2015 Baltimore Boat Show Info **Free Tickets**

Best in Boating Returns to the Baltimore Convention Center for Summer Fun January 29-February 1, 2015

Progressive Insurance Baltimore Boat Show grows 20 percent, features boat loads of fun and education including new Progressive Boat School, chance to try stand up paddle boarding indoors, and “Wicked Tuna” appearances

 The 2015 Progressive Insurance Baltimore Boat Show drops anchor at the Baltimore Convention Center Thursday-Sunday, January 29-February 1 with an additional 32,000 sq. ft. of floor space, featuring more fun for all ages and more boats to shop for every budget and lifestyle.

The annual boat show hosts hundreds of new boats, from luxury cruisers and fishing boats to family runabouts and pontoons, plus dozens of booths boasting the latest in marine accessories and electronics.

Additional highlights of the 2015 boat show include the new Progressive Boat School led by the Annapolis School of Seamanship, featuring free interactive boating education; a new area providing visitors the chance to try the latest fitness craze, Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP); and dozens of DIY seminars from Fred’s Shed Interactive Learning Center. The Kids’ Zone features daily activities for the smallest of sailors and boaters.

When:                  Thursday, January 29 through Sunday, February 1, 2015

Where:                Baltimore Convention Center
                                One West Pratt Street
                                Baltimore, MD 21201

Hours:                  Thursday, January 29      11:00am–9:00pm
                                Friday, January 30           11:00am–9:00pm
                                Saturday, January 31      10:00am–9:00pm
                                Sunday, February 1         10:00am–5:00pm

Tickets:                $12 for adults; FREE for children 15 and under (when accompanied by an adult)
                                Advance tickets can be purchased at BaltimoreBoatShow.com.

Phone:                                 410-224-7633

Web:                 

For tickets, show news, discounts and giveaways, visitBaltimoreBoatShow.com; Facebook and Twitter - #BaltBoatShow.

Media Info:        Contact Tony Fazio at Himmelrich PR at tony@himmelrich.com or 410-528-5400.

The first 10 people to comment below with their name, city and state and their favorite fish to catch will get a free ticket to the show that you will be able to pick up at will call.

Kayak Fishing the Chesapeake; A Video Recap of 2014

Chesapeake Kayak Fishing 2014 from Shane Clift on Vimeo.

Hoo-rag : The Better Bandana

Sun protection is of utmost importance in our sport and Matt and I have found a product that really helps us out every time we fish. Hoo-rag is the next generation of sun protection bandanas and they are always coming out with cool new designs to set you apart from the crowd on the water. I was able to test out a few of these over the past year from spring and summertime fishing for Stripers and Specks, to cool weather Pickerel fishing recently. Any time of year, a must have piece of gear is my Hoo-rag.

Today 12/1/2014 is Cyber Monday and all their products are on sale here: http://www.hoorag.com

I have the Spot Spectrum, Inshore and Offshore Slamo Rags pictured below:

Some of the Product features include:

-UPF rating of 20-30 depending on specific style
-Free Shipping on Every Order!
-Many different ways to rock the rag
-Over 100 Different styles to choose from
-A great price point, which makes getting a few of these affordable while not sacrificing quality (usually $5-$10 lower than most of the competition)
-Custom Hoo-rags available for your specific company or design

Oh yea and I've caught plenty of fish rocking them:

Do yourself a favor and get a few!

Kanan Lures Black Friday Sale!!

Stock up, these prices are can't beat. I definitely suggest picking up some of or all of the crankbaits. 

Top 10 Holiday Ideas for the Kayak Angler in your Family

All these products are made by great companies! We use and stand by these products. We feel they will truly help you put more fish in the kayak or boat.



1. Hoo Rag 

Everyone wears some sort of coverage for their face. Whether it's to block the sun in the summer or the cold and wind in the winter, Hoo Rag has a rag for everything. And from what we've found they have to best designs to fit your fishing style.
Price Range:$10-$20

2. Hard Head Custom Baits

Plain and simple, we fish these jigs and hooks and they flat out put fish in the boat. They are affordable, innovative and not your regular boring jig head. Also, they are made by a fellow local Kayak angler. They are a great stocking stuffer and can be found online at the link above or locally at All Tackle in Annapolis, MD.
Price Range: $5-$10 per pack

Our favorite design, the Weighted hook w/ Spinner.

3. Bust Em Baits

Once again another company owned by local kayak anglers. They make the absolute best soft plastic jerk bait out there for Stripers on the Chesapeake Bay in every standard color and they can make custom orders as well. Another great stocking stuffer available online at the link above or at a number of local tackle shops.
Price Range: $5 per pack

The new 10" Jerk Shad

4. Smallie Stix Fishing Rods

A company I just found out about this year based out of PA. Don't let the name Smallie Stix deter you from thinking these rods can catch just about everything. They are extremely well crafted rods, look awesome and put the hammer on the fish.
Price Range: $130-$400

5. Astral Footwear

I'm a big fan of the Brewers, but Astral makes a full line up of kayaking shoes for both him and her.These shoes are an everyday wear for me. They are lightweight and well designed water shoes.
Price Range: $99

6. Light Tackle Kayak Trolling the Chesapeake Bay   By: Alan Battista

This book as most of you know was written by a member of the Snaggedline Forum Community. Alan is an accomplished Striper fisherman and he writes a great book. The book is an easy read and is very informative. A lot of these information and tactics can be used throughout the country for other striper fisheries.
Price Range: $17

7. Chesapeake Rigs

This rigs are custom designed by the aforementioned Alan Battista. His proven tactics lead him to create the Chesapeake Rig, his twist on the umbrella rig.
Price Range: $30

8. Kanan Lures

Still the most affordable quality swimbait on the market. I'm a big fan of the Alosa Minion Crank Baits. There is always at least one tied on my rods during bass tournaments. These lures have truly helped me succeed in the MAKBF series and other freshwater tournaments.
Price Range: $6-$15

The newest additions to the minion family for 2014.

9. Rep Your Water Hats

Rep your Water makes some really cool designs for hats, sticker, and t-shirts. They are a husband and wife owned company out of Colorado. It started on the river fly fishing and it has progressed to making designs for almost every state!! Check them out for a design so you can Rep Your Water.
Price Range: $25

10.  Tackle Webs

The perfect solution for some extra storage space on the kayak. Tackle Webs makes many kits for specific kayaks or if you have your own idea you can buy each piece separately. 

Price Range: $20-$50

The tackle webs set up on Shane's Hobie Outback.

Okay everyone get shopping!!

Pickerel Paper!!

Welp the pickerel were really hungry before the freeze tomorrow! Shane and I both got citation pickerel this weekend over 24"

First fish of the day, 23.5" Pickerel

Shane's 24" Maryland Citation Pickerel

Matt's 24.25" Maryland Citation Pickerel

Lures:

Hard Head Custom Baits Weighted Spinner Hook with Bass Assassin 4' paddletail (Slammin Chicken)

Color: Purple or Silver 

Size: 1/8th or 3/16th oz

Hard Head Custom Baits Stand up Jig w/ spinner and a live minnow

Color: Red, Silver, purple

Size: 1/8th oz

www.hardheadcustombaits.com

Most fish were caught in the sunny areas where the water was 1-2 degrees warmer than in the shade. These fish were more aggressive to bite. The fish in the shade tended to follow, but actually bite much less. Most fish were caught just off a ledge or near fallen timber. I haven't used live minnows yet this year, but soon it will be cold enough to break out the minnows.

2014 Fish for a Cure

This past weekend Shane, my Dad and I participated in the Fish for a Cure Tournament to benefit the Anne Arundel Medical Center Cancer Center.

The Captian's Challenge within the tournament pits all teams against one another to raise the most money for the cancer center. Our team "Kayaks for a Cure" was the first team of kayakers to ever participate in the event. We were able to raise $3,640!!! While we were able to raise a solid amount of money, the winning team "Club 411/Full Moon" raised over $33,000!!! Overall the event and party raised upwards of $250,000+.

While the Captains Challenge is the most important aspect of the event, there is also the fishing tournament. Knowing we would be on kayaks and up against 72 other teams all on boats that would mostly troll with planer boards, we knew our chances of catching the largest Striped Bass was unlikely. So we set our sights on the 5 Heaviest Perch and Heaviest 3 Fish Slam Categories.

We set out Saturday at the Bay Bridge from Sandy Point State Park. Immediately I found birds working just north of the bridge and got on some fish. They were all unders so I continued on. I was trolling a custom made umbrella rig with two 4" storm shads and a Rapala Xrap. While I was at the birds I was jigging with a Hard Head Custom Baits Metal jig.

We didn't find much happening at the bridge except for the Toad Fish Shane was able to get on some bloodworms while searching for perch.

We went ahead and loaded everything back up in the trucks and went over to Jonas Green Park to try for the rest of the slam.  We knew we could find a pickerel very easily and then we planned on the full team focusing on getting a keeper striper.

I was able to get a pickerel around 22" and in the meantime Shane searched for some perch and my Dad trolled for stripers. After some more pickerel I got a call from my dad that he had caught a 24" striper!!! We had gotten our SLAM!! While we knew it would be close we were at least happy we could weigh in a full slam.

Our Slam ended up totaling 5lbs 15oz just edging out the second place team by a little over a pound.

Dad, Shane, and Myself accepting our Slam Prize courtesy of All Tackle.com

The other winners include:

Heaviest Rockfish:
1st - MSSA - Captain Dave Smith - 31 lbs 6 oz
2nd - Team Alltackle - Captain Keith Frasier - 14 lbs. 4 oz
3rd - Team TPI-LANDERS - Captain Mike Fallowski - 14 lbs. 1 oz

Heaviest String of Perch:
First Light - Captain John Page Williams - combined weight 5lbs 8oz

Tidal Pickerel are Heating Up!!

The tidal pickerel are starting to become active and really start to feed in the creeks and tributaries around the Severn. Get out and catch a few.  Also, MAKBF is hosting an Online Pickerel Challenge for the month of November.

CCA Maryland Red Trout Catch and Release Tournament Recap

The second annual CCA MD Red Trout Catch and Release Tournament was held September 20-21 out of Crisfield, MD. This is a unique tournament to Maryland because it is only targeting Speckled Trout and Red Drum. These species have made a good showing the last few summers in Maryland waters, which are generally the northernmost of their habitat. The trout fishing was the best it's been all summer but the Reds just weren't there. The tournament matches kayakers fishing solo against teams on boats competing for prizes for biggest overall fish, Kayak Division Top 3, Light Tackle Top 3, and Fly Division Top 3. To earn a spot in the top 3 of a division you had to have the largest 1 day aggregate in inches of your four biggest fish. This tournament is run how most should be because all fish were released to swim another day.

 Image Courtesy of CCA MD

 Friday Night's camp site, close to where we were going to fish the next day, South of Cambridge, MD.
.
 Saturday morning fishing started at 6am per tournament rules. Dave, Matt, and I all started catching pretty quickly using light jig heads and paddle tail soft plastics. My first four fish ended up being good enough for second in Total Inches in the Kayak Division, which was second in total inches in the whole tournament. Dave edged me out catching a 22" speck as his biggest later in the day. He took 1st place in the Kayak Division which was the largest aggregate of fish in the tournament.

 My 4 fish totaled 70.75 inches.

The next morning Dave and I headed out on a much more cloudy and windy day only to find water clarity had deteriorated over night. On the initial pass my rod got hit and drag started screaming. It was a nice steady pull with not many head shakes that are the tell tale signs of small stripers or bluefish. I knew this was a good trout. For about 5 minutes I would gain some line back only to have the fish run away with most of it as soon as it got close to the Hobie. I saw it surface in the distance  and knew it was easily the biggest trout of my weekend. After being wrapped around my other line I netted it and let out a huge sigh of relief. It ended up being 24" on the dot.

Knowing that we both had a shot at winning the tournament, Dave and I headed off the water around 11. Pictures had to be sent in by 1 and the awards started at around 1:30 at Captain Tyler's Crab House in Crisfield, Md. We had a little bit of a drive but got there right around 1 and had already submitted our pictures via email.

After Making it to Captain Tyler's Tony of CCA MD was there to check in our pictures. Dave soon was put up as the leader for the kayak division. He also listed my 24" fish as the leader for biggest fish. It was a tense few minutes waiting until Tony gave me the good news that there hadn't been a larger fish caught over the two day tournament. 

The biggest fish prize was the Calcutta for Biggest Trout so I walked away with a nice stack of cash in my pocket. Since Dave had First Place in the Kayak Division and the biggest aggregate overall, he got his choice of any Costa Del Mar sunglasses he wanted or a sweet Yeti Roadie Cooler with the CCA logo on the top; he chose the Yeti. For second I got the a YakAttack Black Pack which I'm excited to try out on my next trip. We also got some other swag from Costa.

Overall, it was a great tournament and awesome for Dave and I to take the top two spots not only in the Kayak Division but also in all categories. Catching my biggest trout of the year couldn't have come at a better time and I'll definitely be looking forward to this event again next September. 

CCA Maryland did a great job of running the tournament and I would strongly suggest joining them as they really have the best interest of the bay and the fish in mind.

CBKA Tournament & E.S. Camping

This past weekend was the annual CBKA tournament based out of Camp Wright on Kent Island, MD. It was a great event benefiting CCA Maryland and The Make A Wish Foundation. Like Matt mentioned in the post earlier this week, I won the crab division with a 7.25" big boy. Friday night Matt's buddy Tyler brought some Oysters up from True Chesapeake Oyster Co. for the Captain's meeting. They were dipped from the bay less than 12 hours earlier and were delicious. Oyster photos credit: Mike Soudee. Tournament fishing was decent with a lot of fish caught but not any sizable ones for me. My biggest striper measured 15" and I also caught a 16" needlefish which was a first for me from the kayak. It hit a slow trolled Z-Man paddle tail. It was great to get to test out my new Hennessy Hammock on Friday night. The set up was super easy and it was pretty comfortable. We came back Saturday afternoon during the rain and the rain fly did it's job and kept the hammock nice and dry. I can't wait to take this thing on more trips. Saturday night, Dave Adlington and I headed to the Eastern Shore to pre fish for this coming weekend's CCA Red Trout Catch and Release Tournament. Overall, fishing was pretty good in the Manokin River and it also gave me the chance to test out some more wedding gifts. The Kelty Tent, Marmot Sleeping Bag, and Therma Rest pad all worked great and the setup on a remote beach was awesome.