This weekend I got to enjoy a two-day fishing adventure. Weather again was a major factor, as a series of cold fronts had hijacked our weather for nearly a week. This was good news in one respect, as the bay's waters were kept unseasonably cool. However the wind blew hard out of the NE on Friday June 15, and the small craft advisory compelled me to take to the back waters of Deal Island with my smaller john boat. Not a problem, I had been looking for an excuse to return to one of my favorite shallow water fishing holes. I anchored there at around 3:30 pm, targeting a 5:50 low tide. I was rewarded in less than 10 seconds with my first fish. Unfortunately, the remainder of the afternoon, while gloriously cool for June, produced 10 keeper hardheads- all in the 11-12 inch range, and one nice white perch. Decent numbers but disappointing in size.
Saturday June 16 and things had changed. The wind was still blowing 15-20 mph but had shifted slightly to the east. Waves were 2 feet but it was not a messy chop, it was nice and regular. I motored out to teh vicinity of charter boat Little Art about 1/2 mile north of buoy 12 and began making east-to-west drifts right past them. My drifts started in 30 ft of water and when hitting 55-60 ft, I repeated the circuit. Again I caught a couple of fish almost immediately, and these were noticeably nicer in size. The first few drifts I hung fish between 30 and 40 ft. After that, they clearly shifted to 40-50 feet, and I was able to zero in on these ranges. And as the evening wore on and the tide changed, the fish again went more shallow. I worked two rods at the same time and it was all I could do to jump from one to the other. Finally at about 7 pm or so, I had caught my 25th keeper fish (>11 inches), the legal limit of hardhead, and so my day was done. The loved the nice thick and stinky squid I was throwing at them. Perhaps half of these keepers were in the 13-15-inch range, really nice, fat fish- many spawning females. It had been a few years since I caught my limit, and I motored back to the dock proud but tired.
One quick detour. On Saturday there were two guys fishing in kayaks right out with me in the middle of Tangier Sound. This is 2 miles from shore and in some fairly rough and cooler water. Not smart. I got to talking to one of the guys, he had his kayak blinged out with depth finder and gps. Hopefully they were waterproof. I saw from about 100 yrds away one of the two flip his kayak, then struggle for 20 minutes trying to get himself teh Little Art, thankfully and luckily positioned right nearby. Then the 2nd kayaker flips trying to help his buddy out. This guy appeared a little more experienced, as I watched him roll his kayak back into position and re-mount it, a maneuver he had obviously trained for. Turns out kayaker number 1 had failed to re-insert his drainplug from the day before. These guys were lucky to have someone near to help, otherwise this could have gotten ugly, and I'm talking about read about it in the newspaper ugly. WOW.. Be Safe
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