We knew we were heading back to the Potomac, even though it was a good boat ride. It was a wild boat ride as it was at least 2-foot seas with a few 3+. My boat handled the chop like a champ, and I was very thankful to be in it as opposed to my previous one.
We did get to the Potomac after about an hour’s ride. We saw a bunch of boats an excellent little way east of us, but I didn’t want to get into that amount of crazy until minimally we had the lines out and settled.
We never settled the lines; before I could even get my side out, Scott had one on his side. Did I tell you I love my auto-pilot? Well, I do. It works so well when it keeps us straight when we need it most. We needed it most because, as it turns out, I had one rod in and one halfway out, plus he had two off with the third halfway out. It could have been a disaster of tangles, but I could go to his side and help get the fish while everything else just settled where it was out.
It turned out it was not a keeper, but we did confirm we were in a good spot. We caught it and all of the rest on the same old reliable umbrella rigs I have used. The old dedicated Colonial Heights (in honor of our friend) white bucktail with a red collar was very productive. Another classic that works well is the Purple People Eater, and finally, the Tequila Sunrise was the three most effective colors.
We could have had our limit of 20” fish in about 20 min, but as long as they were healthy, we tossed them back. We ended our day with about 40 fish (we got tired of counting) and kept the ones below.
Colonial HeightsTequila SunrisePurple People Eater
My friend Keats often has room for me for his yearly outing. This year we went on Dec. 7th. It is always a good time with Keats and his group of workers and clients. They are such good workers for the country and are definitely the backbone of what makes America Great.
We left the dock on time and headed north. This time of year you can keep two fish in the Potomac (not the Bay). Maryland definitely has some unique rules. We got to the fishing grounds within maybe 45 minutes. There was very little question if we were there as there were many thousands of birds working the water. Ryan’s first mate was a good one, Shane is a very good fisherman as well and really nice to have on the boat.
We quickly got our limit and headed back to the dock for another special day of fishing with friends.
Brandon, and his two sons, Sage and Asher, went fishing. We also had Mitch and his son Scott. You may remember them from our previous adventures. The last time I had them up was a great trip with Mitch. Mitch is our honorary member because we all went with him when my boat was on the mend. That year we had great success this year, we just had success.
We set off for the NNK reef with great intentions of filling up the boat. It sure started that way, we caught two before we even got started well. We quickly followed that up with another pair. Sadly that was the end of the bite. I didn’t take great pictures because at that rate I was sure we would have a lot of opportunities. Well, the best-laid plans. But…we did have a good time and we got to spend time with two great families.
I am finally returning to my blog after a hectic week. No excuse. I have been fishing but not blogging. I plan on fixing that over the next few days or so.
Went out fishing with the Sea Chaser which is a new to me boat. Scott and I went out Saturday morning for the first time. We knew the bay was at least 4 feet seas, so we went to the Rt 200 bridge. We did troll even though we believed that casting to the bridge we needed to get our bearings straight on the boat and get back in the groove on tactics and bait checks. Where does our baits go when moving them back to the boat from storage (who knows but I am sure I can’t find all of my gear).
We picked up this guy as soon as we put out first line. We didn’t even get all of the gear in before we got this hit. The water is still warm, and I am not have heard of many fish being picked up but let’s hope for a good year.
You can see the bait we got him on. I love that old school gear in a more modern umbrella setup.
Certainly one of the best things in my life are my friends and family. They are all really great people, that however does not mean they are not crazy. Well we all have a good time teasing one another. This video is two of them teasing our friend that is a commercial waterman. He does capture and sell a bunch of mud shad during the year along with oysters and crabs plus most every other kind of fish that can sell at market.
It may be that since I know them I can’t stop laughing at this but I’ll send it out in my message in a bottle for all to see. I won’t put their names on the net to protect the innocent…guilty…yes.
I have a post today that I am working on that I have not been prepared to make. I have sold my Proline and bought a new to me boat , a Sea Chaser. I have been planning for this day for a few years but it doesn’t make it a better day. I enjoyed my Proline for so many years I have nothing but the greatest of memories on that boat. Any issues I have had have long since been forgotten and I now remember all of the friends I have met through this boat and how many great adventures I have had along the way. But a new chapter has begun and I am excited to have an opportunity to go further than before.
It is strange to see “my boat” on another lift but I helped the guys that bought it move it to the Little Wicomico river last week. Every post prior to this one was on the Proline and this thing was a “fish magnet” as Ron always says.
Proline at Cockerells Marina
My new boat is a 2018 Sea Chaser HFC 27, made by Carolina Skiff. They transitioned to a new name to designate the blue water boats from their inland series. I am sure they are in the same complex and they just reversed the letter designation from CS to SC. The boat is 27 feet long and approx 10 feet wide center console. I bought it from a family in Fl and much further down if you want to read I will detail out my adventure in getting it to my house.
Sea Chaser in my back yard
Some more details about my new boat and the reason I got it. Chuck and I have been discussing for some time now about I really need one more boat before I get to the age where I need to ride with someone rather than drive. We had always decided that would happen this time in 23 and I was content to wait for that day. Main reason I did not want to finance any purchase. Well my friend Rick that fished with me a bunch this year discussed multiple times that he wanted my proline and that I should just go ahead and get it. Well finally I decided life is short lets go ahead and launch.
The good news is I had been looking online to find the boat make and model I wanted for some time now. I even had a spreadsheet called “Boat Dreaming” where I would put examples of boats I liked and write things I liked and disliked about everyone. I went through a lot of research about length and more importantly width and engine details. The one main thing I found out is that not every boat manufacturer is the same and that some old tried and true manf. are riding the past more than I think they should. I’ll add that to this article as well. Anyway I kept coming back to the Sea Chaser, it checked off every item I felt important and so I just narrowed my search to this model.
Here are some things I liked about this specific boat. It has:
2 Garmin 7612sxv Chart plotters/fish finder with side view etc.
Rhodan GPS Trolling and Anchor 84” shaft
2 Suzuki 300 HP engines (yes a lot but nice)
Simard digital gauges
2 (3 bank battery)
Lewmar Windlass
Nice seating in front and rear. I really like how well built the seating is and they fold away very easily for fishing room
It is what I call a real 27 foot boat. So many of today’s manufacturers add a little tail section to the back just to the rear of the engines. Now that adds to the measured length of the boat but not at all to the space of the boat.
Many other just quality items
I took a couple of years to find the kind of boat I wanted and about 3 months to find the one that I wanted.
Here is the crazy story of how I got it from FL to here. My brother that owns a Chevy dealership got one of his car carriers to bid on getting it put on a trailer then delivered to me here in Reedville. Seemed everything was well planned but the person I bought the boat from said they left without it being on a trailer. The operator said they had changed their mind and were just going to tow it. I argued, heck I could do what I wanted on a trailer. Ultimately, they said that was going to be about $3500 so I said I will do it.
I borrowed a big crew cab 2500 diesel from my friend Jim and headed to FL. I left early in the morning and drove straight through to St Augustine, picked up the trailer and boat and headed home. My intention was to drive until nightfall but I was so hyped up from the nerves of pulling this wide boat I just kept going. At about 10 pm in Kenly, NC I had a tire blow. This is where I know God has me firmly in hand. As soon as I heard the tire an exit was there just as I slowed down. The exit had a huge paved area where I could pull off from traffic and still be on the pavement. I certainly expected to have at least one blowout during the pull so I packed my 3 ton floor jack and all of the tools I needed. I changed the tire but I noticed the front tire was low on air. That front tire low was what caused the rear to blow. So going as slow as I could I head north and within a half mile was a truck stop. I filled all of the tires with air but noticed the front tire had a slow leak. I knew that was a recipe for another blow out so I just stayed at the truck stop in the morning. I had to go to three places before one had the tires I needed but it worked out well. This was an experience that I am glad I had but certainly don’t want to do it again.
Finally got out with my friend Adam and his son Sutton. We have been trying to get together for some time now and it was a good day to get it done. They fish crab pots most mornings so we left my dock in Adams boat at about 8:30 or so. It was a great water and weather day so we set out for the Northern Neck Reef.
When we got there it was likely 30 boats working the area so we fell right up in there as well. We did pretty good really the whole morning. There was a steady amount of work putting the lines out and catching fish. Sutton was a world class observer and always told us when one was on. We caught a bunch and he was ready to try his hand. Sutton pulled in I would say five or so and easily caught the biggest one. Adam driving the boat, me working the rods and mom taking a peaceful ride in the bow seating.
Really turned out to be a great day and I was glad we finally got everything together to go. We had to get back early but we had such a good day it was time to come in anyway.
Here is Sutton with his 3 lb Spanish. We were getting gas at Buzzards so we weighed this guy to see how much it weighed.
I had scheduled a day to go Spanish fishing with my friend Adam and one of his friends. He ultimately had something happen and was unable to go so Scott and I ventured out. We left the dock at about 7:00 o’clock. We decided to just immediately go to Red 62, we have just not heard of many people catching anything east of the shipping channel. Also, we had pretty good success at 62 a few weeks ago.
Well the decision to go deep turned out to be a great decision. We put in about 500 yards West of 62 but pretty much as soon as we got there the screen was full of bait. It did not take long before we started pulling them in.
We switched lure color various times during the day so I can’t say anything did not produce but I think without a doubt a simple plain silver 00 spoon likely caught the most. We had two on number 1 planner and two on number 2 planner with the number 2 doing more of the catching. Here is how I fish for Spanish.
The water was great all day, it was likely 1.5 to 2+ in the morning but laid down during the morning into the afternoon. The water was very clear on the east side of the cha but was a strange rusty color on the west side of the channel.
We caught a bunch and we had one really nice one, this one was just shy of a citation.
Well let’s say it was my first day this year of the Spanish Mac season. The morning was calm and Scott and I took off the dock around 6:30 to see where we may run into the rascals. Cobia has slowed but we expect them to be back in the stories soon but this day is for Spanish.
We had a good day, the seas were calm in the morning and steadily got worse as the day went on. We had to be back at the dock and fully cleaned up by noon so we knew we needed to get busy. We stopped and put in the first set a just west of Green #3 in the GW. I generally run 2 #2 and 2 #1 planners. Again generally, we add 4 different colors until we see what the color de jure was going to be.
We took a right and headed south at #3 to follow the dropoff ledge that goes to the Asphalt pile. It did not take long before we got two on. One Spanish and one Bluefish, they were definitely mixed together all day. I know the rule about speed of the boat but I have ample evidence that if a blue wants it they will get it no matter the speed. I think they are less likely to want the bait at a fast pace but if they do you are not going to tell them differently.
During the day we landed 16 and likely had 8 that got off. We certainly caught nearly as many Blues as we did Macs but I didn’t count or keep those. We were so busy we reduced the number of rods to just 3 and as the water got more rough I was not as able to help as I should have. We needed our friend Trey that was scheduled to be there but couldn’t make it at the last minute so we just did the best we could.
Overall a good day for 4 hours of fishing in tough conditions. Definitely back in the groove pretty quickly on the Spanish front.
