What a gorgeous day . . .

Unfortunately, not for fishing.  Bright sunshine, clear sky.  But, howling wind out of the West and 4 foot and more sea.  Too much for my 21.5 SeaPro.  It can handle 4 foot, but there's always 6 foot rogues.  Hours of getting beat up on the water is not fun in a small boat.  If the bite is strong, maybe, but the bite isn't that good.  What bite there is requires drifting near buoy 40, about 17 miles North of the Kiptopeke launch.  Heavy seas mean about 5 mph - at least 3 hours to get there and the same time for return.  As Bill says, Ya need claw like toenails!

Mike Smedley, my long time mentor using a neat identical boat hull, suggested the following:

SW, W, and NW may be fishable to 14 mph.  16 is dangerous for this boat.  N and S need considerable thought.  Any wind with an E in the direction is fishable.  While I've fished at buoy 18 and boated cows, this year is different.  My historical waypoints show a line from 18'upmto 36A.

So, picked my brother up at the Norfolk International Airport this morning.  Went to the Kiptopeke launch to verify the sea.  It was bad as forecast.

Stopped at Oceans East and got a replacement rod holder for one that got broke on the boat.  These just keep the rods organized while towing to the ramp

Also got a couple corks that seemed to be a different color.  We seemed to occumulate yellow in excess.  Had two tone red/white and red.  

Spent some time drilling the cork to take a pvc tube and trying to glue it in place with JB Weld.  Always used other glues in the past that worked well.  Don't know about this glue job.

This picture is just to show the current colors.  At one time, I wanted a tape color on the rod to match the cork, but it seldom works out.  Yet, it also shows a rod holder I use to transport rods from and to the boat from the motel room.  Rod and reel cost is about $200.  Neighbor uses rod/reel that cost $1000!  Obviously they come off the boat every night and only get back on the boat to fish.

More later as the forecast may change .  .  .