Gone Fishin' Striper Charter

The alarm on my cell phone went off at the ungodly time of 2:30AM.  Normally I would throw that thing against the wall and roll over, but today was different.  I was heading to Rock Hall, MD for a striper charter.  We were going on board the vessel Gone Fishin' for a seven hour trip: leave the dock at 5AM and return at noon.  Capt. Mark who runs Gone Fishin' had another work obligation so he sent Capt. Jamie to run the boat for us instead.  Assisting Capt. Jamie was the First Mate for the day Capt. Noah.  First impression of the boat, damn, what a nice boat.  The thing was spotless and in super condition.  This was one of the cleanest boats I have ever seen.

We headed out of the marina and into the bay and Capt. Jamie and Capt. Noah got to work setting up the planer boards and started to put the rods out into the spread.  They didn't even have all the rods out when we had out first hit and the line popped out of the clip.  First angler up to battle the fish was Andrew who had organized the trip for us.  The spread wasn't even all the way out and we had our first keeper in the box.  This was shaping up to be an epic day.

After landing that fish, the rest of the rods were put out and we were on our way trolling through the bay.  Not long after, another line popped and the battle was on.  After getting the reel straightened out and a battle of about 300 yards of line, another keeper was in the box.  Epic day still going.

I was next up and waiting patiently for the line to pop.  It did and the fight was on.  Although this wasn't much of a fight and didn't feel like other stripers I had caught before.  And for good reason.  Here is my catch of the day.

How exactly I caught a bunker when we were using bunker patterned swim shads about the size of this guy, I will never know.  And he was hooked in the mouth, not snagged.

The morning continued much like the beginning with the rods going off pretty quickly one after the other.  By 830 we had 6 slot fish in the cooler and things were looking good.  Until the tide changed.  The wind and the tide were going against each other and gave a pretty good chop to the water.  This put the fish and the bait down deep and we were unable to reach them.  This condition continued for the remainder of the trip.

The Gone Fishin' crew worked hard though and added extra lines out to try to target the deeper fish.  It just wasn't meant to be.  When we arrived at the dock, Capt. Noah cleaned our catch for us.  Most of the fish were fileted, and very cleanly done.

This was a great trip with a super crew on an unbelievable boat.  I will definitely be hitting these guys up again in the future and would recommend anyone looking for a charter trip to give these guys a chance.  They know what they are doing.

Striper Charter with First Light Charters

Had a charter with Capt. Cook of First Light Charters on Saturday, November 26.  This trip was booked in the spring with thoughts of giant stripers and lots of them.  The fish didn't exactly cooperate but we had a good time and had a Captain that was willing to work and put in time to get us a keeper.

We met up with Capt. Cook at the dock at 300 PM to hit the water.  After launching the boat and talking a bit, we decided to head out to some rips in Delaware Bay to see if we couldn't entice some bigger keepers since Indian River Inlet hadn't been giving up anything.  After a 14 mile ride, we were on the first rip and experienced the most beautiful sunset ever.  I took a picture, but was unable to do Mother Nature any justice.

We worked hard drifting eels over rips anywhere from 60 feet of depth to 20 feet of depth and everywhere in between with only a dogfish of several feet of length to show for it.  After a couple hours of drifting, we decided to make the run back to the inlet and see what was happening in there.  Besides the delicious smell of french fries off the coast of Rehoboth Beach, the ride in was pretty uneventful.

We worked the new and improved bulkhead around the Coast Guard Station in the inlet with my brother-in-law picking up some schoolie stripers and some shad.  I didn't hit anything.  We then moved out and were casting plugs over the submerged end of the north jetty.  We almost immediately started hooking up with fish in the lower 20's (keeper is 28 inches).  The blood on the sides is from sea lice, these fish were fresh from the ocean and the sea lice were falling off as we were boating the fish.

My BIL hooked up with one that we thought might be a keeper, but came up short at 26 1/2.

The time for our trip was about to end, but since we were hitting fish and had spent a good deal of time out in the bay, Capt. Cook was willing to let us stay out longer to see what we were able to do.  Thankfully, we stayed and casted plugs over the submerged rocks.  I was able to bring in a 30" keeper that was our only boxed fish for the day.  I was pumped as this was my first keeper.

This was my second year in a row out with Capt. Cook.  He's a very knowledgeable Captain who will work hard to get you on fish and makes you feel very safe in his boat.  I'm looking forward to getting out with him again next year when we take on a new adventure for me, tautog fishing.  Get the tackle ready Capt. Chuck!