Fishin' with Rick
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Rick, Jr.

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Rick (Rich), Sr.
June 25, 1925 - January 2, 2002
We miss ya', Dad.

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Rick (Ricky), III

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Fishin' Log
I stopped keeping my logs on the website but started adding them occasionally on my Facebook Page.

Here are my older fishing logs:
2005 Fishing Log
2004 Fishing Log
2003 Fishing Log
2002 Fishing Log
2001 Fishing Log(
2000 Fishing Log (58 trips)
1999 Fishing Log(83 trips!)_
1998 Fishing Log (109 trips!)
1975 Fishing Log
1973 Fishing Log coming soon
1972 Fishing Log
1971 Fishing Log
1970 Fishing Log
1969 Fishing Log (slim pickin's)
1968 Fishing Log (46 trips!)
1967 Fishing Log( 111 trips!)
1966 Fishing Log(67 trips!)

 

In the good 'ol days it was just dad and me. We have the same name but everyone called dad 'Rich' and they called me Ricky. That worked well although I preferred Rick to Ricky. Dad seemed to be Rich all along and that was ok with him. Now things got a little complicated about 18 years ago when another Rick came along. My son is 'Rick' also although we tried calling him 'Ricky' but he didn't like that any more than I do. So the point of all this is that Rick could be just about anyone, but when it comes to fishin' Rick means me and the other two Ricks. Confused?

Rick is a genuine fish'n nut. One of the many benefits of being part of a Ricksom is that our collection of Fishing in Maryland Awards are all in the name -- Richard Holt. "Hmm! I wonder which Rick caught that 5 lb. 2 oz pickerel?"  My dad and I actually have a few of those award citations for which we haven't a clue who actually caught the fish! Must have been me. 8-) My son, Rick, started his collection of Award Citations this summer with a big White Perch he caught. Had it made out to Rick Holt III, sneaky little guy!

My favorite fishing is for Chain Pickerel in the tidewater of the upper Chesapeake. Click here for some pickerel fishing tips.

Fishin' Log -- 1999

Most Recent entries are on top:
(go to the bottom for ancient history)

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Date: 12/31/99
Time: Noon - 4 pm
Location: Magothy River Cornfield Creeek
Weather: Beautiful, 40 -50's, sunny , light N wind
Tide: Extremely low water level at the start. Fished incoming tide thru slack. High was 2:30 pm.
Water Temp/Conditions: Water very clear.  Water temp 39 degrees F.
Fish Caught: 1 Chain Pickerel 18 1/2" (Tag#0052)
 Magothypike123199.jpg (22002 bytes)

Father and son fished the river this afternoon. The water level was so low to start that we almost couldn't get the boat from the lift. Luckily a little dance in the back of the boat was enough to sink the lift rails into the bottom and a hearty heave-ho was all it took from there. We stayed in Cornfield Creek all afternoon fishing from the Narrows to the headwaters and then took a trip up into Gibson Island Harbor. We couldn't buy a fish! Well, not really, we did get one pike way up at the head of the creek in 4-5 ft. of water trolling jig/minnow which we tagged and released. When the sun got low it started to get chilly and we called it a day and a year. Great year!


Date 1217/99
Time: 9 am - 4 pm
Location: Magothy River, Mouth of Mill Creek and Dividing Creek, Forked Creek, Blackhole Creek
Weather: Brisk, Beautiful, 40's, sunny , light west wind
Tide: Dead low to start, then incoming. Low at Mt. Pt. Bar was 7:26 am, High due 2 pm, water levels were below normal lows as predicted.
Water Temp/Conditions: Water clarity varied from clear with a slight coffee stain to clear and clean, Visibility about 2 ft or so, Water temp 44 degrees F.
Fish Caught: 4 Chain Pickerel, several dozen yellow perch and some white perch."
 magothy121799.jpg (80051 bytes)

This trip marked the inauspicious beginning of our effort to tag chain pickerel in the Magothy. With the encouragement and direction of Martin Gary of Md. DNR Fisheries, Virgil Poe and I, as well as several other avid pickerel fisherman will be tagging chain pickerel in some of the western shore rivers. We met at Ferry Point at the ramp. Virgil launched the Hawg Trough there and I man-handled my boat from the almost high and dry lift on Long Point and motored up to meet him and Martin. Water levels were way low and there was skim ice on the creek.

Martin and Virgil fished right across from the ramp and picked up a pike right away. We rafted up long enough for Martin to demonstrate the right way to use the tagging gun, measure, handle and release the fish. Fish Tagging 101. We continued to work the area in and near the mouths of the two creeks. We found the mother-lode of yellow perch between some piers at the mouth of Dividing Creek and Virgil and I each picked up a pike before moving on.

Somewhere along the line Virgil got another pike. We split up for a while and Martin joined me to motor down river a bit and dabble in Forked Creek. Nothing happening there. I dropped Martin off back at the ramp and motored over to Blackhole Creek where Virgil was experimenting with some larger baits. He hit some whopper white perch in there.

I left Virgil and headed back out of the river to fish briefly in more familiar waters near home. I found some yellow perch in Cornfield Creek, but that was about it for the day. The last I talked with Virgil on the VHF he was sitting on that school of big white perch. Not sure how long he stayed. Apparently there is a story yet to be told about a yellow perch. The hand-held VHF Virgil had borrowed was not providing the greatest communication, but I heard something about a yellow perch....


Date 12/9/99
Time: 7 AM - 2 PM
Location: Va waters just S of 'R64' out of Pt. Lookout
Weather: Beautiful, almost calm , 60 degrees!
Tide: Tide was low at start, fished the incoming tide as far was we could tell.
Water Temp/Conditions: Water quite clear, 51.1 degrees F.
Fish Caught: Stripers 26", 30", 30", 34"
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I joined Virgil Poe and Billy Long of the WWA message boards for a trip out of Pt. Lookout on this beautiful December day. We lauched Lick A-D Split at about 7 AM and made a beeline for Smith Point to reach the Virginia waters of the bay. It was a brisk but short ride to the fishing grounds. We set up for trolling a nine line spread working in waters of 60-80 ft. Picked up one fish early on a dummy line which got us warmed up. We were marking more fish up close to the line so as the day progressed we concentrated on the area just south of 'R64'. Things just weren't happening for anyone as far as we could see, but about noon or so someone pressed the magic button and that wonderful pandemonium broke out on board as reels began to sing. Unfortunately we were working against a deadline since we needed to be back home for some evening commitments. We were putting lines away as Billy fought the last fish. Zipped back at a brisk pace and headed for home just after 2 PM. Passed some breaking fish just off Point Lookout on the way in. Nice to meet you Billy Long. Hope you made it to Lamaze class in time. :) And Virgil, I hope you made it   to the granddaughters Christmas play. As for me, I was exhausted and enjoyed a nice nap.... :)


Date 12/4/99
Time: 2 PM - 4:30 PM
Location: Magothy River, Cornfield Creek
Weather: Beautiful, W breeze , 65 degrees!
Tide: Caught the last part of the incoming tide. High at Mt. Pt. Bar was 3:52 PM
Water Temp/Conditions: At least 2.5 ft. visibility, Water temp 49 degrees in James Pond.
Fish Caught: 2 yellow perch, 3 white perch, all fish released today.
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Father and son fished briefly this evening. We stayed close to home fishing the leeward side of Holland Pt. and up in James Pond. A couple of the perch were caught trolling jig/minnow and a few were caught casting jig/minnow or floating a minnow under a bobber in the shallows of James Pond. Had a fair amount of action (read lots of hits and lost bait) up in James Pond, but couldn't seem to hook the suckers this evening. This was one of those days when the fish were playing with us instead of us playing the fish. But it didn't matter. What a gorgeous evening. Wow, is this really December!!!?


Date 11/28/99
Time: 10:30 AM - 1 PM
Location: Magothy River, Cornfield Creek
Weather: Brisk NW breeze of 10-15 mph
Tide: Started on the high slack and fished the first part of the outgoing tide.
Water Temp/Conditions: a little murky, maybe 18" visibility
Fish Caught: Half dozen yellow perch

Father and son fished the creek on this breezy day. The day started off on the wrong foot and went downhill fast. As I was loading the boat a gust of wind took my hat and dropped it neatly in the river just out of reach. It was slowly sinking and drifting away toward the neighbors pier so I grabbed the landing net and jogged next door. Got the hat just as it was sinking out of sight. Strike one.

Went to the leeward side of Holland Point (Gibson Island) and trolled with the ultralights dragging jig/minnow. Picked up a couple of yellow perch. Then the wind picked up a bit and put an end to trolling with the electric. We pulled the lines and headed for the sheltered waters of James Pond (Cornfield Creek). Managed a couple more yellow perch there and one follow from a pike, but action was slow. We thought we'd give the 'perch hole' on the Narrows a shot before the tide dropped too low. Mistake.

As we motored into the 'perch hole' we attempted to tilt the outboard up a bit to negotiate the shallow entrance. We could hear the tilt motor humming but the motor wouldn't budge. Before we had time to think about it the drive was firmly embedded in the sandy bottom and we weren't going anywhere. Strike two.

When we shut the motor down the breeze swung us around and just drilled the prop and bottom of the motor right into the sandy bottom. Bummer. We dropped the electric trolling motor down and tried shifting the weight forward in the boat to lift the outboard out of the bottom. Not moving. What's wrong? Checked the electric trolling motor. Props missing! Sheesh, what next. Strike three.

Time to get serious. We pulled out the boat hook and emergency paddle. Shifted everything that would move to the front of the boat (including my substantial 250 lbs. or so) a gave it all we had. Ricky was paddling like mad, I was pushing with the boathook on the bottom and thank goodness we started to move.  Ricky jumped in the saddle, started her up and we were out of there.

Since the motor tilt was still not working and the tide was dropping fast I figured we had better get the boat back onto the lift or we might have the same problem getting into the shallows near the pier.We'll get 'em next time.


Date 11/20/99
Time: 7 AM - 11 AM & 1 PM - 5 PM
Location: Magothy River, Cornfield Creek to Blackhole Creek
Weather: Beautiful, S breeze most of the day, but only occasionally gusty.
Tide: Started on the outgoing tide with low water. Afternoon fished both sides of the high with lots of water in the river.
Water Temp/Conditions: At least 2 ft. visibility, except Blackhole creek which was  murky.
Fish Caught: 30 yellow perch, dozen white perch, 4 chain pickerel, one 16 1/2" striper. All fish released today.
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Father and son had a great day on the river today. Caught the last part of the outgoing tide and suffered thru some low water to start. Pickin's were a little slim in the morning. We trolled with the ultralights and picked up some whiteand yellow perch in Cornfield Creek and a small striper in Forked Creek across the river. From there we took a look at Blackhole Creek and picked up a couple more white perch trolling jig/minnow. The water levels were way low so we decided an early lunch break was in order. We shot back to the pier and hit a local fast food for a leisurely lunch. On return to the river we found the tide rising and water levels much better. We stayed close to home for the afternoon fishing James Pond (off Cornfield Creek) and the 'perch hole' near Magothy Narrows. The pike turned on with the rising water and we caught 4 and battle a couple more. In the 'perch hole' we hit a bunch of yellow perch mixed with some white perch and had a ball 'catch and release' till dark.


Date 11/11/99
Time: 8 AM - 11 AM
Location: Magothy River, Cornfield Creek to Gibson Island Golf Course
Weather: Started out about 65 degrees and the temps dropped as the wind picked up. Eventually the wind was blowing about 20, it was drizzling and the temps began to drop,
Tide: High slack and outgoing
Water Temp/Conditions: At least 2 ft. visibility
Fish Caught: Dozen fat white perch and half dozen yellow perch.
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I fished alone this morning as a front moved into the area. At the start temps were pleasant and there was a slight N breeze. Eventually it got downright snotty and I called it a day. I dropped some lines in the water and trolled with the ultra-lights from the pier. The wind gave me a fit with the electric motor and there were floating and suspended leaves everywhere that caught the lines. Quickly gave up the trolling idea and headed for the sheltered waters of James Pond off Cornfield Creek. Casting jig/minnow I connected with a mess of perch there. All the white perch were pushing 10 inches. Really nice. The yellow perch were a little smaller. I motored from there up to the golf course shoreline in Gibson Island Harbor and fished that windward shore. Fished there briefly and got a couple yellow perch from the fallen trees. The wind picked up, it began to drizzle and good sense prevailed. I headed for the dock.


Date 10/26/99
Time: 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Location: Out of Breezy Point off Parker Creek
Weather: 60 degrees, early there was quite a breeze from the S which eventually calmed down a bit
Tide: Not sure
Water Temp/Conditions: 58-59 degrees.,
Fish Caught: 5 stripers 20" - 30", one bluefish.
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Fished today with Virgil Poe aboard his fishin' machine, Lick-AD-Split, out of Breezy Point. Virgil was coming off a late shift and I had kid duty till 7 AM so we got a late start. The traffic on Ritchie Highway didn't help matters either. I think the lines hit the water just before 11 AM. There was quite a breeze blowing up the bay to start so Virgil put out all but the outrigger lines. We worked our way south along the western shore. Early on we had some action and were feeling confident enough we released our 'limit' fish, a 20 incher, in hopes of a bigger one. We trolled and trolled. Eventually the wind slacked a bit and Virgil set up two more line for the outriggers. Our plan was to get our limit of rock and then pursue some trout. Decision time. The sun was getting low. We decided to stick with the striper quest and continued a little south and headed for shallower water. Virgil saw some surface action and headed in that direction. One line went down and we had a bluefish of a couple pounds. Virgil marked the spot and tracked back thru in hopes that some stripers were in with the blues. Good move. Wham! A thirty inch rockfish hit a hose as the sun settled on the horizon. As we were wrapping things up at the ramp we saw another fine fishing machine pull in and out jumps Dr. Bee and Superfish. They had a great day on the Choptank today. Nice meeting you guys!


Date 10/21/99
Time: 6:30 AM - 7 PM
Location: Magothy River
Weather: 60 degrees, almost calm most of the day
Tide: Low at 11 AM
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility 2 ft.,
Fish Caught: 7 Stripers from 6" to 20" (2 keepers), 2 chain pickerel(released), 25 yellow perch(released), 3 white perch(released), 1 sunfish(released)
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Father and son fished today from sun up to sundown. We started the day casting Storms Baby Bugs on the two points at the mouth of Cornfield Creek. Got two keeper stripers and missed a couple before the sun came up and the surface action ended. We rigged for shallow water trolling with the ultra-lights and the electric motor. Worked the inside of Holland Point and caught some yellow perch and a couple small stripers and worked our way up into Red House cove. Picked up a couple more perch and a pike as well as a small striper there. Back out to James Pond -- a dud today. From there on the the perch hole near Magothy Narrows. The place was loaded with yellow perch. Wow! Great time casting jig/minnows. Only one white perch in the perch hole today. From there we trolled to the head of Cornfield Creek and picked up one small striper along the way. We stopped on the way back out just past the green can and casting a jig/minnow I caught a 17" striper. Ricky began casting the surface lures again and we moved pack out to the points to see if we could repeat the morning action casting poppers. Not to be today, but there was a flurry of surface activity as it got dark. Man, what a great day to be on the water!


Date 10/19/99
Time: 7 AM -3 PM
Location: Chesapeake Bay at Calvert Cliffs Power Plant
Weather: 60 degrees, light E breeze
Tide: ?
Water Temp/Conditions: 3 ft.
Fish Caught: Got our limit of rockfish(41 fish over 18") by Noon

Joined my friends with the AACPD DARE Program (Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs) for their annual staff charter aboard the Bounty Hunter out of Chesapeake Beach. I was surprised when Capt. James parked us in the shadow of the power plant. We were close enough to talk to the workers on shore! With 20 anglers on board (this is a BIG boat) we chummed/chunked and got our limit in short order. Right after we boxed the last of our fish a huge striper came swimming by the boat challenging us to do something about it. It was a lucky shot, but the mate scooped him up with a net. Measured 37", admired and released. We trolled for trout on the way back without as much as a pull. Great day on a great charter. If you have a big group look him up.


Date 10/17/99
Time: 7:30 AM - Noon
Location: Magothy River
Weather: 65 degrees, almost calm
Tide: Slack and incoming
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility 2 ft., extremely low water level.
Fish Caught: 20 nice white perch, one 14" striper, a couple yellow perch.
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We loaded the fishing tackle in the car yesterday, but despite our determined effort to get afloat we didn't hit the water till this morning. Surrounded by an eirie fog, and the chorus of swans, herons and local mallards we slipped silently out from the pier and set a couple of ultralights with jigs/minnows for trolling on the glassy calm river. Using our new (not really) electric trolling motor we enjoyed the quiet.

I had puzzled over how to attach a trolling motor to the boat without a big investment. This past summer I had traded an old humminbird fishfinder for an ancient 25 Watt trolling motor and the only hitch was how to attach it to the boat. Of course, we weren't even sure if the little motor would push a 1000 pound boat. A trip to home depot and a little imagination produced a workable solution. Yes, we used some duct tape.

Within minutes Ricky was battling a nice striper. It was a quick release at boatside, so we didn't get a chance to measure him, though he was close to keeper size. We trolled around Cornfield Creek. Ricky got another striper of about 14" near Holland Point. We worked the inside of Holland Point and had a little action with white perch and another quick release of a striper at boatside. The tide was at a standstill and the waterlevel was extremely low.

Pleased with how our little motor was working we decided to zip across the river on the big motor and try trolling one of the creeks that usually produces some pike. Made one lap thru the creek with nothing to show for it. Time to get some fish for the cooler. We headed for the perch hole near Magothy Narrows. Barely enough water there to float a boat, but we boated a mess of perch in the hour or so we fished there. Got them casting jig/minnow combos and fishing minnows on the bottom with a standard bottom rig. They ignored the bloodworms today.


Date 10/9/99
Time: 1 PM - 5:30 PM
Location: Magothy River
Weather: 65 degrees, light southerly breeze
Tide: Slack and incoming
Water Temp/Conditions: 2 ft.
Fish Caught: 2 dozen nice white perch
 perch100999.jpg (29618 bytes) Rick's nickname is "Perch."

Father and son fished the Magothy this afternoon. Spent about an hour in James Pond with nothing to show for it. Tide was low/slack. Moved to the 'perchhole' near Magothy Narrows and nailed them good with bloodworms on the bottom as soon as the tide started flooding the cove. Lots of fun.


Date 10/8/99
Time: Noon - 6 pm
Location: Magothy River
Weather: 65 degrees, moderate southerly breeze
Tide: Incoming tide to slack
Water Temp/Conditions: 2 ft.
Fish Caught:2 pike, 2 dozen nice white perch, half dozen yellow perch.
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Took a half day from work today and headed for the pier intent on a solo trip. As I was loading the boat a gnarly old curmudgeon paddled by in a canoe and I immediately recognized him as Dave Brown a long-time acquaintance. We had often talked fishing, but never fished together. We hefted his canoe onto the pier and he joined me for an afternoon of fishing.

First stop was James pond, a little cove off of Cornfield creek. We worked both sides of the cove fan-casting jigs. Dave used an ungarnished chartreuse beetle-spin and I cast with a small white horse-head jig tipped with minnow. We caught a couple of pike, some yellow perch and a couple white perch before moving on to the 'perch hole' near Magothy Narrows.

We fished the 'perch hole' first casting jigs with no luck then bottom fishing with some frozen peeler. The peeler nailed them. Caught a couple dozen before the tide peaked and action stopped. 

It was about this time Dave realized he had better call his wife and let her know he was ok. It was a about 4:30 PM when we headed for the pier to take a short break and make the call. We had one peeler left so to finish the evening we motored out to the mouth of the Magothy and drifted near a popular spot just inside the mouth. We caught one fish on each of 6 drifts and exhausted our bait supply in about an hour. There was one boat anchored there that was nailing them steady. He said he was using grass shrimp.

A beautiful day on the river.


Date 10/3/99
Time: 11:30 AM - 5 PM
Location: N of Balto. Light along the Craighill Channel at Green '11'
Weather: 85 degrees,light southerly breeze
Tide: Last of the incoming thru a loooong slack period and into the outgoing tide
Water Temp/Conditions: 2 ft.
Fish Caught: Several blues, one undersized striper, a half dozen white perch, too many puny spot to count, 2 toadfish.
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Father and son went chum slinging this afternoon. Caught the last part of the incoming tide as we set up on a lump near Green '11'. Had steady action with some small spot on the bottom and an occasional runoff on the rods floating alewife. Caught a small rock and a small blue, then had a fiesty battle with a big bluefish. Shortly thereafter the currents stopped moving and we waited and waited. Occasionally a small blue would mangle an alewife, but none made it to the boat. The spot which never stopper biting kept us from getting bored and eventually devoured our dozen bloodworms.

When the currents started moving out we had a little more excitement with a big blue, some toadfish, and some more spot and white perch. Things were picking up nicely about the time we had to leave. Oh well, another day. Chatted with Reel Drag on 68 and overheard other board members MatthewV and the 'LuLu'. Don't know how everyone did since there was as much VHF traffic today as there was boat traffic. Too much. All fish released today except for the few spot who sacrifice themselves for the cause.


 

Date 9/26/99
Time:6 AM - 7 PM
Location: Offhore out of OC, Washington Canyon
Weather: 80 degrees, rough ride out and back, but gorgeous and peaceful on the fishing grounds.
Tide: ?
Water Temp/Conditions: 68-69 degrees, lots of broken weed patches floating around.
Fish Caught: One 20-25 lb. tuna, a couple of false albicore, and bunch of dolphin (maybe 15?)
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Father and son joined Virgil Poe today for our first ever offshore fishing trip. We met Virgil at 3:15 AM at his place and started this very long day. The launch was in West Ocean City. Virgil hooked up with his buddy Mitch at the ramp for the latest word on the action. The report was disappointing. We changed our plans of heading for the Tea Cup and instead set course for some lumps about 43 miles SE. Seas were choppy and the northerly breeze crossing the bow brought an occasional bucket of spray into the boat. It was a slow go.

Once about 40 miles or so out the winds laid down and the magic of the ocean captured the spirit of young Rick and I. We saw crystal blue waters, fish jumping, and the splash of something bigger than the boat that made all our jaws drop. Since the waters had flattened out Virgil decided to push on looking for more of a temperature break and headed for Washington Canyon.

Hurricane Floyd had left a mess on the ocean. There were small broken patches of weeds everywhere. This played havoc with the trolling spread and made for a busy time keeping lures clean and constantly dodging, but never quite missing the little 'islands' of weeds. Action started pretty quickly.

Young Rick got the first pull and boated a dolphin. His first ever ocean fish. Man was he having a good time. Next on deck was myself and I reeled in what I thought had to be a 20 lb. fish. It turned out to be a foul hooked False Albacore. The action and weed dodging continued and everyone got a chance for some action. Next on deck was Virgil's co-worker Doug who got our only tuna of the day. ( I believe it weighed in at just over 20 lbs.) We caught a couple more dolphin and false albacore.

At one point we came upon a much larger 'island' of weeds and began trolling the edge of it. When we boated a dolphin and could see a few of his friends nearby we pulled the trolling spread, got out the light tackle and tossed cut-bait. Filled the cooler with dolphin. Gosh, that is such a pretty fish and to see them literally take the bait in the clear blue water below the boat was a thrill. Put a little pressure on and they would go airborne. Lots of fun.

Weather reports called for the winds to build so Virgil was anxious to wrap it up. The seas were still calm when we set course for OC, but soon built to huge proportions. Not having the time to spare for a leisurely cruise back Virgil put the throttle down as far as he dare and we barreled home. Airborne at times. It was a grueling ride, but we were back in the inlet just before dark with a tuna and dolphin flag flying.

Thanks Virgil, great day. Now for a nap..


Date 9/24/99
Time:1:30 - 3 PM (Snake Reef) and 5 pm -7:30 pm in the river
Location: Gibson Island shoreline near Magothy Narrows
Weather: 80 degrees, Gorgeous evening
Tide: Incoming
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility 1 ft.
Fish Caught: Steady caught white perch from 8-10"
 magothyperch092499.jpg (20643 bytes)

We had pulled our boats before the storm so the first order of the day was getting the boats back in the water. My brother-in-law Joe just happened to be playing hooky from work today too so we managed to get both boats launched with only a few complications. While Joe was launching the 14' aluminum boat I sat at the ramp and touched base with Virgil Poe on the cell phone about a pending Sunday off-shore trip. Joe headed out into the Magothy to do some trot-lining for crabs. I launched my 17' CC and headed for the bay.

Heading for the bay turned out to be a mistake. I thought maybe I'd do a little trolling since the only bait I had was some frozen squid and snouts. The wind was coming up the bay and there were some hefty rollers to slow me down. Surfing and sliding around on rollers in a 17' boat just doesn't work for trolling so I rigged up a bottom rig and made one drift across Snake Reef without as much as a nibble on the frozen morsels.

I headed back in to pick up my son who was home from school by that time. Seems he had a hot date with his grandmother to hit the Pizza Hut for dinner and passed up the opportunity to join me on the river. So I picked up some bloodworms from Fishbones Bait and Tackle and hit the river alone for some evening perch jerkin'. My brother-in-law by this time was near his limit on crabs and decided to join me at the perch hole after he pulled the trot-line. (Crabbing was pretty decent. Nothing real big, no peelers or doublers, but he got his boat limit of two bushel.)

We fished as the tide flooded the cove. Baitfish and perch were constantly popping on the surface. We didn't have quite the action that we had before the hurricane, but it was close. Bites or fish on every cast on bloodworms and crab baits on the bottom. I messed around a little with a shad dart and caught a few that way, but fresh bait provided the real action. We didn't get any of the really big perch this evening, but the action was hot.


Date 9/12/99
Time:4 pm - 8 pm
Location: Baltimore Harbor to 7 Ft. Knoll
Weather: 80 degrees,Sunny, light variable breeze
Tide: ?
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility 1 ft in the harbor, a little better in the bay,
Fish Caught: Snapper blues, small stripers, white perch, spot, croaker.

Father and son fished this evening with Capt. Skip Slomski  ( http://www.mdwaypoint.com/jennybeck/ ) aboard his Mako CC out of  Stoney Creek. It was a beautiful evening to be on the water. (Helpful hint: Hold on to your hat if you fish with Capt. Skip, he likes to go fast!) We zipped up above the Key bridge and found some sitting birds at an underwater discharge. Here we caught some small bluefish and small striper using bass assasins on 3/8 round jig heads. From there we went prospecting at a couple of oyster bars using   standard bottom rigs with soft crab and bloodworms. Caught some more white perch, spot and undersized croaker. We took a break from the bottom fishing for a time when some breaking fish appeared nearby. With assasins we again caught some small rock and blues. As the sun set we fished the structure around a light tower and caught another striper, got snagged a few times and generally enjoyed the sunset. A fast boat ride back found us fishing some breaking fish under lights in Stoney Creek. Caught some small rock there and headed for the dock. Thanks for the 'invite' Capt. Skip -- enjoyable evening. Sorry if Rick talked your ear off. 8-)


Date 9/9/99
Time:8 am - 11 am
Location: Gibson Island shoreline near Magothy Narrows
Weather: 85 degrees,Partly cloudy, Muggy, not much of a breeze
Tide: Outgoing
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility 1 ft., water temp 80 degrees.
Fish Caught: Dozens of white perch to 11", a bluegill, 1 spot, one 14" striper, and a yellow perch
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I dropped my son off at the school bus and headed straight for Fishbone's Bait and Tackle this morning. I was on the water by 8 am with a dozen bloodworms and two peelers. Armed with a couple of light rods and some top secret info I headed for the perch hole. Three hours later I was hot, tired, out of bait and had a cooler full of really nice white perch. I was bottom fishing in on a phragmites bank in less than 3 ft. of water within 30 ft. of shore. Black mucky bottom. Fished a 2 hook bottom rig with bloodworm on one hook and peeler on the other. The fish didn't seem to have a preference. They were on the bait as it hit the water and more often than not I got two at a time. Nice way to spend the morning!


Date 8/26/99
Time:11:30 AM - 6:30 PM
Location: N of Bloody Point Light on the drops
Weather: 90 degrees, humid, sunny, light southerly breeze
Tide: Started on the low slack tide. Currents lanquished for quite some time.
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 2-3 ft.
Fish Caught: 3 keeper flounder to 18", 1 undersized flounder, 1 spot and two lizardfish.
flounder082699.jpg (16834 bytes)  lizardfish.jpg (16713 bytes)

Got a late start today. We had planned an offshore trip with Virgil Poe, but had to cancel due to a crumby weather forcast. I was surprised to get a call from Virgil this morning asking if we were interested in going flounder fishing. Of course! So father and son gathered some gear and headed to meet Virgil. We launched at Sandy Point and headed south to Bloody Point. There is a reason his boat is named Lick A-D Split. We got there in a flash.

Drifting was problematic. There was no tidal current and very little wind. We worked the drop offs and a little on the flats  catching one keeper and two of those mystery fish we assume are the famous lizardfish recently discussed. A drift here, a drift there produced some hits but nothing for the box. 17-18 foot of depth seemed to be prime territory.

We moved inside of Bloody Point on the E-bay side and worked a good drop there picking up a couple more flounder , only one a keeper. At one point we could see birds working just S of us and decided to chase them. Another small boat got there first and managed to put the fish down by running too close.

By this time we were back out near the lighthouse so we started working the bay side of the point and watching the skies for impending weather. We got one nice 18 incher (pictured here) and finally gave it up and dashed back to the ramp with storm clouds building. Virgil let Ricky run the boat back. I guess now I'll have to hear how SLOW our boat is compared to the speedy Lick A-D Split.

Thanks for a fun trip, Virgil.


Date 8/19/99
Time:7 am - 11 am
Location: Just S of lump inside G11 off CraigHill Channel
Weather: 80 degrees,Partly cloudy, Brisk wind from the NE, huge roller coming down the bay
Tide: Started on last part of the outgoing tide, went slack about 9 am. Most action on the outgoing tide
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 2 ft.
Fish Caught: Dozen nice croaker, dozen jumbo spot, a couple of white perch.
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Father and son fished the bay today just south of the lump just inshore of Green 11. We were in about 24 ft. of water with a mud bottom. We intended to fish the lump but the anchor drug when a huge roller went under us. We continued to catch fish so we didn't bother to relocate. Fish were caught on bloodworms and soft crab in about equal measure. Spot preferred the bloodworms, croaker ate up the soft crab. Most of the croaker action was early before the tide slacked off. The spot continued biting right on thru the slack water. It was quite rough this morning. Nothing like the predicted 1 ft. waves. Huge rollers were marching south and kept us rocking and rolling.

We floated an eel the entire time we fished, but he was unmolested. We had to leave at 11 am which was just as well, since the tide was fighting the wind and we were stuck in the middle. It was a fun morning.


Date 8/17-18/99
Time: afternoon
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Partly cloudy, even rained a little
Tide: Outgoing
Water Temp/Conditions: ?
Fish Caught: Caught a bucket full of keeper perch(biggest 11 1/4") on the first day and mostly small stuff the second day.

Ricky and Bryan crabbed and fished the pier and the neighbors pier using a cast net. Had a heck of a good time and caught a bunch of fish and crabs both days.


Date 8/13/99
Time:9:30 AM - Noonish
Location: One drift off Podickory and anchored on the S edge of Snake Reef
Weather: 90 degrees, hazy, strong wind from the S
Tide: Started on slack tide, and into a strong running outgoing tide
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 2 ft.
Fish Caught: 15 nice white perch, 3 undersized croaker and a couple spot

My fishing partner bagged it today, recovering from a hard day at O.C. yesterday. So I was on the water alone for the first time in a while. Made a beeline for the lumps off Podickory as I headed out into a heavy chop and big rollers coming up the bay. There was a fleet of headboat/charters there already. Most were anchored and I didn't see much in the way of action. I made one drift just inshore of the anchored fleet and my drift was way too fast. Couldn't hold bottom without an ounce of weight on standard bottom rigs.

Only had a couple hours to spend so I headed up to my old stomping grounds at Snake Reef for a 'sure thing' to put a few fish in the cooler for tomorrows dinner. It was rough to start, but boy did it get bad when the tide started moving out and piling up water. I anchored on the downtide edge of the reef with the stern of the boat right on the dropoff.   Most of the fish came from on top the reef. When the tide started ripping out it grabbed the boat, and put me broadside to the rollers coming up the bay and moved me off the edge of the reef so I had to heave my cast uptide to reach the fish. Took me a while to figure that out, but once I did there was steady action from perch.

Most of the fish hit on bloodworms. I fished a rod with a quarter of a peeler for a while and had one run-off that made the drag sing. Set the hook, felt some weight then nothing.

Chatted with Grady Too on channel 68. He didn't seem to be bothered by the rough seas. Must be a Grady thing. 8-)

Finally got intimidated by the rough water, put on my life jacket and went to the bow to pull the anchor. The ride back was into the teeth of the wind and I got soaked to the skin. It was actually quite refreshing after a couple of hours of sweltering in the head and humidity. No dead fish pics today. Kind of hard to get those pics when you alone.


Date 8/8/99
Time: afternoon
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Partly cloudy, even rained a little
Tide: Incoming
Water Temp/Conditions: ?
Fish Caught: Steady action on white perch, spot and croaker. -- almost all tiny.

Ricky and Bryan fished the pier this afternoon -- bottom fishing. Used a dozen bloodworms to slay the fish till their bait was all gone. None of the fish were keeper size, but they had a ball catching and releasing.


Date 8/4/99
Time:11:30 AM - 7 PM
Location: Lump inside G11 off CraigHill Channel
Weather: 85 degrees,Sunny, slight chop from S
Tide: Started on last part of the incoming tide, currents were slack for a long time. Most action on the outgoing tide
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 2 ft.
Fish Caught: 3 croaker to 12", 12 large spot, 10 white perch, one 12" bluefish, a tiny toadfish and one keeper striper of 23" and one of about 12".
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Father and son fished the bay today with a late morning start. Currents were slow till after about 2PM. Action picked up with the moving tide. Most of the action was bottom fishing with bloodworms. We fished alewife for a while on our chumming rods, but switched to cut spot on all the rods when the bloodies ran out. Action continued on the cut spot.   As the currents slowed again in the evening the action slowed. Hungry (we made it thru the day on a 6 pack of coke) but satisfied with a great days fishing we headed in to clean the fish. Ricky asked if he could clean some of the fish. Tried his hand at filleting a couple of perch. Did pretty good for his first try. Heard Graybeard hail as he left Sandy Point. We responded but he didn't hear us.


Date 7/28/99
Time:1 PM - 4:30 PM
Location: Drifting over Snake Reef
Weather: 90 degrees,Sunny at start then cloudy and threatening. Winds from S @ <10
Tide: Tail end of the outgoing tide thru slack and into the incoming tide
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility 2 ft.
Fish Caught: 4 croaker to 12", 12 large spot, 30 white perch.
snakereef072899.jpg (31085 bytes)

Father and son fished the bay briefly this afternnon. We picked up a couple of dozen bloodworms from Fishbone's Bait and Tackle and headed for Snake Reef. Drifting conditions were good.  We were able to cover some ground without going too fast. We stayed on the reef most of the time in 11'-14' of water and had steady action the entire time we fished. We ran in just in time to beat the storms approaching from the west.

There's a bit of a story to the picture. When Ricky was taking that picture of me holding the croaker he had something big grab his bait on the tiny ultralight and quicker than a flash it was over the side and sinking fast. Gone forever, I guess.


Date 7/21/99
Time: 7 AM - 2 PM
Location: Lumps W of Green  '11'
Weather: Partly cloudy, 90 degrees, Wind SE @10
Tide: Outgoing to start. Tide went slack 11-ish
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility 2 ft., Wind against the tide to start.
Fish Caught: Half dozen croaker 10 - 12 1/2", dozen white perch, half dozen jumbo spot.
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Father and son fished the bay today near the lumps west of Green '11'. The first part of the morning on the tail end of the outgoing tide we had the wind against the tide which made it rough and awkward to chum. We persisted and floated baits for stripers as well as bottom fishing with bloodworms. Had one good run-off which we missed and the rest of the action was from croaker,  perch and spot. Ricky was fishing a single hook on his tiny ultra-light and had a ball with the panfish. The bigger croaker literally doubled his rod in a circle. I tried to get a picture of that spectacular action, but the camera wouldn't cooperate at the time.When the currents stopped moving just before noon the fish stopped biting.

We had high hopes for the incoming tide as it would mean a better boat position and calmer waters. By that time there were 4 other boats around us (the blind leading the blind?) and the action from the bottom fish resumed. We had one more good hit on the cut baits we were floating for stripers, but missed the opportunity due to inattention. One boat nearby landed a nice striper and fought a ray to the boat, but we struck out again on the rockfish. For about a half hour some teeny-tiny bluefish moved into our chum slick and tore up our baits as quick as we dropped them in the water. Finally we outsmarted them by casting far from the boat to set the lines. Took this one shot before the camera started beeping at me.


Date 7/14/99
Time: 3:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Location: Snake Reef
Weather: Partly cloudy, 80 degrees, Wind E @10
Tide: Fished the outgoing tide thru slack and into the incoming tide
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility at least 2 ft.,
Fish Caught: One 19" striper, dozen keeper croaker to 12", dozen jumbo spot, 15 nice white perch, 2 small stripers.
snakereef071499.jpg (17902 bytes)

Father and son fished the bay this afternoon in the area of Snake Reef. We chummed for several hours with almost no action other than losing two complete terminal rigs to something huge that caught us off guard. Both times the line got tangled in somthing on the boat and zip. We exhausted our supply of chum a bit too quickly when we used a large mesh bag to set it out. Must remember when the water is warm to use the small mesh bag.

We bottom fished with bloodworms and caught a mess of nice croaker (no giants, but definitely keepers), some really big spot, and a bunch of white perch. When the bloodies where gone we switched to soft crab and drifted in a little shallower just before dark. That's where Ricky got the only keeper striper of the day on his ultra-ultra light. Quite a battle!


Date 7/11/99
Time: 8 PM - 9:30 PM
Location: Baltimore Light
Weather: Partly Cloudy, wind from the E
Tide: Outgoing
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 2 ft.,
Fish Caught: Nothing!

Father and son slipped away for a boat ride this evening and took along a couple of rods with 4" albino split tail bass assasins on jigheads. We worked all around the lighthouse as much as the wind would permit. We marked a bunch of suspended fish on the way out. Could not determine what they were but they were smaller fish, possibly baitfish with schoolies. It was rough out there this evening. We persisted till a little after dark then cruised on in. We stirred up some mud on the sunken island as we approached the pier so the water level was pretty low. We could see quite a fleet of boats anchored off Podickory Point after dark.


Date 6/29/99
Time: 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm pm pm
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Pleasant
Tide: Incoming, high due just after 8 pm
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 12", water was murky, fairly high water level
Fish Caught: Steady action on white perch and croaker. No keeper croaker, but several keeper perch.

Katie and Ricky fished the pier this evening. I watched as they enjoyed steady action for an hour or so on bloodworms. Ricky fished on the bottom with a single gold hook and light sinker. Katie tipped a dart with bloodworm and cast and jigged the pilings.


Date 6/27/99
Time: 7-7:30 pm pm
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Muggy, cloudy and threatening looking, brisk onshore breeze
Tide: Outgoing, high about 6:30 pm
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 12", water was murky, fairly high water level
Fish Caught: 10 croaker (3 of which were keepers), one sunfish, one white perch

Father and son visited the pier after dinner. We checked the minnow trap and found a nice bait-size eel and a bunch of grass shrimp. We put the eel in the live-box and used the shrimp for bait for a quick fish or two from the end of the pier. Ricky bottom fished with a single gold hook and light sinker. I cast a shad dart tipped with shrimp. Ricky caught most of the fish including the three hefty croaker. All fish released today.

On Friday we had put some leftover chum and a few alewife in the minnow trap and that turned out to be a great way to bait the trap. It was full of minnows, fat grass shimp, small crabs and the eel.


Date 6/25/99
Time: 6:30 am - 5:30 pm
Location: Western shore from Snake Reef to the spider bouy, and Belvedere Shoal
Weather: Partly Cloudy, steady breeze from the south
Tide: Fished the outgoing tide to start, Tide change was noonish.
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 2 ft.,
Fish Caught: 2 barely keeper croaker and several white perch

Father and son fished the western shore of the bay today north of the Magothy. The first half of the day on the outgoing tide we chummed east of Snake Reef and when that produced absolutely nothing we headed east across Belvedere Shoal. We found some fish but couldn't get them interested, and after an hour or so of tempting them we exhausted our supply of chum..

Seeking familiar territory and at least enough fish for a dinner we headed back to Snake Reef and drifted the reef and the area north to the spider bouy. Wind and tide joined forces for some fast drifting at times. Bloodworms and razor clams both produced some action on croaker and white perch, but nothing to write home about.

It was fun having the whole day to fish. That's a rarity for me. If the wind hadn't picked up I think we'd have stayed out till dark. But as tired as I am right now I'm kind of glad we didn't! Radio traffic today(and mobs of boats) indicated that most of the action was on the eastern side from Love point to the old dumping grounds.

 


Date 6/18/99
Time: 6 pm - 9 pm
Location: Off the end of Snake Reef in about 21 ft. water.
Weather: Sunny, 70 degrees, Northerly breeze but no whitecaps
Tide: Fished tail end of the outgoing tide. Went slack about 8 pm.
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 2 ft.,
Fish Caught: One striper (31 inch), 2 white perch
31inchstriper061899.jpg (17902 bytes)

Father and son and nephew Bryan fished the bay this evening on the outgoing tide. The currents were ripping when we set up off the end of Snake Reef at about 6 pm. We set out a couple of frozen chum blocks high and low in the water. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. After an hour without even a nibble we decided to look around a bit. We never found any big concentrations of fish but split the difference and picked another location a little further north.

The tide currents eventually softened a bit and we picked up a couple of white perch on the bottom on bloodworms. It wasn't till just before the currents quit that our one and only striper came to call. Dad got the big one today! I had a Penn 309 set with the clicker only in free-spool. I heard her sing, then sing again. Nonchalantly I reached over and flipped the reel in gear. The rod doubled over. I proceeded to fight this big 'un as my two 11 year old cronies cheered me on.

We were ready for more. Had one more good hit, but then the currents stopped dead and so did the fish. We pulled anchor and took a drift over the oyster bar in the dark. Had a couple of hits on bloodworm on the bottom, but nary a fish. The cruise home in the moonlight was gorgeous.


Date 6/16/99
Time: 6-645 pm
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Pleasant, calm with a few boat wakes rolling in
Tide: Rising half tide
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 12"
Fish Caught: 5 small white perch, 1 tiny sunfish

Father and sun fished the pier after dinner this evening. We bottom fished from the end of the pier using bloodworms. We had lots of action, but they were hard to hook because they were so small. We kept a couple of the perch for Ranger Mark to use in his aquarium at the park.


Date 6/8/99
Time: 7:00 pm - 9 pm
Location: Cornfield Creek and the Magothy River
Weather: Hot, the tail end of a 100 degree day
Tide: Last part of the outgoing tide
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility at least 3 ft., low water level
Fish Caught: Nothing

Father and son fished this evening in the fading light. Casting poppers, tiny traps and albino bass assasins we worked the Gayfields shoreline, Holland Point and finally the channel markers in Magothy Narrows. Ricky had a couple of hits on a Tiny Trap and that was it for the day. Since the slow speed zone is only Sat/Sun/Hol there were boats zipping around everywhere pulling skiers. Annoying.


Date 6/6/99
Time: 7 am - 2:00 pm
Location: West of Craighill Channel, N of Baltimore light to Snake Reef
Weather: Sunny, 90 degrees, light S wind early but it picked up as the day went on
Tide: Fished the incoming tide from slack to slack
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility at least 3+ ft.,
Fish Caught: About 8 keeper white perch(lots of throwbacks), 3 keeper croaker(biggest 13"), 2 spot.
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Father and son fished the bay this morning. Started just N of Baltimore Light chumming, floating cut bait and bottom fishing. Moved twice before we found some action just off the end of Snake Reef. Marked lots of fish and bait, and we were sure we'd hit a few stripers but never had a hit on the cut alewife all day. Since the chumming action was so slow we each fished a rod on the bottom with bloodworms. All fish were caught on standard bottom rigs (orange spinner blades at the hooks) w/ bloodworms.


Date 6/5/99
Time: 7:30 pm - 8 pm
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Pleasant, onshore breeze
Tide: Incoming with a fairly decent water level
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility at least 3+ ft., very clear water and weeds are to the surface
Fish Caught: One real nice size sunfish

Father and son headed for the pier this evening intent on working on the boat lift. There are some bolts that stick down from the bottom of the lift which interfere with it going all the way to the bottom. Since we've had some problems getting the lift to go low enough to get the boat off on low tide we hoped the couple of inches we'd pick up by cutting off the bolts would help. To make a long story a little shorter the tools we brought were inadequate for the job and we only got one bolt cut before giving it up. We got out the shovel and opened up the trench under the lift a bit and gave fishing a try.

Using some small minnows from the minnow trap we caught one real nice sunfish. No other action so we called it a day.


Date 6/3/99
Time: 8-9 PM
Location: Stoney Creek
Weather: Brisk wind blowing (from the west I think)
Tide:Don't know what it was doing but the water level was very low
Water Temp/Conditions: 73 degrees
Fish Caught: Nothing

Joined Capt. Skip Slomski and Larry Velton for a brief test of the waters of Stoney Creek. Skip has been catching a few stripers on structure in the creek the last few evenings. We fished lighted piers and other structure with surface poppers. Had some fish swirl at the lures, but no connects.


Date 6/2/99
Time: 7 pm - 8 pm
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Pleasant
Tide: Incoming, but very low water level
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility at least 3+ ft., very clear water and weeds are to the surface
Fish Caught: 9 white perch (all small)

Father and son bottom fished from the end of the peir with grass shrimp. This was the only option since you could see bottom half way out the pier.Used up all the grass shrimp we caught in the minnow trap and also some worms from the compost pile.


Date 6/1/99
Time: Evening for maybe 20 minutes
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Pleasant
Tide: Incoming
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility at least 3+ ft., very clear water and weeds are  to the surface
Fish Caught: 5 sunfish and a perch

Father and son fished the pier briefly this evening and had some fun with sunfish.


Date 5/31/99
Time: 6:30 AM -  10 AM (Snake Reef), 10: 30 AM - Noon(Redhouse Cove)
Location: Snake Reef in the early morning then Redhouse Cove for an hour or so.
Weather: 85+, sunny, calm to start then a southerly breeze
Tide: Incoming, high due about 8:00 AM
Water Temp/Conditions:  Visibility at least 2.5+ ft.
Fish Caught: Several dozen white perch (but only 5 small keepers), a couple of croaker(only one a keeper) at Snake Reef. In Redhouse Cove we caught a mess of sunfish, a 10 1/2" yellow perch and a pike.

perch053199.jpg (22754 bytes)Father and son and nephew Bryan fished the early morning hours at Snake Reef. We drifted with standard bottom rigs and bloodworms over the reef and it's edges. Had lots of action from small white perch till the tide peaked and the currents went slack We hung in there for an hour or so, moving around and getting nothing. It was like someone had turned off a switch.

Boat traffic was increasing and the outgoing tide combined with the rising breeze made for an awkward drift so we bagged it and headed up in Cornfield Creek on the Magothy. Fished the far reaches of Redhouse Cove along the golf course shoreline and had steady action from sunfish casting tiny jigs tipped with grass shrimp. Also got a nice yellow perch and a pike there. It was getting hot and the boys were dying to take a swim so we headed in and joined the family gathering for the rest of the holiday afternoon.


Date 5/29/99
Time: 6:30 - 7:30 PM
Location: James Pond off Cornfield Creek on the Magothy
Weather: 80+, sunny, southerly breeze
Tide: Incoming
Water Temp/Conditions: Water temp was 80 degrees! Visibility at least 2.5+ ft.
Fish Caught: 6 sunfish, a yellow perch and a chain pickerel

Father and son and nephew Bryan fished the Magothy this evening. It was a circus with boats, jet ski's, a grounded sail boat  and general pandemonium. We slipped up into Cornfield Creek and found the cove behind Holland Point occupied by about 2 dozen boats anchored and enjoying a jolly good holiday. No way we were fishing there. We noticed that James Pond was quiet and no boats had ventured into it's shallows, so in we went for an hour of peaceful fishing on this busy holiday weekend. Casting jigs tipped with grass shrimp we landed some sunfish, a yellow perch and a pike.  We also had another 'quick release' of a pike at boatside and fed a bunch of very sneaky fish the entire contents of our box of grass shrimp before pulling out and heading home.


Date 5/27/99
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 PM
Location: Cornfield Creek, Magothy River
Weather: Pleasant albeit a little buggy
Tide: Outgoing
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility at least 2.5+ ft., water level was lower than normal
Fish Caught: 3 white perch, 3 yellow perch, 1 catfish, 1 croaker

Water level was low at the start and we could barely get the boat off the lift. Father and son fished for a while this evening on the back side of Holland Pt. near the sharp drop by the duckblind. Mostly we drifted and cast small darts and jigs tipped with grass shrimp and blood worms. The gnats were biting better than the fish and drove us off the water at dark, When we returned to the pier the tide had receded even more and there was no way to get the boat back on the lift.


Date 5/23/99
Time: 6:30 - 7:30 PM
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Pleasant
Tide: Outgoing
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility at least 3+ ft., very clear water and some weeds are almost to the surface
Fish Caught: 2 sunfish, 1 yellow perch

Ricky swam again today while I cast. I didn't have any shrimp today so I experimented with a variety of jigs. Caught all the fish on a white horsehead with willow leaf blade and white twister tail.


Date 5/22/99
Time: 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Pleasant
Tide: Outgoing
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility at least 3+ ft., very clear water and some weeds are almost to the surface, water temp was 72 degrees.
Fish Caught: Dozen sunfish, 6 yellow perch

I fished while Ricky and a friend swam (sometimes in the same spot!) Using white/green dart tipped with grass shrimp had some nice action. All fish were caught in the pier shadow tight to and under the pier.


Date 5/16/99
Time: 7 PM
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Pleasant but cool
Tide: Incoming, water level fairly high
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility at least 2 ft.,
Fish Caught: One nice white perch

Ricky and Bryan fished while I worked on the VHF. They really only made a few casts, but Ricky did manage to get one perch jigging with a small unpainted tube jig tipped with nightcrawler. I got the radio working much quicker than I imagined and since it was getting a little cool as the sun went down the boys decided to call it a day. We listened to the chatter on the radio for a while then headed home.


Date 5/8/99
Time: 6:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Location: Chesapeake Bay out of Breezy Point Marina
Weather: Clouds and sun, one brief shower, and variable winds
Tide: We fished thru 2 tide changes and ended on the low tide
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility 2-3 ft.
Fish Caught: One 32" striper, and 4 undersized.

Father and son along with the Downs Park crew and Frank Smith went aboard the Jenny Beck with Capt. Skip Slomski for a day of trolling for trophy rockfish. Ricky got his trophy in a 32 incher that was the biggest fish of his lifetime. We had 4 undersized fish and 3 nice ones that didn't make it to the boat. Action was spread out over a very long day. But the weather was nice, the company was great and everyone aboard got a chance to battle a fish even if it didn't make it all the way to the boat.

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The Big One

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Photo album for 5/8/99

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Ricky reels in his 32"er

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Jenny Beck Charters
Capt. Skip Slomski


Date 5/7/99
Time: 7 PM - 8 PM
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Cloudy, hazy, damp, sun peeked thru every now and then
Tide: Low due about 7 pm when we started
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility less than 2 ft., low water level, 62 degree water temp
Fish Caught: 17 white perch, mostly 6" or less, but got one we measured at exactly 10 inches.

Ricky bottom fished for a while as I worked on the boat. He had steady action on grass shrimp casting out from the end of the pier. I joined him and cast with a dart/shrimp. We both caught fish. In fact, Ricky was falling behind and decided to go get his ultralight to cast a jig/shrimp in an effort to catch up. It worked. He topped me 9-8. He got the biggest fish on the bottom rig.


Date: 5/5/99
Time: 5:30 PM - 7 PM
Location: Chesapeake Bay from Baltimore light N to the second set of bouys along the Craighill Channel
Weather: 55 degrees, Partly cloudy then cloudy ,  Strong wind from S
Tide: Low about 5:30 PM. Not sure what the currents were doing since it was so rough.
Water Temp/Conditions: . Visibility about 2-3 ft.
Fish Caught:  Nothing, not even a tap, but we only trolled for about 30 minutes.

I looked out at the bay from my office window all day wishing I could get out. The bay was calm most of the day. Finally about 5:30 pm I enticed Ricky away from the TV with an evening fishing trip. As we loaded the boat I could feel a fresh breeze. By the time we hit the mouth of the Magothy there were rollers and an occasional white-cap coming from the SE. We slowed down to stay dry and worked our way out to Baltimore Light. Put 3 lines out since the waves were still building and the boat was twisting and turning. Trolled the channel edge north. The wind kept building and it got downright uncomfortable in our 17' boat so we pointed her south and pounded our way home. Another trip aborted by the wind.

We did mark a lot more fish and bait than last week in the same area.


Date 5/2//99
Time: 6 PM - 7 PM
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Sunny, strong wind from N
Tide:Incoming, low was about 3:30 PM
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility less than 2 ft.,
Fish Caught: nothing

Father and son, and nephew Bryan fished the pier this evening. We began in earnest, but when no action developed after a half hour of casting we went into 'relaxed mode.'   The wind had blown the lid from the bait container into the water so we had a casting contest to see who could hit it. It got out of range before we had a winner. And just about that time another gust came through and into the drink went the bottom of the bait container. This new challenge kept us busy for another 10 minutes or so. Afterwards we sat, watched the sunset and discussed the various comings and goings of boats in the river. Today we fished with darts tipped with "stinkin' dead" worms(purchased at a premium from the local deli) and darts tipped with minnows. We didn't even have a nibble.


Date: 5/1/99
Time: 7 AM - 2 PM
Location: Cornfield Creek of the Magothy River
Tide: High was about 8 AM. High water level all day.
Water Temp/Conditions: . Visibility about 2-3 ft.
Fish Caught:  3 bluegill, 1 pike (14 3/4"), one yellow perch.

bluegill050199.jpg (33639 bytes)

Father and son got up early and made the run to the mouth of the Magothy for an aborted attempt at trolling on the bay. The bay was much too rough and we got soaked just getting turned around in the channel to head back in. Wet and cold we returned to the pier to exchange our trolling gear for our ultralights. Since we were chilled to the bone we decided that a break for breakfast at Mikey D's was a great idea.

After breakfast we returned with some grass shrimp and bloodworms from Fishbone's Bait and Tackle .. We fished in James Pond and the N side of the creek near the first bend as well as along the inside of Holland Point. The only fish we found were in James Pond. Never saw a white perch which was our real target. We fished darts dressed with shrimp or bloodworms both under bobbers and casting. The wind blew hard all day.


Date: 4/27/99
Time: 6 PM - 8 PM
Location: Chesapeake Bay from Baltimore light N to the third set of bouys along the Craighill Channel
Weather: 60 degrees, sunny ,  Light winds
Tide: Not much tidal movement till late. High was about 5 PM at Mt. Pt. Bar
Water Temp/Conditions: . Visibility about 2-3 ft.
Fish Caught:  Nothing, not even a tap

Ricky and I got a late start and trolled N from the Magothy this evening from about 6 pm - 8 pm. Not even a tap.Think we hit the slack tide since high tide for Mt.Point Bar was due about 5 pm and the currents lag about an hour behind the high water mark..

We marked very few fish and no bait. Got checked by DNR while trolling. They pulled along-side to chat and noted the boat fishing license sticker, said see ya later, and took off. They said they hadn't seen anyone with a fish yet.


Date: 4/25/99
Time: 9 AM - 4 PM
Location: Chesapeake Bay S of the Bay Bridge on the W edge of the channel to the ship anchorage.
Weather: 60 degrees, sunny ,  Strong N wind to start which died down..
Tide: Caught the tail end of the outgoing tide. Low was about 9:15 at Sandy Point
Water Temp/Conditions: . Visibility about 2-3 ft.
Fish Caught:  8 stripers (24" - 30"), 3 of them keepers.

stripers042599.jpg (27558 bytes)

Father and son fished with Virgil Poe aboard his boat Lick A-D Split. Launched out of Sandy Point after a brief delay due to two dead batteries. The truck battery saved the day.  We trolled the W side of the channel in depths of about 40-55 ft. Caught fish at all depths. No rhyme or reason. Hottest lure was a large white bucktail with 9" shad. It was a tough pick today. We lost at least 3 fish after long battles, had several dynamite strikes off the outriggers that didn't get hooked and found a secret technique that put a fish in the box. After about an hour without any sign of fish Virgil pulled out a loaf of bread and some peanut butter and set about preparing a bit of lunch on the transom right in the middle of the spread. You guessed it, no sooner had the knife hit the peanut butter a line went down to break our dry spell. Try it. I guarantee it!


Date4/23/99
Time: 6 AM - 12:30 PM
Location: Chesapeake Bay from the Craighill Spider bouy to just S of the Bay  Bridge along and in the channel.
Weather: 60 degrees, partly cloudy,  Strong N wind to start which died down. Rain started heavy as we left.
Tide: Caught the tail end of the outgoing tide
Water Temp/Conditions: . Visibility about 2-3 ft.
Fish Caught:  2 stripers (24" & 30"(12 pounds))

openingday99_30inch.jpg (23367 bytes)

Father and son fished the opening day in spite of some pretty crappy conditions at the start. With the brisk wind from the N we had to slow almost to trolling speed to stay dry as we ventured out of the mouth of the Magothy.. That being the case we decided to change our plan of heading to the Bay Bridge and fish the channel edges N of Baltimore light. We caught the tail end of the outgoing tide as we dropped our lines in about 28 ft. of water intending to seek the deeper water near the channel. But we were marking quite a few fish in the shallow water. Just about the time we finally got all our lines set our deepest line went off. At first I thought we might be dragging bottom, but young Rick grabbed the rod and started pumping away like an old pro (this was his first ever fish trolling on the bay.) The wind was whipping, our little boat was rockin' and rollin', but a 30" fish within a half hour of starting made our day. We got the line back in the water after the confusion and within 10 minutes we hooked our second fish (24")

Eventually the wind died down and it was pretty pleasant for a while. By that time the tide had changed. We took the opportunity to venture south to the Bay Bridge trolling the channel edges as we went. We never had another tap the entire morning. At about 12:30 it started raining hard and we called it a day.

This was our first ever attempt at trolling on the bay other than our shakedown cruise yesterday. It was fun testing all the tidbits of info we gathered from others as we tried our luck. Both our fish were caught on a large white bucktail with 9" shad on a tandem rig. That rod had 10 oz. of weight and only had about 30 ft. of line out. Depending on our speed it was almost straight down at times. The picture shows Ricky with his catch of the day (and his biggest fish ever.)


Date: 4/22/99
Time: 5 PM - 7:30 PM
Location: Chesapeake Bay N. of Baltimore Light, and Chesapeake Bay S. of Bay Bridge W. of Craighill Channel
Weather:65 degrees, partly cloudy, Light winds
Tide:Outgoing w/ strong currents, Low due about 9 pm at Ft. Mchenry
Water Temp/Conditions: . Visibility about 2 ft.
Fish Caught: Nothing

Father and son took a shakedown cruise in preparation for opening day. You might say it was "educational." We learned that 1) it is extremely difficult to estimate line out on reels that have no level wind, 2) A boat with 5 ft. beam is cramped when you hang a bunch of rods off the back and even more cramped when you have a lap full of leader and lures, 3) Spoons get tangled, 4) Lures won't hook fish if you leave the plastic protectors on the hook points, 5) Umbrella rigs are just too much of a pain on a small boat,  6) Going up-current or down-current is trickier that going cross-current when it comes to maintaining the proper speed, 7) Lines won't catch fish when they are tangled, 8) Our new GPS is a marvel of technology. We love it!, 9) We have a spread of 3 rods with tandem bucktails/shad bodies planned for our opening day adventure tommorow.

It was fun, a little frustrating, and definitely educational this evening. We quickly realized that we really only have 3 rods hefty enough for trolling the tandem bucktails. And even with the 'outboard' rodholders on the side of the boat our spread is very cramped. Tommorrows spread (weather permitting) will have tandem bucktails 200 ft. back on each outboard rodholder, one with some extra weight, the other with only the bucktails. The third rod will be weighted enough that we can keep it out of the way and still in the top of the water column.

We marked lots of fish and some bait this evening right on the edge of the Craighill Channel from 2 bouys above Baltimore light down to the light. From there we zipped down to the bridge and played around just below the bridge in the area Virgil and I fished earlier in the week. Marked fish and bait there too, but in the 45 minutes or so we spent there we didn't connect with anything and discovered when we pulled the lines that in a manuver to let a barge pass we had tangled a couple of lines. Live and learn.


Date4/19/99
Time:10 AM - 5 PM
Location: Chesapeake Bay just S of Bay Bridge
Weather:58 degrees, partly cloudy, strong wind from the SW
Tide: Tide was still coming in when we started, but changed soon after.
Water Temp/Conditions: . Visibility about 2 ft. Water temp 51.3 degrees
Fish Caught: 9 stripers from 25" - 34" (19 pounds), all released

stripers041999.jpg (37346 bytes)

Fished today with Virgil Poe aboard his boat Lick A-D Split. We headed out of Sandy Point to the channel edges just south of the bridge. Four lines with tandem bucktail/parachutes w/shad bodies. Two umbrellas. A roof line with a spoon and bucktail in tandem. The hot lines were on the outriggers with 3 oz. or less weight. The only thing that didn't produce were the umbrellas. Not even a tap on those. After some initial action to the east of the channel we had a dry spell for an hour or more. The wind picked up and we slipped above the bridge for a brief time, but found nothing to keep us there. Heading back south we concentrated the rest of the afternoon (rocking and rolling) on the western edge of the channel in slightly shallower water (mostly about 40 feet). Ran over a pod of fish a couple of times and pulled one or two each pass.

The big laugh of the day was as Virgil pulled the last line before heading in. On the smaller buctail hooked thru the mouth was an alewife about the size of the lure. Virgil made me swear I would never post that picture I took to the web!  (and since I would like to be invited back on his boat I have destroyed the negative.)

Great trip and we never saw another boat fishing all day. That 34" fish was the biggest fish I've ever caught. Thanks Virgil!


Date: 4/16/99
Time: 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Location: Cornfield Creek on the Magothy River
Weather:60 degrees, sunny, mostly calm
Tide: Fished the incoming tide. High due about 7:15 PM
Water Temp/Conditions: . Didn't check the water temp, visibility was a little over 2 ft.
Fish Caught:30 white perch(medium to small), 1 yellow perch, 1 catfish

Father and son fished the shallows of Cornfield Creek(James Pond) for a couple hours this evening after dinner. High water levels and an incoming tide. We fished grass shrimp on small shad darts under bobbers in about 3-4 ft. of water close to shore. We caught about 30 white perch, a yellow perch and a catfish this evening. About half the perch were 'keepers', although just barely and will provide a tasty dinner tommorow. Most were full of roe. We almost didn't go out this evening because of all the high wind forcast, but I'm glad we did. It was dead calm and gorgeous.


Date 4/14//99
Time: 7:30 PM - 7:50 PM
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Clear, breezy from the W, cool
Tide:Outgoing, high was about 6:20 PM
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility less than 2 ft.,
Fish Caught: 1 fat white perch

Father and son fished the pier briefly this evening. We fished minnows under bobbers and minnows on jigs. Most of our minnows are pretty big since we've been holding them for about a month. We used the smallest minnows we could find. Only fish of the evening was on a plain hook under a bobber. Ricky got that one and we called it a day since it was a bit breezy to fish comfortably.


Date: 4/10/99
Time: 9:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Location: Cornfield Creek on the Magothy River
Weather:60 degrees, sunny, brisk northerly breeze
Tide: Fished the incoming tide. Low was about 8:15 AM
Water Temp/Conditions: . 56 degree water, less than 2 ft. visibiity
Fish Caught:2 pike (19"),  4 catfish, 1 yellow perch, 1 white perch, all released

catch041099.jpg (52389 bytes)

Don't forget to click the picture for a better look at todays catch!

Since  low tide due at about 8:15 AM this morning father and son had a leisurely breakfast before heading for our favorite cove.. We fished this shallow cove with grass shrimp on darts and minnows on our usual horsehead jigs. We fished some of the shallower sections of the cove just to get out of the breeze, but other than a white perch we couldn't buy a fish. So we moved out to deeper (really only 4-5 feet of water) and that's where we found the variety of fish we got today. Not great numbers of fish today, but 4 species were caught and released in this half day trip.


Date: 4/7/99
Time:5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location: Magothy River, Mouth of Magothy to Cornfield Creek
Weather:65 degrees, sunny, light breeze from the SW
Tide: Fished both sides of the low tide (low about 6:45 pm)
Water Temp/Conditions: . 56 degrees at Mouth of Magothy, 60 degrees in the boathouse cove. Visibility about 18",
Fish Caught: 2 fat nice size white perch, both released.

Father and son set out to catch some white perch this evening. We picked up some grass shrimp from Fishbones and headed out. Our first stop was at the mouth of the river. We fished both the deeper S side of the channel and the shallows right up on the point of Gibson Island. Not a nibble.

Moved up into the river and fished some of the shallows on the claybanks just E of the oyster bar and got not even a nibble.

Moved up into the boathouse cove and fished with shrimp on darts under bobbers. As soon as the tide started moving back in the cove burst with fish activity. There were large fish busting something on the surface in shallows so skinny we couldn't get near them and baitfish and small fish movement marked the flat calm water everywhere we looked. We started getting a few hits and Ricky picked up two fat sassy white perch. Unfortunately it was practically dark when all this happened and we had to call it a day.


Date4/4//99
Time: around noon for about an hour
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: cloudy, calm
Tide:Outgoing, high was a little before 10 am
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 2.5 ft., enough water to fish right to the rip-rap
Fish Caught:Nothing

Ricky and Bryan fished the pier for a while this morning. They fished bloodworms on the bottom, under a bobber and on jigs with only a few faint nibbles and no takers.


Date4/2/99
Time:7:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Location: Magothy River
Weather:65 degrees, hazy early, then clear and partly cloudy, calm with only an occasional light breeze
Tide: High was about 7:30 AM, fished the first part of the outgoing tide
Water Temp/Conditions: . Visibility about 2 ft, on the N side and 3 ft. on the S side of the river
Fish Caught:3 pike, 1 yellow perch, all released

pike040299.jpg (30740 bytes)

Father and son started this day on the slack tide. We messed around in the mainstem of Cornfield creek and along the inside of Holland Point experimenting with trolling using the big motor. Had a couple of taps but no takers. Fished the shallows of  the boathouse cove casting and with bobber rigs for about an hour. Ricky snatched one yellow perch from there but that was it.

At about 9:30 we pulled anchor and zipped across the river to the area Virgil and I fished a couple of days ago. The water was much clearer on the S side of ther river. We trolled two lines ala Poe and had a couple of pickups but no connects. With time slipping away we stopped and fished a couple of prime locations and I connected with 3 pike before heading for the dock.

Later in the afternoon while I went horse shopping Ricky fished the pier with his cousin Matt. The tide was low and Ricky says he didn't pay too much attention to his line since he was having fun spitting marshallows at a spider web. Says he didn't even have a nibble. When I picked him up just at dusk I found him on the boat swabbing the deck using a minnow bucket full of river water and the mop. Says he wanted to clean up the boat a bit. I like the way he thinks!


Date4/1//99
Time: 6:45 PM - 7:30 PM
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: Fog, drizzle, 55 degrees
Tide:Last part to the incoming tide. High due 7:20 PM
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 2 ft.,
Fish Caught:1 white perch

Father and son fished the pier after dark for a brief time using bloodworms on bottom rigs from the end of the pier. We had lots of nibbles, but only managed to hook one fish in the short time we fished.


Date3/31/99
Time:9:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Location: Magothy River
Weather:65 degrees, sunny, breezy from W
Tide: Outgoing to start, fished thru the slack tide and beyond
Water Temp/Conditions: . Visibility about 2 ft, very low water level all day, 60 degree water temp
Fish Caught:13 pickerel from 16"-19", one 28" striper and one striper about 12"

trip033199.jpg (50907 bytes)

Fished the upper Magothy today with Virgil Poe whom I met via the internet on the message boards of World Wide Angler. Virgil has perfected the art of trolling the shallows in 'his' area of the Magothy and he was gracious enough to take me along for a great trip. Conditions were less than ideal with water levels being exceptionally low and a strong westerly breeze that made boat control a real chore. Thanks for a great trip, Virgil!

Virgil video-taped many of our catches today, but I had the pleasure of  taking the video of his battle with the first fish of the day. He masterfully landed a beautiful striper and carefully released it after the quick photo above. What a way to start the trip. He had that fish on within the first 5 minutes of fishing!


Date3/30/99
Time:1:30 PM - 3:30 PM, & later from 5:30 PM to 6:40 PM
Location: Early in the afternoon in the mainstem of the river, later in Cornfield Creek
Weather:65 degrees, Blowing good from the W
Tide: Started on the low tide. High was about 6:15 PM
Water Temp/Conditions: . Visibility about 3 ft, high water level.
Fish Caught: 2 pickerel

I fished alone for a brief time this afternoon. Just to try something different (not realizing how breezy it really was) I went outside of Dobbins Island and made a couple of drifts with bottom rigs(minnows and shrimp.) Nothing doing there. I think my drift was just too fast to say I gave it a fair shot. I was hoping I'd find some white perch somewhere. Tried drifting the shallows off the W shore of Gibson Island also, but nothing doing.

For the last half hour before going in I went inside Holland point in about 7 ft. of water and cast with jig/minnow. Connected with 2 pike and missed another in the last 20 minutes I fished.

Ricky and I came back out after dinner and fished James Pond and Holland Point, but we didn't even have a nibble. Fished till dark.


Date3/29//99
Time: 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: 50 degrees,brisk breeze out to the W
Tide:Last part to the incoming tide. High due 5:30 PM
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 2 ft.,
Fish Caught: Nothing

Father and son fished the pier briefly using minnow in various and creative ways. Not a nibble.


Date3/28/99
Time:4:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Location: Cornfield Creek
Weather:50 degrees, occasional light breeze from the N..
Tide: Started on the high tide. High about 4:30 PM
Water Temp/Conditions: . Visibility about 3 ft, high water level. Some shore grass was flooded..
Fish Caught: 1 pickerel

pike032899.jpg (20203 bytes)

Father and son couldn't resist the temptation. This day was supposed to be a washout as far as the weather was concerned (at least if you believe the weatherman), but with all our chores done and the sun breaking thriough the clouds you just couldn't hold us back. We made a mad dash for the pier, loaded the boat and headed for the creek.

Actually we made a brief stop at a little inlet on the W shore of Gibson Island that we can only motor into on high tide. We've pulled some fish out of there on occasion, but not today.

Next stop was the boathouse cove. No problem motoring in today. Five foot of water at the entrance. Ricky fished two lines with bobbers and minnows on a plain hook. I tossed out a rod rigged that way too, but cast steadily for the hour or so we fished there with a jig/minow combination.

Ricky got the only fish of the day...a 21" pike. He loves to show up his old man by catching the firstest, the biggest and the mostest fish. Today he got to gloat. I had three chances to get fish on the bobber rigged line. I managed to miss every one. After the third missed fish Ricky insisted, "If you get another bite let me hook him and I'll give you the rod back to reel him in." No doubt he probably could have, but twilight came quickly and he never got the chance...


Date3/26/99
Time:4:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Location: Cornfield Creek
Weather: 45 degrees, occasional breeze from the N..
Tide: Outgoing, low due about 9:15 pm
Water Temp/Conditions: . Visibility about 3 ft, low water level.
Fish Caught: Nothing!
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I fished alone for a brief time this evening. Started off the evening by rigging a couple of rods with gypsy rigs of darts and small horsehead jigs all tipped with minnows. Trolled slowly along the eastern edge of Holland Point. No action there. Moved over to the boathouse cove for the last hour and anchored in a couple spots that usually provide some action. Had one fish on for two thumps of his tail and that was it. Fishing was slow but it was a delightful evening..


Date3/25//99
Time: 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: 50 degrees,almost calm
Tide:Outgoing, low due about 8:30 pm
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 3 ft., water was very clear and low, could see clam shells on bottom at the end of the pier
Fish Caught: Nothing

We gave it a good try with minnows and grasss shrimp. We tried bottom fishing from the end of the pier and casting with jig and minnow all over the place, but didn't even have a tap..


Date3/23/99
Time:4:30 PM - 5:45 PM
Location: Cornfield Creek
Weather: 45 degrees, steady brisk breeze from the S.
Tide: Last part of the incoming tide. Low about 6 PM
Water Temp/Conditions: Didn't check the water temp.. Visibility about 2 ft. Very low water level.
Fish Caught: 1 pickerel released

Father and son braved the elements for a quick fish this evening. The wind was onshore at the pier and blowing pretty good. The water level was very low and the tide was still ebbing. It was cloudy and threatening rain and spitting a bit as we finished up about 5:45 PM. We fished the boathouse cove to get out of the wind. The only fish of the evening was caught almost by accident. I was casting with one rod and had a second rigged with a shad dart and bobber. About 5 pm I happened to notice the bobber was nowhere to be seen. I looked down and I could see the bobber 'swimming' around under water just behind the boat. After reeling in a mile of slack I set the hook into the only pike of the evening. I had one other fish on just long enough to double my rod and make the reel sing for a split second.


Date3/20/99
Time:11 AM - 5 PM
Location: Cornfield Creek
Weather: 50 degrees, steady light breeze from the S.
Tide: Both sides of the low tide. Low about 2:45 PM
Water Temp/Conditions: Water temp 50 degrees in a protected cove. Visibility about 3 ft.
Fish Caught: 4 pickerel released
pike032099.jpg (27654 bytes)

Father and son fished the creek today. Low water level was the story of the day. We barely got the boat off the lift and slipped over some very skinny water to get to our favorite haunts. All our fish today were caught in the boathouse cove which we visited a couple of times as we hopped around the creek. We tried drifting with bobber rigs in Holland Point Cove without as much as a nibble. The air temps were a bit nippy when we were running so we didn't travel far. We generally anchor and fish a spot for 30 minutes or so, then move along. We actually had a fair amount of action today in spite of landing only 4 pike. We battled a few to the boat and lost a few others. Nothing but pike today, never felt a nibble from anything like a perch even though we had at least one line dressed with grass shimp in the water all day. It was a great day for wildlife watching. We had a muskrat stalking us for about an hour in the morning, a kingfisher dive-bombing nearby, and at one point we thought we were being buzzed by a UFO that turned out to be a flock of low flying swans. The battery died on the camera after I took the shot above of Ricky and our first fish of the day, so the old man didn't get his picture taken today.  


Date3/17/99
Time: 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Location: Cornfield Creek
Weather: 70 degrees, moderate breeze from the S.
Tide: Incoming
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 3 ft.
Fish Caught: 2 pickerel released
pike031799.jpg (29403 bytes)

Father and son fished the creek today. We only had about an hour or so to fish so we headed for a nearby protected cove. Casting jigs w/ minnows and also dangling darts with minnows under bobbers. We each caught and released a nice pike and had a few follows to add to the excitement. It was a gorgeous evening with huge flocks of Canada Geese moving about and the first osprey of the year fishing(and catching) nearby.


Date3/16/99
Time: 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: 50 degrees, light onshore breee
Tide: Last moments of the incoming tide
Water Temp/Conditions: Visibility about 1 ft.(water was a bit cloudy), water up to the pier stringers
Fish Caught: Nothing, but Ricky lost a minnow to a flash of silver.

Father and son fished the pier briefly this evening. We fished chartreuse horsehead jigs tipped with minnows. Tried casting and under bobbers. The only hit of the day was when Ricky lost a minnow while jigging the pilings near the stepdown on the pier. Pretty evening, but the light breeze made it a little chilly.


Date3/14/99
Time: 12:45 pm - 1 pm
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: 50 degrees, calm
Tide: Rising half tide
Water Temp/Conditions: very clear, medium high water level
Fish Caught: Nothing

Ricky, Bryan and Katie spent about an hour this morning trapping minnows in Locust Cove of the Bodkin. It was snowing big wet flakes the entire time and they managed to get covered with mud from head to toe, but they had a great time and caught about a half pint of minnows to add to our supply. We had found the mother-lode of minnows in the creek the other day and stocked up. Ever since then every chance they could Ricky and Katie have wanted to try again.

After their minnow trapping foray we went over to the pier to put the minnows in the live box. The water level was high and it was calm, very inviting in spite of the wet snowfall. Ricky and Bryan each grabbed a rod and gave it a good try, but to no avail. No fish today.


Date:3/13/99
Time: 3:15 pm - 3:45 pm
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: 40 degrees, light breeze
Tide: High, first part of the outgoing tide
Water Temp/Conditions: very clear, medium water levell
Fish Caught: Nothing

Father, son and nephew Bryan fished the pier briefly this afternoon using minnows on jigs. The kids used bobbers and cast with my ultralight. Nary a nibble.


Date:1/16/99
Time: 4:15 pm - 4:30 pm
Location: Pier on Sillery Bay(Tar Cove), Magothy River
Weather: 50 degrees, calm
Tide: Incoming, High due about 6:15 pm
Water Temp/Conditions: very clear, high water level
Fish Caught: Nothing

Ricky, Bryan and I fished the pier for a brief time this evening casting naked jigs. Not a nibble


1/2/99 Haven't been fishing yet this year, but stay tuned! We're looking forward to lots of good fishin' in 1999! During this slow time I took the time to put online my 1966 fishing log, 1967 fishing log, 1968 fishing log and 1969 fishing log which catalog the exploits of Rick, Sr. and myself over 30 years ago!. More to come as time permits. Check them out!


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