Pre-2wk closure Rockfish slam

It is really hard for me to believe that the State of Maryland actually closed harvest of rockfish for 2 weeks (16 days) this summer, mostly because I simply can't agree with their assessment of low population levels.  I've caught more rockfish this summer, and in many many different places, than in any year in memory.  Anyhow, here we are now in the midst of this oh so stupid moratorium.  At least I've got time to get caught up on sharing what I did right BEFORE the closure.

The brutal heat continued up through 2nd week of August, at which point we received 5+ inches of rain and temps somewhat cooled.  I'm writing to report about 2 outings in the weeks that preceded the closure, 7/24 and 8/9/20.  The July date was an unsuccessful attempt to repeat our magic in the Manokin 2 weeks prior, despite all the conditions being right (except for the brutal heat and high water temps of 88F+).  The trip on Aug9 was 180 degrees the opposite.  Water temps had cooled a mere 2 degrees, but apparently it was just enough.  We got to the secret place around 3:45 pm.  The tide was still coming in slightly, and fishing was slow.  We picked up a number of small rock, some skates and rays, some new species of ray that we are just starting to see this year (yay !-not).  And then, the tide turned early and quickly picked up steam.  Funny how this little funnel area often doesn't match the main tide cycle in the water 100 yards away.

Repeating a story I have told so many times before, it was as if someone flipped a light switch.  We started pulling in nice rockfish like it was nobody's business.  Our meager limit of 3 keepers was realized in about 10-15 minutes, and we tossed a few back an anticipation of something better, a move I don't always feel so emboldened to make.  Not to disappoint, we ended up with a 20, a 21, and 22" in the icebox.  Oh yeah, one keeper speckled trout to boot.  In the pic above, Mark and I are quickly untangling two lines in attempt to get back in the water. 

I am planning to go out again this Friday, but in keeping with the regulations will not be targeting rockfish.  I'm trying to decide whether to pursue something else familiar, or reach out for something new.  Either way, it's almost always an experience worth blogging. Until then, #dealislandrandy 

July update- The weather got Really hot

July got increasingly hot with each passing day.  So far, I've been out 3 times.  The first, July 4, was really just a mid-day add-on to a boat ride with my family.  The location was right (island secret-spot), the tide was perfect (last hour of incoming, first hour of outgoing), but the time was terrible.  I'm talking mid-day, blazing hot sun, no clouds, little wind, and 11AM-1:30 pm.  Even though fishing with my good luck charm Peter S., the fishing was slow and poor, placing on keeper speckled trout in the cooler (pic w/ Peter and his speck).  Not surprised with my poor choice of timing, but it was the only opportunity I had.

Next up was July 12.  I had this one planned for weeks.  Going back the the secret spot as it had produced steadily for 2 months.  The tide was perfect and at end of the day.  Even the weather was great.  Dana S. replaced my previously scheduled crew (Warning: you cancel on me at the last minute, it may be a long time before another invite), and I was certain we were going to slay the fish. Well, we had a good time, but the fishing was the slowest I've had all year.  I regretted placing the 10" kingfish and 9" spot in my cooler.

Chalking the previous 2 sub-par outings up to increasing heat, I decided it was time to change up my game.  And I wasn't really certain what that was going to be, all I knew is that it had to be different.  I went back and read my own blog going back 4-5 years, to see how I had responded to onset of really hot summer.  And this gave me a few ideas.  When it came time to finalize the plan, the weather and 20-25 mph winds out of the south dictated my strategy.  Seeking protected water, I launched out of Champ, in St. Peter's Creek.  After launching in nearly low tide, I was shocked to find only 1 foot of water leaving the harbor and creek, headed into the Manokin River.  I was able to dodge some of this on the return trip.  Peter S. again accompanying me, this time fulfilling his role of good luck charm.  After a fairly unproductive stop just off the first big beach, I headed over to the mouth of the creek that drains St. Pierre's Marsh.  It was here that on the very last hour of outgoing tide and in only 2 1/2 feet of water, we quickly caught 3 keeper rock (19, 20, and 20.5 inches).  The tide went slack and so did the fishing.  Having our rock limit, we didn't stick around for the incoming tide.

On a really positive note, I installed some side bunks on my trailer in effort to pull the boat up straight.  I have struggled with this situation since day one with this other wise great boat, and was just about at my wit's end.  Thankfully, this mod seemed to do the trick, as the boat pulled up straight on the trailer first time, without any other maneuverng or assistance.  Hoping to get again soon and test it out further (and catch some more fish).  It was 97 F today in Millsboro and supposed to be 90+ hot through Thursday.  Until next time, #dealislandrandy 

Pre-wedding rockfish smash, June 24, 2020

This outing was destined to be outstanding. With my daughter scheduled to be married in 3 days, I was almost a basket case.  The Lord knew I needed some spectacular fishing to straighten me out.

We (Mark, Mark's son Derek and I) launched from Wenona around 2pm, on track to be in front of the early evening tide change at the magic spot.  And in fact, we were anchored up a full 60 minutes+ prior to peak high tide.  After setting anchor and getting lines in the water, it was less than 3 minutes before I had keeper rock #1 in the boat (at 19"), and then another 2 minutes later at 22 inches.  Rockfish Randy was on a roll.  Mark caught the next one at 19" five minutes later, and because of how quick this had transpired, we agreed to throw Mark's fish back as that would have put us instantly at the boat limit.  This was the first time we have had this much success in this spot on the last of the incoming tide.  As we joked about how throwing back a keeper rock was apt to jinx us, sure enough, we proceeded to catch one short fish after another.  Mixed in were 3 nice speckled trout, and below is pic of Derek with a nice 18" speck,

As the tide turned, we continued to catch rock after rock, many in the 16-18.5" range.  And then, WHAM !!! I knew I had a brute of a fish on the line.  Catching these rock in shallow water is so much fun.  This fish measured in at 25", the largest I've caught this year.  After a few more rock, and a kingfish, things slowed down and we headed back to port. the pic below is the 22" 2nd fish, and shame on me for not having a picture of the 25".  Until next time, #dealislandrandy

June 2020 and continued great fishing in Tangier Sound

I was going to wait until next week for this update, but my daughter is getting married in 3 days and I am afraid my mind will be expunged of all non-wedding related memory.  June 12, a Friday afternoon timed perfectly with an early evening high tide and all that (now routinely) comes with that.  I piloted my boat across Tangier Sound at 3pm and we anchored about ¼ mile north of the magic spot, in about 7 ft of water.  Dan, Mark, and I (mostly me LOL) proceeded to catch half of our collective limit (6/12) in speckled trout, all nice fish I the 18-21 inch range.  About an hour before the tide changed we moved into the magic spot, which notably is always so teaming with life (muskrats, nesting gulls and ospreys, etc).  Fairly quickly we started putting fish in the cooler.  It was late in the day and the bugs were challenging, so I deemed that we would return to port upon obtaining our limit of speckled trout.  At about 730pm, just half our after high tide, we hit that target (12 specks) and headed back in.  We also one nice 23” rockfish to go with it.  We caught many more rock, and many at 16-18”, but this continued our 2020 trend of catching more specks than rock.

The following Friday, June 19 ,my son Brooks came to visit me for Father’s Day.  I desperately wanted to show him some good fishing, but it was quite a windy day and had we taken my 18ft boat out, we would have been quite limited in where we could go on the low tide.  So, I convinced Dan (who has a really nice and much bigger 21ft (23?) Parker) to take us out late afternoon.  With storm warnings prevalent, we headed north out of Scott’s Cove to just below Fishing Bay in Dorchester County.  Dan and Mark had done well here earlier in the day, which of course is no indication of how I should have expected we would do.  To make a long story short, the storms prevailed and we scrambled back to port with a few white perch and a catfish in the cooler.  Upon reaching land, we resumed our fishing party where it probably should have started, Dan’s dock in Chance.  With the end of the outgoing tide quickly approaching, we immediately started catching nice rockfish, and I think Brooks and I first scored at 22 and 23 inches.  Having been joined by the rest of Mark’s family and also Sue, we continued to fill our striped bass quota (this year being one fish over 19”), two of which occurred after the slack tide hiatus and with the new incoming tide.  Total tally was 5 rock (19-23”), 3 speckled trout, 4 perch, and one cat.  The rock were vacuum sealed, all else were fried and consumed fresh- YUM !!!!

At my wife’s suggestion (a real rarity), I am headed out later this afternoon for a quick trip.  And when I report in next, I’ll have a new son-in-law.  So until next time, this is #dealislandrandy

3 week catch-up: late May/early June 2020

This blog is starting to get away from me.  I've fished 3 days since last update: once with Dan, once with Mark, and once with Millsboro local JB.  All 3 outings were wildly successful.  Actually there was a 4th night on Mark's dock that went well too.  Without detailing all the specifics, the speckled trout bite is off the chain and better than any year in my memory. The rockfishing has been good too, and both of these species are being caught not only from boat but also by everybody in Tangier Sound that has a dock.  One can only hope that this holds out, as most of the trout I have caught have been larger females loaded with roe.  Many of these fish are now going 19-24"- putting up a great fight and great on the table.

With the recent onset of extremely hot days, I see this shifting to a late afternoon-evening activity (my preference over morning).  However, JB and I put 6 awesome specs in the cooler on June 4 mid-day.  The secret spot has now been producing, and I am excited to get there this Friday.  In the meantime, here is a map of the area we have been targeting:

Areas with points and structures, and with sufficient water (>3 ft), have been producing.  Holland and Spring Islands are recent target areas, but the fish have been everywhere- even around the jetty outside the Wenona harbor.  Covid-19 has driven the masses out of their houses, and fishing pressure has been heavy on the weekends.  Here are a couple of pics sampling what we've been taking.  These aren't the biggest, or all of them by any means.

this is #dealislandrandy

Spring 2020 catch-up

It has been so long (3 months) since I've posted any updates, so at times I'm going to briefly summarize what I've been up to.  Of course, we are now over 2 months into the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown, so this spring has been anything but normal. I've done some fishing and hunting, but in a very socially distanced and calculated way.  The weather has been overall horrific through the entire month of April, and has continued as I type this on the 20th of May.  Cold and windy it has been almost consistently, with only the occasional nice day to break it up.  And it's been on those few nice days where Ii've ventured outdoors.

So, let me start with crabbing.  Reports of good crabbing in the Dames Quarter impoundment finally drew me out in early April (8).  I caught 3/4 bushel, but it took me about 4 hrs on a nice warm 70F day.  Of course I enjoyed eating these with 91 y.o. neighbor Pat- her at one end of my picnic table, me at the other.  I repeated this scene about a month later with crabs caught by pot in the Indian River, only 10 minutes form my house.

Next let's go to turkey hunting.  I managed to get out in the woods a total of 3 days, all non-consecutive and starting 25 April and last one being 19 of May.  I saw birds on the 1st and 3rd trips out, having called in a flock on the first trip.  This happened at 8:30 AM, and started with several hens passing right in front of me, followed by 2 jakes just a little bit further into the woods.  The final bird bringing up the rear was a large tom strutting his stuff, of course just out of shotgun reach at an estimated 55-60 yards.  My subsequent trips had me working just a little bit deeper in the woods.  I still love the turkey hunt, even when I don't take a shot, and only regret that I get so few opportunities to do this each year.

Now on to fishing.  Throughout March and April, I managed to sneak down a few times for some pier fishing on buddy Mark's pier.  They had been catching monster black drum there this bring, and I dearly wanted a piece of that action.  Of all these trips, I caught a few rock, maybe keeping two.  I could never seem to line up tide, weather, and luck.  Preceding this, a trip into the marshes in late March w/ buddy Dan in search for white perch turned up no perch, but a couple of rock.  In early May, I fished w/ Mark in the Wicomico near the Whitehaven Ferry in search of blue catfish, and we were not disappointed.  We put 33 nice sized cats in the cooler in just over two hours, and they were still biting when I left.  Mark gave me a lesson in properly cleaning the cats, which inspired me to buy a bigger fillet knife, which came in handy on May 17,.... I finally got my own boat out May 16 and 17, fishing with Mark both days.  The 16th we started out at S.I., having timed the tide, or at least so we thought.  A couple of small rock, followed by two keeper speckled trout (15 and 17"), and then the tide just got weird, quitting and going slack in the middle of its normal outgoing flow, which simply killed any action we had going.  After a bumpy ride to Gunbarrel point, I managed to catch an 18" and then a 21" rock and then the biggest white perch I've ever seen at 13 1/2 inches.  Not the great harvest I was hoping for but not bad for first time out on the boat in 2020.  The next day I decided to repeat to course, but the first stop was nearly a bust.  The 2nd stop was also nearly a bust, so we moved 100 yards to the east, just to the next point on South Marsh, and that is where things became magical as I hooked into the nice black drum pictured below.  Having no net, Mark repaid the favor from almost exactly year ago, in almost exactly the same spot, and grabbed this fish by hand as I got him to the side of the boat.  I really hate carrying a net in my 18 ft center console, already pressed for room but I guess I'm going to have to somehow find a way.  Mark also caught a nice speck here.  At Mark's suggestion, last stop was the jetty just outside the Wenona Harbor.  My buddy Bruce D reported catching large specs and rock here the day prior, so we figured- why not.  Anchoring just off the point, we started catching rock and then perch like it was nobody's business.  In about 75 minutes time, I had my keeper (21") rock for the day, and we had also collected a large number of nice perch.  Oh and by the way, filleting the black drum required the new larger fillet knife.  I fried the fish- it was delicious !!  

Hoping to report back in soon, this is #dealislandrandy  

2019 wrap-up and re-cap

I've been meaning for many weeks to plant myself in front of my computer and get this blog updated.  It's end of February, and the joy of last year's fishing and hunting has sorely faded, overcome by the feeling that this winter will never end.  I get that same feeling every year, and each year I also realize that Spring is not that too far away.

So, let's start with fishing.  Straight up- 2019 was downright magical.  It started a little late, but Memorial Day weekend my buddy Mark caught a 42" Red Drum aboard my boat- which I am proud to say I netted by hand.  He followed that up with a 24" Speckled Trout 45 minutes later, and I did not use the net for that.  Neither were my own personal catch, but I shared in the joy so much that it felt like it were.

I discovered a new fishing hole that is the most magical rockfish spot I've ever encountered. This spot produced rockfish all Spring, all Summer, and into the early Fall, as long as we had softcrab for bait.  We didn't pull any monsters out of this spot, but I knew I could always catch fish there.  We caught a fair number of Specs there, and I cannot WAIT to get back there again in 2020. 

I didn't get to do nearly as much Fall fishing for rock as I've done in the past or I would like to do.  It seems like every time I had opportunity, the weather conditions conspired to crap on my efforts.  I did get out 3rd week of November jigging (my last trip), when the rock should have been shredding the menhaden which typically school up in Tangier Sound, but I was unable to steadily connect.  We caught a few fish, but they were smaller and certainly scattered.  In fact, I don't know anyone that connected with them in this way.  Some of the charter captains I know connected with them steadily by trolling, but that's just not my scene.  I hope to have more success in 2020 catching rockfish on artificial lures.

Turning now to deer hunting, I drew an unusual total blank in 2 full days of hunting in West Virginia.  For whatever reason, my WV hunting buddies also stuggled this  past season, especially the first week of rifle season (which is when I hunted).  Upon returning to Maryland, I hunted rifle season at Deal Island and connected with an unremarkable yet appreciated button-buck on Day 4.  After 3 full days of seeing nothing, the button-buck was a welcome sight.  I saw this deer get spooked off to my right (I was sitting on the edge of a small cornfield) and I realized it had 3 choices- 1) turn right (which I knew was doubtful), 2) go straight (which I also doubted, as it was really thick, and 3) turn left and cut across in front of me on the way to the cornfield.  I prepared for scenario#3 and got my rifle barrel sitting on my tripod, looking through the scope and waiting for the deer to jump into my field of view.  Lucky for me (and unlucky for him), that's EXACTLY how it played, and I squeezed off a shot at a distance of 155 yards and dropped the young buck right in his tracks.  Unfortunately, I hot him a little more in the rear than I had intended, and some of the meat was ruined.  No worries, I sill had venison leftover from 2018 and I was also the benefactor of another deer earlier in the week.  

I cannot wait to get outdoors.  I'm hoping for an early opportunity with some perch, and I also to take a few days and turkey hunt in early May.  Until then, this is @Dealislandrandy, talk to you soon !!