Every year I seem to get slammed with travel all in one month. And it never fails to fall in some part of fishing season. As expected, it happened again in 2012. This time, I had a trip to Charlotte NC, two trips to Philadelphia , and a trip to Maine- all within a one month period. Actually the trip to Maine was pretty cool and the lobster was awesome, but its always great to be back on Delmarva. There were minor disruptions to my fishing schedule (I missed a week twice) but back on track now to finish out the summer.
August 3 was unremarkable so I will be brief. The tide schedule was uncooperative as was the excessive wind. I ended up fishing in rough water and way off my tide schedule. The result was a net of only 3 fish in the cooler, and the size had really decreased from prior weeks. Many throwback fish too. If only I could get a little night fishing in,….
And so two weeks later, the opportunity presented itself. Fishing with my son Blair, I had convinced him to fish after dark. Now- fishing on a small boat in the middle of the bay in the pitch dark can be a little spooky, even for me. I’m equipped well enough, my running lights all work, I have a battery powered lantern for the console, and redundant spotlights for the ride home. And the GPS is there if I need it. Plus I know these waters like the back of my hand. Experience reminds me that despite reports of small fish, that the bigger croakers school up and feed at night. Targeting a low tide at 9:15, well past the 7:50 sunset, calm waters made for a really nice evening. We caught the biggest croaker of the year, all clustered within a 15 minute time frame after sunset but before tide change. Location was on the west side of the channel, one mile north of buoy 12. depth was 32-35 ft. One fish was just over 16 inches, and I could have sworn I had a large rock on prior to seeing that large silver drum come up croaking. 4 others were 15 inches, one 13, and the other 4 were around 11. Things came to a close as I succumbed to my son’s request to head back to harbor. Seems as though the nighttime experience on a boat was just to spooky for him. Maybe next week I can do it again?,…..
