Whacked them again, July 21, 2016

You know the old saying about "striking while the iron is hot"?  Well, that's exactly what I set out to do.  Heading into a "short weekend" (one where I needed to be home on Saturday), I jump started this thing by bailing out of work spur of the moment on a Thursday afternoon.  By 3:30 I was in the middle of Tangier Sound off Wenona, ready to coincide with the peak high tide.  With a steady light breeze (5-7 mph) out of the SW, I was pulling a nearly straight west-to-east drift with the remainder of the incoming tide, drifting slightly north too.

Going strictly with squid now, I picked up a few croaker in the first 2 hours.  What was immediately noticeable was the larger size, as these fish were falling in the 11-13-inch range, with one at 13.5".  And boy were they fat too, mostly females bulked up to spawn. At 6 pm, 2 full hours into the outgoing tide and finally a slight bit cooler than the 92F I was fighting earlier, the fish turned on like magic.  It was basically one right after the other until i hit my cooler limit of 25, at which point I had to stop.  Oddly once the bite really turned on I caught the fish at all depths, from 32-62 feet.  For the first two hours, I caught the first 8 fish exclusively in the 42-50 ft range.  Note to self,...

The next day held forecast of wind 12-15 all day, with forecasted increase after 5 PM to 20 mph.  So, despite the now 95F heat, I put out around 1:30-2 PM, ahead of the 4:30 PM high tide.  Wow, I found myself fighting 3-4 ft seas in my little 17ft center console.  I took quite a pounding too for several hours before I finally headed back to the creek behind the island and anchored in order to save my spine. Unfortunately this move did not bear fruit either. With one fish in the cooler, darn near heat exhausted, and with the prospect of increasing wind, I called it a day around 5:45.  At about 7:30 that evening I began to regret my last choice, as the wind and seas laid down to about 5-7 mph and 1ft, perfect conditions for an evening fish.  Oh well,... the forecast is often the best info you have to go off of for making key decisions, and I had no reason to doubt this one. My Windfinder App is usually pretty accurate. Not so today.  Looks like I'll spend the next 2 weeks dreaming about and planning for my next opportunity.

Oh, and by the way I've decided to begin referring to the much-maligned croaker as "Silver Drum".  I believe that will garnish a significantly higher level of respect for the fish, don't you?

The fish FINALLY show up, July 16-17, 2016

I have never EVER had to wait until mid-July to simply begin catching fish- but this was THAT year. Well, the croaker finally arrived and without any further delay let me tell you the details.

Friday July 16 was hotter than the hinges of hell.  One of those 92-95F July days with stifling humidity. So how that I actually used my bimini top.  Along with me was my cousin Darko. Well, he's not actually my cousin but I'll claim him as such.  Darko had never fished with me, and also had never caught hardhead. We launched around 330PM, it was calm waters and oh did I mention it was HOT.  We started on the west side of the channel out of Wenona, where I had so much success last year.  We picked up a couple of fish right away.  The falling tide was pulling us straight down Tangier Sound (north to south), and it was quick drifting, to just 1/4-1/2 mile north of buoy 12.  We caught almost all the fish in 34-40 ft of water. The water temp was 85F, a full 7 degrees warmer than a few weeks prior. Squid was the bait of the day, and we used almost a whole box. We fished until nearly sunset, and put 50 fish in the cooler- 49 croaker (one shy of our collective limit) and one kingfish.  The croaker were all in the 10.5-12 inch range and nice and plump.  Only tossed one fish back in the water. Darko seemed to have a blast. I had mounted my Chinese GoPro clone on the center console and captured some cool video of Darko catching his first croaker.  If you have an extra 5 minutes, have a look.

Saturday was a different animal- overcast and breezy out of the south.  Because the temps were cooler and thunderstorms were forecasted for later in the day, I opted to fish starting at high noon. Launched and tried the same spot as the day before.  Caught 3 right away, then nothing.  Moved down to buoy 12, nothing.  Noticed there was a charter boat about 3/4 mile south of buoy 12, so headed down there and began drifting.  With the outgoing tide and a southerly wind.  I drifted perfectly due east, which was fine.  Caught fish starting in 50 ft and they continued down to 42 ft, at which point I had to move for a new drift. This went on for quite awhile and I ended up putting 22 croaker on the cooler (one kingfish too).  Same as yesterday, only one throwback but these fish were a slightly smaller class, 10-11 inches period. Here's a weird twist- caught a pretty decent size shark (sandbar shark?), about 2 1/2 feet.  Not sure what to do with these, if they're good to eat or what or even if you're allowed to keep them.  Anyway, he had a mouth full of teeth and I wanted no part so I cut the hook and said "adios". Wind picked up  and it got rough as snot.  Finally left at 5:30 PM because it was so rough I was no longer able to set the hook, despite still having frequent bites.  I can say that next day (Sunday) my elbow actually hurt from catching so many fish and holding a rod so long.  Hoping to sneak back next weekend for a Friday fish, but have to return Saturday due to a commitment : (