Eeling for the Big' Uns

With the water getting cold, I have had striper on my mind for weeks. Between work, school, and hunting, I haven't had the chance to get down to the light lines yet, and have gone striperless for almost 12 months. I called Rob Choi to see if he wanted to fish the HRBT on Friday night, but he wasn't in town. He did say he planned on toggin' or eelin' on Sunday which got me all fired up, as there have already been a few reports of Kows coming in from the Concrete Ships. The winds weren't great either for fishing the light line, so I decided to hold off and fish Sunday. In the mean time, my fishin buddy Alex Britland called and wanted to go to the ships, as did  William Ragulsky, so we decided to cross the big bridge in search of citation stripers instead of fishing under it for Tog. Billy's buddy Tommy would be joining us as well, and the plan was to meet at Oceans East for eels before crossing the tunnel.

We hit the water around 11 and headed straight to the alleyways between the ships. It was my first trip to Kiptopeke, so I was excited just to be in the mecca of kayak fishing for stripers.

Me and Alex set up on opposite sides of an alley and dropped our eels down, set the clickers, and waited for a bite....... nothing. A couple hours later...... nothing. There was a point when my eel was going nuts, but nothing ever came of it.

After an hour, I brought him up to find he had balled up on the line and created a mess. I decided just to cut him off and re-tie. The current was dying at the alleys, so Alex decided to drift the outside of the ship. He had only drifted about 60 feet from me when I heard his clicker scream. I looked over to see Alex set the hook, but the clicker screamed again.....? In all his excitement, he forgot to put the reel in gear........the fish was gone!
Billy had one run later in the afternoon, but all in all, it was an uneventful day and we headed in around 4:00.

 We all agreed, The fish are there, just not real active yet. Once the water temps drop a little lower, the bite will turn on. It was worth a try. We considered hitting the CBBT light line on the way home, but being Sunday, Alex and I both dicided it would be better if we headed home. Turns out Rob had gone toggin' and finally got his citation Tog. Congrats Rob! We stopped at Ships Cabin for some dinner with Billy and were home by 9:15.

                                                                             Sunset over the Ships is Beautiful!

It won't be long til I make the drive back over to the Eastern Shore. Kows are calling my name, and I can't catch 'em sitting on my couch! Tight Lines- See ya on the water.