We had some pretty gnarly thunderstorms roll through the area this evening with heavy rain, wind, thunder and lightning in many areas. I think we were spared any damage, but it was still pretty nasty for a bit. Speaking of nasty, that’s what it’s going to be this weekend in the ocean on Friday and Saturday. The forecast is calling for 15-25 with 5-8 foot seas so not many boats will be venturing out. The Big Fish Classic will go on and is adding an extra window of fishing in for Sunday into Monday. So now it will be a fish one 32 hour window of three total. I’ll see you there!
Captain Shawn Gibson of the Wound Tight had a very nice day in the canyon today with some big yellowfin tuna, a wahoo and some tilefish.
The crew of the OC Girl had a good day of inshore fishing today with some ribbonfish and some mackerel for their anglers.
Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler reported another picky bite, but there were still plenty of fillets of sea bass and flounder in coolers.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star worked hard for his clients today and was able to put them on some sea bass and at least one flounder.
A handful of today’s clients seemed unconcerned with an extra half hour of boat time; my guys tied her loose at our scheduled departure time. Despite calm both inshore & off, the inlet was a mess of standing wave slop where this morning’s hard outgoing current meet the ocean’s unrobust ESE swell. Once outside the rockpiles, however, a quick left and it became calm the rest of the day.
Nice.
Surprisingly, I had almost a quarter of my clients wishing they’d taken precautionary meclazine/dramamine/bonine.. Often times I’ll have no casualties, even in quite heavy weather. (‘Heavy’ being relative. I wouldn’t dream of going fishing in what some professional mariners would call ‘heavy weather.’)
Perhaps today’s onslaught of mal de mer was my fault for talking up the calm smooth seas in today’s forecast.
Fair warning – even a calm day at sea is still a day in the ocean. She can and will get you!
A sure sign high summer nears: my first inshore flying fish of ’23 flew from beneath the bow on our way off. Seems a marvel of nature that a fish can fly. Water’s been warm enough some while, yet we’ve had no indication of blue water or blue water life – just happy algae in warm green water.
Sea bass were feeding well off the bottom today with some schools over 40 feet up.
Fish feeding on krill? Check.
Fish feeding on baited hooks?
Ahhh.. That part was a bit more challenging. Just a tough bite. Hard. Some mastered the moment. Donny had 7 keeper cbass.
In his classic Charlie Brown “I got a rock” strategy, Hurricanne fished flounder most of the day. When he switched to sea bass the pool winning fluke – our only legal flounder today – was caught.
Though I appreciatte it & I’m certainly in good company–Lefty Kreh and some hard working men have also won: the achievements I seek are still in front of me.
Rebuilding DelMarVa’s nearshore coral reef habitat & helping to turn the ocean blue again are works so early in progress I bet no one at NOAA can show you a single piece of paper (or screen) detailing even need of the the work – let alone progress.
Promise – Marine restoration in the Mid-Atlantic depends on hardbottom reef restoration and, on the marine side, the feds haven’t grasped the least notion of it yet.
We still have a ‘deep blue sea’ and the bottom is all sand and mud..
No.. The ocean has turned green and we’re lucky if even 15% of our coral habitat survived the early industrial fisheries.
Pretty simple fix though. Even 40,000 concrete reef blocks has helped a little.
Cheers,
Monty
Captain Marc Spagnola of Dusk to Dawn Bowfishing is burning the candle at both ends again and working day and night to put his shooters on some awesome action. They’ve taken advantage of his efforts and put the arrows in some big cow nosed and southern rays.
It felt more like March than it did May today with very cool temps, overcast skies and windy conditions for most of the day. The Mallards of Worcester Prep won the ESIAC lacrosse championship today over… READ MORE
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