Project

So I finally got around to starting a long awaiting project this weekend. It all started about two years ago...when I received two surf rods that weren't in the greatest of shape. Most of the guides had been busted and the poles needed to be given new life! Here is a picture one of the Rods.  These poles had belonged to a late surf fisherman, who had fished many years with my late grandfather, dad and late uncle back in the 60's, 70's and early 80's. My late uncle was the one who somehow obtained these rods and gave them to me to rebuild.  Yes, I am faced with the regret that I didn't get these poles done before my uncle passed, and that is something I will live with. You just never know when the day will be your last.

Both of the honey colored blanks had been setup to be used with conventional reels with one being 12'4" and the other slightly shorter at 11'4". My guess is that the blanks are old Lamiglas blanks, but because there is no identification on the blanks, there is no real way to know.

The original plan was to build them exactly as they were when I got them, with the same (new) guides, guide spacing and even thread color. Well after a short visit from my parents yesterday..the plans have changed. I'm now going to make them both 11' spinning surf poles. My moms thread color choice ended up being metallic pink and metallic teal. My dads thread color choice ended up being metallic royal blue and metallic red. I'm going to wrap the butts with cork tape, and install removable reel seats along with a nice butt wrap using the respective colors. I'm also going to do a nice Chevron butt wrap with a Red Drum decal and will scribe "In memory of Roland Wainwright" in the butt wrap section of the blank as well.

I'm really excited to start making progress on these blanks, and will post pictures of the progress as it happens.

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Bay Fishing

The 2nd annual half day bay fishing trip with the family was today, on the Bay Bee Charters, out of Ocean City Fishing Center in Ocean City Maryland.  When we arrived to the boat, the crew was getting prepared for the second half of their day. Their fishing trips are two 1/2 day charters, and the first trip of the day ended up being pretty decent with the crew catching close to 100 flounder.  That's great and all...but out of all of those flounder, not one met the size limit of 18", that it needed to be in order to keep the fish.  Still...my wife and I were there more so to let our boys (ages 6 &4) just do some catching...and if we caught a keeper than great. If not..as long as the kids had fun...that's all that matters.

Everything from fishing pole to bait was supplied by the Bay Bee, all we needed to do was show up! If you're in the area, and looking for a couple hours to spend with the family on the bay without much hassle...highly recommend - Bay Bee.  The bait for the day was a strip of squid with a shiner or silverside minnow. The bait is simply lowered to the bottom..and bounced or dragged along the bottom in hopes that a big daddy doormat flounder will come along and find it!

So after waiting a few minutes or so...we load up (ended up being about 15 of us) on the boat, and head out into the bay just behind Assateague Island National Seashore.  The weather was about as good as it could get. Not too hot...nice breeze blowing from the south...a beautiful day.  A 10 minute boat ride..and we arrived at our first location to start a drift in search of the elusive flounder.  The first drift went by with not much happening, except for the high catch rate of crabs! I've never caught so many before in my life from a boat with a bottom rig. I couldn't believe it. So we set-up to drift again...and the fish start biting. About half of the people on the boat caught throwback flounder, none for us this drift. We head off to drift again...when luck happens to find me. It was a flounder (little guy) so I unhooked the fish, let the kids touch its scales and fins...as well as some of the crew who don't frequently get to fish, then released the flounder to grow and be caught another day. My wife too catches a small flounder. Still not one keeper caught yet on the boat.

So we move to setup and drift again in a different spot. My oldest son has his pole ready, that he baited himself, and lowers the rig down to the bottom. Patiently waiting...we were having a conversation about what a fish (specifically a flounder since that is what we were after) feels like when it strikes. Just then I get a hit. I easily bring it to the top and there is another throwback flounder. I unhook the fish and release it back into the water. Looking over at my son..I can tell the intensity is building. Not a couple minutes later...he yells out, I got a hit...and starts cranking the fish to the top. By the bend in the pole I can tell that it's a pretty decent fish. He gets the fish to the top...and I grab the line and whip the fish in the boat. It wasn't huge, or otherwise I would not have done that. We measure the fish..and it fell just short of the 18" minimum length. So...he got the usual treatment..touching the scales and fins..and is released to swim another day. My son was so proud of himself, but I don't think he was as proud as his daddy. He did it all by himself, and I couldn't have been more proud.

Do yourself a favor...and take a kid fishing. The reward is nothing like you've ever had before.

Skate....it's what's for dinner!

Skates and Rays

Skates and rays are frequently caught. Unfortunately, their appearance is so unusual that they are commonly killed and tossed overboard. They are, however, established in the European and Asian culinary traditions. They can be used interchangeably, although some species are considered superior to others.

Skates and rays are related to sharks. They are Elasmobranch fish; that is, they have skeletons made of cartilage instead of bone. Skates live in salt water and differ from rays in certain physical and biological characteristics. Most skates have rough, thorny skin. All rays have smooth skin. Rays have distinct barbs or spines at the base of their tails, and skates do not. Poison glands are attached to the barbs of some species of rays. These rays, called sting rays, can inflict painful wounds. Skates are generally sluggish and less active than rays, which tend to group into larger schools and hunt for food. Skates reproduce by laying eggs enclosed in horny capsules that often wash onto beaches. Rays do not lay eggs; embryos develop inside the mother.

Common skates in mid- and northern Atlantic waters include the big skate, the little skate, the clearnose skate, and the winter skate. Sting rays are most abundant in warmer waters south of the Chesapeake Bay, but some species range as far north as New England. Common rays include the bullnose and cownose rays.

Skates and rays are strong swimmers. It can take considerable effort to land them. When using a gaff or pick, avoid puncturing or damaging the wings (the edible portion). It's a good idea to stun rays and skates as soon as you land them. This is especially important with rays, which can cause injuries with their sharp spines. Use heavy gloves when handling them. Cut off the tails and spines of rays to prevent injuries.

The wings are the only edible part of both skates and rays. Remove them promptly and discard the rest of the body or use it for bait or chum. A sharp knife and a flat surface are required for removing the wings.

Pack the wings on ice in a cooler and then refrigerate or freeze them later. If you plan to refrigerate skate or ray wings for several days, leave them whole and packed in ice in the refrigerator. Some sources report that skate actually improves if left in the refrigerator for forty-eight to seventy- two hours. The texture is said to get firmer during this aging process. Skate can, however, be eaten earlier with good results.

To prepare skates or rays for cooking or freezing, fillet the meat from the whole wing. A sharp knife and cutting board are the only tools you need.

To freeze skate or ray, leave the skin on to keep the fillet intact. Wash each fillet carefully and freeze it as you would any other fish fillet. If the fillet is large, skinning will be much easier if it is first cut into strips two or three inches wide. Another way to skin the fillets is to poach them for several minutes in a solution of three parts water to one part vinegar. The skin should peel off easily after poaching.

Some cookbook authors suggest soaking skate and ray fillets in chilled salt water or vinegar water for several hours before preparing them. This will remove any ammonia or other off flavors that may have developed. If you have handled your catch properly, however, ammonia flavors should not be present. If you do wish to soak your fillets, use a solution of one cup of salt or one- half cup white vinegar for each gallon of water.

Skate and ray fillets are lean and light colored. An unusual delicacy, they have a firm texture and can be prepared by any cooking method used for fillets from fish with similar characteristics. Poach them, bake them, bread them, or fry them in the oven, a pan, or deep fat.

Reading the water...part 2

Lets look at another surf structure that probably accounts for more "fishy activity" than any other - the out-suck aka rip current aka hole aka riptide aka break in the sandbar, etc. Here is a drawing that depicts an out-suck...for simplicity purposes only 1 sandbar is shown...



Note, not all "breaks in the sandbar" are out-sucks... This picture shows a wide break in the outer sandbar on AI...but there was no out-suck.



Remember, Stripers like moving water and current...here they are masterful and powerful swimmers, using their broad tails to maneuver about in the surf... So the area around an out-suck from the feeders, through the neck (channel) and out into the head is prime Striper habitat... Why? Because at the out-suck water is swirling about, forming a current to and past the outer sandbar wherein small bait fish can get swept up or caught in the dynamics of the moving water and ending up as easy prey for the Striper.

The place where Stripers will congregate the most at an out-suck of course is at the head or just outside the outer sandbar. Here they lie in wait to ambush their prey...sort of like a feeding station. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to place (cast) an offering beyond the outer sandbar as the distance is too great. However, the Stripers will come into the neck and even the near shore feeders of the out-suck when they are hungry (which is all the time) looking for prey... So optimally, you want to place (X) your offerings perhaps as follows...note, a very good area would be the ends of the sandbar which are sometimes called a shoulder...

Out-sucks are hard to see at times, especially at water level... I'll climb a dune or stand on my truck to see better the water conditions. Also, out-sucks are more pronounce at or near low tide.

Finally, here are some pic's of out-sucks... Standing on a beach they could look rather subtle and therefore easily overlooked...

Reading the water

The following was written by a fellow surf fisherman "Poppy," who frequents the Delmarva peninsula.

Why is this important? If what lies below the surf waters was thoroughly understood and embraced, the more success the surf fisherman would have at catching fish! Sounds simple, but truth is reading the water is difficult.

So what is below the surf waters? Well, certainly there are fish, we already know this...and for many of us that is all that needs to be known. So, for those so inclined, I guess reading the water is not a prerequisite to successfully catching fish. There is some truth in this, a surf fisherman can totally disregard what the water is telling him, make a cast, and put a fish on the beach, it happens all the time. Why? Because the fisherman more than likely, but unknowingly, had put his offering into the surf where there happened to be a fish. The question though is why was that fish there? Was it by random chance that the fish happened to be swimming by at that exact moment? Well yes maybe, but the fish may have very well been there for other reasons. One of those reasons is what I will call the physical environment or "structure" of the surf waters or more precisely the structure of the sandy bottom of the surf waters that attracts game fish.

I'll address bottom fishing w/ bait along the sandy beaches of the the DelMarVa coast. Fishing the inlets, rock groins, piers and backwaters of the DelMarVa peninsula is another subject all unto itself.

Our beaches for all intended purposes are typically very flat w/ a gentle incline. This beach structure is rather common up and down the east coast and is deceptively uninteresting at first glance. The following is a simplistic drawing of a cross section of the beach and surf.

Note, there are "generally" 2 main sandbars that run parallel to the beach. In the drawing they are labeled the outer and near shore sandbars. Also, there are "generally" 2 main sloughs (troughs) that too run parallel to the beach. The location of sandbars is revealed above the surf waters where waves initially crest and rollover, these crashing waves are called "breakers." The outer sandbar of course has larger breakers, while the near shore sandbar breakers are smaller. The sloughs also are revealed above the waters where there are little to no breakers. The next image is a picture of a typical looking surf on the DelMarVa coast.

The above picture I took not for the waves but something else, let's see if any of you sharpies can identify what is going on.

Now that this basic surf structure is understood visually the next step is easy. Fish will frequent the sloughs in the surf, especially Stripers. They like to get as low as possible w/ their bellies virtually touching the sand as they cruise the sloughs. It is here they are most comfortable plus the slough gives them a certain degree of stealth as they move about looking for food. So, placing your offerings in the slough would be optimal as shown in the next image.

A less viable option would be to place the offering on the sandbar. If the slough does not produce fish I would considered placing the offering on the sandbar, but only during high tide and not at all on the near shore sandbar at low tide. The water would just be too skinny at that time and location.