Late June re-cap

First things first- a very brief detail on what I caught last week.  This would be June 17.  I caught some nice but windy (or course) weather, the right tide, and one free day, and I didn't waste it.  I kept things pretty basic and fished on the back side of Deal Island.  Target species: Rockfish and Speckled trout.  A blistering south wind made it necessary to find some protected shallow water, challenging on the south side of the island.  I spent 2-3 hours throwing soft crab, only to be frustrated.  Last move was back toward the dock. On the way back I found a protected little pool, and since the tide was now high, figured I would give it a shot.  Boom!! The 22-inch rock put up a nice thrashing fight in 4 feet of water.  After following this with a few smaller fish, the day was done. 

Next up, the family joins me for fishing June 22 and 24.  This time we dodged really crappy rainy and windy weather, and late day low tides.  June 22 with Von and Darko yielded a few small rockfish and lots of skates and rays.  June 24 I fished with my daughter Kara and her bf TJ.  This was in the Manokin at high tide, middle of the day and hot hot hot. Kara caught a nice 15" speckled trout, and TJ put 2 really nice big white perch in the cooler.  I can't count how many small rock they caught and threw back. 

The lack of croaker is really concerning.  Looks like 2nd year in a row they will be a no-show through June.  This is seriously a bummer, and downright disturbing to me.  I remember how back in the '80's they were scarce, but back then we had plenty of sea trout.  Sigh,......