Deal Island Fishing, 2000 - 2004

By year 2000 I had gotten pretty good at spanking fish back in The Gut.  I had also begun to notice a steady decline in fish other than croaker, concurrent with a steady increase in the mighty croaker.  Since all things fishing seem to be dynamic, ever-changing, and sometimes even cyclical, I didn't think too much about it.  At least for the next few years I was regularly catching a lot of fish, and getting my limit of 25 croaker was not uncommon.  Early on I even managed to find a couple of spots where I could catch some rock and big white perch earlier in the season.  I was pulling my 13 ft aluminum V-hull down there, sometimes fishing 2 or 3 people out of it.  The catch made it worth it.

Around 2002, my buddy Eric had bought a 19 ft jon boat and started bringing it down to Deal Island.  Not only were we fishing The Gut in this, but it also re-opened the frontier of fishing out in Tangier Sound.  If you read my previous blogs, you will understand that it had been well over a decade since I had fished much out in Tangier Sound.  Well, in that time, things had changed enough that it was really like learning all over again.  For starters, the trout were now about 95% gone and the croaker were the main bottom fish.  And, I came to realize that all of my old spots, my old patterns, my old gear etc were no longer relevant.  Not only had the sea trout left, but the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay had declined so dramatically that everything changed.  What was once easy fishing was now more of a challenge.  But no problem, I am a good student and I enjoy learning anything about fishing.

By this time I had already made a transition from the short stubby rods and open Penn reels to longer, less stiff rods and spinning reels.  I started using really flexible rods, too flexible in fact.  These gave way to the 6' -  6'6" Ugly Sticks I use today, of which I keep 6 - 7 around.  ONE-PIECE ONLY!!!  The medium-heavy (MH) action SPL-1100 series are my favorite, as they have the right feel for these fish.  Also, the rods are tough, and with the threat of a 20 lb skate or ray on the end of your line you had better have a rod that can handle such an assault.  The only weak link on these rods is that some of the tips and eyelets will fail with heavy use.  As for reels, I was using Penn 103 spinning reels, sort of an old clunky classic.  And while these reels are good for this type of fishing, they tend to fall apart with time and also they don't stand up well to braided line.  Speaking of which, by 2000 I had completely ditched monofilament and gone exclusively with braided line, my favorite being good ol' Spider Wire, the 30 lb test version.  Only a big ray will ever break your line and it can last 4-5 years, not bad.  For reels I have been using off-the-shelf cheap Quantums, yes I am talking about the kind you buy in Kmart for $18-22.  They do the job just fine, last years and when they finally fail you thrown them away, no tears shed.  Lately I have started going with the Quantum Optix OP30 and OP40 reels.  They are the perfect basic reel and you can grab them on Ebay for $15.  With bottom fishing, it's not about your fancy gear.  It simply requires the right basic gear, everything else is about position, timing, and sometimes bait, all of which I will get to later.  Last the bottom rigs, hooks, and sinkers.  I buy all of this stuff at Rose's, a cheapo department store which we have here in town.  The rigs are your basic bottom rigs which split the main line for two hooks and a weight.  The rigs can get bent with after catching some hefty or contrary fish, but more often you will lose the entire rig before it becomes un-serviceable.  My buddy Eric makes his own rigs totally out of mono, but I think mine work better.  Hooks, I tend to use a variety but my preference is for a 2/0 steel hook, and it must be sharp.   The salt water takes a quick toll on these, so when they start to rust up, I change them out.  The same size circle hooks work well, but I find them more difficult when removing the fish and for baiting, and since I frequently fish alone or at night (or both), keeping it simple works well.  For sinkers, I use lead bank-type sinkers (when they start casting them out of steel I will buy them).  The 2, 3, and 4 ounce sinkers are all that are necessary.  If you need more than 4 ozs of weight to hold bottom, the tide is moving too fast for the fish to bite anyway.  Back in The Gut, its usually 2-3 ozs, and in Tangier Sound its usually 3-4, and I always use as little weight as is necessary.

With the decline in health of the Chesapeake came a corresponding increase in prices of soft crabs.  What once cost $3-4 dozen had now ballooned to $10-15.  And since soft crabs don't stay on the hook very well, not only was it inconvenient but it had become terribly expensive.  Enter, the squid.  Eric had introduced me to frozen squid and I must say that I was rather impressed with it as a bait. Sure it smelled terrible, but it was (and still is) cheap, it works pretty well, and it stays on the hook better than anything else I have ever tried.  For a number of years I went with nothing but squid, but I have to realize that even the voracious croaker can at times get picky.  As a result, I tend to carry at least 2 different baits, sometimes three. In addition to squid, I always have shrimp on-hand, the small cooked shrimp that you would put on a salad and can buy in the grocery store.  Third bait I might carry is soft crab, mainly because it ALWAYS works and also because I love to eat them and will freeze whatever I don't use for a later meal.

The other major thing that I learned from my buddy Eric is about drifting vs. fishing anchored. For me, this really changed everything, and I will discuss this further in my next post.

Deal Island fishing, the 1990's

Basically, we didn't do much fishing at Deal Island for a few years.  Lots of crabbing but not too much fishing.  I was busy, had started a family, and was cash-strapped.  Mom had passed away in 1984 and Dad had hooked up with another woman about a year later, so he didn't take the time to obtain and maintain another big boat.  Things started to pick back up again for us fishing-wise in the mid 1990's.  Dad had discovered that there was some pretty good fishing in the creek back behind Deal Island, a body of water which separates the island from the main land and which leads out to the Manokin River.  There is a lot of shallow water back there, but a carefully followed path will lead you to a narrow creek which meanders through the marsh and which features some deep holes, some up to 20 feet deep.  And because the tide runs strong through this creek, the fish use it to travel, and you can catch them coming and going.  So, a 14 ft jon-boat, a 9.9 hp engine, an anchor and a depth finder is all you need.  After Dad introduced me to this new fishing hole, "The Gut" as we called it, it really became clear to me the importance of tides.  Specifically, I discovered that back in The Gut, the tide ran too hard about 75% of the time for the fish to slow down and feed.  It didn't seem to matter too much what time of day you fished, so mid-day was as good as morning or evening, but I realized that you needed to time fishing efforts with the tides.  Specifically, the time to fish was about 90-120 minutes before and after peak high or low tide.  And, this pattern persisted for quite awhile, really throughout the entire decade.  It was all about the tide.  And with the emergence of the internet, accurate tide charts became readily available.  Dad never understood how it timed it so well, but he came to accept that I knew the best times to fish, and so we used this information to our advantage.

As time went on, the sea trout became fewer and fewer, and the croaker became increasingly more numerous.  Rockfish were also a frequent visitor to The Gut, and at times we found white perch and spot on the ends of our lines.  By the end of the decade, sea trout had become uncommon, making up perhaps 10-20% of the catch, almost the inverse of the trout-croaker ratio of the decade before.  While this was distressing, I found the croaker also a fun fish to catch, and pretty enjoyable to eat as well.  My kids got into the act, and my daughter and oldest son would make the trip with me from Frederick to fish back behind Deal Island.  My daughter Kara developed a taste for croaker which persists to this day, and although she no longer enjoys going fishing, she will sit down with me and eat pounds of fried croaker fillets.  In 1998, I accepted a job in Millsboro, Delaware, at which I was particularly delighted since it was was only a 60-minute drive to Deal Island.  Now I could escape to my property on short notice, and return after only a short  time away fishing rather than an entire weekend.  This would be the beginning of where I am now in my fishing efforts.

The next major change came in 2000. The Shack had begun to deteriorate rather dramatically.  The really bad spots were the roof and floor at the rear of the building- they were literally falling to earth and weren't really even repairable.  A couple of years prior, my brother, sister, and Dad had bought a used camper and brought it down to the lot to stay in. Since I was of the mindset that The Shack was still serviceable, I declined to chip in and take part in the camper.  My family, yes my own flash and blood, locked me out of  the camper for a number of years.  However, my Dad, who had been obsessing about the condition of the camper for a number of years now, finally took it upon himself to have the fire department burn it down, so that we "wouldn't have to deal with it ourselves later".  I didn't agree but he prevailed. The Shack, which we had enjoyed for 20 years, was now gone.  My dear family finally softened and decided to let me stay in the camper which sat on my own property.  Actually, my Dad had to pay my brother and sister off, to "cover my share".  Whatever. I was now back in business, although I missed The Shack dearly.  I had some great times there, it would a book to tell you of all of them.  There were a number of parties there during college years, one of which I brought my entire ichthyology class (20+ people)  in for an overnighter.  There were many parties there with some of the locals, some of my friends from Bel Air, some from WVU.  I'll post some pics, but when you see those just remember that we were young and crazy.  The focus has evolved to fishing (and crabbing).

Deal Island fishing, 1980 --> 1990

Ahhh, my teenage years.  Dad, my brother Ross, and Uncle Rudy would travel down to Deal Island what seemed like nearly every weekend throughout the summer, and also occasionally in the late spring and early fall.  I was more interested in the pitfalls of being a teenager- fast cars, partying, and girls. Duh !!  However, it didn't take long for me to realize that I could escape the confines of home life and enjoy a lot of freedom at Deal Island, at least for a teenager.  I soon developed a passion for weekending at The Shack.  No, it wasn't air-conditioned, in fact it was hotter than Hades.  But, there were interesting people, I could come and go as I pleased, and the fishing was fantastic.

We removed the wall partitions of the Shack and filled the main "great-room" with double beds.  I believe once we were done the place would sleep at least 16, with floor space for even more.  Great-instant party place!  The kitchen was well equipped with 2 refrigerators (to hold more fish and bait), sink (fish cleaning station), water pump and hot water heater.  Bathroom held a functional shower and toilet.  What else could you possibly need?  The yard had plenty of room for boats, as we also had use of the empty lot behind us, since it was a drain field titled to both us and our neighbor.  OK, so now the scene is set, let the fishing and crabbing begin.  Actually I'll discuss the crabbing separately, but suffice it to say that we spent almost as much time crabbing as we did fishing, particularly since we could do it without a boat if need be.  On to the fishing.

Sea trout, sea trout, and more sea trout.  The seat trout were so plentiful in Tangier Sound through about the mid to late 1980's, there was no indication whatsoever that their population would soon flat-out crash.  We kept it pretty simple too.  Bottom fishing, which I am still a big fan of and do almost exclusively in these same waters, now for another species (croaker).  We always fished anchored up, and Dad and Rudy had a few distinct spots that they went to year in and year out, regardless of season, tide, time of day, or whatever.  There was "The Drain", located about mid-island, and exactly where the water dropped to 46 feet deep (they used a couple of landmarks to triangulate, namely a church steeple and some trees).  Then there were Boggs and Piney Island, both somewhere off the south end of the island.  Also, Kedges Straights (between South Marsh and Smith Islands), Hoopers Straights (between Bloodsworth and Hoopers Islands), and Sharkfin Shoal- off the north end of Deal Island.  Rudy had a 21 foot Thunderbird, so we covered a fair bit of territory.  But there was nothing fancy to it, no planning, no timing tides.  Just drop anchor and drop the lines, baited with nothing but soft crabs, now nearly cost prohibitive.  And we used these really short, stiff rods with these open-faced Penn baitcasting reels, which actually worked OK to muscle up the sea trout from 40-50 feet of water, and particularly since most of these fish were in 4-10 lb class (unheard of nowadays).  When the fish were biting, which was actually when we were lucky enough to stumble upon them, they would bite aggressively and constantly for an hour or so.  The result would typically be a completely full cooler after one of these bites, and if they bit any longer or we got into two of these bites, count that as two full coolers.  Honestly, I have no idea what we did with so many of these fish.  I never in my life saw my Dad clean a fish, and I later finally figured out that in fact he did not know how to fillet a fish.  After I went away to college, I learned how to fillet and I became really good at it.  Problem is, I became the designated fish cleaner since I was the only skilled fillet hand.  Not too bad of a position to be in, I loved to eat fish anyway and sea trout have soft skin and flesh and are super easy to fillet.

There's not too much more to tell about fishing during the '80's.  We caught 90% sea trout, with a few hardhead (croaker) mixed in, with an occaisional rock, flounder, and some spot later in the summer.  This went on pretty steady until about 1988, at which point I had relocated to Frederick, joined the Army, started a career, and was back in school working on a Masters degree.  My time became more limited and my fishing opportunities fewer, but it also became apparent that the sea trout were no longer as plentiful or as large as they had once been.  Little did I know then that this trend would continue steadily.  Also, in the late '80's, Rudy had a stroke and became largely disabled.  Since he was the boat owner, this changed everything.  We managed to keep it all going, for awhile, but as time went on his health began to fail.  Hence, we entered the next phase.  My brother and I bought Rudy's share of the Deal Island property.  Soon thereafter, he gave us the old boat and the old car used to pull it.  The engine on the boat was worn out and we were never able to use it.  The car I used for a couple of years, then unloaded for $300.  So for awhile, the focus turned toward  crabbing.

How it all started,...

I can remember Dad bringing us down to Deal Island to fish when I was about 10.  The 3-4 hour drive from Bel Air was no small journey for my brother and I.  My earliest memory was one of us catching lots of fish, and how stinking hot it was on a sunny July day.  I recall my brother becoming dehydrated and us seeking liquid refreshment at Shirley's Shack, an iconic landmark which has only recently departed us.  Actually there were usually 4 of us fishing together- in addition to myself, my brother and my Dad, my Uncle Rudy always joined us, probably because he owned the boat.

About a year or two after Dad's mother passed away in 1978, following her husband who preceded her in 1976, Dad and Rudy decided that they liked Deal Island well enough to purchase a small piece of property on the island.  So, in 1980 they became the proud owners of what we would refer to for years to come as "The Shack".  The small piece of property (60x 90 ft) actually had a building on it.  The building was in poor shape when they bought the property, and it didn't get any better with age.  The shack was likely built in the early part of the 1900's.  It was once owned by Lola Wheatley, whom the street on which it sits is named after.  (The lady they purchased it from was named Mary Reynolds- I never had any connection to this family until I met her granddaughter 29 years later.  Ironically I also met Lola Wheatley's grandson the same year).  I also know that the Shack had been a place of business, including a general store and a gas station.  Inside the Shack you could see where there had been a pass-through window to the kitchen, likely to send food out to the patrons.  There was also other evidence, including the brass Coke bottle opener on one of the support posts.  When we took occupancy of the Shack, it was basically one main room, a couple of partitioned off sleeping areas, a primitive kitchen, and a bathroom.  It wasn't pretty, it wasn't very clean, the roof leaked, the floor was sagging in the kitchen, but it was one of the coolest places ever.  Anyhow, more on this later,.... So, why explain all this? --> Because its really the foundation of everything I am going to tell you about fishing the waters surrounding Deal Island, the waters of Tangier Sound.  Also, I want to preserve this story so that my kids can understand my connection wit this area.