Author: Riley

Got out at about 10 am on Memorial Day by myself. I went hoping for a Big Red Drum or Spanish. Met Mitch in the creek for a quick conversation then headed out. I started trolling as soon as I got into the GW. Almost immediately I hit a quick small Spanish. Kept heading East and when I got the red day maker at Cockerells I hit 3 more fairly quickly. I went East again all the way out to the Red and Green River/Bay markers. Nothing hit the further I went out so headed back. Continued to pick up some smaller Spanish and never did get into any of the Big Red Drum I was hoping. I finally did land a 22″ spanish but with all weekend crazies coming out I just put him back and headed in. Perfect weather, perfect everything but didn’t get the big ones I was hoping.

The water has started to cool off a bit so hoping for the best this weekend with a cobia report picking up

Went out after church with Basil. It was such good weather we just had to get out. Left the dock around 1 pm and just dropped down two spoons at the end of the creek into the Great Wiccomico. Trolled up around the turn bouy and got the first Blue. It was so much weekend boat traffic we went out towards 1 GW, didn’t catch or see much in the deeper water. Tooled around to the green can out towards the asphalt pile but again nothing. Finally, as it got later we came back into the river where we knew the fish were at and grabbed about 8 in total. We kept two just for dinner and called it a day.

It was such a laid back day I forgot to record the water temp but it has certainly cooled down a bit. I did set out the new rigs and boy did they work well. It is really hard to talk about the difference the rod and reels made.

Another thing we did was stop the boat when we got a hookup, our friend Dave has done it for a while and I do think it is a better technique. I was concerned about the other rod and just letting it sink but it did fine and no issues, it set itself back as soon as we got up to speed.

Basil did catch what could be the smallest Spanish in history.

Well I was looking for a lawn mower on our Dominion classified site and found this set of gear. At the price ($500) I just couldn’t turn it down.

The lot contained 4 very nice boat rod setups. Okuma T20L Lever Drive reels and Penn Special Senator rods (6.6).

BAITS: Also had a 16 gallon storage bin mostly full of baits. 12 umbrella rigs 18″, and a ton of baits

Misc: Also came with a very nice net (One size bigger than my current one) and a gaff.

Yesterday after work Scott and I after helping a friend with his boat lift just went out to the Great Wiccomico for some Spot. Well they were as big as any Spot I have seen in years. We keep about 10 of the biggest so we could give to Ms Ava and Ms Shirley. We had great weather and a good bunch of fish. A perfect time to have taken a few kids, that’s how fast they came into the boat. We had the standard bottom rigs with BloodWorm bait strips.

Well this was a storm for the books during our time here on NNK. It was a tremendous amount of work ajnd I thought I would die once or twice while picking everything up but all in all I have nothing to complain about. If I had hired a tree crew and told them not to have any damage that is where they would have place it. If you look, the deck footings were not disturbed, the deck got hit only with the very tips of the last branches.

I am not sure who did the original wiring of my dock or why I have taken so long to get in shape but I finally got around to it yesterday and finished early this morning. It had more questionable challenges than I could take. Well finally I guess it took one the paired 20 amp circuit breakers to get to the point that it had gotten so weak it would trip for normal load. It was more difficult to reset than it should have been so I was suspect of its actual operating ability when required. I finally had had enough. Every wire in the center has its own everything so it is all together in line with what I would expect. I have some clean up stapling of the wires but I will wait until some cooler weather happens.

Before

After

Went out with Chris and Adam Spanish Mackerel fishing today for an early morning try. It is miserablly hot this week with heat advisories all week long. We set out this morning looking for Spanish, they have not been here in any numbers so far for the year. Chris went through a very normal learning period but finally his first Spanish. It was a very nice 20″. Spanish Macks are notorius for finding a way to get off the line.

They have been far slower than normal this year and they do not seem to be with big bait balls so not sure where the schools of them are located.

We were running Clarks and Drones with a variety of colors. I would not give the edge to any specific color in abundance but green probably won out overall. The water was hot about 83 degrees. We caught a bunch of blues (which we should have taken a picture of as well) because I think that was his first blue as well.

Chris also used my kayak and caught a very nice red “puppy” drum. I was not near the event so ask him yourself when you see him next. Puppy’s have a distinctive spot on their tale and though it is not super unusual that they have more than one, having 4 is a bit unusual.

Great time with a great bunch of guys is really the very best of fishing.

I added the trip report to “Records Dropping like Flies” so read the full report. After registering my catch I got these in the mail.

Invited my friend Charlie. He was looking to bag his first legal size cobia. Adam wanted to go as well so we got together around 8:00 at my dock. Charlie had driven up for the day and needed to get back for a job responsibility so we only had a few hours to fish. And to make matters worse as soon as he stepped on the boat he hit his glasses on the antenna and they were in the water. Adam got there and we head out. The Walmart parking lot was full but we pushed ourselveles in as best we could and dropped everything in. The weather started out great but everything was running backwards. Later the wind was against us and the tide made the boat turn sideways in the water so it was a hard 4 hours of fishing. Needless to say we didn’t catch a thing and I felt bad for the group but somedays are just not destined to catch.

Running backwards: This is what I mean, the boat under great conditions has its bow into the any wave and the lines run out directly behind the boat. So all 4 rods can easily be kept apart, you can sit back and watch the lines. Backwards is just that the boat it turn one way generally the waves are hitting the transom or the sides and the lines are running towards the chum bag and anchor. I really don’t think you catch very many in the backwards position.

Parking lot: When there are so many boats out in close proximity the fish can easily get confused. With so much chum in the water I think they just feed where they are at and don’t need to bite a bait. Again, I don’t think you catch many in these conditions.

Well we got back just after noon and Charlie went to work. Hoping for much better next year or later this year when he and Adam can be here more and go out on a better day. Yes, it is true, you cannot catch yesterday’s fish.

Had the same group of Basil, Scott, and added Mitch to the boat. It was so hot and not very windy so we decided to go Spanish instead of Cobia just so we could get the boat moving. Went straight to the mouth of the GW and started our troll. My goodness what a bunch in the boat.

Started catching right away and they were hitting a lot of various colors as well as on #1 and #2 planners. I would say the most were on hot pink and a split between #1 and #2s.