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.