June 2020 and continued great fishing in Tangier Sound

I was going to wait until next week for this update, but my daughter is getting married in 3 days and I am afraid my mind will be expunged of all non-wedding related memory.  June 12, a Friday afternoon timed perfectly with an early evening high tide and all that (now routinely) comes with that.  I piloted my boat across Tangier Sound at 3pm and we anchored about ¼ mile north of the magic spot, in about 7 ft of water.  Dan, Mark, and I (mostly me LOL) proceeded to catch half of our collective limit (6/12) in speckled trout, all nice fish I the 18-21 inch range.  About an hour before the tide changed we moved into the magic spot, which notably is always so teaming with life (muskrats, nesting gulls and ospreys, etc).  Fairly quickly we started putting fish in the cooler.  It was late in the day and the bugs were challenging, so I deemed that we would return to port upon obtaining our limit of speckled trout.  At about 730pm, just half our after high tide, we hit that target (12 specks) and headed back in.  We also one nice 23” rockfish to go with it.  We caught many more rock, and many at 16-18”, but this continued our 2020 trend of catching more specks than rock.

The following Friday, June 19 ,my son Brooks came to visit me for Father’s Day.  I desperately wanted to show him some good fishing, but it was quite a windy day and had we taken my 18ft boat out, we would have been quite limited in where we could go on the low tide.  So, I convinced Dan (who has a really nice and much bigger 21ft (23?) Parker) to take us out late afternoon.  With storm warnings prevalent, we headed north out of Scott’s Cove to just below Fishing Bay in Dorchester County.  Dan and Mark had done well here earlier in the day, which of course is no indication of how I should have expected we would do.  To make a long story short, the storms prevailed and we scrambled back to port with a few white perch and a catfish in the cooler.  Upon reaching land, we resumed our fishing party where it probably should have started, Dan’s dock in Chance.  With the end of the outgoing tide quickly approaching, we immediately started catching nice rockfish, and I think Brooks and I first scored at 22 and 23 inches.  Having been joined by the rest of Mark’s family and also Sue, we continued to fill our striped bass quota (this year being one fish over 19”), two of which occurred after the slack tide hiatus and with the new incoming tide.  Total tally was 5 rock (19-23”), 3 speckled trout, 4 perch, and one cat.  The rock were vacuum sealed, all else were fried and consumed fresh- YUM !!!!

At my wife’s suggestion (a real rarity), I am headed out later this afternoon for a quick trip.  And when I report in next, I’ll have a new son-in-law.  So until next time, this is #dealislandrandy

3 week catch-up: late May/early June 2020

This blog is starting to get away from me.  I've fished 3 days since last update: once with Dan, once with Mark, and once with Millsboro local JB.  All 3 outings were wildly successful.  Actually there was a 4th night on Mark's dock that went well too.  Without detailing all the specifics, the speckled trout bite is off the chain and better than any year in my memory. The rockfishing has been good too, and both of these species are being caught not only from boat but also by everybody in Tangier Sound that has a dock.  One can only hope that this holds out, as most of the trout I have caught have been larger females loaded with roe.  Many of these fish are now going 19-24"- putting up a great fight and great on the table.

With the recent onset of extremely hot days, I see this shifting to a late afternoon-evening activity (my preference over morning).  However, JB and I put 6 awesome specs in the cooler on June 4 mid-day.  The secret spot has now been producing, and I am excited to get there this Friday.  In the meantime, here is a map of the area we have been targeting:

Areas with points and structures, and with sufficient water (>3 ft), have been producing.  Holland and Spring Islands are recent target areas, but the fish have been everywhere- even around the jetty outside the Wenona harbor.  Covid-19 has driven the masses out of their houses, and fishing pressure has been heavy on the weekends.  Here are a couple of pics sampling what we've been taking.  These aren't the biggest, or all of them by any means.

this is #dealislandrandy