My GOSH it has been a long time since I posted. It was a long, cold, and windy spring- resulting in little to no fishing opportunities for me. Nearly June and I finally got my boat off the trailer and out on the water. Enjoyed 3 days of turkey hunting in May, 2 of them deep in the public land woods of Black Road and only one which featured a lot of gobbler noise (and starting at 530 AM).
OK, well time to talk about fishing. The cool windy spring resulted in great fishing when the weather finally yielded. Water temps were ~72-73F, water was clear and this made for a hot bite. I don't think it even would have mattered what time of day, as I didn't launch until 2PM Friday and at high noon on Saturday, both days featuring abundant sunshine and temps in the low 70s. Even the tides were not optimal, so either the fish were aggressively hungry or I was simply lucky, or maybe a little of both.
I basically fished three same locations both days, and in the same order: South Marsh Island (by now, you know where), Spring Island (what's left of it, and facing Holland), and south tip of Little Deal Island. I caught speckled trout and rockfish at every stop. Five of the 6 trout were 19-21" (the "smallest" was 17"), while three rock were 19-22", with many 15"-18". Best part is that I didn't have to work too hard for them, although all of the rock at Spring required a precise and powerful hook-set. That said, the key takeaway from this trip is that the specks are more plentiful than in years past, AND they are decidedly bigger. I can't wait to do this again and am sad that it may not be this week. Until next time, this is #dealislandrandy.
