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Monday, June 16, 2014

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.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

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.