Capt. Pete Ide, Charter Fishing, Solomons, MD

Not really, but it sure seemed cold enough. I have left the Beach due to the fact that the cold water has pushed virtually all of the rockfish out past the three-mile line where it is illegal to possess striped bass.

I want to sincerely thank all of you again for what was a pretty good year, especially considering the economy. Your business means everything to me and my family, and I honestly don’t know what the heck I would do without it. Overall fishing was very good and so was business.

Virginia Beach, however, was another story. It was hardly worth the trip this year. I had to cancel a bunch of trips due to the horrendously cold and windy weather and poor fishing in legal waters.

Some captains are still fishing. I have read claims on web sites that the fish are ‘well within the three-mile line.’ (Hahaha! I just double-checked afore mentioned web site and they took the lie off the report! The noose is tightening apparently) They go on to claim the ‘warm spell’ will move the fish even closer. What’s it going to do, push the fish up on the beach? I couldn’t believe it when I read these outright lies on the web site of one of the prominent marinas on Rudee Inlet. Do any of you really think I would just cancel a bunch of trips and bring my boat home if fishing were that good in legal water? I hardly think so.

The truth is that the captains who are still catching fish consistently go well offshore, sometimes as far as 30 miles, where the fish are incredibly thick. They catch their fish and run as fast as they can to get back to the three-mile line. During this time, they have their fish in trash cans, ready to dump overboard at the sight of the marine police or Coast Guard. With the increased enforcement, I have heard about several boats doing just this lately. How DESPICABLE! These are 10-20 year-old rockfish that are the breeding stock. They are our future. They dump their fish, then go right back out after the police leave and catch more fish. I can only hope that NOAA and/or the US Coast Guard catch these guys and make them pay. I have watched it and, stupidly, kept my mouth shut for a long time now, but I’m done. If any of you find yourselves on one of these boats, be careful because you could be charged. This is not a minor offense. It is a federal crime, possibly a felony.

If you find yourself fishing with one of these intentional, egregious violators, or just have information that will help put these guys out of business, I strongly encourage you to document the name of the captain, name of the boat, name of the marina and area fished and call the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement at 727-824-5344.

Sorry to end on a sour note, but it’s a horrible situation down there that needs to be addressed.

Check out this pretty redfish caught near Hooper Island Lighthouse. We caught in on cut spot while chunking for blues.

We had ten days of rotten weather lately and we’re trying to get our bearings. Nobody fished much during that period and we basically took a quantum leap from summer fishing to fall fishing. The Spanish mackerel seem to have disappeared, but there are LOTS of small blues around, and the fall run of rockfish is starting to show signs of life. The fat fall blues should be around anytime now as well.

The Spanish Mackerel have showed up in fair numbers. This was the first one of the year, caught a couple of weeks ago. Also, check out this peculiar little guy. It’s a burr fish. We actually caught three this year. In the oddball category as well we have caught four stingrays, quite a few whiting and even a keeper sea trout. It’s sad that trout are now a novelty, but that’s what they’ve been reduced to.

On a recent trip, we caught nine keeper flounder, including a beautiful 21-incher. Above is a picture of long-time customer Phil Wagner with that beauty along with the pride of Baltimore, a Natty Boh. Phil is a very cool cat who was once the manager of the world famous Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington. He has some great stories about some very famous people including J. Edgar Hoover and President Lyndon Johnson.

The past few weeks have been great for big, fat croaker. There have also been lots of small bluefish and a couple bunches of big (30-50 lbs.) redfish around.

A couple weeks ago we had the privilege of having Brian Westbrook of the Eagles on the boat along with some of his friends and family. If you are a football fan, you know Westbrook is a great player who kicks butt on the field. It was lots of fun and Westbrook is a very cool guy.

Hey all,

Fishing is now transitioning to full-on summer. The biggest rockfish have headed north to cooler climes (must be nice!) and the smaller resident fish have moved into many of their summer haunts. We have still managed to catch a few 30-inch plus fish here and there. There is some live bait fishing going on, but trolling has been more reliable, so we’ve generally been sticking with that. I will do some live-bait fishing this weekend and let everyone know how it goes. When the spot come in bigger numbers (mid to late June) we should transition to all live-bait fishing.

We ran our first couple of night trips over the weekend with mixed results. One trip was pretty decent and one was fairly slow. I am hearing reports of big croaker up the rivers and I’m hoping they just haven’t made it out to their usual places yet.

Remember that this year I am offering a ten-hour trip for the hardcore fishermen. This trip doesn’t cost that much more and you can do A LOT of fishing!

I hope to have some good croaker pics up after the weekend.

More great fishing news! For a solid week now, the big fish have been ganged up and fishing has been as good as it can get. Yesterday with long-time client Phil Wagner and his world-famous Monday fishing gang we had some kind of crazy scene. We had just put out the 15th rod when WHAM! I’m pretty sure ten rods ended up going off. One of the deck rods had a doubleheader with two 40-inch plus fish, the biggest being 47 inches. According to the guys at the University of Maryland there are still a few fish up the river spawning. We may see these big fish all the way through the month of May!

One of four 42-46-inch fish we caught Friday!

One of Art's crew with another jumbo. I'm pretty sure we had to let this one go...

Fishing has been great the past couple of days. On Monday the fish were up on the surface rolling and we had a big-time hook up with eight or ten lines down at once! We had a nice, fat 44-inch fish which weighed around 35 pounds. Today the same lure caught another lunker. We had six on at the same time today.

BTW, I need a couple extra people for a morning trip on Thursday if anyone is interested.

Justin Powers christened his new rod and reel with this 44-inch beauty!

This was actually the first fish Justin caught on that rod. A snagged bunker!

After a slow start, the fish are moving out of the rivers and back into the Bay. Fishing has really heated up this week. Yesterday, we caught 15 fish in an hour and a half. The fish are lean and a little beat up from the spawning activity. Fishing should be great between now and when they migrate from the Bay to the ocean. The fish will hang out, feeding heavily to fatten up for the long migration north. Toward the end of May, the fattened up fish will stage and school up. That is when we get lots of multiple hook-ups. It’s not unusual at that time to hook 4-8 big fat fish at the same time. It is wonderfully chaotic! I have an opening this Saturday afternoon if anyone is interested in a last-minute trip.

Mare great fishing today in the name of science. I will put some additional information about what Adam is studying with regard to the fish we are sampling right now.

Hopefully the fish hold up. Opening day is April 18. I’m getting anxious!

OK, we’re back in action! I had PhD student Adam Peer from the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Studies out yesterday. As you may recall, he is studying striped bass reproduction and we went out to collect samples.

We caught 29 fish ranging from 33 inches to 45 inches and nearly 40 pounds. It was quite chilly but we stayed warm by cranking in lots of fish and shuffling planer board rods. Indications are that we will have plenty of fish when the season opens.

I am available for pre-season catch-and-release fishing from now until April 17 when the season opens. Catch-and-release trips are only $525 for six people. Fishing is great and it’s nice to be able to fish with absolutely no other boats around. Come crank in a mess of fish and hit the market on the way home with the money you save by fishing pre-season.

I have been doing some work on the boat as I said I would. I have most of the inside of the cabin painted and I have ordered some new cushions and even a new seat for myself (as many of you will be relieved).

This gorgeous sunset was viewed from Cape Henry at Virginia Beach. The winter season ended abruptly this year. The frigid temperatures chilled the waters at the mouth of the Bay to below 40 degrees at times. The fish moved far to the east where it is illegal to possess stripers. They also stopped feeding every day. I tried to stick it out, but fishing just got too inconsistent. I brought the boat home and plan on doing quite a bit of sprucing up the rest of the winter.

Thanks so much to all of you who helped make this a great year for me and my family (that’s me and my little mutt Ladybug). Fishing was pretty good all year and business was brisk, despite all the bad economic news. I am more dedicated than ever to providing all of you with a professional, first-rate charter service. I assure you that I will work harder than ever to make sure that your trip is a special day on the water and not just ‘another day at the office’ for me and my crew.

I’ll try to do some updates occasionally throughout the winter. The book is open, so give me a call and get some dates for the next season!

Thanks Again,

Pete