# Morning Star Report Mon 3 May 04



## Talapia (Apr 27, 2003)

Well I pulled a marathon shift at my 
part time 8am Sat to 3 am Monday 
morning...43 straight hrs. Then I 
decided what the H***, I may as well
go fishing Mon since I have the day off.
Left Bolling AFB at 3 am and headed 
down the road for OC, MD and the 
Morning Star. It was still pouring
down rain the whole way down.
Got there at about 5 something am.
Spoke with Steve the new senior mate
when I got there, the Sunday trip
went out for a few min and then
had to turn around because the
weather was extremely bad. Today was not
looking exactly "lovely" eithor! The boat
was sold out which is strange for a 
Monday. Turns out that most of the 
folks from the Sunday trip had rebooked
for Monday (most were down in OC
for the week). Out of the whole boat
only about 3 people had rain gear!
Only 3! (Myself included -- never leaves
my car). Needless to day it rained 
HARD the WHOLE day. It was cold also, 
and VERY rough. I have to admit that
when we went out of the inlet, I was 
hoping that Capt Monty would fish
close to the beach. (Yeah it was that bad).
He had to slow the boat down to almost
nothing several times due to the LARGE
swells. The black sky did not help anybody's
confidence eithor! The first stop was 7 miles
out...out we go. The guys without rain gear
were hosed! The rain was cold and coming
from the top sideways and bottom...so it 
seemed. The fish were there though, caught
two nice ones right away, including a fat
5 pounder! My new PB sea bass. Oh yeah, 
I am loving this trip already. At this point
about 4 or 5 guys start turning green, and 
I looked in the cabin window and noticed
that about 3 guys did not even bother 
coming out and had that pale pasty 
complexion. After about an hour the sea's 
calmed down a little bit (not the rain), and 
Capt Monty made the call to head off-shore!
It was still rough, just not stupid rough.
Took about an hour to get there and then
another 15 to 20 to get the anchor set right, 
the swells were higher than the boat, and you
could not see behind them. I do not mind 
big swells they are gentle, it is the short 
choppy ones that I hate. Capt comes on
the loud speaker and say's "bad news is 
the weather sucks and is going to stay that
way for a while...good news is that I have 
not seen this many sea bass on my scope
this year! Drop them in fellas" By this time
there were only a handful of folks fishing, 
the rest were eithor sick, wet, too cold, or 
most likely all of the above. Caught 18 real
nice sea bass in short order, used pink 
squid B-2 teasers on the hooks which really
seemed to help attract the fish. After the 
initial barrage, we had to weed through a 
ton of small fish for a while, then the big
fish would turn on again for 30 min. 
Strange. (not complaining mind ya).
Clams and squid were the bait of choice, 
and tog were coming up very good on
clam. Caught one nice sized female about
5 pounds and was tempted to throw her
in my box, but had a change of heart and
had her tagged. I had one hit that darn
near pulled the rod out of my hand, I 
started winding up and this sucker was
shaking his head and digging in....My reel
pops out of the reel seat! S***! I am trying
to put it back in and reel the fish at the same
time, it stayed on for a little bit while I was 
messing around (talk about feeling stupid!)
Got the reel on and felt the line snap! 
Reeled the line up hoping that it was the clam
bait that got hit (praying that it was only a 
dog shark, but knew better...dogs do not 
fight the way this fish fought...it was a huge
tog) Sure enough the dropper loop with
the whole large crab was broken clean off!
(Where is that reel clamp at?!, This is what I get
for being lazy the night before!) We finished up
and made the trip back in...of course the sea's
layed down REAL nice and the rain stopped!
Total catch for the day was 24 real nice sea bass
including my PB. One keeper male tog. It was
agony trying to decide if I should stay with the
sea bass, which were biting, or switch over to 
crabs full time and go for the tog, which were 
biting also...stuck with the sea bass. Fish pool
time! I just knew that I had this sucker! 5 pound
sea bass are trophies! NOPE, some sucker from the
other side of the boat had caught about half a limit
of fish one of them was a 6 3/4 pound sea bass!
Oh da horror of it all! Da horror! Told Capt Monty
that s*** aint right! Lost the sea bass pool with
a 5 pounder? And it was not even close! That 
will probably be the largest sea bass this year
on the MS or real close to it. The Coaster Fisherman
was at the dock waiting for us, and Monty sent
me and the "pool winner" for an interview and
a picture for the magazine. So I guess that 
it should hit OC in a little bit. Overall, great day.
PS, BRING RAIN GEAR, BRING RAIN GEAR if you
even see a cloud! Henry...outa here.


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## dckhd247 (Sep 9, 2003)

Nice work...Glad you got into 'em...Sorry about the pool though...


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## eaglesfanguy (May 1, 2003)

Great day on the water.And great report.Glad you got into them that well.See fish doo bite in the rain.Why wouldnt they there allready wet.
Keep the reports coming.


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## Manayunk Jake (Oct 3, 2001)

Greetings Talapia!

Good advise about the rain gear. I always advise folks heading out to wear layers of clothing and have a rain suit (or at least a poncho) handy. You can't put it on if its back in the car (or worse, the house!)


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