Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-10-04
BY WHEELER JOHNSON
Outdoor Editor

By WHEELER JOHNSON
Outdoor Editor
Another peculiar lure has
made its appearance on Chesa-
peake Bay In recent days to
stir up the rock fishermen.
This one is not particularly
new and has been revived often
with varying results.
It is the surgical eel" and
at the moment its top propo-
nent appears to be Capt. Dutch
Harrison. the veteran skipper
who pilots the Hermerada out
of Tilghmans Island. But 9TH
ers Of the Eastern Shore skip
pers also are using it to good
effect.
The surgical eel" Is a simple
sort Of thing and one would
think q fish would be simple to
hit II, but reports say Capt.
Harrison has been making good
catches of rockfish running up
to II pounds with it.
Make From Tubing
All the lure consists of is 8 or
9 inches of small tubing-usu-
ally white. but yellow is good,
tbo-Such as is used on a hot
water bottle, with a good-sized
hook protruding through it.
Capt. Harrison's rival shippers
say for 10 days he has been
hookin 6 the big rock blind
trolling around Sharps Island
and the mouth of Eastern Bay.
One man reported seeing the
Hermerada take three big fish
and lose three others with
broken lines within a short
span one day this week.
The envious captain was get
ting nothing.
Another Harrison from
Tilg hmaIl, Capt. Buddy, the
skipper of the Lev-Ron-Son
says he recently has used the
surgical eel' with fair results
and has caught some large fish
with it early In the morning.
He adds an extra touch TO his
lure. He uses a white tubing
and dots 1t with red fingernail
polish for extra color.
Buddy says, h however, that
the most effective lure he has
found for big rockfish recently
is the yellow Super Mop. 1t has
retained its charm on the few
bluefish left around.
Big Stripers Schooling
But Buddy and his brother,
Ronnie. have been trolling only
for a few hours in the early
morning. Then they return to
chum ming In the h o m e
grounds near Tilghmans Is
land. On recent days this has
produced catches of 90, 118 and
1874 fine fish, mostly rock with
a few blues mixed In. The larg-
est blue, he said. was a 61a
FOUNDER.
There is a definite indication
that the big stripers are getting
ready to school up from Rock
Hall down to Point Lookout.
Rockfish have shown up in
numbers at the latter spot but
show q reluctance to bite on
anything.
Capt. Andy Scheible, jr., said
that two of the boats from
Schedules Fishing Center got
into the big bluefish that still
are around the edge of the
ships channel and both came
back with IL apiece. most of
them around 5 pounds.
But his most frustrating ex-
perience was picking up wildly
working gulls in the binoculars,
moving over to the spot near
Holland Island and findin e
breaking rockfish stretched out
over 2 miles. He could see some
of the fish on top of the water
and figured they would 60 to 4
pounds.
Trout still Biting
Although he trolled through
the schools time after time, US
ing all types of lures from rag
mops to ordinary bucktails, he
got practically no fish. The
scattering few he picked up hit
IA, TONES with a black pork
rind.
Incidentally, the trout still
are biting for bottom fishermen
around the area of the 16AA
buoy. The headboat Bay King
brought in about 40 last Satur-
day and 40 Wednesday, along
with good quantities Of spot.
Back in the Eastern Bay
area Capt. jun Spurry and his
My Decision has been picking
up some of the big rockfish. He
had IS Wednesday and with
them were a 16-pounder and
an 18-pounder.
Moving up the bay, boats
from Solom ons report good
catches of rock and some blues