Summertime patterns prevailing

I’ll start by just saying- I have caught more fish and better quality fish this spring/summer than any in the last 5 years. Compound that with the simple fact that I have also had the grace and liberty (afforded by my understanding wife) to fish more frequently, a newer camper, and most importantly a newer and more reliable boat. This all adds up to a freezer that is nearly full of vacuum-sealed fish. Speaking of which, my newly acquired vacuum sealer has made it possible to stuff the freezer with fish while only taking up half the room. After smoking some of these fish with my new Big Chief smoker, they take up even less room. Progress, yeee- ha!


This was a “quick trip”- I fished on Friday July 13. It was a very pleasant 84F out, with a gentle 5-10 mph breeze out of the WSW (in contrast to the forecasted ESE). Blair and I launched early, around 2 PM in order to catch the 4:20 low tide. Water temp has now settled into a summer standard 84F. Chop was less than 1 ft, and it was simply spectacular on the water- something I haven’t seen often this year. We started north of buoy 12 and drifted different depths. After picking up a few fish at 45-50 ft, it became clear that they were in this deeper water. So, we moved the show to south of buoy 12 where there is a nice extended 40-50 ft ledge which runs north and south. This ledge permits a prolonged drift at just the right depth, although the wind chose to push us landward and we had to constantly re-adjust, but that is part of the game. Using squid, I ended up putting 12 decent croaker in the cooler, with probably another 20 or so returned to the water. Most released were in the 10-10 ¾ range, but at this point I am in a position to be selective. Oh, and add one small kingfish, which are so good to eat. At about 5 pm, everything changed, including the tide. Additionally, the wind shifted to the SE and was now suddenly blowing 15-20 mph. This made the drifts unreasonably fast, not to mention that our nice calm waters were churning 2-3 ft. So, with an acceptable cache of fish in the cooler, it was time to call it quits. The larger croaker that I had seen on previous outings were sadly absent, and I don’t know if they would have shown up later in the evening. And I still haven’t gotten a piece of this speckled trout action that I keep hearing of, but then again I’m not getting much dusk fishing in. Maybe next time,……