Forecast this Weekend

[Lipyourown]

Is it worth it to try and go out on the Bay? PLO area...

[cygnus-x1]

Depends on your boat. Since I am just learning I would not go out into the bay proper. I would stay in the Potomac within 10 - 15 minutes of the boat ramp. You DO NOT want to be caught out there in a storm.

[Lipyourown]

Boat is seaworthy...you can see a pic of it from Dickdogs picture he put up last night. I don't think any recreational boat is safe in thunderstorms though:(

Thanks Cyg.

[cygnus-x1]

I like the boat. I really wasn't talking about seaworthiness more on trust. I trust a boat with two engines more than 1. I trust a boat with a spare battery or 2 on board then I do with no backups. I trust a boat that can kick it up to 24-26 kph when it needs to (mine can't do that)

Do you put in at PLO? If so you are not far from some fishing holes so you could do it. It just sucks to drive all the way down there (towing the boat I assume) just to sit in the truck and watch the rain.

My engine blew a freeze plug in the manifold so I can't go out if I wanted to or not. I am contemplating the ocean but with a 60% chance of tstorms .... I am not ready to become a lightning rod.

Of course if you do go out make sure it has a full tank of petrol!

[catman]

I was taking the grandkids out tomorrow and cancelled until Sunday. I can handle wind, chop, waves, rain, sleet and snow but lightning will chase back to the barn. I just came back in about 2 hrs ago for that very reason. Not a drop of rain to be seen but lightning was hitting the water about a mile from where we were fishing.:eek:

[Lipyourown]

Thanks for the advice. It was too rough Sat to go where we wanted and we chickened out on Sunday...should have gone, here is what another boater reported for the exact spot I had in mind Sunday, but hey better safe than sorry:

I finally got out on the Bay on 7/23/06 after not being out since the Spring. I was so excited that I did the unthinkable. While
talking and not paying attention at the gas dock I started putting
fuel in my nearest rod holder to my fuel tank. Lucky for me Mike and another gentlman helped me clean up the mess. So with a
much more subdued attitude I headed out into the bay from St. Jerome Creek at Point No Point. I checked out the light house,
buoy 74 and buoy 74A with absolutely nothing then I decided
to head south below 72 to look for signs of life. While just south
and east of buoy 72, my stepfather pointed to a wave in front of
the boat. I pulled up to this wave and I couldn't believe what I
was seeing. On the surface were about an acre of the largest
red drum I've ever seen. The noise was unbelievable as their
big tails thrashed the water. We quickly threw a couple of casting
lures we had ready in case of breaking rock or blues but what about breaking red drum? I thing you could of thrown beer cans at them for both the tsunami and storm lure were gobbled up and away they went. After 15 minutes my 12 pound line gave out
but after 30 minutes my stepfather brought his fish to the net. We measured around a 42 inch fish and released him cleanly with out taking him out of the net. We could not locate the pod of fish
again but thankyou God it was a great experience. Then we decided we needed to move on from this hallowed area and proceeded to the target ship. I spotted a few birds working and
we went to work on some breaking rock and blues and we spent
the next two hours chasing the school around. The most successful lure was a bunker colored tsunami which rarely did not hook up a fish with each cast. The only problem was that an occassional blue fish made them obselete. Clark spoon and castmaster also worked but were not as affective. We ended up with one 20 inch rock and 4 blues of the chopper variety.
We then proceeded to the southwest middle grounds where we saw our first charter boat of the entire day. He was chumming with a party on board so we decided to anchor up at a respectable distance and bottm fish. Caught a few undersized fish so we decided to head back up to the Northwest middle
grounds which is where we had found all our fish. Sure enough I saw a few birds in the air and fish on the screen at about 20 feet
depth on the bottom and located decent sized croakers while setting up drifts. Ended the last three hours hooking up croakers and an occassional blue. Headed back to St. Jerome creek where
we saw Walleye Pete heading out for an evening fishing trip. We relayed this information to him and he said to post it on tidalfish.
This is my first entry and I hope it helps someone heading in that direction. Please feel free to critique me for future reports.