Nanticoke River Bass Fishing Report Oct 11 2014

 

 

 

Hello Bass Fishing Fans! What a crazy day this Nanticoke River trip turned out to be. The Marshyhope Creek Bassmasters held their annual open team tournament out of Marshyhope Creek yesterday.  A much anticipated tournament after a month or two of having the word spread about the Marshyhope Bassmasters tournament out on my Twitter (2400 followers) and Facebook pages (2200 friends).

 

Around 15 - 20 folks either shared or retweeted tournament details out to their fans leaving everyone in suspense as to how many of the estimated 15,000 - 40,000 bass fishing folk's that had been notified of the tournament on social media pages might show up at the boat ramp in Federalsburg to fish. (Estimate based on each person that shared tournament details having 1000 - 2000 friends or followers)

  

I guess we will never really know exactly how many folks saw the tournament date posting but a phone call from one of the folk's running the tournament a few day's prior was promising. "We have 20 - 30 boats interested already." That was not counting any of the expected walk up's on tournament day! Great news because that would be almost double the boats that showed up to fish last year. By the sound of things the word of tournament day was spreading on my social media pages and working better than expected, so I made sure to show up at the ramp early for a good parking spot.

 

As I arrived at the boat ramp a driving rain greeted me and I could not help but wonder how many "fair weather anglers" would wake up, hear this rain and roll back over to sleep. It was not long after I had the boat in the water before the parking lot started getting busy. Aw shucks we might be on to something here I told my Partner (Dad). With the buzz created around how many boats could show up and a favorable low tide forecast (2pm Sharpstown) the adrenaline started pumping fast.

 

Once all of the boats were in the water and we had blast off. Me and my partner made our way down Marshyhope Creek at a conservative rate of speed as the rain was coming down in buckets. At a few points in our morning trek towards Seaford I had to pull over for extra rain gear to help keep dry and let visibility improve. The urge to fish in these moments of down pour proved to be to much to pass up while in Marshyhope Creek but no luck. On to Seaford I drove my 250 HP Mercury Optimax with better results in mind.

 

 

Now that we made it to Seaford, I realized a few things that had me ecstatic about how well our day would turn out! The tide was going out and we were the only bass boat around for 20 miles. I turned off my Mercury outboard as we pulled up to our first hot spot and put the Motor Guide trolling motor into the water. It was not long before I started catching fish after fish and my confidence was growing through the roof. None of the bass I caught on our first hot spot were keepers up until this point but the whole day was in front of me with the best tide possible. I told my partner let's head to another hot spot and we packed our fishing gear up and then it happened.

 

The feeling that no boat owner ever want's to experience! A moment that when it happens you will find yourself yelling out things out loud that would make a drunken sailor blush!! I turned the key to my outboard motor and it would not start!!! Yup, I turned the key on and nothing? No sounds from the motor only the electronic beeping that you normally get when you turn the key.

 

 

 

A quick system check and my depth finders are working , led boat deck lights are working, power poles are working. I was not really sure what to make of this revelation so I went back to fishing with my trolling motor and headed for the nearest boat ramp I could get to.

 

At this point I'm left wondering if my GFI Switch tripped while charging my batteries back at the house. Leaving me with under powered batteries for the day? That theory really confused me because my trolling motor seems to be a full strength for the past few hours? Then I thought maybe the heavy rains had shorted a fuse out or something? I checked the kill switch and that was fine?

 

 

After making to the boat ramp at Seaford I gave it another try and had the same results? A quick scan of the parking lot left a sinking feeling in my stomach, our day was over whether I liked it or not. Somehow I thought there may be a few vehicles in the park and one of them would have a pair of jumper cables so that I could get the outboard fired up and we could continue fishing.

 

About this time I had another option, call on some friends or family members to come drive my partner back to get my truck and trailer. Once we made it safely off the water I headed back to weigh in by land. As it turned out, a good buddy of mine at weigh in had a set of jumper cables and my motor fired right up on the first turn of the key. To all of you out there running on 10 year batteries, don't take them for granted. Get yourself some jumper cables just in case! 

 

Salt In The Wound:   The winner of this tournament had 5 fish before 7:30 am and stayed within shouting distance to the boat ramp in Marshyhope Creek.    Seventeen:   The number of boats that showed up to fish this tournament.   Name Change:   Marshyhope Bassmasters has changed it's name to Marshyhope Bass Anglers moving forward.

 

Special Thanks:

 

I would like to thank Big Bear Fishing Rods for sponsoring me for this tournament. Please check them out at www.bigbearfishingrods.com and use promo code Smitson for exclusive savings on your new fishing rods!

 

Tight Lines & Heavy Limits,

 

Melvin Smitson