Spanish are here!

I left work a bit early to explore some Spanish Mackerel. I left my dock at about 3:00 and was heading to R62. I never got there. I saw some birds on the water around 1GW. I think they were there because the Omega fleet had arrived just before I arrived, but I decided to give it a go. Well, it did not take long. I got the first one before I got the 4th-rod fishing.

The water was as calm as possible, and I had my autopilot running, so a good day was ahead of me. It turned out I got 12 in the boat, missed about eight coming to the boat, and had about six blues that I let go.

Indeed, most were caught just south of 1 GW in about 30 feet of water. Every color I had worked, probably a Spacely Sprocket, would have worked today.

I got scared of a storm that was forming even though it didn’t materialize. I never take that kind of chance. Those that know me know I’m not particularly eager to get wet (at all).

These were all caught in about an hour.

July 7, 2023

HighLowAverage
Temperature88.2 °F75.1 °F82.4 °F
Dew Point80.1 °F72.7 °F76.7 °F
Humidity97 %63 %84 %
Precipitation0.00 in
HighLowAverage
Wind Speed7.8 mph0.0 mph1.4 mph
Wind Gust9.6 mph2.0 mph
Wind DirectionENE
Pressure30.50 in30.43 in

DJ and the Cobia

We left the dock this morning around 7:00. We headed to the beach. I had DJ on for the first time, and this was his first cobia try, along with Rob and Rick. 

I decided that since this day would be so nice, with no waves to deal with, I was not going to Dameron to join the all-too-familiar parking lot. I prefer to be alone, where I can manage the slick and the chum in the water. Well, a good plan gone wrong. There were very few boats at Dameron, but every boat east of the Mississippi seemed to be on the beach point. 

We ran our standard of eels and spot, but there was a long time when we only had a good conversation. This is an excellent time to give clear guidance. If you don’t like someone well enough to be cooped up with them, do not fish with them, it makes for a long day. But this group had a good time all day.

We finally decided to put out a cut bait for two reasons: we needed to change our luck, and at least we wanted a skate to put DJ to work. We did hook a skate, but Rick reeled it in, but it did break the ice.

Finally, one hit the line, and he hit it very hard and was dedicated to the nth degree. DJ got on the fish. You can’t be ready for your first cobia. You have to experience it alone. It was a nice fish, and we could tell that early. It jumped out of the water twice. As usual, he was far from done when he got to the boat. He made six distinct runs and was just a handful to get into the net. 

Well, MAFL, the word on the ML27 is out. They follow us wherever we go. I understand they need a fish, and they know the team is ready for the challenge.

June 24, 2023

HighLowAverage
Temperature82.3 °F71.7 °F76.3 °F
Dew Point76.1 °F70.8 °F73.0 °F
Humidity97 %76 %90 %
Precipitation0.00 in
HighLowAverage
Wind Speed7.2 mph0.0 mph1.2 mph
Wind Gust8.9 mph1.7 mph
Wind DirectionWest
Pressure30.53 in30.44 in

Dolphins are here and hopefully the Cobia

I am scheduled to head out this afternoon after Church to try for Cobia with my friend Scott. Hopefully, I’ll update you tomorrow with a nice fish (or fish story).

But yesterday, I went out with my friend Tim, searching and wandering around. We had heard that the Spanish Mackerel were already in the area, but we saw no signs of any. The seas continually grew, so we were only there for about 30 minutes. But…while heading back, Tim lost his hat, so we tried in vain to get back to it before it submerged. When I get to Heaven, one of my first questions will be how many hats have been lost while fishing. I should write a book about that one day. It could be hilarious. Anyway, when we were looking for the hat, we saw a massive school of dolphins. Here are some of the shots that I recorded. As usual, you can see many more with your eye than you can capture with your phone.

Citation Speckle Trout

Well, the rumors of my demise turned out to be overblown. I have finally gotten back out on the water.

Scott and I rolled out of the creek at about 6:30 this morning. This marks the first time I have targeted Speckle Trout, and thank God I did. I caught this monster for my first speck citation. We headed to Mill Creek on the recommendation of my friend Ron. We did catch one speck but mostly just 18” stripers. We fished both sides around the creek and decided to go to Warehouse Creek for the rest of the morning. Again, catching small stripers and a white perch but no speck. Finally, this guy buried my voodoo shrimp on a popping cork. 

The fish turned out to be 25.5” and 5.53 lbs—such a good day. It got breezy around 11:00, so we headed back to the dock. 

I could keep us in a good position all day because I had my trolling motor whirring all day. That worked great for us and kept us in position at all times.

June 3, 2023

HighLowAverage
Temperature74.6 °F64.1 °F70.6 °F
Dew Point68.7 °F62.8 °F65.8 °F
Humidity97 %74 %85 %
Precipitation0.00 in
HighLowAverage
Wind Speed18.1 mph0.0 mph4.5 mph
Wind Gust20.6 mph5.7 mph
Wind DirectionNE
Pressure30.56 in30.42 in

Year in review

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.

A perfect day to end the year

Today was our last day of fishing for the 2023 season. Mitch and I left the dock at 6:45, heading to R 62. No ice broke today, but the water was still cold. Today’s weather was perfect. The max waves were about a foot, and the sun shone brightly. 

We got there before most of the other boats and noticed that most were headed to the cut channel. We wanted to avoid going so far, and we didn’t want to fight the crowd that was indeed there. What we could see from the far north convinced us we were as far south as we wanted. 

I lost one on the Purple People Eater rig, caught a 22-inch on the Chartreuse Roadrunner, and a nice fat 28 on the Colonial Heights rigs.

This is Mitch driving by mind control

High
LowAverage
Temperature53.8 °F31.8 °F41.8 °F
Dew Point45.9 °F31.0 °F38.8 °F
Humidity98 %74 %90 %
Precipitation0.00 in
HighLowAverage
Wind Speed6.9 mph0.0 mph0.7 mph
Wind Gust10.3 mph1.0 mph
Wind DirectionSSW
Pressure31.00 in30.90 in
Purple People Eater (our best lure)
Tequila Sunrise
Colonial Heights (2nd most productive)
This is how we run the roadrunner. We let the weight “bounce” the bottom
This is how we run our umbrella rigs from above

I’m not saying it was cold.

It felt cold. Mitch and I went out today (12/29) for some end-of-year striper fishing. This video below is us breaking ice in our creek as we headed out. It has been freezing for a week, and the creek shows the effect. We didn’t make it out before this because it was too thick.

We headed for the RP, which is good luck for us this time of year, and from R62 north, there are just too many fish nets we can get in trouble with, so we went south. We marked a bunch of fish all day, but most were not having anything we put down. Finally, our chartreuse road runner running at the bottom and our all-white bucktails got us two keepers. Nothing huge but we got our limit and got out of there as the waves were heading to 3 feet.


High
LowAverage
Temperature55.6 °F30.7 °F39.9 °F
Dew Point40.9 °F26.7 °F34.6 °F
Humidity97 %54 %83 %
Precipitation0.00 in
HighLowAverage
Wind Speed4.9 mph0.0 mph0.7 mph
Wind Gust6.7 mph1.1 mph
Wind DirectionSouth
Pressure31.04 in30.92 in
uSunrise on our way out to the RP Buoy

Mitch takes us out

My friend Mitch got Todd and I out for a quick striper run. We left the dock at first light, maybe 7:00 or so. The wind was mostly from the north so smooth until we got out to the bay. From there it was still only about 2 feet with a few rogue waves but overall, a nice ride out.

We went for the NNK Reef, got to the north side but the more we were there the more fish nets we saw. You really just couldn’t safely fish anywhere from R 62 to Maryland. I know they are not allowed to have a nets on the reef but they definitely blocked entry into the reef area. So, we headed south towards the “Asphalt Pile”, we didn’t see much but out of the corner of our eye we saw a few boats near the “RP” buoy. The closer we got the more boats we saw for what ended up being about 50 boats.

We did see a bunch of birds working so we dropped the lines well outside of the parking lot in the channel. We got to more like 50 feet and started to pick up a few. Not great numbers or big but we did eventually get our limit.

We were using the normal umbrella rigs you see on this site. Purple has been the best color for a few years and the all-white, red neck original bucktails continue to work well.

Slammin Sammy

I went out in Scott’s boat with Scott, Cameron (that works with Scott), and Sammy (Cameron’s brother). We left the dock on Saturday morning approx 7 am. on the 17th. The wind was howling, so we stayed in the river. Overall, we did not like our chances because the river this time of year is too cold. Often, the fish have moved out to deeper, warmer water by this time of year. But, we headed for the 200 bridge area of the Great Wicomico. There was nothing in the water, but as we made our way next to the pilings, we caught a bunch and some bigger ones. We were trolling with our standard rigs and picked up one or so each pass. Sammy, of course, got the big ones; these were his first two keepers. I forgot to write the particulars about the water and tide, but it was a good day with friends.

Always good to have new people on the boat and adding another sport fisherman to the mix. We will definitely have these two back.

Fight on Whays Creek

Had an exciting battle this morning. We had two young and two older Bald Eagles working on the same bait ball. They didn’t actually fight but they did try to run the other pair off.

It took a while for me to get my camera out and put on the longer lens but here are a few of the pictures.