Go Fishing Forum

I went out to Swann Point today with a couple of planers (a #1 and a #2) and a couple of Clark spoons in hopes of finding a striper or two. I trolled all over the place out there. The wind was blowing about 15 knots straight up the river, so Swann Point was quite rough. 2-3 foot seas and an occasional 4 roller. It was quite a ride in my 22 foot cuddy cabin.

I marked a lot of fish, most of them were either in 20 feet of water at about 15 feet or they were in 35 feet of water at about 25 feet deep. I did catch a single small rockfish on a deep diver silver and chartreuse Cotton Cordell lure.

On the way back, the boat started messing up. I was on plane headed to the marina (after getting off the main river...I couldn't get on plane there without killing myself). So, I was headed to the marina at about 20 mph and all of a sudden the boat revved up and stopped, like it fell out of gear! I was standing at the time, driving down the channel and I almost ate the windshield! Not sure what the deal is... why would my boat suddenly fall out of gear when there's torque on the system? It will stay in gear if I idle along. I can also speed up slowly and get to about 2500RPM before it seems like there's too much torque and it drops out of gear. If I try to get a hole shot out of it, it immediately drops out of gear. Mercruiser alpha 1 outdrive. Any ideas?!

What a day...I think the next time that the fishing poles get wet is going to be in the Rappahannock river where I can actually catch fish.

same thing here along the beach - #1 & #1 planers w/ clark spoons on 25ft leaders......100's of bluefish and a few spanish macs !

I was running right along a drop-off where it goes from 18 feet to about 25 or 30 feet. I was trying to run right along that ridge and did a prettu good job of it, but no fish. I wonder if I should have been in a little shallower...

I was running the planers with about 40 feet of leader, each. I guess I could have pulled them in a little closer and moved into the 10-12 foot water. Didn't even think about it at the time. I'm still new to the spot I'm fishing and charting it out in my head. With the wind like it was yesterday, there's no way I wanted to get hung up on a rock pile or something...I start to get uncomfortable when the depth find says anything under 10 feet. I really need to break down and go spend some cash on a GPS if I'm going to spend any more time out on the Potomac.

Follow-up on the boat problem... turns out I had spun the hub in my prop. It would hold torque up to a certain point, then would break loose once the torque on the hub got too high.

Anyone know of a good prop place near Colonial Beach?