Pt Lookout Meet & Greet

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I've made a lot of trips to Pt. Lookout this year.  Even more than when I actually lived in Maryland!  Well, today was the monthly Meet & Greet with the kayak anglers from MKF, and it was held at Pt. Lookout State Park.  

Rise and shine!

The planned starting time for the event was 7AM, but I arrived a little earlier at 6AM to catch the sunrise and also to take a nap in order to rest from the 2.5 hour drive from home.  I snapped a couple pictures from the causeway, and headed to the launch area where I was surprised to see a few forum members already unloading their cars.  I greeted hello to them and proceeded to take my power nap in my car.  30 minutes later, I unloaded my kayak and headed out to the water.  This M&G was supposed to be pretty large, with up to 30 kayakers confirmed for the event - while on the water, it certainly seemed like it was close to 30....you could see at least one kayak in any direction you looked out on the water.

The Kayak launch site.

On my way out to the light house, I trolled a single Yozuri Crystal Minnow behind me hoping to catch something on the way.  I actually didn't have any other plan of attack...I intended to troll most of the day unless we found a school of fish that wanted to play with some jigs.  The winds were pretty light, the air was crisp but not too cold, and the sun was starting to peak above the lighthouse.  It was a most beautiful sight, so I took out my camera to try to get a nice shot of the lighthouse.  As soon as I stopped paddling and went to reach my camera I heard my rod bouncing behind me.  My first catch of the day came within the first 15 minutes of the trip!  Today was going to be another banner day!

First catch of the day!

The striper was 13 inches - 5 inches away from legal size - so I quickly snapped a picture, let him go, and proceeded to paddle toward the lighthouse.  There were already a few yak'ers right beyond the lighthouse pitching lures at the sand bar that extends far out from the lighthouse.  I joined in by trolling alongside the sandbar with my trusty Yozuri, but did not get any love from the fish.  After a while of trolling there, I moved on to trolling elsewhere, and then another place, and then another... I kept this up for the next 5 hours with nothing to show for it...  I did have a hit late in the day in about 17 feet of water, but I missed it and he never came back for seconds on my lure.

You know fishing was slow when I take more pictures of scenery than fish....

Unfortunately, most everyone else at the Meet & Greet had similar experiences.  I was actually lucky to have caught a single fish!  Today was not to be the banner day that I expected...but it was still nice to be out on the water, and it was good to see old buddies and meet new friends from the MKF forum.

Point Lookout Family Picnic

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 My fondest childhood memories are of days when my family and I would go on long drives to go fishing on the bay.  My dad taught me how to bait hooks, cast top & bottom rigs, unhook fish, and many more.  I remember fishing with my dad, but I don't remember the last time I fished with him - it has to have been over 7 years ago... Well, my parents are in town for a few weeks, and I took the opportunity to share my joy of kayak fishing with my dad.  I took the day off on Monday to take the family to Point Lookout for a picnic, some fishing, and hopefully a fish dinner at the park.  

Caleb looking for bugs, while the adults prepare lunch.

We got to the park around 10:30AM and started out by spending some time on the beach and preparing for lunch.  The picnic/beach area was pretty vacant, so we were lucky to get the picnic table right next to the beach. Dad and I got the grill going while Mom and my wife prepared the table, and the two boys played in the sand.  It was fun watching the boys play in the sand and get their feet wet in the water.  My older son, Caleb, loves bugs...he spent most of his time foraging for crawling things in the sand.  And we learned today that my younger son is a neat-freak - he does not like to get his hands and feet dirty.  

After our steak and salad picnic we packed up and drove over to the bay side of the park.  The water looked a little choppy on the Potomac side, but the bay side was smooth as glass.  That's the nice thing about Point Lookout - if the wind is in a east-west or west-east direction, you can always fish on the side that's blocked by the trees and land.  My dad and I unloaded the kayaks and carried them down to the south-side pet beach for launch.  My oldest son begged to go, so I thought we'd bring him along - grandpa would love to spend more time with him, after all.  Based on my experience with the stability of the Tarpon 100, I thought my dad could handle paddling it with Caleb in front of him.  The plan was just to paddle and fish for a little bit with Caleb and to bring him back for his nap shortly after.

Wake up!  Note that we all had our PFD's on...Safety first!

Well, my dad and Caleb did great!  My dad looked pretty comfortable, and Caleb was definitely comfortable because he fell asleep on the water!  When we got to water about 10 feet deep, we rigged our top & bottom rigs with cooked salad shrimp and started fishing.  I tried to help my dad by rigging for him, and at one point I forgot that I took his tackle box.  Everything was going perfectly until that moment...as my dad reached over for the tackle box, he leaned over a little too far and PLOP!  He and Caleb turtled right in front of my eyes.  It felt like it all happened in slow motion.  The surprised look in my dad's eyes as the boat slowly rolled over will never escape my memory... 

Luckily everyone had their PFDs on, and no one got hurt.  My dad quickly got Caleb into my boat, and I talked him through the process of how to right the kayak and how to get back in.  I have never experienced a turtle myself, so I had to actually go off of what I had heard people share on MKF.  If it wasn't for the experience shared by the great guys on the forum, I don't think I would have known how to help my dad.  The only casualty from that fiasco was a lost rod and reel with an X-rap on it.  That's okay, because the most precious cargo was safe and sitting in front of me.  We then proceeded to get all the floating tackle boxes out of the water, and luckily one of the rods I gave my dad to use was leashed to the holder, so he was still able to fish.  As he reeled the line back in, he actually had a croaker on it - he caught the first fish of the day!

My wet dad with the first fish of the day.

After letting Caleb play with the fish a little, I asked my dad if he was okay, and if he felt comfortable being on the water alone.  He said that he's not afraid of a little water, so I paddled Caleb back to shore for his nap.  He actually fell back asleep on the way in, and woke up just as we pulled up to shore.  My mom and wife had watched the whole turtling scene, but were surprisingly calm about it. Thank goodness!

The norm for the day.

I paddled back to my dad and asked if he had caught anything.  He said he caught 3 small ones that he let go, which was disappointing to hear...but then he pulled the stringer out of the water with 4 or 5 croakers.  He caught enough for dinner before I even caught one!  I quickly dropped my rig down, and started a fun day of pretty consistent croaker action.  The largest one I caught was 13 inches, while the majority of the fish were in the 8 to 10 inch range.  There were a lot of throwbacks.  I've said it before, but I think croaker are pretty strong fighters for their size.  Many atimes I hooked up with a fish, and was hopeful for a 13 to 14 incher, but was greeted on the surface by a puny 8 incher.  

Dad hooked up with a skate. "Woah! I got a huge one!"

Around 5PM the wind picked up on the bay side, and we wanted to grill some fish for dinner at the park before heading home, so we decided to head back in.  We quickly packed up the van, and went to the fish cleaning area by the boat ramp.  I loved the fact that they had a place to clean fish on site!  My dad and I scaled and cut the fish while my mom washed them out with water.  The job went pretty quickly with the three of us working together.  I wanted to try a style of preparing fish that Mustafa from MKF shared, which is to cut a fish in half like a butterfly from the top to the bottom.  It was actually easier than I thought, and resulted in a clean cut fish.

Everyone's excited about the catch!

I want my kitchen to be like this.

We finished cleaning the fish and the fish-cleaning area, and headed to the picnic area where we had an hour left to grill and eat our dinner.  We ate our dinner, the boys played on the playground a bit, and then we packed up to start our trip back home.  Today was a most memorable day that I am sure I will never forget.  A delicious picnic on the beach with my family, a turtle experience with my dad and son, a banner day of catching fish with my dad, and a delicious grilled fish dinner as the sun prepared to set over the beach.  I look forward to having many more days like today in the future.

Croakers at PLO

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The MKF monthly Meet & Greet was last Saturday.  I was looking forward to going to it, because it was going to be at Point Lookout State Park (PLO), and we were going to target croakers.  I have fond memories of catching tons of croakers in college, and enjoying them the next morning for breakfast.  It has been a long time since I've targeted them or even caught them.  However, I found out the week before last that I wasn't going to be able to make the Meet & Greet, and was real bummed out about it.  My wife tried to cheer me up by buying some croakers from the local asian market for dinner last week.  It just wasn't the same.  The fish she brought home must not have been fresh, because it had a real strong fishy smell and it tasted just like it smelled. That couldn't be the croaker that I loved to eat back in the day.  I had to catch some croakers to find out.

Since I was now busy on the day of the Meet & Greet, the only time I had available to fish was the evening before.  Last Friday I went in to work extra early so that I could make it out in time to get to PLO with some sunlight before it got dark.  This would be my first time fishing from my kayak at night so I was a little nervous.  However, it's been a while since I had gotten some pullage, and the thought of a cooler full of fish knocked any second thoughts out of my mind.

I got to the park around 7PM, and started unloading my kayak at the first "Pet Beach" that I saw.  I had heard from some of the members of the forum that they were launching from a pet beach and fishing the bay side.  During my rigging, an extra friendly park ranger stopped by and suggested some other places to launch.  "....potomac side...sandy launch....south....pet beach....." I didn't pay too much attention, because I was eager to get out on the water.  That was a big mistake, because as I wheeled my kayak over to the pet beach, I saw that there was no way I could get my kayak to the water - there were a bunch of boulders lining the shore!  Darnit!  It must have been the other pet beach that the others were launching from!  I quickly tore down my kayak, put it on my car and drove to the end of the causeway to the south side.  I looked over at the pet beach and saw the sandy shore.  Dang...wasted time.

Very calm bay side water.

I quickly re-rigged my kayak and wheeled over to the beach.  I had read the wind forecast, and the wind was supposed to be blowing from the west.  I hoped that the bay side would be calm, since it would be protected by land.  Luckily, the water didn't look too bad from the beach.  I also could see another kayaker fishing out in the water.  I quickly paddled over to find out who it was.  He was Dsmero from the MKF forums.  He had been fishing for a few hours, and was paddling in to put some fish on ice and to stretch his legs.  I asked what he caught, and he said he was doing real well catching 12-16 inch croakers in 18-20 feet of water.  Great! Croakers!  He was using squid for bait, and kindly offered one of his to me since I didn't have any squid.  I had only brought cooked salad shrimp from Costco and some nasty old bloodworms (note: don't ever buy bloodworms from the "rod & reel" gas station on the way to PLO).  We parted ways and I headed for the target water depth.

The first of many fish.

It didn't take long to get to water 18-20 feet deep, but it was still well out of range of the shore fishermen.  I'm glad to be able to get out this far from shore and be able to just drop my lines.  I baited some squid and shrimp on my two rods and put them out.  Within a couple minutes, I had a hit on one of the rods.  Fish on!  Then shortly after I had another one...then another...then another!  The croakers were hitting pretty fast.  I often had a fish on both rods at once, and often didn't have time to unhook a fish before reeling in the other line.  I hadn't had this much fish action in a long time, and these weren't all small fish either.  They were all good keeper sized fish that all went into my cooler.

Dsmero eventually came back out, and we drifted and fished together.  We were both getting some good fish with the squid, and some on the shrimp.  Then as night time set, the bite suddenly stopped.  I must be too used to my shore fishing technique of setting up camp in one place and sticking to it.  I kept putting out my lines in 18 - 20 feet of water waiting for the fish to start biting again.  Dsmero decided to head closer to shore instead and to fish in some shallower water.  He said he'd let me know if he found them, so I just stuck around.

Some small baitfish.

Since things slowed down a bit, I had time to fool around a bit.  All evening some small baitfish were splashing the water, and I could finally see them now.  They were 3-4 inches long, and weren't very shy.  I'd shine my head lamp at the water next to me, and the fish would come and bump my boat or swim next to it.  I wanted to get a closer look at one, so I swiped at it in the water to try to splash it into my kayak.  It actually worked, and I got to take a picture of it.  It turned out that I didn't even have to go through all that work.  Later I had 2 of these jump into my kayak on their own.  I had live baitfish in my boat now, so of course I put them on one of my rigs and cast them out to see if any bluefish or something would hit them.  I didn't get anything after about 15 minutes so I replaced them with shrimp.

Small crab.  He was released after his photo shoot.

The baitfish weren't the only ones floating by on the water.  I could see a lot of crabs - 2" to 6" swimming by.  I sure wished I had a crab net at this time.  I thought it might be fun to get a close look at one of the crabs too, so I found a small one swimming by and swiped at that one to get it in the boat.  Worked great just like the fish! haha.  He bit me during his photo shoot, but luckily he was only 1.5" long.  I am glad I didn't think to swipe at one of the bigger ones.  I just thought it was neat seeing these crabs swimming in the water from so close up.

I need a bigger cooler!  Or throw out some ice.

At around 10 or so, I heard Dsmero calling saying that he had found some fish.  I paddled over, and he was in about 12-13 feet of water.  He said he was catching fish pretty consistently there with bloodworms.  I put out some bloodworms and shrimp, and the fishing was hot again!  I was getting hits more frequently on my cooked salad shrimp.  In fact, I had 4 fish get deep-hooked with the salad shrimp.  I didn't have that problem with any of the other baits.  I anchored up this time because I was getting tired of paddling, and eventually the fishing slowed down again.  I could see Dsmero drifting further and further away.  At close to midnight I decided to call it a night and paddled over to Dsmero to say bye and to thank him for the tips.  I also asked how the fishing had been, and he said the fish were biting pretty consistently for him.  Again, I probably should have moved around looking for fish when things slowed.  I need to get rid of my habit of sticking to one spot.

By that time Dsmero was done for the night too.  He was planning on taking a short nap at a nearby hotel to return for the Meet & Greet by 4 or 5AM.  Crazy....  Anyway, we paddled in together and helped each other drag our kayaks to our cars and load them.  I opened up my cooler to gauge how many fish I had.  I looked in, and it didn't look like I met the 25 fish limit, so I thought "I'm good, I can take them home."  Dsmero and I packed our cars and went our separate ways.  The drive home was 2.5 hours, but it wasn't that bad...I was happy that my dream of a cooler full of fish had come true.

24 fish. Scaled.

Well, the happy feelings went away real quick the next morning when I had to scale and gut all the fish.  There were 24 fish in all, and I cleaned all of them.  I gave 19 of them away, and kept 5 to eat with my family. We had some fried fish Sunday evening, and my son Caleb loved it!  He kept asking for more.  The croaker this time tasted much better than the fish we had last week.  This is the great-tasting fish that I remember.

Point Lookout State Park

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My father-in-law was in town from St. Louis, and I wanted to get a nice lunch with fish for him this weekend.  Up until the last minute, I wasn't really sure where I was going to go, or whether I'd fish from a kayak or shore.  After hearing about how strong the wind might be, I decided to keep the kayak in my garage, and I had 2 choices: Point Lookout for croakers, or the Choptank pier for perch and maybe croakers.  I am more familiar with the Choptank, and have caught at least something every time I've gone there.  However, it has been a couple years since I've gone down to Point Lookout, and I figured the long drive and the quiet environment there would be refreshing.  So, I had a quick dinner with my family and my father-in-law, and I made the 2 hour drive down to Point Lookout after work.

The menu for the evening (for the fish) included shrimp for croakers and nightcrawlers for perch.  I picked up some cooked shrimp from the grocery store, and the nightcrawlers were leftovers from the trip to Fletcher's a couple weeks ago.  During the drive I had visions of a cooler full of croakers and perch, and could taste the delicious fish lunch that I would have the next day. 

Unfortunately, things didn't work out the way that I had planned.  As I made my way through the park to the furthest point of the park, I asked everyone I saw how they were doing.  Nobody was catching fish....except for 1 person who was working the right-most end of the fishing pier.  It's pretty common-knowledge that the right side of the end of the pier is the most productive spot.  There were already several people at the end of the pier, and I didn't want to intrude, so I set up camp at the point facing the bay.

The wind started out kind of strong, but it was bearable through the night.  If you ever go to Point Lookout, and are not going to fish from the pier, take a lantern and a headlamp.  Without a full moon, you will need it to see anything.  Since I couldn't see my rods, I figured I'd try to use my sense of hearing to detect the fish.  I used fishfinder rigs with circle hooks, and loosened the drag all the way after I cast it out.  For a little while I tried casting out a small plastic worm and jigged it with little success.  The wind also was making it very difficult to feel anything, so I put my small jigging rod away, and stuck with my 2 surf rods.

There was a picnic table nearby, so I pulled it right next to my rods and took a nap with my head next to my reels.  I was hoping that I'd wake up to the sound of the drag on my reel screaming with a fish.  Well, the entire night there no buzzzzzzzzz came from my reels.  At one point, I reeled in one of my rods and found an eel at the end of my line.  It must have just stuck around after taking the shrimp, because it didn't pull any drag - it also didn't even fight me when I reeled it in.  I thought "Well, an eel counts as a fish.  I avoided a skunk!"

The eel that saved my night from a skunk.

The rest of the night I didn't catch a thing, and I was getting cold around 4AM, so I packed up and headed home.  I cleaned the eel in the morning, and we fried him up for lunch.  I keep hearing about how tasty eel can be, but I haven't yet found the right recipe for cooking them up.  This time, I sprinkled 2-3" pieces of the eel with flour, and marinated it in soy sauce, honey, and sesame oil.  It was okay, but I wouldn't really rave about it.  I get eels pretty often as by-catches, so I'll try something different next time.

I kind of wish I had gone to the Choptank, where I probably would have been able to fill at least half the cooler with perch or catfish.  However, I don't regret going to Point Lookout.  Being so far from any city lights, the night sky is pretty amazing out there.  A night fishing trip at Point Lookout is something that every angler in the Maryland/Virginia area should try at least once.

As a side, I got a Ford Focus hatchback last November, and on this trip I averaged 39 miles per gallon.  That's what the trip meter showed, but I might have gotten something slightly better...because I used only a quarter of a tank of gas on a 200 mile trip.  That was another awesome point from this outing.