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.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Sunday, August 3, 2014
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)