Biked a few miles to meet friends Friday afternoon then we loaded up the truck and headed South to the lower Chesapeake Bay. We pulled into a campground around 11PM and setup tent and enjoyed a few cool beverages. The smell of salty air, feeling a calm wind on a cool night and the pines looking like palms I wondered if I was in the tropics... Almost a full moon and this picture does the night an injustice as it was a great sky alternating clear and cloudy sky...

These rock piles hold a mix of good fish but today the sea bass were soo thick that about any bait would get devoured before any other species could get to the hook. One could sit here and catch tons of these.

They aren't very large but have an iridescent coloring to them. The bottom of the jaw has a royal purple hue while the tips of about every fin has an ivory white edge. If you rig up for light tackle the give an entertaining fight. We fished here for about an hour then headed out in search of some croakers.

Lookin for some croaker or anything that would do for shark bait we headed for deeper water. Course the term is "fishing" not "catching" so a good bit of the midday was spend waiting.

Course then after such intense ferocity I decided on deep meditation with the 80's Yogi - like focus... Almost went for the "flying yogi" moves to change our midday slump but I thought this a better position.

We bashed up some chum and rigged lines with live bait. After an hour we were thinking it had been a long enough day and the sun, saltwater waves and beverages had beaten us to a dry crusty defeat.... Like a good novel just as we were discussing when to quit a reel started to "sing" as it paid out 50 lb line. Click the bail over and take a good hold of the rod cause setting the hook meant the ride was about to begin. Sure these shark didn't disappoint the means of keep your hands inside the ride at all times. They would typically make 2 runs, taking and giving yards of line.

They ranged in size but all were under 5 foot.

As you saw in the opening pic they really do a number on live bait. Several times the tip of the pole would bounce a steady rhythm without taking the full ride. After these little episodes once would reel up and find only the head and hook. It was like some of these kids had played the game before and learned how to win.

Some were smaller and let us practice the closest I will ever get to being a dentist with some de-hooking practice. Which was good practice for when the larger ones showed up it was much easier to have a little experience.

See that little round steel slips over the line then down to the curve in the hook and then push down and twist and that hook comes right out. Huh perhaps next line of employment will involve D.D.S.
Some sharks came up with an attitude and would object to the whole free ride. Nor did they appreciate that I was trying to set em free without that pesky steel hook dowsing me with saltwater and trying to test their teeth to return the favor but thankfully all they did was get some in my eyes. Suppose I should have used more novacaine?

Some weren't nearly as pissed off as this one seemed to smile

Check out that eye!

The last 2 hours of light we had dolphins come around the anchored boat. They started pretty far away and as the light dwindled down to a red sky they got so close that you could hear the individual blow holes as they cleared the passage and took another deep breath. With no other boats around and it soo calm the dolphins actually took your attention away from fishing. I wouldn't be exaggerating to say at least 100 times dolphin played around us in different groups jumping, tail splashing, just seemed like they were having fun with one another. Never got really close to the boat but I would guess within 70 yards of us. So fast that it is hard to get really good pictures with my extremely novice camera skills.

As the sun went down

I would be leaving out an important trip if I didn't mention the roads are great for biking on both MD's and VA's portion of the trip (although I did not do the entire 200+ miles) Most of the trip had excellent shoulder and pretty clean. The small towns and spots where the road turned into 3 lanes adding a turn lane left no shoulder but most of the trip was good safe biking roads.

Some of the goofy roadside stuff you just have to enjoy!

Not even gonna do the obvious cock jokes

The marriot has bugs

No this is not a casino, but they did seem to sell a lot of tobacco and I loved the name