July 25/26, 2019: burning up rockfish and speckled trout

I was just talking to my wife about what a great year fishing this has been so far, especially compared to last year.  And this past weekend totally reinforced that notion.  I am absolutely in a fish groove, and I hope it doesn't end any time soon.

Having success at fishing is easy, really.  You just need to be in the right place, at the right time, and do the right things.  OK, so figuring out the first two of those essentials can sometimes be a challenge.  I found a spot back in May that has been absolute money.  It's so good, I'm not even going to identify it here, since I know there are fellow fishermen that read this that would love to have a piece of this action.  But, they didn't work for it, so no-go. I will say- it is around one of the islands in the middle of Tangier Sound and it is in shallow water.

Thursday, July 25- I played hookie from work and launched solo out of Wenona at 3:30 pm.  Before I go further, I just wanted to mention that the new trim tabs I installed on THUNDERSTRUCK performed amazingly.  It was exactly what I was looking for to level out the boat- she buzzed through a 3-4 foot chop on the way back like it was butter.  Anyway, I'm in position and fishing the incoming tide by 4:15, and it was ripping quite fast.  I catch the requisite skate right away, and promptly disembowel it with my new ceramic bait knife.  After that, it was a quality fish with every cast, lasting about 30 minutes.  By 5pm, I had caught my limit of 2 keeper rock (one 19.5, the other 20.5 inches), and three of the 4 speckled trout I am allowed to keep (14.5, 16, and 18 inches).  There were a few more 16-18" rock mixed in.  Then, I spent the next hour and a half trying (without success) to catch that dang 4th speck.  I did manage to catch many more rock, including two more keeper size.  I pulled anchor at 6:30 pm with an approaching thunderstorm and zoomed back to port, getting a little wet in the process.

Friday July 26, we took Dan's boat to the same exact spot.  On board also were Mark, his son Derek, and Derek's buddy, so 5 head.  We caught a lot of fish, but I was the only one to put keeper rock (2) in the cooler.  The best fish of the night was on my line right before we left at 7:30 pm, he was a brute of a rock (guessing 24") but managed to spit the hook out 2 feet from the boat.  So, maybe I was just lucky, I don't know.

So, fishing solo Thursday, I have no photos.  And Friday, the crew was too focused on having fun and I don't believe any photos were taken.  So, I leave you with pics of the crabs I bought from my waterman friend David W. - they were AWESOME !!  Hoping to fish next Saturday.  #dealislandrandy

#rockfish
#stripedbass
#speckledtrout
#tangiersound

July 5, 12 = Rockfish

Returned to the same island spot as I fished end of June.  The first outing was with my brother, on a breezy but sunny hot Friday afternoon.  The tide was falling for this trip.  Casting where we had caught the fish the week prior was fruitless, so we moved further up the creek into the marsh. The 17 foot deep hole ran up to a 6 ft deep lump and then deep again as we progressed in.  We decided to fish the inside of that lump.  And that's where we caught a ton of rock.  All but one were throwbacks, and the fish were a little on the smaller side, but caught a LOT of fish.  And best of all, no skates or rays.

A week later, July 12, Dan and I fished a calm and hot/humid late afternoon.  Same place.  Tide was opposite (low tide at 430pm), so slack when we first got there, then soon incoming.  As soon as the tide changed and started to run, we started to catch fish.  This was a larger grade of rockfish than the week before, and teh bite was very aggressive- tons of fun.  Water temp was 84F+, but these fish didn't seem to care.  I put 3 in the cooler, Dan 1, and they were 19, 20, 21, and 22".  We also caught some speckled trout, maybe 5 or 6, with one keeper at 15".

So, that's 3 consecutive weeks this spot has produced good fishing.  I'm goign to continue to work it until it lets me down.  Can't wait to try these waters in the fall.  Thanks for reading- #dealislandrandy

Here's a video of my chilling after we limited out: