Author: Riley

Went on a charter on the Mystic Lady II with Capt. Jack and for today Mark as the first mate. As you would expect we just had a great day. We set off on the docks at first light, maybe 6:45 or so. The trip out was perfect, the sun coming up was just beautiful. We had Scott, Bubba (in pic), Trey, Charlie, Charlie Jr., Lucky (yes and that is his M.O. as well), and Myself.

We head out towards the Va/Md border. Started seeing a bunch of birds but as a very good Capt, Jack somehow knows the difference between birds over a group of small fish and those of the bigger fish. So we moved around, set out our Rods and caught a one keeper but more unders than Jack was comfortable with so we moved a 1/8 to 1/4 mile or so north.

This is what we mean when Birds Go Wild or we affectionately call it a Birdnado (a tornado of birds). We caught our limit by 9:30 or so and were back at dock by 10:30 or so.

Just another great day on the water. As you can see the water is very calm, the sun up, the wind down, and the air temps were about upper fifties but certainly felt warmer.

You can contact Captain Jack Frazier at (540) 809-3282 to setup a charter. You will not find a finer captain and crew on the bay.

Here is my setup. I only go back behind the boat with about 40 – 100 feet of line. That is closer than I have in the past but it sure seems to be working. All things considered this runs about 10 – 15 feet below the surface depending on if I add a 6 oz or 32 oz weight, this is depending on how deep of water, current, etc. I clip directly onto the umbrella rig. This also helps when finishing up for the day as you can move the clip to the rod and easily roll up the setup, then I put the umbrella away. Quick in and out.

Update: Obviously adding different weights gets this to the depth you like. For a lot of the late season I would add from 24 – 50 oz to get it closer to the bottom.

We had a new Captain in charge of the boat today. Bryan had a cut hand and we (Sara and I) decided he needed to drive so not to get fish gunk in the cut. Well we camped out in the same general location as I have in the last few weeks and had another great day. Bryan did keep us out of the gil nets and crab pots so I was really glad to have him behind the controls. Sara as you would expect did a great job with her side of the boat. We caught a bunch of fish, it was not as hectic as yesterday but the ratio of keepers to unders was way better. My guess is we caught 30 total and caught limit of 3 nice keepers (it’s the new 40%). Brain gets his sense of direction from his dad but with Sara’s help we actually got him to go RIGHT once in a while.

I was glad to have them on board and got treated to breakfast as well. Could hardly have been a better day on the water. The air was crisp but the sun and the seas were just as perfect as you could get. The water has gotten under 60 for a change and is now about 59.

Went out early this morning to change out my stereo in the boat, the old one just gave up the ghost. Worked on that for a few hours and just couldn’t take it anymore. I headed out to my old place that I had had such great success. I saw Vince there, called him up, he had a few small ones but nothing of any size. It was right at high tide so we discussed it would probably turn on after the tide change. Boy did it, went berserk and stayed that way all afternoon. I called Buddy, Mitch, and Todd, everyone got in the action. Ron, Joe, and Jack went hunting so they missed that but got a bear so I guess that is enough.

Anyway, they were again hitting the umbrella rigs of really any color. The rest of the guys were mainly using tandems. Those worked but I think the umbrellas were grabbing a few more. Well the more you land the more chances you have a grabbing one of size. I landed a bunch, 100+ and was completely tired of catching. There was no fishing, this was a catching day.

Finally got two 24″ at the same time on one umbrella, the whole time it was coming in I was praying it was only one fish. It would have been huge but two 24s is fine with me. Buddy got a keeper as did the rest of the gang.

Today was Patsy’s first treatment, I really did not want to call Buddy but I figured just let him know and he would know what to do. After he got back in he and his daughter Sharon went out and caught one 23. Patsy we are all praying for your speedy recovery. Love yah.

Today was overcast and going to rain in the afternoon so I set out a 7:30 this morning. I went to the same place near Cockerell’s creek. I had the same rigs on two primarily yellow and one all white. Last posting they would have only hit the yellow rigs today it was only white. I finally moved to two white rigs and one clear speckle. Overall a really good day, I lost count but I think it was 25 or so with three total keeper size. I kept the 23″ the others were slightly smaller but many of the throwbacks were 19+.

The umbrella’s were the old white bucktails (yep the same ones as you have fished your whole life) with either a white or yellow swim tail.

The water is still warm, about 62 deg. There was a little more surf than the other days but really nothing to speak of maybe 1 foot from the east.

Well I’ve been out a couple of times this year on the Great Wicomico down by the 200 bridge and we picked up a couple here or there but today the bite finally turned on. There is a neighborhood chili cookoff that I would normally go with a bunch of my friends but this year we were not able to attend. Alyssa has an upcoming medical procedure and we had to quarantine ourselves. So I took advantage of the great weather day and set out by myself this morning after the fog cleared.

As a general rule I never leave the river if I am by myself and I always wear my life jacket. I didn’t expect to catch much if anything but just getting out is enough for me. Fish is just a side benefit if they come. Well I went about where Green Number 9 but on the north side of the channel and dropped in two umbrella rigs with two hooked trailers. Both were chartreuse in color with white head but chartreuse 4 inch swim shads.

And here we go, I no more than got the bait wet and one rods went down. I really thought they were bigger but it turns out I had 2 on at one time. Neither of them were a keeper so I set them back out. About 5 min later they both went down with two on each. One keeper to the bunch.

I called Scott because I know he was dying to go but he had set up duty for the cookoff. Well he, Bryan, and Sara came over because they had about 2 hours to spare. We were dumping one rod after the next. Panderlerium was the tale of the day, we either lit them all up or nothing. Sara finally pulled in a nice one.

We had to come back so they could get back to work and have the cookoff but I ate lunch and Chuck and I went out. We caught even more than the other two times. In total for the after we had 16 for a grand total of 28 for the day.

The weather was absolutely perfect, the water was 59 degrees and little wind.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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