Back from Northern Open

[champ203rude]

Fished the Chesapeake Northern Open. Boy, the fishing was awful. The average catch in day 1 was about 1 fish per angler, on day 2 it was much worse... 175 fish caught by 194 anglers.... it really s*cked. And every 30 mins this fricking military tank or something would fire a shot and the concussion sound nearly dropped a duce in my shorts every time! They got this military zone nearby where they fire canons and explosive and sh*t.

Seems that the water is so difficult to run that unless u are a local that really knows how to run the water, all the tournament anglers bunch up near the launch ( within 2 miles or so ).

There was one point near the launch and i'm not kidding when i tell you that there were 20 boats in a 40 foot by 70 foot square area at the end of a point. It was rediculous.

I'm sure the fishing is great when the weeds start coming in, but i don't think BASS will be coming back anytime soon... at least not in April !

Also, BASS did this tournament really cheap. They gave everyone the choice of a hot dog or hamburger and a coke and bag of chips at the 'registration banquet'. Really was a little league approach to such a huge investment for Cecil County. Also, the launch charged everyone 10 bucks per day and told us there was no coangler parking.

If i lived in the area, it's an awesome fishery, but i don't see BASS coming back.

The best part was this guy has a Hooters sponsorhip and the babes were taking these centerfold-like pictures with folks. Saw a guy run into a truck looking back at them.

[Skeet'r89]

AH, I see you didn't like being around Aberdeen Proving Grounds(APG). Ha, I put up with that everyday, I work there.
The problem with the fishing was the three days of cold rain at the beginning of the week. The first days big catch(22-7) was very respectful for a 5 fish limit here.Really the fishing should be pretty great in about 2-3 weeks.
As far as the water being difficult to run, it shouldn't be any more difficult than many other bodies of water if the boater had done a little research with some topo maps, and most of the serious T anglers with the high dolloar gps units shouldn't have been that big of a deal.
The marina just raised there prices this year.
What did it cost to enter the Open?

[Skeet'r89]

Also anyone that didn't make a run to the Sassafrass river probably missed out on some good fish.

[xm sean]

not many prefished due to therain and cold, rain and cold weather dropped the water temp 8 degrees and turned the water into mud, Anyone who looks up the history of the area reads about Furnace Bay and decides that is where they will setup camp. I am sure they did not realize everyone else read the same articals . There are tons of places to fish and most optied to stay withing a couple miles of the ramp. Could of headed south to the Elk, Sassafras, Gunpowder, and many more areas that had little pressure. i have a buddy who was a rider and his boater just did circles in furnace Bay all day long on friday.

Day 2 was worse because like you said alot of the field was fishing the same areas that were getting "POUNDED" for 10 hrs the day before. in a couple weeks the bags will be alot larger and more cosistant. They were early due to a chilly start to this spring.

What Ike said "Many people compair the flats to the Potomac, i believe the Flats are a better fishery then the Potomac."