July 17, 2012- Looking for an opportunity in the clouds.

July 17, 2012- Looking for an opportunity in the clouds.

Went down to the camper to do some fishing and also to celebrate my buddy’s birthday.  Waterman Capt. Danny Benton turned 50, and we celebrated Deal Island-style.  I deep-fried a mess of croaker fillets for the crowd at his party, and they seemed to be a hit, particularly with the locals

Inclement weather was the name of the game, as a cool front had moved in and brought frequent and intermittent rain with it.  Came down on a Friday afternoon hoping to catch a break in the rain, as it rained all afternoon.  It didn’t time well with the tide, but sometimes beggars can’t be choosers.  Finally, it stopped raining at 4pm.  I checked the radar, and it looked like I had about a 3 hour window of no major rain.  So, I launched just shy of 4:30 pm.  Wind blowing out of the west gently (5mph), water temp at 84F,  and tide running out (change was at 3:15pm), I set up my first drift just south of buoy 12 in about 42 ft of water.  This actually worked reasonably well for quite awhile as I was able to drift from 40-52 ft of water, which is where I caught all of my fish.  Theywere not to be had outside of this range.  Caught probably 50 fish on squid, and threw back all but 12.  Of these 12, the biggest was probably 13 inches, and I stretched my personal cut-off down to 10.5 inches for a few.  So, the size quality was definitely decreased from recent past, but this is the typical late summer pattern. 

Would like to have hung out and fished until sunset.  However, a big piece of ugly sky rolled in, the wind picked up and shifted 180 degrees, and it was time to call it quits.  The big rain never did hit, but of course it is better to be safe than sorry.  Maybe next time,….