Wish-A-Fish Annapolis, 2007

I heard about the Wish-A-Fish Foundation last year about this time through the Tidal Fish web site. (Read about it here.) I didn't know enough to volunteer then, but this year when the call for captains came out, I jumped at the chance. The Wish-A-Fish Foundation's mission is: "to provide a little relief for a family from the daily stress of having a child with “special needs” such as a live-threatening illness, or a mental or physical disability, by taking the entire family out for a day of fun and fishing on the water."

My "family" included Camden, an 8 year old cancer survivor, and his father. His mother and brother were also there on another boat. I think there were more than 30 boats in all. After getting our gear at the headquarters at Sandy Point, we followed the rest of the fleet out to the oyster beds for some bottom fishing. Camden caught his first fish, a 6 inch spot. I had two hooks on his line and he caught a little perch at the same time. I showed him how to use the radio, and he announced to the rest of the fleet, and the world that "Camden is catching them two at a time!"

We had some fun with the little fish for a while, then I asked if they wanted to try for rockfish. Both Camden and his dad yelled a big "YES," so we turned toward my fishing hole north of the Bridge. Fortunately, there were a few fish around, and Camden landed a healthy 20 incher. I never saw a kid so proud. When we got back to the dockside picnic, he carried that fish around to show everyone. The Maryland DNR had a table set up to give the kids a certificate for their first fish. I think they were surprised when Camden told them about his rockfish. Everyone involved seemed to have a great time. I know I'm hooked on Wish-A-Fish now, and I'm sure to be doing it again next year.

Drink Canada Dry

My buddy Mike from Knoxville was in town last Thursday. He was visiting relatives in DC, but decided to skip a baby shower in favor of a few hours here on the Bay. I was happy to see him. I picked him up at the closest Metro station and we were out on the Bay within the hour. Unfortunately, the Bay was a bit choppy that day. We ran into four foot swells just North of Sandy Point. We were soaked from the waves and spray, but couldn't resist casting a few times. When it comes to fishing, Mike's one hell of a tennis player. Still, he served up a pretty nice sized rockfish. It was really too bouncy to fish, so we scooted in to Annapolis, picked up a couple of cans of Yuengling, and cruised the city dock and surrounding harbor area. Afterwards, we met Dianne at the bar at Deep Creek for dinner, then topped the evening off by sitting on the deck with a bottle of single malt and BSing until 3:00 AM. Neither of us were too happy to see morning roll around, but I had to work so I loaded his limp body into the truck, and kicked him out back at the Metro. I looked in my rear-view to see him stumbling toward the train. I'm not sure what happend after that.... Hope he survived!

Rockfish Breakfast

Here's another report from two weeks ago...

My nephew Jake flies back home this afternoon. Last night before we went to bed he asked, "Uncle Shawn, do you think I can catch one more rockfish before I leave?" He didn't have to ask twice. I looked at the tide tables and decided our best chance to match the low light/high current pattern was daybreak this morning. The tide turned at 5:40 AM, so we were on the water by 5:00. There were some small fish around the sewer pipe but we found some bigger schools up near the outside edge of the dumping grounds. A few fish started breaking just about the time the sun came up over Kent Island and the charter fleet arrived. We chased the breakers for a little while, but they were skittish and scattered, so we settled-in to jigging a school of 16 to 20 inch fish farther inside. We had fun for a while, but I hoped for something a little bigger so we moved even farther back to the 12' mark and found better fish. Jake wanted to keep a couple so we threw a 23" and 24 incher into the cooler. The current waned, so we headed back. We were off the water by 7:30.


When we got home, Dianne had the grease hot and the biscuits started. Jake asked to learn to clean a fish, so I showed him how to handle an electric filet knife.


I chunked up the rockfish, egg washed it, then rolled it in a dry batter of white grits & Martha White corn meal mix seasoned with salt & Old Bay. It fried up nice and golden brown.


Our tomatoes have come in good now, and they went nicely with Dianne's biscuits & gravy. Breakfast was delicious. We used to have fish in the morning a lot when I was a kid. I don't know if it's a Southern thing, or an Appalachian thing, or just a fishing thing, but it's a tradition I hope to renew. Now, I'm gonna take a nap.

From the farm to the Bay

Once again, I'm way behind in blogging. I'm still fishing as much as possible. I've been lucky enough to stay on the fish pretty much all season except for two weeks in May. My nephew Jake was in town a couple of weeks ago. He's never fished for rockfish before, most of his fishing experience has been in the ponds around his farm in Michigan. He took to jigging right away and landed some very nice fish including this one which went about 28 inches. I caught a couple that day too! -S

Interlude - Sunrise, Sunset

We interupt these fishing reports to bring you another reason why I love spending time on the water. The first shot is sunrise over Kent Island taken Saturday morning about 6:00 AM. My nephew Jake and I were almost too busy catching fish to look up when the sky started getting light. But I'm sure glad we did. The second is sunset behind Sandy Point Lighthouse. We were heading back home after a Wednesday evening fishing trip when the sky just lit up. The oranges and yellows framed the red lighthouse perfectly. I shot about a dozen pictures but I think this is the best. I think the water looks like pure gold.

Topwater Smackdown! - One for the record books.

I worked on July 4th so I had Thursday off. Both Daniel & I did a little too much Independence Day celebrating, and we weren't feeling great, but we couldn't resist what looked like a windy but decent fishing day. We've been on the fish pretty good this week, so we started about 11:00 where we caught fish Wednesday afternooon. There were no fish where we left them, so we hit some pilings, then the eastern shore bridge rockpile.... nothing. Time for plan B which was livelining. We scooted over to the oyster beds, anchored up and grabed the bloodworms out of the cooler. Uh oh, they spent the night under ice water and were ruined. I had some FishBites and Gulp strips, so we tried them. I caught one spot in 15 minutes and he was too little to use. Daniel looked at me and said, "Let's go. I'd rather be not-catching rockfish than not-catching spot." He had a good point, so off we went to explore.

After hitting several humps and ledges between the BB & Love Point we still couldn't find anything but little fish. We headed back south in 3 footers and it's a good thing we did. It was raining a little but rock and bluefish were breaking in an area about a half mile square. They weren't all over the place, but here and there. Daniel started walking a pink headed Zara Super Spook, and I chugged a red & white Heddon Lucky 13. (I love the tried-and-true classic plug styles.) Slam! A 20 incher nailed Dan's lure on the first cast. I hooked up right away too. From then on it was non-stop. The fish were hitting our lures so hard they sometimes knocked them 3 feet into the air! On several casts we'd have a fish on, and we could see two or three more swirling around trying to take the plug away! Better yet, they were almost all keeper-sized rockfish! There is nothing more exciting than top-water when the fish are very agressive. My hands are still shaking just thinking about it!

The action slowed a little so we moved in to where we saw some birds working in shallower water. Since it was only about 7' deep I expected the fish to be smaller. Boy was I wrong. Daniel slung his Super Spook out about 50 yards and had just started walking it back when, WHAM.... biggest explosion I've ever seen on a top water plug. He set the hook into what he said felt like a shark! He was using one of my lighter rigs with 15lb test line and the fish was taking line like crazy. I thought it might be a ray, but then I noticed the head shakes on his medium lite rod. He tighted down on the drag a little, and fought the fish to the side of the boat where I netted her. My Golden Rule wasn't long enough to get an acurate measurement on the fish, and I don't have a scale on the boat, but I put her in the 25 to 30 pound range. She holds the record as Daniel's personal best, and the biggest fish so far to come over the side of my boat. After we took the pictures he put her back in the water and we watched her swim away. We finished the day with about 40 fish between us, at least half would have been keepers. Did I mention I'm still shaking!!

Hooked Up!

Daniel fights a nice fish on the bow of Crockett's Reel against an indigo Chesapeake sky.

Fishing with the kinfolks

This week my cousin and her family came up to visit. Kris, Danny, and Colten are from Social Circle, Georgia. They like to fish and spent quite a lot of time catching perch and spot off the dock. It was windy all week but we managed to get them out for a couple of rockfishing trips. The first day we tried livelining and caught a few. Danny caught two and hooked a big fish but it broke off after tangling around the sharp rocks. The next day Kris went out with us just "to watch" as Daniel and I fished. We found a big school of fish near a pipeline north of the Bay Bridge. After we caught a few, Kris decided to try her luck. She promptly landed the biggest fish of the day, along with a couple more keeper rockfish. She held it up for a shot with her camera, but we couldn't get her to hold it for any more pictures. Here's Daniel with 4 of the fish we kept.