still looking for stripers

was rough on saturday as we headed to smith point and up into sunnybank. turned out to be more of a boat ride than a fishing excursion.

rw sports

got some fishing supplies at rw sports in callao before heading out on the river.

snakehead caught in potomac river

this video was uploaded to youtube wednesday by jetblackobsidian who apparently caught this nasty snakehead while kayak fishing on the potomac river north of mount vernon on monday. whoa!

dolphin pod playing in west river

last year about this time the wife and i spotted bottlenose dolphins in the potomac river as we headed into cod creek. last weekend everybody saw them up in the west river near gainesville. if you see some, remember: dolphins are covered by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, and should be enjoyed from a distance. great photo by kent roberts.

epic chesapeake

this is a great video loaded to youtube by howlinwind1 with meteorologist jay titlow's interview on the weather channel's epic conditions episode featuring sailing on the chesapeake bay. the video is awesome, but the best part is i spotted my brother in law, billy, working! (at about minute 2:50)

how do you cook a carp?

this 260-pound world record carp was caught in thailand. he tried to make his escape by slapping the fishermen with its tail! now that's a fish!

zodiac

towed the zodiac down to the bay: great little boat for catching spot or croakers up in the creeks. ripped the skeg off on a sandbar or something: it's at jett's marina for repair.

chesapeake bay blue crab feast

the crabs should be heavier by now, so i decided to post this video as an aid to all you folks having out of towners for a visit: it makes that crab feast so much easier. crack a pbr and let it roll!

prime seafood

if i didnt post these things in the middle of the night, i might have noticed that this is a stingray, not a cownose ray as shown above. thanks to captain jim at prime seafood for the correction! jim supplies sustainable seafood to the best chefs around, although no rays of any sort yet. in fact 70 of the top 100 restaurants in washington dc get their deep sea delectables from prime seafood: i do. you should, too.

cownose rays in the chesapeake bay

last weekend i saw a few cownose rays in cod creek thrashing about: probably eating oysters on the bar i found. their barbed tails are poisenous, so i'll be keeping the dog out of the water during feeding time. here is a photo of one caught recently and uploaded yesterday by jwerry. i wonder if they ate it?

the rescue of poplar island

earlier this month defenders of wildlife volunteer corps and the national aquarium teamed up to try to rescue poplar island from destruction caused by the global warming-induced sea level rise in the chesapeake bay. the army corp of engineers is heading up the project, scheduled to be completed in 2027.

that's a lot of mud!

chesapeake bay blue crabs

blue crabs in the chesapeake bay started molting the last week of may, and they told me at captain faunce's memorial day would be the last weekend for good hard crabs for three weeks or so: they were right, for sure. the crabs have not been really worth picking, apparently due to the recent full moon shed. they should be gaining weight soon, though. razor clams have been the most successful bait of late, followed by chicken necks, according to this week's dnr's fishing report.

zodiac

no fishing this weekend...company picnic and day trip to rehobeth to pick up my brother's 12-foot zodiac. so cool for cruising the shallow waters off of the river for spot: future bait for that big rock!

1963 chevrolet corvette boat

i knew the corvette was named for the stingray, but i didnt know it was also named after "the corvette: a small, manoeuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft". swedish designer Bo Zolland came up with this new winged boat based on a classic corvette from the 60's. it can be ordered with a 496 HP or 502 HP Mercruisers, an LS-9 marine or a Volvo Penta Diesel with up to 550 HP. could you pull it with a matching '63 vette?

fish in maryland without a license

this saturday is one of four free fishing days in maryland waters: no license required! so all you wanna be anglers: get your gear together and go!

red tide?

i saw these algal blooms at the end of my creek. i didnt realize how harmful they are to humans, dogs and especially shellfish til i saw articles on the dnr's website about them. there are also interactive maps monitoring water quality throughout the bay region.

spring striper tagging final

after reporting a couple of weeks ago about an abandoned gill net in the choptank river, i was surprised to see this video posted today by dnr about how they are using these gill nets to tag spring rock fish. they give a lot of info on the proper use of the controversial net-type, plus talk about their findings. interesting!

off-shore fishing

headed to rehobeth with john for some off-shore fishing with dennis on his sweet parker.

clean the bay day

help clean virginia's waterways this saturday june 6, 2009. last year 7,020 volunteers removed 120 tons of debris from 434 miles of waterways. go to the chesapeake bay foundations site to volunteer. half of Virginia rivers and streams drain into Chesapeake Bay rivers, and two-thirds of the state's population lives within the Bay watershed.

flounder

beautiful 25" flounder caught inside the hook at cape henlopen state park on delaware bay this weekend. nice work, garrett!

maryland natural resources police need your help

the maryland natural resources police need your help in locating the jerk who abandoned a gill net near the mouth of the choptank river: several hundred pounds of dead (read: wasted) fish, sea birds, etc. were found in the net when it was removed. for more information, go to tidal fish.

absolut-ly perfect

found a wooden boat perfect for the wife.

proteus

i saw this crazy thing on the potomac last year and stumbled upon it this morning on-line!
it is called "proteus", and is an obvious prototype for a new class of ocean going vessels. this is part of One Ocean Mission, NOAA Marine Sanctuary Program in Washington DC.

partying at breezy point

great video from a couple of weeks ago by partyoffive shot while striper fishing off of breezy point. maryland.

houseboat hoopla?

no...i dont think so. i cant imagine being in the choppy waters of the potomac at the mouth of the bay in one of these things.

oyster farmer

i met a guy tending to his oyster cages on presley creek this weekend. he had been an oyster farmer about 4 years now, ever since his friend on the great wicomico gave him a bag of seedlings. he now has bushels and bushels of fresh oysters! he said i should buy a bag of seedlings and put them off my pier and i would have some of my own to give to john. i am really thinking about it. i few weeks ago, i discovered an oyster reef about 15 feet from my pier! back in the day, (george washington's day, that is), oysters could filter all of the water in the chesapeake in about 3-and-a-half days; in 1988 that filter time increased to 325 days. considering only 2% of the oysters are left, i guess they filter about nothing now. the chesapeake bay foundation has a program for oyster farming in maryland, but i might do may own thing in virginia. the photo above is a skipjack oyster buy-boat i shot in urbanna, virginia.

chesapeake bay declared national treasure

president obama signed an executive order last week declaring the chesapeake bay as a "national treasure". governor tim kaine of virginia was a big help in getting this done. the chesapeake bay foundation states that some of the requirements detailed in the executive order are a little conservative, but it is a great start. if this means more fish, i couldnt be happier!

papa joe

the wife is determined to get herself a deadrise. i dont want no wooden boat...this one is a beauty, though!

ghost crab pots

this year the state of virginia started a program to remove abandoned crab pots and other debris from the chesapeake bay. 58 watermen participated in the program which covered over 1500 square miles and recovered 8600 pots, along with 61 nets and a baby stroller. this is a fantastic program coordinated by the virginia institute of marine science (VIMS)! not only did it replace income for the watermen lost due to the elimination of the winter dredge, it will help revive the health of the ailing bay: almost 5000 animals were killed while trapped in these derelict pots. This is the only large-scale program of its kind in the country that seeks out and removes unmarked, submerged, derelict crab pots using side-imaging equipment. very cool. support vims, please.

small mouth bass bonanza!

the angry fisherman is pissed again: no fishing this week! john took both boys out to catch something for mother's day dinner. they caught about 30 fish, mostly small mouth, a few large mouth and one rock. john says they will continue to fish the creeks entering the potomac until the water clears and is about 4'-6"deep: the main river was running about 6' this weekend near the pump station. if you ever need information about the river, including quality, temperature and depths, check the united states geological survey's water data interface.

nice boat!

took the wife to charm city yesterday for lunch at mccormick & schmick's. saw this awesome buy boat, "mildred belle". this boat was built in odd, virginia in 1948. never heard of odd, but nice boat!

catch of the day

mike and his brother from orange, virginia caught one striper. it was a good one, though! oto wanted to lick it. mike has a beautiful 23-foot parker, perfect for the potomac at the mouth of the chesapeake.

fish-o-holic

the angry fisherman is going to myrtle beach for bike week. must squeeze fishing time in though. thinkin about chartering a boat and going deep sea fishing on the fish-o-holic. these guys sound like my kind of watermen!

spring spawn

john and son fished the tidal potomac this weekend and...grand slam! caught were a striper, white perch and hickey shad. sweet!

striped bass

more striper photos from yesterday's bay fishing outing from solomon's island on strike zone. must have been the luck of the irish we fished yesterday in sunny 88° instead of today in 54° rain!

striper strike zone

changed my mind and headed to solomon's island to go out on captain wally william's strike zone. great day! we headed out into the middle of the bay, trolled around with white and chartreuse, and hit quickly! mine is the 44-incher!

going fishing

heading over to chesapeake beach tomorrow to try our luck at catching some stripers.

checking the dnr's report for hints at hot spots.

the angry fisherman

my brother googled "the angry fisherman" and came up with this from youtube.

tidal fish

i am pissed! second weekend of striper season and i will be in the office doing paper work. procrastination has its rewards: i found this great fishing site: tidal fish is "all fish, all the time". it has great information about fishing for striped bass. the fishing blog is updated often, most recently with aerial photos of opening day of spring rock season from the top of the bay all the way down to the oil rigs. if you were out on the chesapeake bay last weekend, check the photos and see if you can spot your boat! tidal fish also has the latest maryland fishing report, inshore and off shore as well as the same for virginia, north carolina and other eastern seaboard states. the featured article is about lures for spring trolling. you can join the forums if you like people. i think i will be going to this site alot!

prime seafood

i cant catch a fish for eating every day...and frankly, i can't take off to the west coast right now...so i go to captain jim at

prime seafood, purveyor of amazing fish from completely sustainable sources. shown is an ivory salmon, flown in yesterday from alaska: thanks again, jim!

bass pro shop

thinking about heading to the bass pro shop at lunch to pick up a couple more umbrella rigs.

fishing tournaments

last weekend was opening day for rock fish season in maryland and virginia! here is a list of upcoming tournaments on the potomac river. this weekend, april 25th head over to colonial beach for the volunteer fire department's annual tournament or down the river to port kinsale marina for their first rock fish tournament. holy ghost church of newburg, maryland and the knights of columbus have scheduled their competition for may 2. meet at scuttlebutt's on cobb island on may 9th.

un-happy earth day!

the chesapeake bay is the largest estuary in these great united states and it received another "D" rating from the chesapeake bay foundation in their annual "state of the bay" report. it's been ten years...probably time to do something before we all lose our livelihood. a lot of people far away from the bay itself are truly screwing things up.

sail fish

in february my three brothers and i went on a fishing trip to florida. we hired osprey charter's 60-foot taylor harrison carolina custom sport fishing boat to take us out from sailfish marina on singer island, florida. we all caught fish! the captain advised us to take some photos, measure and release our catches as there weren't all that many left out there. the fiberglass replica from grey's taxidermy of my 58-inch sailfish arrived this week.

surprisingly, my wife thinks it's "awesome": didn't see that coming!

respect the fish!

i met a man on the pier who was fishing for rock and believed the potomac river regulations allowed any size fish to be caught: he is wrong! spring rock season is about letting the smaller fish grow, that is why there is a 28" minimum size. catch only one per person to allow the larger fish to spawn the thousands and thousands of eggs they are carrying into the bay waterways. respect the fish! respect the bay.

oysters

the tide went down so low yesterday i spotted a healthy (and not condemned!) oyster bed about 15 feet off of my pier! plucked this one out of the creek for the photo.

looking for stripers

the fish must be down at the tunnel...cuz they aint here!

no water, no fish

the boat was ready...the new truck dropped it in the bay like butter, even with no water out there. trolled saturday: nothing. got up early on sunday, trolled down to the mouth of the river, came back up: nothing. rockfish opening weekend was a big goose egg!

picking up the boat today

headed down to pick up my boat from jett's marine in reedsville, virginia.

about the angry fisherman

why am i angry?

im angry because i am stuck in the office most of the time at my j-o-b... dreaming of catching the big one!

in addition to fishing, i enjoy honking my horn, staring people down then flipping them off, as well as blocking intersections. my favorite movie is "jaws".