June has historically been a really good month fishing at Deal Island. The larger croakers are usually on-hand and the weather is typically pretty decent. June 12 brought very hot (95F+) and extremely windy, so I thought that taking the jon-boat back into the Thorofare would be a good idea. Never mind the apocalyptic profusion of biting green-headed flies. Motored back to me favorite deep hole and managed to catch one eel and plenty of skates. Seeking a change of venue, I motored back to the Manokin and anchored, Another bust, so I headed back to my original spot. I had noticed the outboard running a little rough but chalked it up to it not having been run in a year. As I pushed on I became aware that the outboard was losing power. Suddenly, the outboard rapidly lost power, started smoking, and promptly quit, never to start again. And as has happened all too many times in the past, I was forced to beg for a tow back to the ramp. I've got a picture, but in the interest of maintaining my dignity will refrain from posting.
OK, certainly the next day my luck would change, right? WRONG !! Launched the center console out of Wenona and headed toward Buoy 12, where most of the charter boats were anchored. Fished the swing low tide, expected magic. So, teh nice breeze that I had enjoyed when launching died, completely. To nothing. And it was >95F, again. and the flies were biting. and the largest croaker I could land, except for two outliers, was 9 inches. After about 2 hours of this nonsense and feeling particularly miserable and discouraged, I called it quits and returned to port. At least the boat ran well. I seriously considered whether I would ever fish again,....
Candy suggested later that next week that I try fishing again. Well, we had plans for early Sunday so I knew that this would be a one day venture. I don't do these one day trips much anymore, it is enough of an effort to pack up, head down, clean up, pack up and head home that it makes more sense to cluster days together. But, the weather looked to be good s off I went to see if I could change my luck. Launched out of Wenona later than I usually do, reaching Tangier Sound only 1/2 hour preceding peak high tide. Picking a few small few fish around buoy 12, it was time to head for the other side of the channel, and about 1/2 mile north. I have fished this particular shelf many times, often with good results. It is a particularly steep shelf too, with rapid drop from 30 to 80 feet. I chose a spot mid-way between two party boats. I wanted to see where they were anchored anyway, which looked to be about 50 feet. I pushed west to about 35 feet, and used the west wind to push me across the shelf and into deeper water. I caught a few small fish at first. And then suddenly, everything changed. At once, the fish started flying in the cooler. I'm trying to manage 2 rods, and it was difficult. Squid was doing the trick too, so the soft crabs stayed in the cooler, so I could eat them another day. I continued to repeat these drifts, knowing full well that things could change at any moment, while picking up 2 - 4 fish each drift. Finally, I knew I had to pause and take count, not wanting to exceed my limit of 25. Wow, I had 13 in the cooler. Onward ho!! One interesting thing was that every time I drifted across the 60 foot mark and quickly headed to too deep of water, I would catch a really nice fish (12-13 inches these days). In short order, I was up to 23 fish in the cooler. The tide was really starting to roll out fast, and I began to wonder if I would hit that magic limit. Suddenly. a hard tug on the line. and when I got it in- double header!! I had my 25-fish legal limit and was done. Did a little bit of trolling for rock around Little Deal Island on my way in, but no dice. time to call it a day, and now I was again excited for the next opportunity to fish.
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Monday, May 25, 2015
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.
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.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Crabs and Rockfish- October awesomeness 10/24/14
Sad to acknowledge that it had been almost a full month since I had fished or crabbed at Deal Island. However, I had been planning this one for a while and was thrilled to see that the weather was going to cooperate, except for some heavy winds. And even the wind cooperated when I needed it too.
Friday 10/24/14 started out a little cool and very breezy, small craft advisory breezy. Based on recent trends, I knew that the crabbing would get good right around 2pm. This gave me ample time to cut my grass. Launched the jon boat at 12:30, abiding by the regulations against using gas engines between October and March. New electric trolling motor, new battery, I just hoped that it all worked. and, it worked quite well. The 38lbs thrust motor pushed the heavy jon boat just fine. crabbing was slow at first, although the first crab I caught turned out to be one of the biggest I had ever caught at an exact 8.5 inches point to point. This was in front of the first dike. After about an hour it was time to move. I went down the creek and just beyond the two 45-degree turns, as going to the 2nd dike was going to take too long and seemed unnecessary. Good call, as the crabs turned on here pretty quickly. After about another hour I had amassed nearly a bushel of the biggest, heaviest male crabs I have ever caught in all my years. Crabs for dinner.
Saturday 10/25/14- the wind had laid down and it was another gorgeous blue sky 68 degree day. High tide was at 3:15 pm and my plan was to fish the incoming tide. So, I launched at 12:15pm. Based on information from the locals, the hot tip was to troll around the islands in shallow water. I had rigged all of my lines with either jigs and worms, or Storm Lures. I ran across Tangier Sound to South Marsh Island, seas were relatively calm. I began drifting and used two rods, placing both in rod holders. Maintained my trolling speed by keeping the engine running at about 1100-1200 rpm, resulting in an indicated 2.5-2.8 mph troll. On one rod, I had a bucktail and yellow worm, on the other a Storm Lure The Storm Lure prevailed as the popular bait, as I caught 3 rockfish on that rod before also putting a Storm Lure on the other rod. I caught two more rock for a total of 5. Four were between 18-20 inches and went in the cooler. Fresh rockfish for dinner that night!!
Hoping to get one more crabbing trip in before it gets too late. Target is 11/14/14.
Friday, October 10, 2014
9/25/14- last chance for 2014 to crab using a gas motor
With September predictably buzzing past me at an alarming rate, I decided to carve out a little 2-day break and head down to Deal Island. Plan A was to crab on Day 1 (Thursday), and to fish on Day 2. Having scheduled this weeks in advance, I had little choice but to brave the mild nor'easter that welcomed me on Thursday. After October 1, gas-powered outboards were not to be allowed in my favorite spot, the Deal Island Impoundment in Dames Quarter. This is year 2 of this draconian restriction, intended to improve the experiences of the waterfowl hunter, despite my objections to the state of Maryland. Oh well. With the impoundment having been closed much of the summer due to littering and "vandelism", I expected there to be an abundance of crabs. And, I was not disappointed.
Having launched my jon boat (for the first time this summer) and navigated to the 2nd dyke, I began a slow but steady capture of crabs from my turkey neck handlines at around 11:30. Then as 1pm approached, all hell broke loose. The crabs began to hit my 10 lines so aggressively I had little time to move from one to the next. Soon, they were either crossing all of my lines, or ripping the baits right off the strings. This continued for another 45 minutes, at which point my bushel basket was completely full off some of the nicest crabs I had seen or caught in quite some time. Had I wanted to fill a 2nd bushel, I'm certain I could have done so in short order. By 2pm I was back in the truck, boat back on the trailer.
Day 2 broke bright and beautiful, a complete antithesis to the day prior. After cutting the grass (which had not been mowed in 3 weeks), I prepared the center console for some rockfishing, including securing some difficult-to-find soft crabs. Just then my buddy Capt. Danny Benton stopped by with a gift- a nice mess of white perch fillets. YUM! So, I stuffed those into the fridge and talked Danny into going fishing with me that afternoon. Danny had never been aboard my boat, nor had we really ever caught any fish together. I was so excited that he was going to join me. Fishing alone is nice, but its also great to have a buddy sometimes.
So, at around 2 pm I towed the boat down to Wenona for an incoming tide launch on this gorgeous sunny 78F autumn day. I stopped in at Arbys and bought a bag of ice. Everything was set!!! We lauched the boat, and I allowed Danny to play fishing guide. Oddly enough, he took me through the cut between Wenona and Little Deal ISland, into the Manokin, and all the way back into my favorite deep hole in Laws Thorofare, where I sometimes fish for hardhead. I was glad for the guided tour, as I had never approached this spot from Wenona but had often thought about it. So, we anchored, and as usual my next move was to get the tunes set up (I carry a DeWalt boombox for playing music while I fish). Got the rods rigged, music playing, and then I open the cooler to pull out some soft crabs to cut for bait. But wait- oh CRAP, the cooler is empty. No soft crabs. At which point I realize I had left them in the other cooler, which is identical to the one I packed, minus the seat cushion on top. Next thing I realize is that I also don't have the bag of ice I bought. You gotta be kidding me??? I guess I was so excited about Danny fishing with me, that I picked up the wrong cooler AND left the bag of ice which I paid for sitting in the icebox at Arbys. Epic fail. Well, we had a good laugh about this. This is SO not like me, I'm usually very thorough when prepping for going out on the water. Any way, we try spot after spot after spot, with the squid and shrimp I had brought. No dice. Either the rock did not want what we were offering, or we were in the wrong spot. Going back out into Tangier Sound with our croaker bait probably would have been a good idea, but we were focused on trying to catch a rockfish. So, as a consolation, I offered to cook up all the white perch Danny had brought me. And that's exactly what I did. I fried up probably 50 small white perch fillets at the camper, and we gorged on every single one of them as the sun was going down.
Saturday, I had to return home, so no chance to redeem myself on this trip. A pretty crazy October has me tied up until end of the month. I'm hoping to return 10/24 for more crabbing and fishing. Only this trip, I'll have to use an electric motor crabbing. And, the fishing will have to be either trolling near the shore or using some frozen peeler as bait.
Having launched my jon boat (for the first time this summer) and navigated to the 2nd dyke, I began a slow but steady capture of crabs from my turkey neck handlines at around 11:30. Then as 1pm approached, all hell broke loose. The crabs began to hit my 10 lines so aggressively I had little time to move from one to the next. Soon, they were either crossing all of my lines, or ripping the baits right off the strings. This continued for another 45 minutes, at which point my bushel basket was completely full off some of the nicest crabs I had seen or caught in quite some time. Had I wanted to fill a 2nd bushel, I'm certain I could have done so in short order. By 2pm I was back in the truck, boat back on the trailer.
Day 2 broke bright and beautiful, a complete antithesis to the day prior. After cutting the grass (which had not been mowed in 3 weeks), I prepared the center console for some rockfishing, including securing some difficult-to-find soft crabs. Just then my buddy Capt. Danny Benton stopped by with a gift- a nice mess of white perch fillets. YUM! So, I stuffed those into the fridge and talked Danny into going fishing with me that afternoon. Danny had never been aboard my boat, nor had we really ever caught any fish together. I was so excited that he was going to join me. Fishing alone is nice, but its also great to have a buddy sometimes.
So, at around 2 pm I towed the boat down to Wenona for an incoming tide launch on this gorgeous sunny 78F autumn day. I stopped in at Arbys and bought a bag of ice. Everything was set!!! We lauched the boat, and I allowed Danny to play fishing guide. Oddly enough, he took me through the cut between Wenona and Little Deal ISland, into the Manokin, and all the way back into my favorite deep hole in Laws Thorofare, where I sometimes fish for hardhead. I was glad for the guided tour, as I had never approached this spot from Wenona but had often thought about it. So, we anchored, and as usual my next move was to get the tunes set up (I carry a DeWalt boombox for playing music while I fish). Got the rods rigged, music playing, and then I open the cooler to pull out some soft crabs to cut for bait. But wait- oh CRAP, the cooler is empty. No soft crabs. At which point I realize I had left them in the other cooler, which is identical to the one I packed, minus the seat cushion on top. Next thing I realize is that I also don't have the bag of ice I bought. You gotta be kidding me??? I guess I was so excited about Danny fishing with me, that I picked up the wrong cooler AND left the bag of ice which I paid for sitting in the icebox at Arbys. Epic fail. Well, we had a good laugh about this. This is SO not like me, I'm usually very thorough when prepping for going out on the water. Any way, we try spot after spot after spot, with the squid and shrimp I had brought. No dice. Either the rock did not want what we were offering, or we were in the wrong spot. Going back out into Tangier Sound with our croaker bait probably would have been a good idea, but we were focused on trying to catch a rockfish. So, as a consolation, I offered to cook up all the white perch Danny had brought me. And that's exactly what I did. I fried up probably 50 small white perch fillets at the camper, and we gorged on every single one of them as the sun was going down.
Saturday, I had to return home, so no chance to redeem myself on this trip. A pretty crazy October has me tied up until end of the month. I'm hoping to return 10/24 for more crabbing and fishing. Only this trip, I'll have to use an electric motor crabbing. And, the fishing will have to be either trolling near the shore or using some frozen peeler as bait.
Monday, September 1, 2014
Labor Day weekend 2014
Always a mix of excitement over the Skipjack Races and the sorrow over the effective end of summer, Labor Day 2014 was no different. Typically I don't get much fishing in over this weekend, preferring to focus on the festivities. This year, I decided to break that mold. Plan A was to fish Friday and Sunday afternoons.
Friday arrived, and it was a glorious day at about 78F tops, so typical of this untypical year. The winds were light, actually too light as the 5 mph NW wind only served to nullify the incoming tide. As a result, the drift was never really a drift. Additionally, the high tide was at 4:45pm, a full two hours earlier than what I preferred. The first set of drifts was on the west side of the channel parallel to the northern point of South Marsh Island. This produced 3 decent hardhead in quick succession, and then it just died. After picking up a decent kingfish, time to relocate to buoy 12. Here the focus was on 45-48 ft, where I managed to land the two largest hardhead of teh season at 14.5 and 13.5". after one more keeper hardhead and a few throwbacks, it was all over.
Saturday, I returned to Millsboro to watch WVU vs Alabama. Returning to the island on Sunday morning, I fried up yesterday's catch and ohhhhh were they good. One key feature of this day was a relentless 20-25 knot South wind, which only seemed to get more intense as the day wore on. So, the evening fish was scrapped. Bummer.
As a consolation for scrapping teh Sunday fishing, I was able to hook up with master shipwright Mike Vlahovich on Sunday evening, and he was able to connect me with a probable ride on a skipjack for Labor Day. And so, Blair arrived early Sunday and we got aboard the Rosie Parks. It was a nice ride, a nice but sultry hot and humid day. We finished 7th out of 10 boats. And this was how the weekend ended. Looking ahead, I will be returning in 5 days to run the Skipjack 5K. After that, I don't know exactly when I'll return or whether I'll be fishing or crabbing.
Friday arrived, and it was a glorious day at about 78F tops, so typical of this untypical year. The winds were light, actually too light as the 5 mph NW wind only served to nullify the incoming tide. As a result, the drift was never really a drift. Additionally, the high tide was at 4:45pm, a full two hours earlier than what I preferred. The first set of drifts was on the west side of the channel parallel to the northern point of South Marsh Island. This produced 3 decent hardhead in quick succession, and then it just died. After picking up a decent kingfish, time to relocate to buoy 12. Here the focus was on 45-48 ft, where I managed to land the two largest hardhead of teh season at 14.5 and 13.5". after one more keeper hardhead and a few throwbacks, it was all over.
Saturday, I returned to Millsboro to watch WVU vs Alabama. Returning to the island on Sunday morning, I fried up yesterday's catch and ohhhhh were they good. One key feature of this day was a relentless 20-25 knot South wind, which only seemed to get more intense as the day wore on. So, the evening fish was scrapped. Bummer.
As a consolation for scrapping teh Sunday fishing, I was able to hook up with master shipwright Mike Vlahovich on Sunday evening, and he was able to connect me with a probable ride on a skipjack for Labor Day. And so, Blair arrived early Sunday and we got aboard the Rosie Parks. It was a nice ride, a nice but sultry hot and humid day. We finished 7th out of 10 boats. And this was how the weekend ended. Looking ahead, I will be returning in 5 days to run the Skipjack 5K. After that, I don't know exactly when I'll return or whether I'll be fishing or crabbing.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Fishing with Family- Aug 15/16, 2014
I've been trying to get my wife to go fishing with me for,... at least the last 25 years. Or so it seems. I think she became jaded so many years ago when we went out on my boat and it was rough out, and I kept the hammer down on the throttle. And I laughed each time she got sick. Ok no wonder it took her so long to come back around.
Candy arrived mid-afternoon at the camper. The forecast was for one of the nicest days of the summer, and the forecast did not disappoint. Temps in the upper 70s, winds about 5 mph, and waves less than one foot- we don't see this often in August on the Chesapeake. We launched at around 3:30 pm in anticipation of the 6:20 high tide. Our first stop was a couple of swipes in the area between Wenona and north tip of South Marsh. I think we managed to boat one fish here, and it was Candy's catch, then it was time to anchor off South Marsh. We tried a couple of spots, first on the north shore, then on the north tip of the east side. It was calm, and nothing was biting. The lack of wind made it feel warmer than it actually was too. And then the bugs decided to join us. I knew then we needed to retreat to deeper water. And so we headed southeast to the bouy 12 area. We drifted over 38-45 ft target areas. It was slow drifting with no wind. And Candy landed her 4th keeper before I hooked up. We ended up at 7pm with 9 total fish in the cooler, and I'm pretty sure she had caught 6 of them. I gladly conceded defeat and paid her my $3. Frankly, it was the greatest day of the summer having my wife finally fish with me. I was THRILLED!! I know it was a stretch for her but it meant so much to me. I hope she goes with me again.
The following day my brother and his youngest son Owen, joined me for day 2 in Tangier Sound. They were staying the week in OC, and weren't able to get down to the island until 5:15 pm. So, I met them at the dock in Wenona, boat already in the water and ready to fish. Due to limited daylight, I took us straight to bouy 12 and we commenced target the same depth and area. The magic depth was 42 ft, and we worked it with almost zero wind. I'm talking slick cam, something we rarely see here. It was an awesome time, I mostly played guide and helped Owen, but stepped in when he wanted a break. All said, we put 16 fish in the cooler, including one blue. The croaker were 10-12 mostly, same as most of the summer. Owen kept wanting to look at the bounty in the cooler. We called it a day just at sunset. The following day they came over and enjoyed my culinary work, as I put on a pretty good fish fry for both of our families.
My next trip down will likely be Labor Day weekend. I am hoping to get at least one day in over that weekend. It figures to be a shorter weekend there than in years past. And, summer is just about over.
Candy arrived mid-afternoon at the camper. The forecast was for one of the nicest days of the summer, and the forecast did not disappoint. Temps in the upper 70s, winds about 5 mph, and waves less than one foot- we don't see this often in August on the Chesapeake. We launched at around 3:30 pm in anticipation of the 6:20 high tide. Our first stop was a couple of swipes in the area between Wenona and north tip of South Marsh. I think we managed to boat one fish here, and it was Candy's catch, then it was time to anchor off South Marsh. We tried a couple of spots, first on the north shore, then on the north tip of the east side. It was calm, and nothing was biting. The lack of wind made it feel warmer than it actually was too. And then the bugs decided to join us. I knew then we needed to retreat to deeper water. And so we headed southeast to the bouy 12 area. We drifted over 38-45 ft target areas. It was slow drifting with no wind. And Candy landed her 4th keeper before I hooked up. We ended up at 7pm with 9 total fish in the cooler, and I'm pretty sure she had caught 6 of them. I gladly conceded defeat and paid her my $3. Frankly, it was the greatest day of the summer having my wife finally fish with me. I was THRILLED!! I know it was a stretch for her but it meant so much to me. I hope she goes with me again.
The following day my brother and his youngest son Owen, joined me for day 2 in Tangier Sound. They were staying the week in OC, and weren't able to get down to the island until 5:15 pm. So, I met them at the dock in Wenona, boat already in the water and ready to fish. Due to limited daylight, I took us straight to bouy 12 and we commenced target the same depth and area. The magic depth was 42 ft, and we worked it with almost zero wind. I'm talking slick cam, something we rarely see here. It was an awesome time, I mostly played guide and helped Owen, but stepped in when he wanted a break. All said, we put 16 fish in the cooler, including one blue. The croaker were 10-12 mostly, same as most of the summer. Owen kept wanting to look at the bounty in the cooler. We called it a day just at sunset. The following day they came over and enjoyed my culinary work, as I put on a pretty good fish fry for both of our families.
My next trip down will likely be Labor Day weekend. I am hoping to get at least one day in over that weekend. It figures to be a shorter weekend there than in years past. And, summer is just about over.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Moving along to August- 8/1/14
I simply can't believe it's August. The kids will start back to school in a few short weeks, and Labor Day is exactly one month away. It's been a relatively cool summer, in fact the coolest July I can ever remember. We even turned off the A/C for a few days this week.
I had planned to fish both Friday and Saturday. The forecast called for 30% chance of rain Friday, 80% Saturday so I knew I had better at least get the Friday trip in. I was joined by my friend Brian for this one. We launched at 3 pm for the 6 pm high tide. It had rained lightly all day and of course was raining when we launched. I had Brian bring me an extra set of rain gear, so we were good. Wind was about 10 mph out of the east, definitely not my favorite direct for good fishing. We started by making few drifts near buoy 12. The wind and tide were moving us pretty swiftly in a northwest pattern. We were getting strikes but missing most of the fish. After two long drifts, I had caught 2 decent fish in about 45 ft of water. This action was not enough to keep me planted here, and besides I wanted to continue on to South Marsh, where I would anchor near shore in try to stir up some other species. So off we went. to the north shore of South Marsh.
In an effort to get out of the direct east wind, I chose to anchor on the north facing shore of the island. I'm really not familiar with the depth contour beyond this, and I really need to man up sometime and explore more of it. I would especially love to venture up some of the guts, I'm told there are deep holes up there holding rockfish. Any way, while the north shore got us partially out of the wind, I was not able to drift my rig like I did last time, as the tide was not running past like to would have been on either east or west sides. Bummer. We managed to put 4 more decent hardhead (11-12 inches) in the cooler, as well as two rockfish, which of course were "big enough". As the tide changed, and the wind shifted to a more NNE, the fishing never did pick back up. I was hoping the overcast and light rain would have fired things up, but no such luck. And so, at 7 pm we decided to call it a day.
After Friday I had had about enough of playing in the rain. The forecast for Saturday was pretty dismal with more rain expected. And since Friday had been unremarkable in terms of fishing, I opted to not wait around all day and fish the 6:45 pm high tide. Better fishing or better weather could have swayed me otherwise. As it turned out, the walloping rain never did develop Saturday, but I only watched it from afar at home on radar. Oh well,... I am hoping to get back for the next favorable tide scenario on August 15.
I had planned to fish both Friday and Saturday. The forecast called for 30% chance of rain Friday, 80% Saturday so I knew I had better at least get the Friday trip in. I was joined by my friend Brian for this one. We launched at 3 pm for the 6 pm high tide. It had rained lightly all day and of course was raining when we launched. I had Brian bring me an extra set of rain gear, so we were good. Wind was about 10 mph out of the east, definitely not my favorite direct for good fishing. We started by making few drifts near buoy 12. The wind and tide were moving us pretty swiftly in a northwest pattern. We were getting strikes but missing most of the fish. After two long drifts, I had caught 2 decent fish in about 45 ft of water. This action was not enough to keep me planted here, and besides I wanted to continue on to South Marsh, where I would anchor near shore in try to stir up some other species. So off we went. to the north shore of South Marsh.
In an effort to get out of the direct east wind, I chose to anchor on the north facing shore of the island. I'm really not familiar with the depth contour beyond this, and I really need to man up sometime and explore more of it. I would especially love to venture up some of the guts, I'm told there are deep holes up there holding rockfish. Any way, while the north shore got us partially out of the wind, I was not able to drift my rig like I did last time, as the tide was not running past like to would have been on either east or west sides. Bummer. We managed to put 4 more decent hardhead (11-12 inches) in the cooler, as well as two rockfish, which of course were "big enough". As the tide changed, and the wind shifted to a more NNE, the fishing never did pick back up. I was hoping the overcast and light rain would have fired things up, but no such luck. And so, at 7 pm we decided to call it a day.
After Friday I had had about enough of playing in the rain. The forecast for Saturday was pretty dismal with more rain expected. And since Friday had been unremarkable in terms of fishing, I opted to not wait around all day and fish the 6:45 pm high tide. Better fishing or better weather could have swayed me otherwise. As it turned out, the walloping rain never did develop Saturday, but I only watched it from afar at home on radar. Oh well,... I am hoping to get back for the next favorable tide scenario on August 15.
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