Today was REBOUND DAY!  After a tough night of fishing in Delaware just 9 hours earlier we were due for a rebound.  How does 129 fish in 3 hours of fishing sound?  It is hard to believe but the fish finder today was marking new underwater islands made of fish.  The striped bass and bluefish were so thick we literally had fish fighting over our lures and flies as we retrieved them.

Taylor caught 67 and I caught 62 fish bringing our total numbers to the following:

Dad (421 fish); Taylor (412 fish) with a Grand Total of 832 fish to date.  Note that Taylor is now trailing me by single digits – only 9 fish down with 2 States to go.

Taylor made the best comment today when he said "I don’t know where they are but I can hear them coming".  The top water feeding frenzy was so crazy at times that literally you could see fish flopping on the surface for hundreds of yards in every direction.

Today’s fish count of 129 beat our previous best day of 69 which was set in Maine just a week ago on the Penobscot River.

Our guide today was Captain Russ Wilkinson of Chesapeake Bay Fly Fishing out of St Michaels, Maryland.  We met Captain Russ at 6:30am today and spent the first 45 minutes in hunting mode as we searched for the tell tale birds that mark the bluefish and striped bass that scavenge the bait fish of the Chesapeake all year long.   3 hours later we were wore out and anxious to put an exclamation point on today by driving home to see the rest of the family before departing for Alaska tomorrow morning.  The RV made it!!  As we pulled into home we noticed that our odometer just crossed over the 14,000 mile mark.  Everything about today was a beautiful ending to the journey of the lower 48 States – Maryland delivered big time.

The only other note I’ll make was the spectacular thunderstorm the night before in Easton, MD.  We decided to make the Wal-Mart parking lot our final overnight location.  When the air-alert/tornado sirens began to sound around 11pm we quickly went into wide area search mode looking for signs of trouble – luckily the scariest moment was the shock of the sirens going off.

Next stop - Anchorage, Alaska - State #49 here we come!