Posted on January 19th, 2025
We had a pretty dreary day in and around Ocean City with cold temps and a little bit of rain. The wind ushers in really cold temperatures starting tomorrow and highs aren’t supposed to get out of the 20s most of the week.
Captain Chase Eberle of Chasin Tides charters had a very good day of tautog fishing today. Anglers fishing aboard Chasin Tides had 23 double digit fish today up to 16.5 pounds. All but two of the fish were released to see another day.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star put his folks on some nice tautog on his most recent trip.
Ocean offered up a fine sunrise this day. And, as is often found with beauty, it didn’t last. A classic winter sky of low gray cloud-cover followed and stayed all day. Winds were a light southerly at dawn; and, though increased to 16 knots by 11am, it was still plenty nice.
I hadn’t done a reef block tally since early December; looking to cross the 5K mark at Capt. Bobby’s, was surprised to discover yesterday that my old friend’s reef was at 4,998(!) & that I’d crossed the 43,000 mark too (..meaning I have deployed 43,096 reef blocks since I began the project many years ago.)
That’s a lot of truckloads.. After Spencer & Steven deployed today’s twenty block reef unit at Capt Bob Gowar’s Memorial Reef, it ran the tally up to 5,018 – my first spot with over 5,000 reef blocks deployed.
More on that in another post.
The tog bite today was much more robust than yesterday. Our first stop offered a light bite with some decent fish and lasted quite a while – if slowly.
After lines up in preparation for a move to another spot I discovered a deckhand’s nightmare: my hydraulic anchor winch had gone toes-up.
We checked everything we could – found nothing easily repaired at sea. Good thing we had a bunch of strong young men aboard today. Half a dozen of em made short work of pulling anchors by hand.
Anchors? Like two anchors? Yes, I almost always make a two anchor set while toggin. Did catch a 20lb fish on a single anchor once though..
Ah well, southerly winds, so very calm in the AM, had climbed to 15 kts by 11am–still nice, then shifted SW and came 20 kts at 2pm.
That wind shift, of course, came after I’d made my second double anchor set ..with no winch.
Thank goodness for the exuberance of youth. With Big Bill, Spencer, Steven, Gordy and Alex hauling in unison? There were no issues getting anchors up.
Pretty sure Joey is not upset we only had one guy sign up for tomorrow’s ‘calm before the storm’ tog trip. Calling for heavy snow up north where most of my tog clients come from. With no winch and only one client? I cancelled it for repairs..
Al won today’s pool with a nice male. Shelly’s (Brand New) Uncle JoJo had a dern close female contender. The big male had a ‘third fin rip’ where someone on my boat had released it previously – a year ago at least. With both fish obviously of fine genetic stock, Al & Joe released them both to take care of spawning business come spring.
I had feared it might come plenty saucy in that robust SW breeze. Instead? By 3:30 it had piped down to less than 10 knots again..
Take your luck where you find it – was a nice ride home with a stunning sunset and rainbow too!
Might do a seriously crazy trip in a coming 15 degree calm. If nothing else we’ll dern sure have to do some ice breaking later in the week to keep the cut open.
Now to tend my hydraulics..
Cheers,
Monty
