Crabs and Rockfish- October awesomeness 10/24/14

Sad to acknowledge that it had been almost a full month since I had fished or crabbed at Deal Island.  However, I had been planning this one for a while and was thrilled to see that the weather was going to cooperate, except for some heavy winds.  And even the wind cooperated when I needed it too.  

Friday 10/24/14 started out a little cool and very breezy, small craft advisory breezy.  Based on recent trends, I knew that the crabbing would get good right around 2pm.  This gave me ample time to cut my grass.  Launched the jon boat at 12:30, abiding by the regulations against using gas engines between October and March.  New electric trolling motor, new battery, I just hoped that it all worked.  and, it worked quite well.  The 38lbs thrust motor pushed the heavy jon boat just fine.  crabbing was slow at first, although the first crab I caught turned out to be one of the biggest I had ever caught at an exact 8.5 inches point to point.  This was in front of the first dike.  After about an hour it was time to move.  I went down the creek and just beyond the two 45-degree turns, as going to the 2nd dike was going to take too long and seemed unnecessary.  Good call, as the crabs turned on here pretty quickly. After about another hour I had amassed nearly a bushel of the biggest, heaviest male crabs I have ever caught in all my years.  Crabs for dinner.  

Saturday 10/25/14- the wind had laid down and it was another gorgeous blue sky 68 degree day.  High tide was at 3:15 pm and my plan was to fish the incoming tide. So, I launched at 12:15pm.  Based on information from the locals, the hot tip was to troll around the islands in shallow water. I had rigged all of my lines with either jigs and worms, or Storm Lures.  I ran across Tangier Sound to South Marsh Island, seas were relatively calm.  I began drifting and used two rods, placing both in rod holders.  Maintained my trolling speed by keeping the engine running at about 1100-1200 rpm, resulting in an indicated 2.5-2.8 mph troll.  On one rod, I had a bucktail and yellow worm, on the other a Storm Lure  The Storm Lure prevailed as the popular bait, as I caught 3 rockfish on that rod before also putting a Storm Lure on the other rod.  I caught two more rock for a total of 5.  Four were between 18-20 inches and went in the cooler.  Fresh rockfish for dinner that night!!

Hoping to get one more crabbing trip in before it gets too late.  Target is 11/14/14.

9/25/14- last chance for 2014 to crab using a gas motor

With September predictably buzzing past me at an alarming rate, I decided to carve out a little 2-day break and head down to Deal Island.  Plan A was to crab on Day 1 (Thursday), and to fish on Day 2. Having scheduled this weeks in advance, I had little choice but to brave the mild nor'easter that welcomed me on Thursday.  After October 1, gas-powered outboards were not to be allowed in my favorite spot, the Deal Island Impoundment in Dames Quarter.  This is year 2 of this draconian restriction, intended to improve the experiences of the waterfowl hunter, despite my objections to the state of Maryland.  Oh well.  With the impoundment having been closed much of the summer due to littering and "vandelism", I expected there to be an abundance of crabs.  And, I was not disappointed.  
Having launched my jon boat (for the first time this summer) and navigated to the 2nd dyke, I began a slow but steady capture of crabs from my turkey neck handlines at around 11:30.  Then as 1pm approached, all hell broke loose.  The crabs began to hit my 10 lines so aggressively I had little time to move from one to the next.  Soon, they were either crossing all of my lines, or ripping the baits right off the strings.  This continued for another 45 minutes, at which point my bushel basket was completely full off some of the nicest crabs I had seen or caught in quite some time.  Had I wanted to fill a 2nd bushel, I'm certain I could have done so in short order.  By 2pm I was back in the truck, boat back on the trailer.

Day 2 broke bright and beautiful, a complete antithesis to the day prior.  After cutting the grass (which had not been mowed in 3 weeks), I prepared the center console for some rockfishing, including securing some difficult-to-find soft crabs.  Just then my buddy Capt. Danny Benton stopped by with a gift- a nice mess of white perch fillets.  YUM!  So, I stuffed those into the fridge and talked Danny into going fishing with me that afternoon.  Danny had never been aboard my boat, nor had we really ever caught any fish together. I was so excited that he was going to join me.  Fishing alone is nice, but its also great to have a buddy sometimes.

So, at around 2 pm I towed the boat down to Wenona for an incoming tide launch on this gorgeous sunny 78F autumn day.  I stopped in at Arbys and bought a bag of ice.  Everything was set!!!  We lauched the boat, and I allowed Danny to play fishing guide.  Oddly enough, he took me through the cut between Wenona and Little Deal ISland, into the Manokin, and all the way back into my favorite deep hole in Laws Thorofare, where I sometimes fish for hardhead.  I was glad for the guided tour, as I had never approached this spot from Wenona but had often thought about it.  So, we anchored, and as usual my next move was to get the tunes set up (I carry a DeWalt boombox for playing music while I fish).  Got the rods rigged, music playing, and then I open the cooler to pull out some soft crabs to cut for bait.  But wait- oh CRAP, the cooler is empty. No soft crabs.  At which point I realize I had left them in the other cooler, which is identical to the one I packed, minus the seat cushion on top.  Next thing I realize is that I also don't have the bag of ice I bought.  You gotta be kidding me???  I guess I was so excited about Danny fishing with me, that I picked up the wrong cooler AND left the bag of ice which I paid for sitting in the icebox at Arbys. Epic fail. Well, we had a good laugh about this.  This is SO not like me, I'm usually very thorough when prepping for going out on the water. Any way, we try spot after spot after spot, with the squid and shrimp I had brought.  No dice.  Either the rock did not want what we were offering, or we were in the wrong spot.  Going back out into Tangier Sound with our croaker bait probably would have been a good idea, but we were focused on trying to catch a rockfish.  So, as a consolation, I offered to cook up all the white perch Danny had brought me.  And that's exactly what I did.  I fried up probably 50 small white perch fillets at the camper, and we gorged on every single one of them as the sun was going down.

Saturday, I had to return home, so no chance to redeem myself on this trip.  A pretty crazy October has me tied up until end of the month.  I'm hoping to return 10/24 for more crabbing and fishing.  Only this trip, I'll have to use an electric motor crabbing.  And, the fishing will have to be either trolling near the shore or using some frozen peeler as bait.

Labor Day weekend 2014

Always a mix of excitement over the Skipjack Races and the sorrow over the effective end of summer, Labor Day 2014 was no different.  Typically I don't get much fishing in over this weekend, preferring to focus on the festivities.  This year, I decided to break that mold.  Plan A was to fish Friday and Sunday afternoons.

Friday arrived, and it was a glorious day at about 78F tops, so typical of this untypical year.  The winds were light, actually too light as the 5 mph NW wind only served to nullify the incoming tide.  As a result, the drift was never really a drift.  Additionally, the high tide was at 4:45pm, a full two hours earlier than what I preferred.  The first set of drifts was on the west side of the channel parallel to the northern point of South Marsh Island.  This produced 3 decent hardhead in quick succession, and then it just died. After picking up a decent kingfish, time to relocate to buoy 12.  Here the focus was on 45-48 ft, where I managed to land the two largest hardhead of teh season at 14.5 and 13.5".  after one more keeper hardhead and a few throwbacks, it was all over.

Saturday, I returned to Millsboro to watch WVU vs Alabama.  Returning to the island on Sunday morning, I fried up yesterday's catch and ohhhhh were they good.  One key feature of this day was a relentless 20-25 knot South wind, which only seemed to get more intense as the day wore on.  So, the evening fish was scrapped.  Bummer.

As a consolation for scrapping teh Sunday fishing, I was able to hook up with master shipwright Mike Vlahovich on Sunday evening, and he was able to connect me with a probable ride on a skipjack for Labor Day.  And so, Blair arrived early Sunday and we got aboard the Rosie Parks.  It was a nice ride, a nice but sultry hot and humid day.  We finished 7th out of 10 boats. And this was how the weekend ended.  Looking ahead, I will be returning in 5 days to run the Skipjack 5K.  After that, I don't know exactly when I'll return or whether I'll be fishing or crabbing.

Fishing with Family- Aug 15/16, 2014

I've been trying to get my wife to go fishing with me for,... at least the last 25 years.  Or so it seems.  I think she became jaded so many years ago when we went out on my boat and it was rough out, and I kept the hammer down on the throttle.  And I laughed each time she got sick.  Ok no wonder it took her so long to come back around.

Candy arrived mid-afternoon at the camper.  The forecast was for one of the nicest days of the summer, and the forecast did not disappoint.  Temps in the upper 70s, winds about 5 mph, and waves less than one foot- we don't see this often in August on the Chesapeake.  We launched at around 3:30 pm in anticipation of the 6:20 high tide.  Our first stop was a couple of swipes in the area between Wenona and north tip of South Marsh.  I think we managed to boat one fish here, and it was Candy's catch, then it was time to anchor off South Marsh.  We tried a couple of spots, first on the north shore, then on the north tip of the east side.  It was calm, and nothing was biting.  The lack of wind made it feel warmer than it actually was too. And then the bugs decided to join us. I knew then we needed to retreat to deeper water.  And so we headed southeast to the bouy 12 area.   We drifted over 38-45 ft target areas.  It was slow drifting with no wind.  And Candy landed her 4th keeper before I hooked up.  We ended up at 7pm with 9 total fish in the cooler, and I'm pretty sure she had caught 6 of them.  I gladly conceded defeat and paid her my $3.  Frankly, it was the greatest day of the summer having my wife finally fish with me.  I was THRILLED!! I know it was a stretch for her but it meant so much to me.  I hope she goes with me again.

The following day my brother and his youngest son Owen, joined me for day 2 in Tangier Sound.  They were staying the week in OC, and weren't able to get down to the island until 5:15 pm.  So, I met them at the dock in Wenona, boat already in the water and ready to fish.  Due to limited daylight, I took us straight to bouy 12 and we commenced target the same depth and area.  The magic depth was 42 ft, and we worked it with almost zero wind.  I'm talking slick cam, something we rarely see here.  It was an awesome time, I mostly played guide and helped Owen, but stepped in when he wanted a break.  All said, we put 16 fish in the cooler, including one blue.  The croaker were 10-12 mostly, same as most of the summer.  Owen kept wanting to look at the bounty in the cooler.  We called it a day just at sunset.  The following day they came over and enjoyed my culinary work, as I put on a pretty good fish fry for both of our families.

My next trip down will likely be Labor Day weekend.  I am hoping to get at least one day in over that weekend.  It figures to be a shorter weekend there than in years past.  And, summer is just about over.

Moving along to August- 8/1/14

I simply can't believe it's August.  The kids will start back to school in a few short weeks, and Labor Day is exactly one month away.  It's been a relatively cool summer, in fact the coolest July I can ever remember.  We even turned off the A/C for a few days this week.

I had planned to fish both Friday and Saturday.  The forecast called for 30% chance of rain Friday, 80% Saturday so I knew I had better at least get the Friday trip in.  I was joined by my friend Brian for this one. We launched at 3 pm for the 6 pm high tide.  It had rained lightly all day and of course was raining when we launched.  I had Brian bring me an extra set of rain gear, so we were good.  Wind was about 10 mph out of the east, definitely not my favorite direct for good fishing.  We started by making few drifts near buoy 12.  The wind and tide were moving us pretty swiftly in a northwest pattern.  We were getting strikes but missing most of the fish.  After two long drifts, I had caught 2 decent fish in about 45 ft of water.  This action was not enough to keep me planted here, and besides I wanted to continue on to South Marsh, where I would anchor near shore in try to stir up some other species.  So off we went. to the north shore of South Marsh.

In an effort to get out of the direct east wind, I chose to anchor on the north facing shore of the island.  I'm really not familiar with the depth contour beyond this, and I really need to man up sometime and explore more of it.  I would especially love to venture up some of the guts, I'm told there are deep holes up there holding rockfish.  Any way, while the north shore got us partially out of the wind, I was not able to drift my rig like I did last time, as the tide was not running past like to would have been on either east or west sides.  Bummer.  We managed to put 4 more decent hardhead (11-12 inches) in the cooler, as well as two rockfish, which of course were "big enough".  As the tide changed, and the wind shifted to a more NNE, the fishing never did pick back up.  I was hoping the overcast and light rain would have fired things up, but no such luck. And so, at 7 pm we decided to call it a day.

After Friday I had had about enough of playing in the rain.  The forecast for Saturday was pretty dismal with more rain expected.  And since Friday had been unremarkable in terms of fishing, I opted to not wait around all day and fish the 6:45 pm high tide.  Better fishing or better weather could have swayed me otherwise.  As it turned out, the walloping rain never did develop Saturday, but I only watched it from afar at home on radar.  Oh well,... I am hoping to get back for the next favorable tide scenario on August 15.

Friday July 18, 2014- The Stars Align

Every once in a while, as a fisherman I am lucky enough to have the forecasts for wind, temperature, rain, and tide all converge in a favorable light.  And such it was for this Friday, 7/18.  I had known the tide would be high at a perfect 7:45 pm.  And all week long the weather had been forecasted to be near perfect, with winds out of the east and waves at one feet, no chance of rain and temps in the mid-80’s.  As Thursday arrived, I couldn’t resist to pull the trigger and take the entire day Friday off, providing me needed time to cut grass, do a few other odd chores, ride my bicycle, etc.

I launched the boat at 4:30 pm and had opportunity to meet my new neighbors Lester and Kim at the boat ramp.  They had purchased Dennis’s house across the street and apparently were dedicated fishermen.  After grabbing a dozen soft crabs to supplement my squid and shrimp, I ventured out into Tangier sound from Wenona.  I was a bit nervous too, as last time out my boat engine had gone into limp mode after registering a HOT code, which I attributed to simply ingesting some grass or mud.  However, the boat ran flawlessly and I started my fishing by doing some drifting near the #12 buoy.  I wanted to first put some hardheads in the cooler before going to my final destination of the shoreline of South Marsh Island, and besides, I also wanted to wait and go to South Marsh a little later.  It didn’t take long to figure out that the Croaker were biting between 36 and 48 feet of water, and so I began drifting west-to-east with the unexpected westerly wind.  After putting 9 nice croaker in the cooler using only squid, it was time to go to South Marsh.

When I got to the northern tip of South Marsh, the wind was still blowing pretty good out of the WNW, so I anchored myself near to shore on the eastern side of the northern part of the island.  From this vantage point I could cast to shore, as well as parallel to shore.  My plan was to cast toward shore using a bottom rig and 2 oz of weight, and also to drift an identical rig with no weight along with the tide.  This was a great approach but I really needed two sets of hands to properly man both rigs, and as a result I missed a lot of fish.  I was especially excited to see the unweighted drifting line go peeling off, but was often too late to set the hook.  In the end, I caught 7 more pretty nice croaker (11-12 inch range, better than the 9-10 inchers I had been catching weeks before), one bluefish, one rockfish, and I believe the biggest white perch (13 inches) I have ever caught. 

Two of the croaker were caught as a double-header on the drifting line, which was quite exciting.  The white perch was caught on the drifting line too, as I had let it go for a long time and had to wrestle it through submerged junk on the way in only to find the perch parked at the end of it.  As the tide subsided, the drifting line no longer drifted so well.  I actually wish I had gotten there just a little bit earlier to catch more of this incoming tide with the drifting line (note to self).  Also, as the tide slacked I started picking up skate and rays, which of course played havoc with my gear.  And then suddenly, the wind switched nearly 180 degrees and started blowing out of the east as predicted, only a bit stronger- and this is when the fishing quit.  I probably could have relocated to avoid the wind, which was now pounding the nearby shore, but the tide was flipping, darkness was approaching, and I decided to call it a night.

No speckled trout or drum as I had hoped, but 19 fish in the cooler eased the pain.  I would have loved to return the following evening, but as I alluded to in my previous post the fishing has been pushed to lower priority for a season, and I don’t know the length of that season.  If nothing else, this makes me appreciate more the opportunities that I do get to fish.  And so, I dream of the next time, hopefully two weeks in the future.  But before I go, check out the 3 ½ lb bass I caught last night in Millsboro, Betts Pond on top water.

June 30, back to the creek

O first of all, I am realizing that the summer is ripping by and  I have been remiss at maintaining this blog.  So, somewhere I neglected to update on mid-June and at this point  I cannot recall the details.  So, I will reach back and cover June 30, which I am able to recall.   Briefly, I was down intending to stay most of the week and fish.  My week started on June 30, and with great plans to return to South Marsh, the wind was blowing 25+ knots out of the south and I opted to fish the creek.  I got out there around 4pm armed with squid and shrimp.  And, I managed to put 14 croaker into the cooler, the majority at 11-12 inches, with a couple at 10 and one topping 14. With the extreme south wind and fishing high tide, the tide was really late in rolling back out, a phenomenon I see from time to time.

I returned the next day to catch the same time, also plagued with challenging winds and in addition threatening storms.  Around 4:30 I could see a large anvil cloud forming to the west, which I had the pleasure of staring at for the next 2 hours.  Finally, the accompanying thunder and approaching storm became more than I could safely tolerate and I called it a day.  No fish in the cooler this trip, but I did beat the storm in.  Storms can develop so fast on the Chesapeake in the summertime.

Unfortunately, my week of fishing ended here.  Sometimes there are other things in life that are more important.  Not many, but the ones that are trump everything when they demand your attention.  And I have a feeling that the rest of the season is apt to go this way as well.  But you know what, there will always be opportunities in the future to fish, and the fishing can wait if it needs to.   Did I just say that??

Friday June 6 2014- A near perfect evening.

Friday June 6 2014- A near perfect evening.  Launched out of Wenona at about 5:30 pm to catch the scheduled 9 PM high tide.  Wide was 5-10 out of the west, water temp was low 70’s.  My desire was to catch some rock and speckled trout in shallow water.  So, I started on the west side of the channel north of buoy 12, drifting different depths.  I found some croaker hook-ups in 23-25 ft of water, most around 10 inches but one at 14 (yay!).  They seemed to be non-existent anywhere else at this time.

At around 7:30 I motored over to the northern tip of South Marsh Island.  My thought was, place myself on the north edge of the island as near to shore as possible, where the bait fish might be seeking a reprieve from the incoming tide.  I had not fished this area before, so I cautiously approached but found 5 feet of water all the way up to 25-30 yards away from shore, which is where I anchored.  It was simply beautiful here, nothing but me and the birds.  I cast soft crab and squid at every angle from the boat.  My first fish was a nice 12” croaker, and then the rays showed up.  Not the smaller skate, these were the large cow-nosed rays and appeared to be here mating in shallow water.  So, I wasn’t surprised when the action remained somewhat sparse.  I did manage to avoid hanging one of these monsters, which would have been a real problem fishing solo and in shallow water.  I caught a few more decent hardhead, putting 7 total in the cooler.  Also, I caught one nice rockfish at about 16.5 inches.  Of course I released it,…… I called it a night at 9pm since dark was approaching, and I had to cross the crab pot infested sound solo.  I wish now I had stayed just a little bit longer, but then again I often feel like that after I have completed my fishing venture.

May 25 and "fish on" !

Finally I get to report in on catching some fish.  The month of May was pretty much a wash for as far as bottom fishing goes.  Everything started late due to the cold winter and spring.  And this coolness persisted all through April and May.  And then the wind blew, as usual.  Finally, on Sunday May 25 I got out mid-day (not my preferred time) for some bottom fishing.  Although I had received word of speckled trout being caught near the shore, my quest here was for the sure-thing, and middle of the day I nMay, that would be croaker.

I started out near Buoy 12, just out of Wenona.  And while marking fish on my depth finder at 30 feet, which is where I had been told by a party boat captain the fish were holding, I was not able to get any action.  About 2 hours before tide change, I was ready for a scenery change, and I motored across the channel to the west side, about a half mile farther north, and began drifting through different depths to see where I might hook-up.  It didn’t take long to figure out that 45-55 feet of water on the oncoming tide was the ticket.  The fish were plenty, and they were happy to be ripping off my softcrabs, shrimp, and peeler.  However, they were small.  I probably caught 40 fish but kept only 13.  And of those that I kept, most were around 10 inches, with a few at 12 being caught in clusters right at 50 ft. 

As I write this, I am planning my next adventure.  This upcoming weekend, the weather and wind are forecasted to cooperate both Friday and Saturday.  Furthermore, I’ve got a 9pm high tide on Friday, and a 9:49pm high tide on Saturday.  Stay tuned,… I’m going to shift some of my focus toward sunset fishing for trout and rock.

end of a long, cold winter- 2014.

It was a long, long winter and the coldest I recall in a while.  Heck, we had snow 2^nd week of April, and at least every week before that from late January on (or so it seemed).  The net effect was that everything was thrown out of synch.  As I am writing this (May 13), the bottom fishing is non-existent except for some white perch.  And while the trophy rockfish season seems to have flourished in Tangier Sound, you can’t even buy a peeler or a softcrab.  The few hard crabs are pricey and being shipped off.  This is an inconvenience to the recreational fishermen like myself, it is nearly devastating to the watermen.

Let me catch you up on what little outdoor activities I have been involved in so far for 2014.  First off was winter deer season, January 10-11.  I hunted both days, and finally got a distant shot in the rain my 2^nd day.  Well, impatience led to inaccurate, and that doe is still running free.  Fast forward to turkey season.  I managed to get some time in the woods both in mid-April (4/18) and early May (5/9).  On both trips to the woods, I was not even able to solicit a gobble, cluck or otherwise using my turkey call.  The year before these woods had been loaded with turkey.  And for that matter, I have not been seeing turkey in the usual area locations throughout the spring.  I’m not sure whether their breeding is delayed or what.  Lastly, I have had my boat out twice (4/28 and 5/9).  The first trip was mid-day, tide was high and I was targeting shore-line rockfish before it turned rough and I quit.  The 2^nd trip, I tried bottom fishing with my daughter Kara in the afternoon on a low tide, then the shorelines of both South Marsh Island and also Deal Island in Wenona.  Used bloodworms (and frozen peeler 2^nd trip), but not a single hit either trip.  The water temp is still cold (surface temp of 65F on May 9).  I can recall years like this where a long cold winter delayed the advent of decent fishing.  But, I have no idea at this point how this one is going to play out, but I plan to try again Memorial Day weekend which is early this year.

The one bright so far this year is having worked on skipjack Kathryn on 5 separate occasions.  Most have been working with the ECI inmates, which has been a lot of fun.  These are minimum security guys who are anxious to get outside of the walls of the prison, are hard-working, and eager to make a difference.  I’m looking forward to completing enough hours of service to get the operating organization (Coastal Heritage Alliance) another $500 grant from the company I work for.  I’m anxious to see the boat come together through to completion and hope that I have the opportunity to sail on her come Labor Day.