Pre-wedding rockfish smash, June 24, 2020

This outing was destined to be outstanding. With my daughter scheduled to be married in 3 days, I was almost a basket case.  The Lord knew I needed some spectacular fishing to straighten me out.

We (Mark, Mark's son Derek and I) launched from Wenona around 2pm, on track to be in front of the early evening tide change at the magic spot.  And in fact, we were anchored up a full 60 minutes+ prior to peak high tide.  After setting anchor and getting lines in the water, it was less than 3 minutes before I had keeper rock #1 in the boat (at 19"), and then another 2 minutes later at 22 inches.  Rockfish Randy was on a roll.  Mark caught the next one at 19" five minutes later, and because of how quick this had transpired, we agreed to throw Mark's fish back as that would have put us instantly at the boat limit.  This was the first time we have had this much success in this spot on the last of the incoming tide.  As we joked about how throwing back a keeper rock was apt to jinx us, sure enough, we proceeded to catch one short fish after another.  Mixed in were 3 nice speckled trout, and below is pic of Derek with a nice 18" speck,

As the tide turned, we continued to catch rock after rock, many in the 16-18.5" range.  And then, WHAM !!! I knew I had a brute of a fish on the line.  Catching these rock in shallow water is so much fun.  This fish measured in at 25", the largest I've caught this year.  After a few more rock, and a kingfish, things slowed down and we headed back to port. the pic below is the 22" 2nd fish, and shame on me for not having a picture of the 25".  Until next time, #dealislandrandy