So, let me start with crabbing. Reports of good crabbing in the Dames Quarter impoundment finally drew me out in early April (8). I caught 3/4 bushel, but it took me about 4 hrs on a nice warm 70F day. Of course I enjoyed eating these with 91 y.o. neighbor Pat- her at one end of my picnic table, me at the other. I repeated this scene about a month later with crabs caught by pot in the Indian River, only 10 minutes form my house.
Next let's go to turkey hunting. I managed to get out in the woods a total of 3 days, all non-consecutive and starting 25 April and last one being 19 of May. I saw birds on the 1st and 3rd trips out, having called in a flock on the first trip. This happened at 8:30 AM, and started with several hens passing right in front of me, followed by 2 jakes just a little bit further into the woods. The final bird bringing up the rear was a large tom strutting his stuff, of course just out of shotgun reach at an estimated 55-60 yards. My subsequent trips had me working just a little bit deeper in the woods. I still love the turkey hunt, even when I don't take a shot, and only regret that I get so few opportunities to do this each year.
Now on to fishing. Throughout March and April, I managed to sneak down a few times for some pier fishing on buddy Mark's pier. They had been catching monster black drum there this bring, and I dearly wanted a piece of that action. Of all these trips, I caught a few rock, maybe keeping two. I could never seem to line up tide, weather, and luck. Preceding this, a trip into the marshes in late March w/ buddy Dan in search for white perch turned up no perch, but a couple of rock. In early May, I fished w/ Mark in the Wicomico near the Whitehaven Ferry in search of blue catfish, and we were not disappointed. We put 33 nice sized cats in the cooler in just over two hours, and they were still biting when I left. Mark gave me a lesson in properly cleaning the cats, which inspired me to buy a bigger fillet knife, which came in handy on May 17,.... I finally got my own boat out May 16 and 17, fishing with Mark both days. The 16th we started out at S.I., having timed the tide, or at least so we thought. A couple of small rock, followed by two keeper speckled trout (15 and 17"), and then the tide just got weird, quitting and going slack in the middle of its normal outgoing flow, which simply killed any action we had going. After a bumpy ride to Gunbarrel point, I managed to catch an 18" and then a 21" rock and then the biggest white perch I've ever seen at 13 1/2 inches. Not the great harvest I was hoping for but not bad for first time out on the boat in 2020. The next day I decided to repeat to course, but the first stop was nearly a bust. The 2nd stop was also nearly a bust, so we moved 100 yards to the east, just to the next point on South Marsh, and that is where things became magical as I hooked into the nice black drum pictured below. Having no net, Mark repaid the favor from almost exactly year ago, in almost exactly the same spot, and grabbed this fish by hand as I got him to the side of the boat. I really hate carrying a net in my 18 ft center console, already pressed for room but I guess I'm going to have to somehow find a way. Mark also caught a nice speck here. At Mark's suggestion, last stop was the jetty just outside the Wenona Harbor. My buddy Bruce D reported catching large specs and rock here the day prior, so we figured- why not. Anchoring just off the point, we started catching rock and then perch like it was nobody's business. In about 75 minutes time, I had my keeper (21") rock for the day, and we had also collected a large number of nice perch. Oh and by the way, filleting the black drum required the new larger fillet knife. I fried the fish- it was delicious !!
Hoping to report back in soon, this is #dealislandrandy
