fishing gear

 I had to dig into the equipment closet this morning to get out some gear for this weekend's fishing expedition.  It felt kind of good to rummage around in there, almost felt like I was gearing up for a cruise.  But cruising is months away.  I just needed a few things for charter trip out of Rudee Inlet.

The closet was an unused closet in a extra bedroom.  I've got two big tubs in there, one for pieces of gear and the other, now empty, for the food supplies I'll start buying in a few weeks.  The food jars, camera case, rubber maid tubs, hats, stove and all that gear are in there too.

 Today all I needed was sleeping gear.  We've rented a two bedroom condo (or something like that, not clear on the details) in Virginia Beach that won't have enough beds for everybody so I'll sleep on the floor or the couch.
The charter boat itself is only thirty minutes from the house, but half the fun of the trip is the cookout/party the night before.  There'll be steaks and cigars, bourbon, beer and a bunch of middle-aged guys acting like teenagers.  Plus we've got an nfl playoff game to watch and that will be fun.

I also broke out the Wanchese slippers, the ubiquitous rubber boots worn by commercial fishermen.  I got my pair at the old J. P. Tawe's Brothers Hardware in Crisfield on the way to Tangier Island for some work.  It was Viv, the fantastic mate on the charter boat Sinbad, that told me what they were called down in North Carolina.  What else are you gonna wear in a fishing village like Wanchese?

I will leave behind my own fishing tackle.  That's my favorite lure, above, for trolling on Chesapeake Bay.  It's good for stripers and bluefish and I've had some nice luck with it the last couple of trips.  But we are looking for a larger class of fish on this trip and the lures will be three or four times larger than this.  Below is a 37 pound fish I caught on our last really successful trip.  I wouldn't mind one or two like that on this trip.

We have been blown out by weather the last couple of years, plus the fishing was slow down at Oregon Inlet.  But I'm reading fish reports that are showing good numbers of 30 and 40 pound fish are being caught off the Virginia Beach ocean front.  I hope those fish hang around a few more days.  The forecast is decent.  I can't wait.

steve