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!!