Finally, after all the anticipation of opening day, it was refreshing to get out on the water after a long cold winter. Many brave souls fished opening day in 30 mph gusts with 5 footers, rough seas and treacherous conditions to say the least. Unfortunately, a couple of these brave souls lost their lives. This brings up the point about boat safety. Although many of us make sure all our leaders, baits and our rods are in tip top shape, we neglect to do one of the most important things…..Make sure our boats are safe. Before venturing out it is a good idea to check over the entire boat for safety. A coast guard inspection is generally free and will insure that all life saving equipment is in order. I implore each of us to make sure we have floatation devices, flares, a working VHF, and our motors are sound. Participation in our annual shake down cruise allows you to check out your boat before hand so that catastrophe can be avoided during the season.
The fish are here. The mouths of most of the rivers are stacked up full of spawned out females ranging from 36” up. Reports of fish in the 45-50” range have come from all over the bay. This should make for a great spring rockfish tournament for our chapter and for those of you participating in the Main MSSA tournament. Good luck to all. Make sure you get your weigh tickets to Chris Linetty before Tuesday, May 7 as we will be giving out our chapter winning prizes at the meeting on the 8th.
We have a great meeting lined up featuring all you need to know about catching flounder for our upcoming annual flounder tournament. We have a great schedule of events, meetings and things to do within the chapter this year. Again, we are always looking for volunteers or board members. Step up and help the chapter. Please make sure you sell your fundraising tickets to help support our chapter.
Fish hard!
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