Tyler Wade and I are with our camera boat driver, Al Fiorille, motoring across Maryland headed to where Aaron Martens caught his leading weight yesterday. By water it's about an hour from the take off. It's virtually the same by land. We are doing the smart thing. But it's a gamble either way.
After visiting with Martens this morning, there's no guarantee he will make this trip again. He's leading this event and the man we love to refer as the "best natural" fisherman in the world, may not return to where he caught a stringer that 100 other anglers would break their neck for.
"This is the Chesapeake bro," he said a few minutes ago. "I've got to fish this thing by the seat of my pants."
We are hoping those pants will be traveling pants since we are already in Baltimore.
There are some things that will be to his advantage by heading south. The tide starts an hour earlier today. And it starts falling earlier south than north. So Martens could be able to start taking advantage of a falling tide first. Then ride that low tide all the way back north to the weigh in.
That's just conventional knowledge talking. When it comes to flying by the seat of your pants and Aaron Martens you never know what you are going to get.