Calm before the Storm, 8/27/11

My hillbilly college friend would have called this “pre-frontal success”.  With Hurricane Irene bearing down on the east coast, I saw a window of opportunity to get in a quick fishing venture.  Had originally planned to make it 2 days of fishing, but a front with accompanying storms forced me to only pursue Day 2.   I arrived August 27 at 9 AM, hoping to get out on the water right away to catch the 12:15 pm high tide.  Arrival of Irene the next day necessitated me getting off the water early in order to clean-up and secure the fishing camp, so fishing the 6:30 low tide which normally would have been my preference was not an option here.

Arrived to rain showers and dark skies.  Waited these out and as soon as the radar had convinced me that it was safe, I launched from Wenona at 11:30 AM.  For a change, I found seas to be less than one foot and almost calm at times.  Headed straight to buoy 12 southwest of Wenona (see pic) as I had a hunch the bite would be on as soon as I got my lines in the water.   Water surface temps had fallen to 79-80°F, and a mid-day bite was now more probable than previously.  A gentle southeast breeze pushed me from shallow to deeper water, while the tide pulled me up the bay.  It didn’t take long to figure out that the croakers were biting at around 45 ft, +/- 1 ft.  This was a pretty tight depth tolerance- I think one fish was beyond the standard deviation at 50 ft.  Caught 2-3 fish every drift, throwing back probably ten 10½” fish.  The remainder were all 12-14”, and I kept 7.  Consistent with the rest of the summer, no monsters.  Well, things started to fade after around 2 pm , and by 2:45 I had called it quits.  I used squid, clam, and shrimp- but today there was a distinct preference for squid, which is I carry multiple baits.  You never know.  Soft crabs are scarce and expensive right now and besides- all the waterman had pulled their pots out of the water with the storm approaching.

As I write this, Irene is rolling in.  A gentle rain started this morning at 5:15 AM at Deal Island and was continuing to increase gradually as I departed the island at 7:30 AM.  I prayed to God throughout the day yesterday that my camper would be spared harm and also the homes of all the people on the island unharmed.  At 11:45 AM, the rains and wind continue to build at home here in Millsboro.  The storm has weakened somewhat in terms of wind, but the rain and storm surge appear to be potentially serious.  I'm also wondering whether this might be the end of my 2011 bottom-fishing,...