Better to be safe than sorry. It's a cliche, but very true.
Paul and I were heading down the Potomac River from his place on Cobb Island, Maryland. There was a brisk breeze blowing and a slight chop on the water but it was nothing his boat couldn't handle. However as we motored past the Black Panther U-boat off Piney Point, the small clouds that hovered over Point Lookout in the distance had rapidly grown into towering dark thunderheads flecked with grey curtains of rain.
Paul chopped the throttle and I knew what he was going to say and even before he could finish his sentence I told him I agreed--we should not go out to fish Buoy 72 in the lower Chesapeake Bay because it was going to be way too dangerous. I like fishing. I don't like being caught in a thunderstorm, drenched with rain and fighting heavy seas and high winds. Throw lightning into the mix, with all those graphite rods pointing up to the sky, and fishing sort of takes a back seat to survival and getting your butt back to a safe harbor.
We cut the trip short at this point and tried some trolling along the channel drop-offs but had no luck. Fishing was s-l-o-w. We then decided to do a bit of bottom fishing and I managed to pull up and release two small Croakers using my light-action spinning rig with a size 2 baitholder hook tipped with cut squid, but that turned out to be the extent of the catch for the day. We spotted a lot of small schools of breaking baitfish and I tried throwing Gummy Minnows and small Clousers on an 8 weight with a sink tip but had no luck.
The highlight of the day turned out to be lunch. Spicy Popeye's chicken with red beans and rice with a side of cole slaw and biscuits! The fish weren't biting but I sure was.