Deal Island Fishing- July 28-29, 2011

As the wind blows,…… I know this is becoming a recurring theme, but I cannot recall any past year that was as windy as this.  Having fished almost 2 days each week of June and July, there have been a total of 2 days in which waves were less than 3 ft.  So, here again on Thursday it was 3-4 feet at evening launch, and built to 4-5 feet after about an hour.  With my boat only being just over 17 ft in length, 4-5 ft seas make for a pretty miserable time on the water and also tends to have a negative effect on the fish bite.  As a result, after about 2 hours of getting beat to death and catching only 2 fish, we called this one off early.

Friday 7/29 rolled around, fulfilling the forecast of 95-96F.  Another condition component consistent with this entire summer has been the extreme heat.  I’m sure there have been prior years equally as hot, maybe as I get older I am more sensitive to the heat.  No doubt though that this has been a hot year.  With frequent daytime air temps between 90-100F, the water surface temp has hovered in the upper 80’s.  That has definitely had an impact on the fishing, as the daytime bite had all but turned off.  I would not be surprised if there were oxygen depleted dead zones in the area, as I am marking many fish without any action.  Also, I seem to be marking a lot of fish suspended off the bottom.  We launched around 4:45 pm for a 7:30 low tide.  Fishing was quiet the first 2-2 ½ hours, as the sun was still high and the heat pretty intense.  My fishing companion son Blair had given up so by 6 pm I was the only rod in the water. At about 7 pm, the bite came on, as if someone had flipped a switch.  I put 7 nice fish in the cooler in rapid succession, the last being a double header of a 14” and a 12”.  Depth was a pretty focused 45 feet, on the west side of the channel, and just due west of Wenona harbor (this is just a bit south from where I usually fish on the west side of the channel, with a more gentle slope from 30-60 ft).  It was at this point, around 7:20 pm, that Blair indicated he had to urgently use the bathroom.  And, we weren’t talking about hanging it over the side, it was gonna be bucket-worthy.  So, like a good dad, I headed back for the harbor in a rather quick way.  And I guess Blair was serious, as he raced for the bathroom in the parking lot as soon as we got to the dock.  Oh well, we probably missed the best part of the fishing, but we’ll go on to fish another day.

Finally got the water heater and plumbing issues at the camper completely straightened out, fixing the residual leak.  The new water heater works well too.  Taking a break from Tangier Sound fishing, as the family and I are going to Cherrystone for a week.  Taking the boat to Cherrystone and planning to do some fishing there in unfamiliar waters.  Back at Tangier Sound to fish around August 19.  Gosh, this summer is almost over, Blair starts school 8/22 and full-day football practice 8/15.  Looks like I’ll fish solo the rest of the way out (until Labor Day) or recruit someone to join me.