CBBT....Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel for those of you not familiar. 
I headed down with my buddy Greg in his 25' Maycraft last weekend for a few days of fishing and general goofing off. I'm not sure which we did more of...
Launched the boat Friday about 6 AM and headed for the bridge. I set the spread out and we started trolling bay-side of the high rise. It took a while for the tide to really start running so I think it was around 10 AM before we got our first bite.
The fish hit a tandem white 21 Tony/Parachute combo pulled by a rod that is very near and dear to my heart. It was owned by my Grandfather and passed on to me after his death by my father about 15 years ago. But that was only after my father spent many hours refurbishing it for me with a fresh paint job, new eyes, custom wrapping and a fresh Penn 309. The action on this rod is nothing short of amazing.
Her first victim of the trip.
Shortly thereafter, she swung again and hit one deep into left field. I snatcher her up and handed off to Greg. But this one went foul. The poor little rod didn't have enough backbone to keep a very nice fish out of the bridge and we lost it.
Then off in the distance, we see this....
We spent the next hour or so having our way with fish in the low 20" range. Then we got chased in by an approaching storm. Oh well, we had our limit and a cooler full of beer to address.
The next day didn't start off as nicely. I was hurtin' from the previous afternoons activities and a steep tight chop was getting the best of me as I set the spread. But I hung in there and things started to settle down after a while. We made our way right back to the same spot and around 10 AM again, it was game on.
Granpa's rod (now dragging a tandem bucktail) connects again to start the day and a 35" goes in the box.
We hooked up again shortly thereafter and lost this one. We followed that up with a tangle between two other lines. It actually worked out for the best because off to the port side we again had birds working. I pulled the fourth rod out and we ran over to the action.
To make a long story short, we spent the next 2 to 3 hours bailing rock in the 20" to 28" on light tackle to get our limit. 3 went in the box and I be we released 30 others. Here's Greg with an approx. 28" he landed on 8 lb. test from an anchored boat with pilings 20' to each side.
When we finally got bored with that, we decided to go after some more bubbas. We headed back toward the high rise and I deployed a slightly tweaked spread from what I had been running in the morning.
Turns out we made a great decison as we had like 7 hookups with fish 38" or better over the next two hours. Greg goes to work on the first...
Catch and release...
Then I'm up...
Catch and release...
A few minutes after tossing that one back, I hooked a big one that we ended up losing at the boat. Leader in hand and the hook popped loose before we ever saw it. Line was going straight down at boat-side. I've never seen a rock do that!!! This one was big! I battled him with a TLD20 and I swear I heard him laughing as he ripped line off that reel.
Then I think Greg had another big one on that we lost. It yanked line from a 114H like nobody's business. Honesly, it all ran together stuff was happening so fast.
After that Greg did the catch and release thing again...
While he was dancin' with that fish, I hooked up and brought this one to the boat. We had our doubleheader.
There was another one we lost in there somewhere, but I can't remember. We were too busy goofing off and having fun to really pay attention. Two good friends, beautiful weather, big hungry fish, beer and a radio blasting Metallica, Judas Priest, Linkin Park, etc. can tend to knock you off your best game a bit.
The tide slowed, the bite died, we cleaned up the rigs and were visited by a few porpoises right before we ran for the ramp.
Chartreuse and white tandem bucktails were the hot ticket. This was one for the memory books....
I headed down with my buddy Greg in his 25' Maycraft last weekend for a few days of fishing and general goofing off. I'm not sure which we did more of...
Launched the boat Friday about 6 AM and headed for the bridge. I set the spread out and we started trolling bay-side of the high rise. It took a while for the tide to really start running so I think it was around 10 AM before we got our first bite.
The fish hit a tandem white 21 Tony/Parachute combo pulled by a rod that is very near and dear to my heart. It was owned by my Grandfather and passed on to me after his death by my father about 15 years ago. But that was only after my father spent many hours refurbishing it for me with a fresh paint job, new eyes, custom wrapping and a fresh Penn 309. The action on this rod is nothing short of amazing.
Her first victim of the trip.
Shortly thereafter, she swung again and hit one deep into left field. I snatcher her up and handed off to Greg. But this one went foul. The poor little rod didn't have enough backbone to keep a very nice fish out of the bridge and we lost it.
Then off in the distance, we see this....
We spent the next hour or so having our way with fish in the low 20" range. Then we got chased in by an approaching storm. Oh well, we had our limit and a cooler full of beer to address.
The next day didn't start off as nicely. I was hurtin' from the previous afternoons activities and a steep tight chop was getting the best of me as I set the spread. But I hung in there and things started to settle down after a while. We made our way right back to the same spot and around 10 AM again, it was game on.
Granpa's rod (now dragging a tandem bucktail) connects again to start the day and a 35" goes in the box.
We hooked up again shortly thereafter and lost this one. We followed that up with a tangle between two other lines. It actually worked out for the best because off to the port side we again had birds working. I pulled the fourth rod out and we ran over to the action.
To make a long story short, we spent the next 2 to 3 hours bailing rock in the 20" to 28" on light tackle to get our limit. 3 went in the box and I be we released 30 others. Here's Greg with an approx. 28" he landed on 8 lb. test from an anchored boat with pilings 20' to each side.
When we finally got bored with that, we decided to go after some more bubbas. We headed back toward the high rise and I deployed a slightly tweaked spread from what I had been running in the morning.
Turns out we made a great decison as we had like 7 hookups with fish 38" or better over the next two hours. Greg goes to work on the first...
Catch and release...
Then I'm up...
Catch and release...
A few minutes after tossing that one back, I hooked a big one that we ended up losing at the boat. Leader in hand and the hook popped loose before we ever saw it. Line was going straight down at boat-side. I've never seen a rock do that!!! This one was big! I battled him with a TLD20 and I swear I heard him laughing as he ripped line off that reel.
Then I think Greg had another big one on that we lost. It yanked line from a 114H like nobody's business. Honesly, it all ran together stuff was happening so fast.
After that Greg did the catch and release thing again...
While he was dancin' with that fish, I hooked up and brought this one to the boat. We had our doubleheader.
There was another one we lost in there somewhere, but I can't remember. We were too busy goofing off and having fun to really pay attention. Two good friends, beautiful weather, big hungry fish, beer and a radio blasting Metallica, Judas Priest, Linkin Park, etc. can tend to knock you off your best game a bit.
The tide slowed, the bite died, we cleaned up the rigs and were visited by a few porpoises right before we ran for the ramp.
Chartreuse and white tandem bucktails were the hot ticket. This was one for the memory books....