All lanty hell, this is where a few bubbas are gonna do some talkin about some dang fishin!

Monday, October 22, 2007

The Freaks Come Out At Night

You all know that my wife thinks I'm crazy, along with my mom, and brother too. Last Saturday Night/ Sunday morning I had the opportunity to prove them right. The Captain (Greg) was out on the town with the guitarist from our high school metal band (Jerry) and I hadn't heard back from him, but I drove to his house at 11pm anyway, while my wife went to bed. I was pulling into Greg's driveway when he called me back and said he was just leaving the Greenleaf in Williamsburg. I parked my car, assembled my rods and tied up my rigs. At midnight we hit the A docks right off the bat just after low tide and there was zero action - I began to wonder if my recent fishing slump (zero keepers and two total skunkouts in three excursions) was going to keep me down, you see folks, I thought I lost my mojo. The captain said he knew the spot to hit in just such conditions (clear, quarter moon) He said it would be guaranteed because of a great location and insanely bright (and insanely expensive) dock light (whenever you hear the words "guarantee" and "fishing" put into the same sentence, one should always be wary). We rode a while and crept in quietly and silently as we watched stripers and possibly trout smashing the surface of the bathtub slick water. The last five minutes of the ride I could see the splashes, but we didn't want to spook them with the engine or an anchor. Lets just call this spot the "Food Chain", because at night, thats what it attracts in a very small area. Greg and I hooked into a double within five minutes of seeing the first rocks smashing topwater. Two simultaneous hook-ups occurs less that you would like it to. Of course it always calls for a silent end-zone style celebration dance while reeling in and landing the fish. We fished topwater and jigged jerkbaits with small lead-heads - which landed the rock, speckled trout and fattie puppydrum (redfish) I am gladly holding (I got my mojo back folks).
"The Food Chain" gorged us with 7 or 8 rockfish (3 keepers) 2 trout (1 keeper), the 3-4 lb puppy drum ( which peeled line off my reel and dug in deep for a fun, extended battle) and at least 25 flounder (no keepers). The light produced this eerie daylight, that was so surreal I had no idea that we fished until 4:15 am. We saw squid, tons of baitfish , lots of baby crabs, big mullet and the aforementioned species. Incredible. Greg was in awe, he really hadn't seen it like that before. We had never caught that many flounder jigging, and all in that one spot.
Greg "Hotlips" Lynn (AKA The Captain) and a keeper, no wonder he doesn't have many dates.

Harper's Ferry, WV: Screaming to be fished

Rochelle and I went for a hike two weekends ago at Harpers Ferry, WV. I had never been and it was a very cool place, but the whole time I was on the cliffs at the tops of the hike I could here the wind whispering, "Fish me, fish me". So who is in? Greg has one canoe, anyone else? When?This is were the real upper Potomac River meets the Shenandoah River to form the main stem of the Potomac river. The three Rivers split three states, WV, VA and MD. All three look totally different in terms of structure and characteristics, who could ask for more? This is the main intersection, above to the left is the Shenandoah, and to the right is the upper Potomac, and below left once they meet is the main stem Potomac.


Here are the shelves on the upper Potomac, great structure - Wow!

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