My friend, Gimp, and I left Deale at 6:30, loaded for bear. We had chum, we had
soft-shell crabs, we had bloodworms, squid, and shrimp from my Asian Market!

We headed for The Hill (across the Bay) where we found a couple charters and
three or four other boats, found a likely spot with lots of marks, dropped the
anchor, and started chumming. We had barely started when we saw a ruckus on one
of the charters - a little yelling from the half dozen (seemed like) females on
board, and the mate grabbing the net. After a short struggle the mate netted a
beautiful striper - all of ten inches long. Within another hour or so we saw
another 20 inches of stripers caught. Both were about ten inches long. (The
minimum size for a 'keeper' is 18".)

We hauled anchor and headed for the fish traps on the west side of the bay..
We'd heard some great hardhead and perch reports for that area. Got there,
dropped lines loaded with bloodworms, crab, and shrimp, and braced for the
action!

About an hour and a half later (bored), we headed for #81A, usually a good spot
for hardheads (for me anyway). Then, an hour or so later(still bored), we tried
a couple other spots in Herring Bay.

Bottom line - the boat smells really bad. The skunk spent the whole day there.
We had not one take down. The closest we came to anything were the four or five
rays that came by the boat to commiserate and the Maryland Department of Natural
Resources officer who checked life vests.

Hope everyone else had a SUPER day!

John H

On the 'Poco Loco' out of Deale, MD
on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay!