Pacemaker Fishing Forum

WHAT...were we thinking??? 

I just say that George made me do it!!

As I mulled over the weather forecasts on Thursday, I could see the handwriting on the wall. Too much wind for fishing Friday. Still, I kept looking and wishing.

Finally, I called George and made him promise not to get mad if we drove down to St. Mary's County and caught nothing. He was OK with it and reassured me that getting breakfast and lunch at the Chaptico Market was worth t. That's all I needed to hear. I had a couple of ideas...

I picked him up at 6:15a and off we went!

We get to the Market and they were ready for us!



We each placed a bulk order for their breakfast sausage and told them we would be back at 1:30p to pick it up...along with lunch.

So we drive down to Chaptico Wharf and as soon as I saw the river I knew we were in trouble. You could surf on the rolling waves (current + wind + a late outgoing tide). That was Plan A which I was about 90% certain that it would not happen.

On to Plan B.

We drove close to 30 miles to get to Capt. Chuck's place (used to be Shemansky's) on the other side of the river. Man, I have a lot of great memories from that place.

Once there, we had to pay the ramp fee. We went in and the guy at the counter says, "you going out in that thing?". "They have Gale Warnings out"! We assured him that we would only fish in Neal Sound and he was OK with that, so we paid the $5 fee.

George left to go to the car and I started chatting with the guy. His name was Juan, my middle name. We became instant buddies when he said he was from Puerto Rico. Then he tells me his last name and it was Morales. Holy crap! We could be related. My maternal Grandma was a Morales. After a good laugh, George comes back and gives him a couple of his hand made perch spinners. Juan was pleased.

The launch was uneventful and off we went.

The 1st place I tried was a point that was guarding us a little from the winds. Hard to hold the boat but George took the skunk off in no time. It was 10:03a.



We were half way there as I had set a goal of 1 fish each in all the wind!

Then he gets a flounder!!



Here is a nice shot looking out on the Wicomico.



George caught another flounder and perch so he was up 4-0! No worries, the goal has been met (by him anyway).

That area was too shallow (we actually got stuck a couple of times plus sucked up some rocks) and too windy so we headed back in to the Sound. My goal was to fish the jetties on the south side. But as I motored under the bridge, I knew that there was too much wind so I headed over to a little island where we could kinda hide from the wind.

George caught a teeny one...



...and I got my skunk off!



Then George gets some major pullage and he had a larger flounder on the hook. Sadly, it came off as George got him close but that was a nice bend on the rod.

We stayed in the same general area and by the time we called it a bit after noon, George had 9 fish total and I had 8. Plus Georges' crab which didn't get a pic because apparently, I messed up. Oh well.

We get back to the ramp and we are elated that: a. we fished and b. we caught fish. The wind was brutal!

After chatting with Juan (yes, he shook his head in disbelief) we headed back to the Chaptico Market and grabbed lunch.



That's George's Head Cheese sammie

We also had deviled eggs as an appetizer, they were good.

We both had fried shrimp which was top notch and I had a couple of pieces of their fried chicken.



All the way home, we just kept saying, "man, that was good".

So...at the end of the day, we went on an excursion with very low expectations. I was so close to canceling yesterday. But our decision to go made for some great laughter and memories...and we ate well as always. Sure, we burned some gas getting down there but man, you only live once!!