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.