Day of rest . . .

OK,  got my brother off to the airport with about 35 pounds of striper filets.  Had to leave the motel near 3 AM and fortunately the bridge tunnel work didn't delay is.  Worried about fish in his duffle, but security and checking let him board.  Later, he e-mailed that the filets were still frozen in Denver and also when he arrived in Rawlins, WY.

Back at the room, we reasoned that there might be a problem with the braid hi viz line and we changed the order with the braid backing and the mono top shot.  Fortunately, I brought an electric drill and had a 1/4- 20 bolt and nuts available so I could run the line off the spool.  Tried just using a wide spool and that allowed the lines to over lap and made reloading very difficult.  Went to two spools and all worked great.  The drill saved line since it didn't twist either the braid or mono.  Left some hi-viz braid spooled.  Later: Hmm, the bites we had the next day were on the hi-viz braid that had feathers ahead of the hook?  Maybe it was a smaller eel?  Unknown, but both hits came on hi-viz braid.

Then off to find a laundromat.  On Peach street in Cape Charles.  No soap!  Had to go to Food Lion about 5 miles away on U. S.  13.  Also stopped at the Shell station for great chicken. It's also the only station that has alcohol free fuel for my boat.  Back to the boat shop near Food Lion to see about a fix for my defective navigation light.  Found two bulbs and thought that would fix it.  Nope, had to tear it apart again.  Once more to the boat to plug it in.  Oh No, still didn't work.  Bill gave a smack as only he can and it came on!

Thought the sea would lay down, but it was so late that we didn't give a thought about launching.  So, tomorrow it's a go, maybe.  Still 2 -3 foot seas.  Sat and Sun it's less than 2 feet.  

Beginning to look like I won't get my 60 + pound cow this year.  Maybe I'll have to live with the skunk for an entire year.  Bill is ready to call it quits for the year, though he is disappointed that he didn't catch  more.

OK, maybe time to look at what my sonar and GPS were showing.

The above shows the GPS track, the coordinates and water temperature.  The right shows the structure scan to 60 feet each side of the boat at 455 KHZ.  Obviously lots of bait on both sides of the boat with a couple of striper marks.  The red/white buoy near the 2.2 might be 40A.  This screen shot was 12/20/2014.

Having a single Simrad or Lowrance head might make more meaningful screen shots.  Seldom have time to get simultaneous images from two units.

This Chirp echo shows that the water depth was 38.3 feet, the water temp was 45 degrees, the frequency was 200 KHZ.  The water speed was 0.5 MPH, far too slow for the bite.  The bait ball at 30 feet is consistent with the condition.  Bait in the upper 15 feet of the water column, and stripers in the area, some with red might be sizable.  Other fishermen noted that the concentration of stripers were in the water column just below 26 feet.  Note that the fish are not nice arches due to the heavy seas at the boat!

When I have access to my map of the bay, I'll use the coordinates to indicate where we were.  Obviously different places.  This screen shot was 12/5/2014.