2015 and a new year on Tangier Sound

Wow, I am seriously fallen behind on keeping this blog up to date.  It will be best for me to fast-forward over the winter months.   It was another brutally cold and long winter and I am so glad it is in the past.  I did engage in deer and turkey hunting to keep the insanity at bay, but have nothing remarkable to share from those ventures.

That said, I'll back-track and briefly recap my first Tangier Sound fishing of the year, weekend of May 8-9 2015.  I only got out once, and spent my time at the north end of South Marsh Island.  A gorgeous May evening, caught the peak high tide.  Water temp 68F.  I started trolling on the west side of the island and toward the north end.  I picked up a nice small rock on a SwimShad just rounding the north tip, and this would be the last fish I would catch.  I trolled all the way across the northend, then motored over to Holland Island for some drifting with bait.  I had wanted to come over here for awhile.  There are some other small islands in the area as well as Bloodsworth, and I really need to learn the area better.  Note to self- lots of shallow water. I know there must be some deeper bank areas, as I am told by so many about these Holland Straits.

Just wrapped a gorgeous Memorial Day weekend, although a bit breezy  for much of it. Water temp still only up to 70-70.5F, we have had a lot of cold nights with the heat kicking on.  Friday the 22nd I tried bottom fishing near buoy 12, but the wind out of the west at 15-20 mph made this unbearable.  I put one hardhead into the cooler then took the plunge and ran over to South Marsh to escape the wind.  Well, at least that part worked.  I threw soft crab and squid to bottom while anchored in 4.5 ft.  Finally got a bite by a nice rockfish- he put up a good fight and then went into the cooler.   And as I had been warned, the skates and rays had also made an appearance.  I caught 4 or 5, lost a couple of rigs, and oh man he cownosed ray I caught was humongous.  I was hoping for speckled trout or drum , but no go.  Saturday the 23rd I though that I would just stick with bottom fishing, as the wind had laid down nicely.  I fished just south of buoy 12, drifting north just to or past the buoy.  The fishing was non-stop, I caught countless croaker and each seemed to be a 9-9 1/2 inch clone of each other.  After several hours, I was able to put only 8 in the cooler, and half of those I later wished I had released.  Sunday while preparing to launch I noticed that I had lost a roller off my trailer.  Not wanting to gouge my boat bottom upon re-trailering, I aborted the trip.  Off to Short's Marine to get replacement roller(s).   I've had 3 fail so far, and I can see the others are on borrowed time. AT $12.50 apiece, I'll try to just replace a couple at a time.