# Wbb 2008.1



## okimavich (Nov 13, 2006)

Well, here's the first WBB fishing report for 2008.

Saturday night fishbait picks up finger and I pick up Tunafish and we head out to CHP to pick up some tog bait. After a couple of pitstops, we finally arrive at CHP just after midnight. No one else was there. The weather wasn't too bad. Just a few sprinkles of rain and light winds.

But the water was WAY low. We had to walk almost halfway down the planks to see any water!  The tide was supposed to change soon, so we decided to give it the ol' college try. 

As we began to set out our traps, we noticed that someone had recently left us a piece of chicken. Sweet, free bait! Uh, no. As soon as we let down the trap, the tide proceeds to wrap it around a pylon. Bye bye trap with chicken. D'oh! We set out 7 or 8 traps in all. But the tide wasn't changing fast enough. 

Tom showed up on the pier about 1 A.M. with just a mug of joe and not rod. We proceed to catch up and share stores as we continued to check the traps.

We ended up with about 2 dozen crabs, with only 2 or 3 which were of good size. There was some sort of isopod, which Tom thought was a sea louse of some sort. Then there was a Mantis Shrimp, aka "thumb splitter". Those with saltwater tanks may know of them. They're known for splitting thumbs and cracking 3/4" glass with just their claws.

About 4 A.M., we decide to call it quits and head out to grab some more coffee before getting to the boat.

As we left the park, a deer runs between Tom's and my car. I slam on the brakes, missing the first deer, but out of nowhere a second deer jumps across my path. Nothing I could do. I hit the back leg of the deer and it went flying. I have never seen a deer fly 10ft in the air before. I pulled over to the side and got out to see that the deer had landed on the other side of the road. I could see that it had a broken back leg without even going up to it.

There was enough deer hair on the front of my car to build several bucktail teasers. Inspection in the dark showed that I had a broken headlight shield, but the headlight themselves were ok. The $70 shields were well worth it. Saved me from $350 to replace the headlight unit. 

As for the deer, I stayed away from it. I've heard too many stories and I don't have a shotgun on hand. Within 5 minutes, it was awake and pissed. It got up and started doing the bullride dancing in circles, kicks and all. Then it bounded off into the woods.

When we finally arrived at WaWa, Tom was already there wondering why we had stopped. In the light of WaWa, we could now see that I had a more damage than previously thought. Headlight, though undamaged, was pushed back by a couple of mm, the crossmember was also pushed back by a couple of mm and the hood was dented in several places. -Sigh- At least the paint is ok. I may be able to just get the hood pounded flat without having to repaint it. I'll post pics later.

After saying goodbye to Tom, we headed out to IR marina to jump on the Bandit. This was our first time on the Bandit. The captain seemed seemed nice and the mate was helpful.

We hit two sites. The first was just a few miles out. The second was out further. But something was wrong. The bite was not there.

The greenies provided by the boat were not catching anything. A group of people had brought their own bait and it seemed that it was the only thing working as they were able to find fish. All day, it was the same story. No one felt a bite, except the group with their own bait.

Although we kept moving around at each sight, the day no fish was to be found. I believe the final count on board was ~20 togs caught by the group, and 5 or 6 more by others on the other side.

Highlights:
* Getting back out on the water again
* Not getting seasick
* Hanging out with friends
* seeing 7/8 of a tank of fuel left when I got home from a 270 mile trip 

Lowlights:
* Starting 2008 on a banging skunk
* No fresh fish for the week
* Tunafish being laid out on the floor after the first stop succumbed to 2 doses of Dramamine and seasickness
* Now all three of my cars need work at the same time (Timing belt, new clutch, deer dent)


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## TunaFish (Aug 16, 2001)

That pretty much sums it up. Sorry about your car, I know the feeling. I guess were starting a good trend here. We fish, we don't catch, and we have a good dinner. It was still fun and plenty of conspiracy theories to talk about for our next trip.


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## chump (Jul 18, 2005)

Totally the wrong format. Someone please correct this. Glad you guys are safe now, safe from deer and boat.


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## fishinmama (Oct 14, 2006)

sorry about the car oki & the bite - still, like i always think, you guys manage to have a great time....
....so what was the secret, magic bait that the smart fishermen were using to catch?
....maybe they were just on the right side of the boat to get the right drift!


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## fishbait (Nov 11, 2005)

WBB => No fish => Lots of fun => Big dinner 

Par for the course! Sorry about your car Oki. If we had a shotgun, we could have turned this into a big "meat trip", but alas, that bugger ran off in the wood to never be seen again....

Observations:
1) If you don't have access to whiteleggers, don't even bother trying to go out toggin' offshore.
2) The "go to" rig seemed to be a modified snafu rig consisting of a pair of 2/0 with one just sliding on the line and the other snelled to the end to keep the first from sliding off.

Review of the Bandit:
The captain is a likeable guy. Seemed to be knowledgeable, but the fish weren't biting. Didn't have any interaction with the mates, since I didn't catch any fish.

One thing that I didn't like is that I ended the day with the same sinker I started with. I firmly believe that if you are not snagging up once in a while, then you are not on any structure. And I didn't feel any structure.

The boat was nice and clean. Bathrooms were clean too. I like to compare boats to the Thelma Dale (which I consider to be the average boat). In the Thelma Dale, there is bench seating with tables. This is nice for sitting down and tying up rigs or eating a snack. The Bandit had one table and bench seating along the walls. The seating was relatively narrow and one could not lay down on the seat. So I prefer the layout of the Thelma Dale.  Along the rail, rod holders are adequately spaced to give anglers enough elbow room and the space below the seating was tall enough to accommodate most coolers. Although the higher seat position did make the edge of the seat bite in to the back of my thighs more than usual. The bait was delivered to each group of anglers in separate buckets and scissors to cut up the green crabs were provided by the boat. I believe the crabs had been picked through, because I am accustomed to seeing them as they are delivered directly from the suppliers. In those shipments, you get a good share of orange belly crabs with a rounded apron. These are the ones with the orange slocum. They also come in all sizes from quarter to fist size. In my entire bucket, I only found 2 orange bellies and almost all the crabs were less than 2". That's pretty strange to me anyway. 

Overall, a somewhat mediocre experience. This boat is not for the weekend togger. I believe this boat caters mostly to it's regular clientele of seasoned toggers.


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## fishbait (Nov 11, 2005)

Here's a picture of the mantis shrimp. Looked like a giant grass shrimp, but it had claws and didn't have a pronounced unicorn spike on top of it's head.


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## okimavich (Nov 13, 2006)

Having never seen one in person before, I just looked up Mantis Shrimp and I don't think we had a mantis shrimp.

They belong to a different group called the stomatopods. Although they resemble them, they are not shrimp.

Oops.

BTW, the "unicorn spike" is typically referred to as the rostrum of a shrimp.


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## okimavich (Nov 13, 2006)

chump said:


> Totally the wrong format. Someone please correct this. Glad you guys are safe now, safe from deer and boat.


Sorry. WBB.08.001


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## okimavich (Nov 13, 2006)

fishinmama said:


> sorry about the car oki & the bite - still, like i always think, you guys manage to have a great time....
> ....so what was the secret, magic bait that the smart fishermen were using to catch?
> ....maybe they were just on the right side of the boat to get the right drift!


Thanks. As fishbait alluded to, they were using large white legger crabs. But between the 6 or 7 of them, they only caught 20 or so keepers. That's 3 a piece and still only a mediocre day for being on a boat from DE.

3/4 of us on the boat were moving around. It wasn't just on one side of the boat. There was a couple of times I was surprised the boat wasn't listing any more than it did because people were crowding one spot or another. One guy would catch one and then a crowd appeared.


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## glantier (Sep 12, 2006)

Oki, 
White-leggers? are those available to purchase or do you have to catch them yourself?
Looking to go out sometime in Jan/Feb headboat for Tog. See what you guys started me on?!? Thanks for the info. :fishing:Greg


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## fishbait (Nov 11, 2005)

We're still looking for an answer to that question ourselves. Baitshops up north seem to have them, but we haven't found a souce down here yet. I'll let everyone know if we find one.


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## 2aces (Jul 2, 2007)

Sigh, looks like I didnt miss anything for the opening of 08. So guys when is the next trip for togs in IRI?


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## fingersandclaws (Oct 17, 2005)

I've decided to turn over a new leaf for 08' and call it like I see it and not hold my tongue. There was a MFing conspiracy on that boat and if you wanna know, PM me  I'm not gonna bad mouth the boat online but you'll never see me on that again.

Highlights:
1. Hangin' out with buds.
2. Learning the heirarchy of headboat fishing and where your on it.

Lowlights:
1. See #2 above.


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## fishbait (Nov 11, 2005)

fingersandclaws said:


> I've decided to turn over a new leaf for 08' and call it like I see it and not hold my tongue. There was a MFing conspiracy on that boat and if you wanna know, PM me  I'm not gonna bad mouth the boat online but you'll never see me on that again.
> 
> Highlights:
> 1. Hangin' out with buds.
> ...


Didn't want to say it so bluntly, but I'm with Fingers on this one. You won't see me back on that boat again either.


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## 2aces (Jul 2, 2007)

fishbait said:


> Didn't want to say it so bluntly, but I'm with Fingers on this one. You won't see me back on that boat again either.


Wow so you guys are not making another trip up north, then when is the next trip in OC then????


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## Talapia (Apr 27, 2003)

fingersandclaws said:


> I've decided to turn over a new leaf for 08' and call it like I see it and not hold my tongue. There was a MFing conspiracy on that boat and if you wanna know, PM me  I'm not gonna bad mouth the boat online but you'll never see me on that again.
> 
> Highlights:
> 1. Hangin' out with buds.
> ...


If it's true then you should tell the board.
We tell the good and bad on here.
Guys I am still doing a VA tog charter
this month. Interested?


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## fingersandclaws (Oct 17, 2005)

I'll tell ya what I think thru PMs. T, your headboat royalty (meaning, the Captains all know you as a regular) aren't you? Do you ever get skunked because of things the Captain can control like which drops he goes to? I'm curious because I always imagined you to be in the know which all the Capts.


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## Talapia (Apr 27, 2003)

fingersandclaws said:


> I'll tell ya what I think thru PMs. T, your headboat royalty (meaning, the Captains all know you as a regular) aren't you? Do you ever get skunked because of things the Captain can control like which drops he goes to? I'm curious because I always imagined you to be in the know which all the Capts.


Me, Anthony, and Brian make the rounds
on all the DE/MD tog boats but I am only a regular on two tog boats, 
the MS and Karen Sue. I am branching
out a little bit this winter though...

I was thinking about going on the Bandit
last winter but to be honest the fishing
reports I read were really bad. While the 
Karen Sue and MS were basically 
CRUSHING the tog they were not doing
much at all.


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## fishbait (Nov 11, 2005)

Actually, Brian was on the boat with us.


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## Teddy (May 14, 2006)

*Trip*

Wow to say the least it looks like it was a flat out waste of $$$$ and time except yu learned that yu will not go back to the Bandit.
I am sorry to hear of all the misfortunes and was really hoping to get some good news of your trip. I am glad that I have not made any reservations on the Bandit. If you would plz PM me the details about the problem I would like to hear them. also I would be interested in going out on a trip this month or next and catching some tog, plz let me know of an upcoming trip that might be a little more productive.


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## okimavich (Nov 13, 2006)

The results of a fishing trip:









Driver's side of hood









Passenger side of hood









Cracked headlight shield









Hood not so flush to fender









Shifted nut









Mmm. Dried deer spit.


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## cygnus-x1 (Oct 12, 2005)

Sorry there buddy. At least you all are safe. It could have been much worse. Insurance will take care of it just keep an eye on them.


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## fishbait (Nov 11, 2005)

I found a really good shop in Germantown to do the work on my Lexus. Their work is top notch. Let me know if you want their info.


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## fingersandclaws (Oct 17, 2005)

Sorry about the stain Oki, that ain't no deer spit


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## hengstthomas (Mar 11, 2006)

okimavich said:


> Having never seen one in person before, I just looked up Mantis Shrimp and I don't think we had a mantis shrimp.
> 
> They belong to a different group called the stomatopods. Although they resemble them, they are not shrimp.
> 
> ...


That wasnt a regular shrimp ... It had thumpers and CRAWLED up my glove .. Shrimp do not crawl ..
Perhaps this Mantis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squilla_mantis


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## okimavich (Nov 13, 2006)

hengstthomas said:


> That wasnt a regular shrimp ... It had thumpers and CRAWLED up my glove .. Shrimp do not crawl ..
> Perhaps this Mantis
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squilla_mantis


That's possible. What happened to the shrimp. I'm curious as to what it might be.

BTW, there are shrimps that do crawl. Fire Shrimp Not all swim.


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## hengstthomas (Mar 11, 2006)

okimavich said:


> That's possible. What happened to the shrimp. I'm curious as to what it might be.
> 
> BTW, there are shrimps that do crawl. Fire Shrimp Not all swim.


I know  I meant on land 
definitely Mantis
This is the stomach contents to a 31" stripwer taken at Iri 1-6-08


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## 2aces (Jul 2, 2007)

Talapia said:


> If it's true then you should tell the board.
> We tell the good and bad on here.
> Guys I am still doing a VA tog charter
> this month. Interested?


I am interested if it will be on a weekend before the 19th or after the 19th :fishing:


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## okimavich (Nov 13, 2006)

hengstthomas said:


> I know  I meant on land
> definitely Mantis
> This is the stomach contents to a 31" stripwer taken at Iri 1-6-08


Wow, did you catch that thing? I'm surprised that the thing didn't just poke it's way out! 

As for the squilla mantis, it looks like it only occurs in the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea and nearby portions of the eastern Atlantic. It would be odd to find it here in the cold waters of Delaware in January.


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## hengstthomas (Mar 11, 2006)

okimavich said:


> Wow, did you catch that thing? I'm surprised that the thing didn't just poke it's way out!
> 
> As for the squilla mantis, it looks like it only occurs in the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea and nearby portions of the eastern Atlantic. It would be odd to find it here in the cold waters of Delaware in January.


Your right but with 400 species of Mantis Shrimp I aint knocking myself out figuring it out .. Never saw a Shrimp crawl like that .. Pretty cool !

A friend of mine caught the Striper with the Mantis in it ..


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## dckhd247 (Sep 9, 2003)

On the topic of the crab situation...

I'm sure if you guys were on some sticky bottom you would have scored with green crabs... I've fished over the winter before and came home with limits using only greenies... 

He just didn't put you guys on a big enough piece to get the whole boat on fish which is understandable with a boat that size... Sometimes there's 4 of us crowded into bow on our 22 CC to get on that one sticky-icky piece of wreck where those tog are hiding...

You guys should really get together and jump on the KS or the MS when it starts running... The extra dollars will be worth it... If you have a problem fishing the KS because you can't get outta work on week days, quit your job...


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## hengstthomas (Mar 11, 2006)

dckhd247 said:


> I'm sure if you guys were on some sticky bottom you would have scored with green crabs... I've fished over the winter before and came home with limits using only greenies...


Yeah thats true but I would hate to stand next to a guy with a cooler full of white leggers .


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## terpfan (May 30, 2002)

has anyone used blue crab for tog bait??? it seem pretty cheap at asian food market. (female)


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## hengstthomas (Mar 11, 2006)

terpfan said:


> has anyone used blue crab for tog bait??? it seem pretty cheap at asian food market. (female)


Yes they work and often you'll see them on charter boats this time of year . I dont think there is a crab that a tog wont eat


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## fingersandclaws (Oct 17, 2005)

Too easy Tom:

The one on Fishbait's hook. opcorn:


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## nuppey (Nov 25, 2005)

*WBB Skunk 08*

FC, 

I personally think that if you have a bad experience you should voice your opinion. We all fish on headboat at some time or another. I don't want to make a drive to DE/OC/NJ for an expericence I could have on a pier. Sorry about the car situation and I'm glad you guys are ok. I am definitely going to make sure I fish with the WBB this year because you guys are funny as hell! Well, let me rephrase that I want to meet you guys after I'm done fishing and hopefully I won't be influenced by the WBB Skunk Fest. Man it is always an adventure reading the reports you guys post. *LMAO[/B very hard. I am saving all my getting out of jail fishing days up. Keep fishing and posting reports fellas. I love this ..it!!!!:fishing:*


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## fishbait (Nov 11, 2005)

fingersandclaws said:


> Too easy Tom:
> 
> The one on Fishbait's hook. opcorn:


I think after so much "fishing" and no "catching", I got a little delerious and started giving my crabs names and giving them instructions before plunging them down to the bottom. I even promised a few that I would get them back up to the surface in one piece. Of course I always did, as nothing was chewing on my hook. But, I guess that doesn't matter much to a crab that has no legs or top shell. :redface:


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## Anthony (Jul 3, 2002)

Don't feel so bad about that trip. I fished on the Angler out of Lewes with Axon two days prior and we didn't fare that well either. I am guessing that the Bandit was fishing site 9 or site 10. We tried site 9 first and the mate said that the water was 41 degrees, a little too cold for tog. Site 10 was more of the same. I had the skunk for the entire trip till the last 5 mins when I caught 5 with two keepers. I believe that Axon also caught 2 keepers. The captains should have found some warmer water. Plus there were some nasty winds for a few days so that could have affected water clarity. I believe that the fish were there but were just not biting. I fished as hard as I could to get those few fish that I did. There is always next time.


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