Three Counties and Counting

Well my fishing quest is truly underway now. Easter Break has been very kind to me, as I have been able to try a little fishing each day. So far, starting with Sunday, March 29th, I have caught at least one fish for 6 days in a row. While I don't think that this is very impressive, I do like the fact that I have had to time to appreciate the area around me. Along with that I know that fishing is an addiction, but I don't really want concentrate on "streaks" since a geocaching streak, 31 days in a row, left a very bad taste in my mouth towards the game in general.

No my fishing quest, as it is, is about trying to catch a fish, any fish, in each of Maryland's 23 counties. Not too difficult except it will take a good bit of planning and driving to accomplish it. Also let me say that my "quest" is not to get it done as fast as I can. If it takes over a year, that's fine with me. I just want to give it a true and honest effort. That being said I currently have three counties completed. The first one was Wicomico County, on Maryland's eastern shore. I'm originally from Wicomico, so I think it is really neat that it was also my first county, back on January 24th, with this nice black crappie from Bell Creek within the Pemberton Historical Park.

That day I also caught three other crappie as well as a nice largemouth bass, but one of the "rules" for myself is that the first fish caught is the one that counts towards the challenge. At some point I'll have to post my rules for this whole thing.

County number 2 was Calvert County, in southern Maryland. I have been living in Calvert for almost 23 years now, but it wasn't until a couple of years ago that the fishing bug really bit me. I teach high school and a couple former students of mine used to talk about all of their outdoor adventures and it got me interested. The fish that counted for my new "home" county was another black crappie.

Not the largest of the species, but I was able to reel him in back at the beginning of my current streak, on March 29th.

Last but not least, county number 3 is Worcester County, on Maryland's eastern shore. I spent three days in Salisbury with my family visiting my mother and each morning I would head to a different location and see how I would do. Since I brought the kayak along, I decided to wake up one morning and head to Shad Landing State Park, which sits along the Pocomoke River between Snow Hill and Pocomoke City itself. I have lots of memories from Shad Landing, mainly of youth group camping trips from when I was in junior and senior high. I drove down to the park and put the kayak onto the water. It was low tide, but I had no difficulty paddling along the canoe and kayak trail. Pretty early on I landed this nice bluegill.

As I paddled out into the main portion of the river I saw several fish breaking on top of the surface, but I was unable to get any bites. In fact that bluegill was the only one I caught that morning, so I'm really glad I did get him.

That's it for the quest so far. I really hope to pick up a couple of the neighboring counties to Calvert before too long. But then again, Easter Break will be ending soon. I'll keep you posted…