The Blitz: Part Two

Last week I traveled with Pete McDonald to Maryland and New Jersey for another round of fishing, shooting, and interviewing for the new book project.

We started the trip on the upper reaches of the Chesapeake (The Susquehana Flats) near Havre de Grace, MD. Captains Tom Hughes and Sean Crawford put us on piles of post-spawn stripers, but we never connected with the big mamoo that typifies their fishery in the spring.

From there we hoofed it to New Jersey and spent a couple of days with master fly-tyer (and really nice guy) Bob Popovics. Using his tricked-out beach van to carry our mountain of gear, we roamed the sands of Island Beach State Park looking for birds, bait, bass and bluefish. The weather was fantastic (maybe a bit too nice) and we got some great shots of Bob’s fly patterns in play.

For the final leg, we drove back to Maryland and spent a day with John Page Williams and Shawn Kimbro; two avid conservationist anglers that are doing great work on mantaining the fragile balance of fish, water quality, and hominids in the Chesapeake watershed.

In August, we’re planning to hit Maine, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Rhode Island. In October, we’ll be wrapping up the project in Virginia and North Carolina. This book is coming together nicely, and our best guess for release is Summer 2011.

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That Yaller-eyed Devil loves The Banger

(L) Dashboard bling (R) Bob Popovics wrapping and curing

One of Bob’s creations in play

Stripping streamers at daybreak

Logbook at Nick & Betty’s Tackle Shop – Seaside Park, NJ

Pete McDonald on The REAL Jersey Shore

In Maryland they call them “Rockfish”

The Judge’s Shack – Island Beach State Park

Sunset casting on the Susquehana Flats

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 1st, 2010 at 6:46 pm. It is filed under Saltwater Fishing and tagged with Bluefish, Chesapeake Bay, fly fishing, Maryland, New Jersey, salt water, Striped Bass, Stripers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.