BASS Northern Open #1
Upper Chesapeake Bay, MD
Water Temp: 44-58
Pre-Spawn


I left home on Thursday morning at 4am and drove straight to the bay. I arrived in just 3 short hours which made me happy. A short drive is nice every now and again. The bay is massive! I practiced my first day in the Elk River. It was uneventful and I was really just getting used to running around. The bay is very shallow with the only deep water in the main channel. As soon as you enter a creek arm you are either idling or running with puckered cheeks. Most of the water is less than 2 feet deep. I fished shallow most of the day with no success. At the end of the day I stopped in an area that had some deeper grass in it and caught 2 shorts, lost a good one, and had 2 more bites all on a hollow belly swimbait; it was the only action I had all day. The second day I journied into the Sassafras River, again trying to catch them shallow. Again I caught nothing. The next day was Saturday and I was planning on going home for Easter after practicing. When I walked out of my hotel room at 6:30am it was pouring rain and windy. I decided I would rather spend extra time with my family so I drove home. I had a very nice Easter with my family and ate like a pig. I left again on a not so fun filled drive down to MD. This time I hit allot of traffic, but it still wasn't too bad. I arrived at 9pm. Dusty was driving down at the same time as me, but didn't make it. I got a call from him saying his gas tank had fallen off his truck and he was going to be staying at a hotel until it could be fixed. Dusty ended up getting a rental car and coming down during the day today, leaving his car in Jersey to be fixed. I practiced until 2pm with no bites and then went and picked Dusty up at the ramp. We fished for awhile with only one non keeper. I wanted to fish one last place at the end of the day. We pulled up on an off-shore grass bed and started fishing. After about 10 minutes I had a bite on my hollowbelly and the fight was on. I battled the fish for about 5 minutes and finally landed it. It was a giant striper; the biggest one I had ever caugh. It weighed in on the digital scale at 22.5 lbs. After not catching anything for so long, it was an awesome feeling. Tomorrow is supposed to be miserable with rain, cold and wind. Maybe that will make them bite.