Going for the Chesapeake Slam

hurricane bubba said:

Well I started my endeavor to get the Chesapeake Slam in my bag. Hunt, Saltwater, and Freshwater all in the same trip. Well, HERMINE made the dove field sloppy but the birds didn't let us down. The kids were cleaning the birds as fast as we could shoot 'em and loved every minute of it. We all limited in the morning and almost all limited in the afetrnoon (I had to get on the road and back to the hotel). For lunch we smoked a few pork butts, cole slaw, baked beans, and the best bacon-wrapped dove I've ever eaten. Many thanks to my hosts! I'll definitely be back next year.

I'll get pics of the Pocomoke RIver trip and the Tangier Sound catches up soon.

I should've taken more pics but I was having too much fun.


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Well today I was able to get out and launched from Crisfield (bayside). The wind was blowing pretty good and there were plenty of white caps camoflaging the crab trap buoys. As I made my way north I was dodging the buoys the entire way (I noticed the water temp was 73 degrees and the tide was outgoing with a north wind). I made my way into some back bay areas around Jane's island and began by throwing a bone colored spook jr. The stripers didn't fail to impress. I was able to pull quite a few out of the back bays, 3 of which were between 23 and 25". I also had something crush a c-eye mirrodine that I couldn't even begin to slow down. Reminded me of a big snook. It took a couple of hard runs, stripping plenty of drag and finally ended up pulling me around a piling and breaking off. I never had a chance to see what it was but it hit and ran like a much bigger striper than what I was catching.

The tide was outgoing and the back bay area beag slowing down and getting pretty skinny. I decided to move south and fish the isalnds south of Crisfiled. I switched to a gold and black DOA cal shad and began catching right away. I was able to pull 3 over 28" off of the islands, along with a bunch of little trout. I did get a chance to switch to the long rod using a nice, sparkly pine island iced tea and caught a few shorts. The coolest thing though was during the battle with one of the dinks, on the fly, a huge striper (way larger than anything that I caught) took 3 swipes at the little one that I was fighting. It was a cool sight but I was kind of glad that he didn't get ahold of the little guy. I was only using my 5wt bass rod (I had two 8wts under the gunnels but wanted to have a little fun with the lighter rod).

All in all it was a great day. Still looking for those stealthy redfish though. I was off the water by noon and cleaned up by 1pm. Great day for a new area.

P.S. I tried to snap a couple of pics but between the fact that I can't do selfie to save my life and the stripers fight til the death I will spare everyone the enbarassing pics. I can't wait to go back.