Friday July 17- the beginning of a hot, humid, steamy ,
sultry (any other superlatives?) weekend.
The forecast for Friday afternoon and evening was windy, and becoming
increasingly windier. And that it was,… My buddy Bruce Davis joined me for the evening
fish. Had been trying to get Bruce out
on my boat for several years now, and it finally worked out. We launched out of Wenona at 5:30 pm. Unfortunately we had some minor motor issues,
which I believe to be fuel-related so we returned to dock just after leaving
the harbor, checked the prop, and then returned to Tangier Sound. Turns out we had forgotten to pray before we
left the dock, so once we addressed that we motored out into open water with
confidence.
The wind was blowing a stiff 20+ mph out of the southeast,
so out initial exit of the harbor was against the wind. Once we cleared the last
channel marker we could turn and get up on plane and ride above the nasty 2 ft
chop. Slightly delayed, we began fishing
around 6:15 pm in the same area I have been fishing lately, about a mile north
of buoy 12 and on the west side of the channel.
Pretty quickly we began catching croaker in the 54-48 foot depth range. These were nice fish, most being 10 ½-12
inches, but fat and strong.
Unfortunately, just as the engine issues had clipped our trip on the
from end, the wind began blowing at about 30mph, and with 3-4 ft seas, I
exercised by prerogative as captain to call the trip short due to deteriorating
conditions. Nonetheless we put 19 nice
fish in the cooler prior to our slow and wet return trip.
Later that evening, I went to visit my friends Ronnie and
wife Selena in Wenona. While sharing a
few homebrews, Selena shared a story of how someone she knew in northern
Virginia asked her if she knew “Deal Island Randy”. Her response was that yes, she knew a guy
that fished at Deal Island and his name was Randy. The friend went on to explain tha they had
seen a youtube video posted by a guy named DealIslandRandy on how to fillet and
de-bone croaker. After watching the
video, Selena recognized that it was indeed me.
Small world, eh? Before I forget,
let me thrown in the link to that Youtube video, I think it has over 13,000
views: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxu1y2TGSCQ
Fast forward to Saturday, hotter and forecasted breezier. Since storms were expected to roll through
late afternoon, I pushed up my next fishing adventure to a 2:15 pm launch. Mercifully, it was partly to mostly cloudy so
I didn’t fry under the sun. I returned
to the same spot, and on my way out boat suddenly stops running. A little investigation and I discover the
fuel line connection at the tank had come loose. Fixed this and no more problems. Had cleaned/emptied out the fuel filter the
day before too. Another choppy ride out,
and wasn’t sure how long this would last as the forecast was for building winds. Again, a SE wind but this time with the tide
rather than against it as yesterday made for more pleasant conditions. I put 23 hardhead in the cooler before calling
it quits. Again, 46-54 feet was the hot ticket, and squid was the bait of
choice. Strangely, the winds died down
to about 5-10 mph for the return trip and I was able to cruise quickly. One final thought: The MD DNR website had reported the following:
“Unfortunately catches of croakers and spot in the
Tangier Sound area have fallen off leaving local anglers scratching their heads
as to why. ”. I guess you can’t believe everything you
read. Anyway, I couldn’t resist frying up
some of these fish that night- OMG nothing better than fresh fried croaker.
YUM.
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