As I sit and reflect on the year, I remind myself as I sit in the fog that we have had fog on the last day of the season for a few years. The moral of the story is don’t wait for the last day. Mitch and I went out yesterday in perfect weather and were back in a couple of hours. I called my friend Ron, so he went out and caught a nice 29” striper.
The best characterization of this year is “It has been too busy.” The year started as a planned change of me retiring from Dominion Energy after 38 years and starting a new career with Quanta Technology. This change took place part-time in April at both businesses and beginning in November. I have very few regrets about any of the decisions surrounding my work. I truly enjoyed my time at Dom and love that I have moved to a consulting position with Quanta. Both are great companies, and I fit in well at both.
My first admission is that I was lazy this year when it came to updating this blog. I would love to say I was too busy, but I am confident we have time for everything we want to accomplish, so being lazy is the best way to characterize my year of writing.
As it stands, we don’t have a spring season for Striper any longer, so I usually skip it. With that, Cobia was my first targeted season. For whatever reason, the cobia did not travel up the bay like normal. When they did, it was not the giants we have seen recently. Every cobia caught was well-fished, and thankful to get it in the boat. If there is an excuse, I blame having two jobs and the weather having issues when I was available. I didn’t fish for cobia like I have. If you don’t have your line in the water, you surely can’t complain about the number of fish in the boat.
On the other hand, Spanish Mackerel worked well every time I went out. We got as many as we wanted to clean, and there were multiple massive fish on the line this year. Well, huge for this area may be more appropriate. We had numerous 4 – 5 lb fish on the boat. We had a fantastic time with Sutton, Adam, and Anna Leigh on Sutton’s first big adventure in fishing. He particularly loves Spanish fishing. We had great weather on Adam’s new boat, Mom catching some Zs and rays, and Sutton catching the big fish of the day.
I changed boats which also consumed a lot of my time. I bought it used from Saint Augustine, Fl. After researching for about three years, I decided I would die one day, so I said do it. That did mean I had to travel to Fl once to inspect and try out the boat and another to get it once the paperwork was clear. There is an entire blog of crazy things that happened if you would care to read. But I did regret seeing my old boat, not on my lift. I am not the kind of person to get attached to inanimate objects, but we had such good times on an incredible boat it still felt empty for a while. I have put all of the bells and whistles I could think I wanted on what I am saying is my last boat. That work on this new boat also dampened my fishing, but in the long run, having an auto-pilot, radar, a man overboard electronic switch, and other gadgets will help. I love the auto-pilot more than I thought I would, and I expected it to be excellent. AP has changed my life regarding fishing. I don’t use it at high speed, but I would never have a boat without it again for trolling.
Striper season was late, mainly because I think the water was too warm to drive the fish out of the creeks and rivers but as soon as it did, it was game on. Also, they stayed in the Potomac and the Rappahannock and not so much the Great Wicomico. That makes sense, as the GW is not nearly as big as the others, but we didn’t get fish here until late. Towards the end of the year, it got too cold too quickly, but I guess there was no pleasing a farmer or fisherman.
Well, until next year. I wish you who are crazy enough to read the rantings of someone who writes so he can remember the best of days ahead. Visit us at Fairport Baptist Church, and we would love to talk to you about you and where you are going.
