Fishing at Jonas Green - Many Firsts

As you probably know by now my son loves to fish more than anything else in the world.  He'd rather go fishing than eat.  What's really funny is that he hates eating fish.  He just does it for the sport.

One of his favorite places to fish is at Jonas Green Park in Annapolis.  It's just under Route 450 that crosses the Severn River into Annapolis.  The old Route 450 bridge was dismantled with a section remaining to be used by recreational fishermen.

Getting there is always fun.  We always happen to go on a Saturday, so we want to beat the Ocean City-bound traffic.  This means we have to get up at 5am and hit the road as soon as possible.  We pulled out of the driveway at 5:39am.  And not too surprisingly, there's a lot of traffic heading east on Route 50.  We got to Anglers right off of Route 50 at about 6:30.  They were fresh out of peelers (crabs that do not have a hard shell yet).  He offered us two dead soft shell crabs for the price of one and a half gallon of razor clams.  He said they really work.

We started off on the bridge and weren't catching anything.  Meanwhile, Sydney, James, and LeRoy were catching fish.  Not fair.  Then Sydney caught a toad fish.  I've heard about them, but have never seen one.  I told him that I wanted to catch one.  He said, "What the hell for?  They bite your finger off!"  I told him that it would be cool to say we caught one.  Moments later, my son caught one.  He's an ugly fella.

Then my son decided to go off and fish on the rocks alongside the bridge.  I could see him by looking over the side of the bridge.  There was an older black man next to me.  To strike up conversation I said, "My son can't sit still.  He has to move and fish from one place to another."  That did it.  He gave me the first degree.  "Why the hell ain't you over there fishing with him?  Things happen.  You need to be over there teaching him how to fish!"  "But he fishes better than me!"  "Then you need to be over there learning from him.  What's he gonna do if he catches an eel?" "He'll bring it over here for me to get off." "What about a toad fish or a blue fish?  They'd bite is finger off or jump up and bite his face.  You should be over there spending time with your son.  A father and son need to spend time together......"  And on and on and on and on.  "Okay, okay! I'll go over there."  Meanwhile all the other older black men on the bridge are laughing!  "He's givin' you the business!"

So now we're on the rocks fishing.  My son proceeds to catch a menhaden (his first), a little schooling fish, then a flounder, then a white perch, then a spot, then a 14 inch striped bass.  We move to the other side and time passes. Finally around 2pm the fish REALLY start biting. I catch my first white perch.  Then I catch a spot.  Then another.  Then I catch two at one time.  My son is catching fish like crazy.  I think he got up to 23 fish total.  He ends the day with a 15 inch red drum.  Anyone who fishes at Jonas Green knows that this is a prize.  Unfortunately, he's too small to take home.

We finally leave around 4pm.  Tired.  9 hours of fishing.  But a good time.  It's fun for a father to spend time with his son.