I finally went fishing—a big deal for me after overcoming more challenges than I’d like to admit. I’m mostly in the clear now, especially when it comes to hitting the water.
I missed my usual group’s early May flounder trip to Chincoteague due to work (why does it always interfere?). Determined, I convinced my friend Scott for a weekend getaway. The boat was a story in itself: Scott bought an old metal flat-bottom specifically for this (and maybe some creek fishing). We spent weekends prepping it—meeting Coast Guard safety standards, adding a trolling motor and chart plotter. After some effort, we were ready.
We kicked off by grabbing weekend parking tags at the Police Department, chuckling at voluntarily visiting the PD. We launched from the Veterans Memorial Ramp, a great spot, especially for fishing the Assateague canal area.
The fishing? We caught nine flounder, with five keepers, the biggest measuring 22 inches—not bad for novices. I forgot photos, so you’ll have to take my word for it. We used various flounder rigs with minnows, finger mullet slices, and squid. No rig clearly outperformed the others.
Day two’s wind was brutal, borderline unfishable, but we gave it a shot. Day three was cut short by a home emergency, but we’re already planning next year’s trip.