Gone Fishin'

Once upon a weekend, Chesapeake Bay Woman and a small party boarded a vessel called the Seagull and went fishing.

The captain and crew headed out on a chilly Saturday morning that later turned into a spectacularly warm day.

Below is a shot of the calm waters as the optimistic party headed out of Queens Creek to points beyond which included the Mud Hole, Fishing Bay and the Spike.

Yes.  The Spike.

 Now CBW had heard of the Mud Hole, near the mouth of the Piankatank River, and Fishing Bay, which hugs the Deltaville side of the river.  But when Cap'n D (shown below) said they were going to go to the Spike, CBW wasn't sure she had heard correctly.

In fact, CBW was so confused she thought maybe he said they were going to "get some spike" as in a particular type of fish called spike, even though CBW wasn't sure any such fish existed at all anywhere on the planet, much less in the Piankatank River at this time of year.

Still, she kept an open mind. And she also kept all these questions to herself.

CBW's mind is a very, very confusing place to live, but you already suffer her rambling writing so you know that of which she speaks. 

Of course he wasn't talking about going to get some spike, whether or not such a creature exists.  Rather, he was talking about a fishing spot called the Spike, known to everyone in this hemisphere the 804 area code except for CBW.

So, the happy party dropped anchor amid a very large number of party boats at the mouth of the Rappahannock River, at a spot where the depth drops from 15 to 30 or so feet.

It's important for CBW to clarify that in this instance "party boats" refers to chartered fishing boats which may or may not have people aboard who are partying.

The Seagull was very well stocked with pretzels and beer  every possible fishing contraption, gizmo or gadget.  Below are some of the fishing poles, one of which CBW ended up breaking ( the rig anyway) when The Big One got away.

There were lots of other boats in our midst that day, and many beautiful vistas.  Below is one of the many sailboats out enjoying the perfect weather.

Of course, there were some not so pleasant vistas as well.

Below is the cutting board for bait.  CBW steered plenty clear of this for about the first hour and let someone else bait her hook and pull off the hundreds of fish she caught.  After a while, though, she finally warmed up to the whole worm on the hook thing.

Everybody else was doing it, why couldn't she?

I'll tell you why she couldn't.

It was all just okay until the first time a segment of bloodworm wriggled in her hand.  After that she had no further use for the whole thing and went back to letting someone else do it for her, claiming that they did it way better than she did. (All together now:  Blech.)

After several hours of soaking in the warm sunshine and breathing in the salty sea air, the happy party began to smell fishy returned to the dock with about 15 or so spot that somebody else cleaned  because CBW doesn't do that either.

Last but not least, somebody else fried up the delectable spot fillets which CBW happily gobbled up, because one thing CBW does do is eat.  

The End.

p.s. My thanks to everyone on that fishing trip for a fantastic day.