Trip Report Dana's Cove - January 6, 2007

This years PACK Dana's Cove Outing resembled the 2005 Outing. The water was obscured by thick fog. The fog didn't lift until about 12 noon. It's truly amazing how disoriented one can get in the fog. When the fog finally lifted, and I for one got my sense of direction back, I found myself looking in the wrong direction for the way back to the launch point. And, yes we also got rained on. Everyone rendezvous as per the plan at Pirates Cove Mariana. The plan was to launch via the marsh just west of the Marina, and park our cars along the bulkhead. To our surprise we discovered that a Pipeline was being installed in that location, the parking area was ankle deep mud as a result of recent rain and drilling muck from the pipeline. Half of the group went over to GISP and launched from behind the Amphitheater, the other half launched at the public boat ramp at Pirates Cove Marina. We all made our way over to the Dana's Cove Geotubes hoping to string a trout or two. The fog prevented us from getting our bearings and locating the deep channel along the Geotubes we had hoped to fish. Everyone sort of split up and started drifting around looking for fish. Water conditions were good, water was clear to trout green; we were fishing moving water (high tide). However, catching fish was tough. Fish were strung, those who strung/caught fish: Bob R stung a slam (trout 21"), Jeff W had a stringer of trout, Bruce B from his boat at his secret honey hole landed a 27" trout, and a bull red. Craig N landed 3 rat reds, and Chris (new guy) stung his first ever red (25"). One of the frightening things we experienced was hearing powerboats that were up on plane at full throttle traveling through the fog very near to where we were fishing. Several boats passed at speed within feet of us.

This years outing included a lot of first time new faces who we welcomed. When you have a club/organization and you want to encourage new faces to participate, this outing was a tough one for a first timer. Fish were hard to come by, fog, rain, and it was cold. But that probably describes winter fishing. There is always the next time out, or the next cast.

Tight lines,

Ken Jennings