Rail a bit light this morning, someone’s web forecast must have been calling for…

2021-07-13 21:53:40
Monty Hawkins

Rail a bit light this morning, someone’s web forecast must have been calling for seas.
Correctly.
Right lumpy this morning.
Plenty doable though. Mostly regulars on the rail. No one in sick bay.
Day began, as ever, with guest reef builders Rhodesia T from way over San Diego way; and, from a bit closer to home, Barbara P of Easton, pushing 20 heavy blocks by the rail atop a spot I’ve worked on before. Needs freshening up. Not holding as many sea bass as it might. Will drop several hundred reef blocks there and see how sea bass respond. I fully expect to see them there again in number.

Research ship captain these days, but once a partyboat skipper; Capt Chris of Lewes DE handily boxed today’s first limit before lunch.
Ms. Holly—ever mindful “money won’t buy you love“ ..but her homemade cookies can certainly help get a limit; Holly boxed out next. This while some clients, especially those who unknowingly took positions near Hurricane Murray, never climbed into double digits. Even OC local & expert angler, Mike Oates, was temporarily stunned by Murray’s bad juju. Mike had just four sea bass at noon before snapping out of it to almost limit..
Wasn’t really Murray’s fault. Well, some of it wasn’t.
Probably.
Maybe all of it was. Or, maybe it was just a fussy cbass bite. Murray did, after all, box today’s pool winner. Must have been a close one with Capt Chris’s though..

Tomorrow’s weather & sea conditions look more favorable. See what that does to the bite. Have some spots open too, even if they are near The Hurricane.

Had some great donations to the OC Reef Foundation’s annual Benelli Reef Raffle of late. Gerald Meadows, who took a warm winter’s vacation offered courtesy of Uncle Sam a few years back – and found himself in the mountains of Afghanistan. Gerald donated two fabulous pairs of earrings he picked up on his tour. He wants to put them in the raffle and I shall (if only because my piercings closed up?) Two lucky ladies (or four Ed Bradly types?) will be quite pleased two fine Sunday evenings.. Every week I draw three winners: one prize & two t-shirts.
Niki Pino of Optical Galleria has pledged a pair of their new Hook sunglasses. No joke: I’ll throw three national brands aside looking for my “Hook“ shades.
AllTackle donated a perfect reel for our reef fishing. The little Avet graces many of my best customers’ rods. A while back too SeaBass Bob donated one of my all time favorite sticks, a 7.5’ St. Croix MH MF w/long butt and trigger. This conventional stick works great from tiles & tog to cbass & fluke.
You know, my crew and I already donated a nice rod and reel – sweet for all our fishing save tiles. Just ask Vinnie F who picked it up! But I’m going to add to the weekly drawings prize pile with 2 pairs of Morning Star tickets good for any 9 or 10 hour trip.
Billfish Foundation’s “Artist of the Year” and long time friend of our reef building efforts; George Kalwa donated two numbered prints. One is a thresher airing out, the other from a live painting he did at our last reef dinner in 2019. Like any of George’s work, they’d both look mighty fine on any angler’s wall.

I’m hoping to have begun a tradition with this year’s monster & last year’s covid raffle. We’ll have dern near 150 more winners before we get to the grand prizes – two of Benelli USA’s best sporting arms, a Model 2 from their Performance Shop (Thanks Nico!), and a beautiful 828U over/under..
Nice!
Look – there’s a LOT of Sundays between now and New Year’s Day when we’ll draw our grand prize winners.
We need prizes.. Know anyone at a tackle shop?Something nice you have but aren’t going to use? A pair of earrings you bought for me and didn’t realize I’d let my piercings close up? While one of the above is not true, it is true we need donations!
..and people to play.
Visit ocreefs.org to buy tix online or visit Raceway Citgo to buy in person..

Tug captains Danny & Jeff went and looked at three barges last week. We can have all three. We’ll want to gussy em up with some cabled-down concrete pipe; then tow em around and down DE Bay to an OCRF mooring to sink.

You’d best believe hiring tugs ain’t cheap. Nor are cranes to load pipe!
We’re the only state from NY to TX without a marine reef program. It’s just us, OCRF, a little non-profit. Town of Ocean City takes care of the paperwork with Army Corps – we do the rest.
No salaries, no office rent..
And no reef dinner either since 2019. That’s usually our biggest fundraiser of the year.
If we’re going to leave fishing better than we found it..
Help!

I take blocks out for free. I’d cheerfully set up any other OC party/charter boat with a block ramp too. In the reef building world, trucking blocks is cheap.
Towing barges from over a hundred miles away ain’t!!

Tim T, Chuck W; & Man, Myth, Legend—Hurricane Murray his dern-self: they all won prizes this past Sunday.
Lots of great stuff coming and over 150 winning tix before the grand prizes New Year’s Day.
Help make 2021 an awesome year for reef building!
Cheers!
Monty
ocreefs.org

Capt Monty Hawkins
Mhawkins@morningstarfishing.com
mhawkins@ocreefs.org

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