Mike and I had been planning the trip most of the week knowing that the full moon and high tide were perfect for friday night and big reds on the shoals. well fresh bait is always a concern and we got lucky and managed a couple flats of fresh menhaden and figured we would ease on over to the other side of the bay on mikes old formula tonight and fish our normal 12- 14'. thunderstorms in and around all day on friday had us a little concerned but the forecast was for all that mess to clear out and be great with only a 20% chance of anything the rest of the night. well to put this story to rest fairly quick- the storms were steady building over us the whole short time we were out. Lightning and waterspout warnings were up and the light show great just to the north of us. We had several good runs with nothing to show for them and i think i was more concerned with those low , black ominous looking clouds basically building up while staying right over our heads. well listening to the other 6 or 8 boats also anchored up i could tell a bite was getting ready to happen as a fish or two started being caught. My tld-15 suddenly starts to screaming and its all good!!!! For about 3 seconds. hooked up and made quick work of a smaller 36/38" fish. Before getting this fish netted my other line is screaming and after a long battle mikes finally gets a 150 lb ray close enough to the boat for me to cut the leader. Now the lightening and rain is getting closer , we see some of the other boats weighing anchor and decide to do the same. Before I have time to get the chum bucket emptied, and the gear squared away I looked like a wet rat. Long ride back across the chesapeake bay at 10 knots , raining cats and dogs, white knuckled lightening. ended up losing our bow lights. then had to ride by the mp after arriving in the inlet and they must of felt sorry for us, i guess we looked pitiful and didnt stop us for the lights, we just cruised on by, lucky i guess. Just when we thought it was getting right to wail on some big ol bulls -. Next time- craig-
p.s.- we saw the full moon about 5 minutes the whole night. still beat sittin at home