Eastern Shore Search Continues...

In the glitter, sometimes the water plays tricks on you.  Shapes and colors seem to appear then disappear in the blink of an eye.  It's almost like you want it so bad that your mind thinks it's there for a split second.  But when you finally, and actually, see that big red drum, it's unmistakable.

Unfortunately, the water clarity has been terrible lately and conditions have been tough.  I got out on my birthday for 6 hours and despite good reports from Ric Burnley and Kevin earlier in the week, I got the skunk.  My next excursion came 5 days later on the 20th.  After meeting Kevin, Lee, Shante and Damien at the launch, I was hoping for one of those crazy epic days.  But visibility was still minimal so trolling became the name of the game.  My 6" paddle tail was first to get a hit.

I knew fairly quickly after the first few seconds into the fight that it wasn't the big red I had come for.

Not that I'm complaining about a 40" striper.

Lee got the next striper at 43".  Damien was next up but the fish spit the hook early in the fight.  Lee came up with one more after that measuring around 33".

 Check Kevin's site for pictures.

We met a few familiar faces and after a while without a hook up, took a break on an exposed shoal.

From left to right: Chuck Wrenn, Kevin, Shante, Lee Damien, Wayne Bradby, and Mo Todd. 

Shante found a cool little butterfly ray in a few inches of water.

After the ray got to deeper water that concluded the action for that day.  I ended up being the last to leave...  after spending nearly 12 hours on the water, still craving that bull ride.

The next morning, I rolled up to the launch to find Matt Anderson getting ready to pursue the same target so we joined forces.

Clear blue morning quickly changed to navigation testing fog.  

We ended with the skunk.

But the search will continue...