keeper size but nothing to sell the farm over. I thought I was gonna tear 'em up, but it slowed down for a while, then picked back up a little as the tide waned. Actually, I think the fish were always there, they were just holding on a spot the size of a truck bed and it was nearly impossible to hit it consistently in that kind of current. Once again, I hooked and lost way too many fish. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, this is something that just started - lost all the heavy fish I hooked. I ended up with thirteen, the biggest about 22". They all went back. I met a fellow TFer from Chestertown, and saw my friends in the coast guard. This time they just waved. Either my boat is a police magnet, or they're racially profiling hillbillys, because last night I got checked twice by two different DNR officers in 5 minutes!

Big Fish at the Bay Bridge

Friday, I got back out to the Bay Bridge to try some of the things we learned last weekend. The bite was red hot. The best lure was a gold stringsilver with the treble hook removed and replaced with a chartruse feather-dressed single hook. I bounced it off the bottom on the current side of the rockpiles. I caught 6 or 8 fish including a 23" & 24". I had a lot to do yesterday, but still found a two hour window to fish. I was wondering if it was worth it because it was fairly windy and the Bay was crowded with pleasure boats. I fought four foot waves near Sandy Point Light but was pleased to find no other boats on my fishing spot. The first drop produced a nice 24" fish. A few minutes later I hooked into this fat 28 incher. He tested out my 12lb test line pretty good, but I had the drag set loose and just let him run until he was tired. I ended up with about 10 fish in those two hours, all but one were over 18". I was so excited to be on big fish that were biting so welll that my hands were shaking and I could hardly feel my lures. The action was so hot at one time that I got crapped on by a seagull, but waited through two more hookups before I wiped it off! I'm going to wait until the weekenders get off the water, then go back after them this evening.

Fishing & Cruisin' with the Family

I have several things to catch up on. All three boys along with Tiffany & Ella came up last weekend, staying until Tuesday night. We spent nearly the entire time on the water. They had a late Friday flight and Saturday was very windy, so we slept in, then decided to bounce across and cruise up the Chester. There was a 3' chop on the main channel, but the trip was fun after we got into sheltered water, and we saw two bald eagles. The Chestertown dock is under construction, but we found a place to tie up. We got kicked out of the first restaurant we walked into in Chestertown. The lady said it was after lunch hours, but I think she was worried she didn't have enough to feed us big ol' boys. After lunch in Chestertown we headed back and found some late-afternoon birds over breaking fish. We caught 30-40 little ones before finishing the day with Ella's first crab feast at Waterman's in Rock Hall. I think Ella liked the wooden mallets more than the crabs. She also liked the band and even tried out her moves on the dance floor before we pointed the boat west for a moonlight crossing of the Chesapeake.

Sunday was a better fishing day. We went down to the Bay Bridge and fished hard before we finally figured out a pattern, the right combination of location, depth, current, presentation, & lure. The bite wasn't red hot, but we managed a few fish. Not bragging, but there were several other boats around that were not catching. We hit a few other spots, then finished cruised back home where Dianne had cooked up a delicious rockfish dinner.


Monday, we decided to cruise up to Baltimore's Inner Harbor. We stopped at the knolls for a while where we saw lots of marks, but couldn't catch anything despite many bites. I downsized to a Gotcha Lure and jigged up some nice perch. We docked right downtown after hailing the harbormaster for permission. On the way back we trolled over Snake Reef and snagged a big cow nosed stingray. I don't care who you are, it's hard not to get excited when one of them big ol' winged critters makes a drag scream. After a 15 minute struggle we were able to get it boatside and retrive our trolling lures.

Tuesday took us over to St. Michaels on the Eastern Shore where we visited the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. I was very impressed by the quality of their material and the hand's on nature of the displays. I decided to purchase a membership thinking we were likely to go back, and because it comes with docking privleges. I also might take them up on their offer to apprentice for a day on one of their boat building or restoration projects. The kids seemed to enjoy it and we all took turns watching Ella as she climbed aboard as many boats as she could. By the time they caught they're flight late Tuesday night, we were all exhausted. All in all, a very fun weekend on the water.

Squalls & Rainbows

I'm fishing pretty hard this week looking to find some promising spots for this coming weekend. The boys are coming up from Tennessee and I hope to put them on some fish. Here's a couple of pictures from Monday evening. I got caught in a rain squall up near the Seven Foot Knoll area. Visibility went from about 5 miles down to 50 feet in just a few seconds. I was underway at the time but had to stop and wait it out because the rain was so hard I couldn't even see my GPS screen and I wasn't far off the shoals. Afterwards there was a nice rainbow down near the Bay Bridge.

Dinner with Barry

Today the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry made it's way up the coast. Our weather forecast was for light rain and 10-15 mph winds. So far we've had 40kt gusts and nearly 3 inches of rain. You'd think I would've learned by now to do my own storm and tide prognosticating. They've recently posted coastal flood warnings, but I don't think we'll get too much of a surge. I just hope Barry isn't a harbinger of worse to come. We made the best of it by watching Pirates of the Carribean DVDs and steaming up the crabs we caught yesterday. They were DELICIOUS!

Deadliest Catch - Chesapeake!

Despite the risk of falling into 4 feet of churning 74 degree water, I donned my protective clothing and stepped up to the edge of the dock to haul in the traps. A lesser man might have used mechanical assistance, but I toughed up the crab traps with raw muscle power. No guts, no glory, and my rewards were great. Maryland Jimmies are going for about 60 bucks a dozen right now. I caught 14 the first day I dropped the traps. I also managed to land this nice Jumbo softshell which, when dressed and fried, could make one manly man-sized sandwich. Softshell crabs are classified by some interesting names. From small to largest they are Mediums, Hotels, Primes, Jumbos, and Whales. Tonight, I may take the risk of dropping my deadly catch into a red hot kettle of steaming Natty Boh laced with Old Bay. It's a Dirty Job, but someone has to do it.

Refining the perfect margarita

Warm weather has finally arrived to Maryland's western shore. Through the winter I've been refining my margarita recipe. Here's this summer's original version which is dry and refreshing. I think this drink needs a name because I'm not sure it still qualifies as a margarita. Don't diss it 'till you've tried it!

Juice of 2 limes
Juice of 1 grapefruit
6 oz club soda
1 tsp superfine sugar (or to taste, I often skip the sugar)
8 oz Cuervo Gold
2 oz Grand Mariner
Squeeze juice into large cocktail shaker, add other ingredients and shake lightly (you want it to froth, but not bubble over). Rub a lime slice around the rim of a pint or highball glass and dip in salt, then add cracked ice. Pour frothy liquid over ice. Drink responsibly! (Make two drinks.)