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Sunday, September 10, 2017

August wrap-up, end of summer and into September

August gave me a few more fishing opportunities, but nothing remarkable.  I'll summarize it here pretty quickly.  Got out two more weekends, caught a few fish bottom fishing deep water (some decent spot, kingfish, tiny croaker and speckled trout). Also, caught plenty of small rockfish, mostly around points behind deal island, and costing me plenty of soft crabs. A venture out to Pry Island (south of South Marsh) was a bust. The point north of Rumbley at the mouth of the Manokin yielded a few fish, including a couple of nice white perch, all on bait.

Labor Day weekend was a no-go, so I'll fast forward to the following weekend, Fri Sept 8.  My buddy Bruce had nbeen telling me of all the rockfish he had been catching out of St. Peter's Creek. Intrigued, I got him to agree to take me with him.  We launched out of St. Peter's Creek, in Champ, MD (across the creek from Oriole).  I knew this boat ramp was there but had never launched there. We launched Bruce's nice new boat and headed out into the Manokin.  We ended up fishing the mouth of a creek, probably 200 yrds from where I had been fishing all summer. We were casting abotu a 4-inch bass assassin, chartreuse, on a 3/8 oz jighead (round).  WE were timed right with the outgoing tide, which was rapidly draining the marsh into the river.  We had decent depth water too
(3-4 ft +). No dice for awhile, so we moved along the marsh bank for awhile. Just at sunset, we returned to the creek mouth, and within 5 minutes it was game-on.  We caught small rock steadily for quite awhile.  Then they got a little bigger, 16-18".  Finally, Bruce landed one 21", and that would turn out to be the only keeper of the evening.  We caught a bunch more fish, even after dark and up until 8:30, but no more keepers.  Will return here again,... One thing I want to capture is the abrupt cooling spell we experienced immediately after Labor Day. Actually it had started teh week before, but set in in earnest this week.  Evenings in the mid-50's turned the bay water temps quickly to the low '70s.  Bay fishing is changing quickly.  And for the first year that I can remember, I'm glad to be done with summer, and am eagerly welcoming fall.

Weekend after Labor Day is also the Skipjack 5K, which I have run every year since it started 5 years ago.  This lightly attended race is the only one I run each year, but I love that it is held at Deal Island and will continue to run it each year.  It gets me off the couch each February and motivates me to run throughout the rest of the year.  This year, I won 1st place for all male runners.  And so what if there were only a few of us, a win is a win.


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