19 Mar Winter review and on to spring
Writing this at 30000ft AGL blasting my way off to Copenhagen, Denmark. Not quite the way I want to spend the spring, but it’s what it takes to make a dollar these days, until this thing makes its first million, or hundred… So, long time no post, well here we are again, coming up on our first year! Aside from a poor waterfowl season we had a pretty darn good year. Got a new (old) boat with newer engines. That sure was a major game changer from a single engine 20 footer I ran for the last couple years, but still nothing to the 50ft sport fisher I would like it to be. Not many owner/operators left like it used to be in the charter business. All takes money, maybe one day…
Caught some fish last year, lots of flounder, couple tuna fish, many inshore rock, drum, cobia and a good mix of others. That is the best part about the area around the Eastern Shore, diversity. We have seasons, and with them waves of different species show up in our area. Ours are pretty big swing seasons too temperature wise, 90s in the summer to single digits in the winter. Hell it seems these days that those kind of temperature swings almost happen overnight. El Nino? Global warming? Cow farting?(yes a legitimate thing people study) Either way, we have some crazy weather and seasons to deal with. That damn weather kept it warm all winter for us, which meant no waterfowl migration. Mowed the lawn on Christmas day this year and it almost hit 70 degrees. Mosquitoes were biting our knuckles in January. Why would they want to leave the great lakes and Canada when it’s not frozen up there!
Duck hunting, made 43 trips in the 3rd split, didn’t miss many mornings, but it was sure hard to get the motivation to go some days. Shooting the first 3 shells I shucked in the gun was a good day this season. I love to cook duck and love to eat duck, but this year it was lean! Eating buffleheads and mergansers, yes, I said that right, of course we eat them.
The start of Philly style duck Cheesesteaks on the woodstove
Too many people these days take for granted what they have heard all there life about this duck being poor tasting or that fish being bad. Try it for yourself before you believe it. Recipes soon to come on here I hope. Hell more and more “sportsmen” don’t even attempt to eat what they kill these days, give it away and go to McDonald’s, for sure not our style. Even though the migration was poor for us this year, a lot of fun times were still had during the waterfowl season. Made some new friends, hunted new spots, had some good duck cheesesteak cookout parties over the woodstove. Got to watch some dogs work, although they questioned us about our lack of ducks and shooting… In fact, I believe we also questioned the dog’s ability at least one morning. Found a few new public spots, saw some fat mallards 🙂 the season is what you make of it.
The kind of skyline most people on the Eastern Shore prefer
Like anything else, it’s not all about the ducks or the fish or the whatever we are chasing any particular day. To sit in an old skiff, miles from any other person, watching the sunrise, sipping some coffee from the Stanley thermos, I have to think we are lucky. One friend always brings this up while we are bass fishing. We’re sitting there in some old farm pond in a leaky boat and he would say, “Can you imagine living in New York city??” No, I can’t… Nothing against all the people who do and the many who love it, not for me, not for any of us.
Back to the ducks, shot a few widgeon this year, always a cool sight to see around. The highlight was a pair of Eurasian Wigeon, I got the hen on the right and my buddy got the drake on the left. Both were in perfect shape and I gave him the hen to get the pair mounted, beautiful birds.
A hen and drake Eurasian wigeon
Temps were so warm that woodies stayed around through the end of the season, love to hear them call, then the fast sons of bitches blow past without me having a chance to lift the gun, typical, love em. Got my first blue wing teal this year, pretty little bird, however it was kinda stupid, well, I guess they are not far related from chickens, and they are sure dumb, maybe that is why I got it. I will take it, I like my birds uneducated…
A bluewing teal
Almost sank the boat one early morning in Rumbly, glad it was dark as I couldn’t see how big the waves were. Once we could put her side too I could pull the plug and run and she drained, duck hunters are different people, I wouldn’t have taken the 25 Grady out that morning but didn’t think twice about the skiff. Of course we were fine, even shot a black duck, at least we found a good rock fishing spot…
Another morning I went the the Saxis Islander. She was fuckin blowin, straight across the sound too where we had to go, didn’t matter, we were going. We found the knot of birds the day before and couldn’t not go. Teal like bees, the wind did nothing but encourage us. Luckily, the tide was up that morning and we could scoot inshore from the dock, but on the way home it was a different story. I was lying in the bottom of the boat and the dog was hiding behind me, literally. The poor islander was soaked to the bone holding the tiller. Didn’t matter, we did what we came for. Pulled up the boat and wrung out, I think ol’ Saxis was wet for three days. I never had a better warm scrapple sandwich than that morning from Martha’s kitchen. The dog liked his fried hot dog too… Wind was blowing so hard that no one on the island ever heard a report of a shotgun that morning, same story we told in the kitchen. Ate teal that night, ok, they are a little better than merganser.
Somedays the fog is your friend
Built a sea duck setup this year, tried it once on the flattest calm warm bluebird day. Ended up loading the boat! With driftwood from Williams point, taxidermist was happy at least…
February, the slow month on the shore, not much hunting or fishing going on. We didn’t even rabbit hunt this year, dogs getting old, guys doing it getting old, hopefully it won’t be a forgotten sport in years to come, much like our deer dogs are becoming. Worked on the boats, always something on my post-it notepad list to do. February and March is our time to ride ATV’s, quads, 4wheelers, whatever you want to call them. Grew up with three wheelers and now got lazy and have the typical four wheel drive 4wheeler, lazy mans ride. Put 50 miles on it last week, always great fun with good people. It is one of the favorite pastimes around here when nothing else is happening. Good way to keep trails clean and find antler sheds, and make fun of your friend who gets stuck a lot…
A tribute to our lost friend who loved to ride.
Enough of Winter… Spring, It’s here, to prove it we went and caught a flounder. March 16th north of Wachapreage we found one fish and had a couple other bites. I’ve caught a lot of fish, a few big ones, but I was damn sure proud of that one 17.5” flounder. Another perfect morning, no wind, great sunrise over the water, on the seaside and could hear the ocean waves crashing, black coffee, things were good. A mild fog was lying just over the mainland and everything looked ghostly.
Our first flounder of the year, March 16th
People swear by fishing the outgoing afternoon tide for early season flounder. I have one rule for the early inshore flounder, fish at daybreak. Today it happened to be the last 3 hours of the outgoing from daybreak to 10am, sometimes the stars do line up, as they say even a blind squirrel gets a nut every now and then. Had 2 bites the first drift and my rusty ass missed them both, been a long time since I’ve had to drop back to a flounder. The wrecks have spoiled us over the years, inshore you have to let em’ eat, and eat.. I now remember why I compared it to white marlin fishing years ago.
We did a trip the week before, right out of our home port in Greenbackville, took the small skiff on a scouting mission. Heard from a netter a few schoolie rockfish were around. Plan A cast for rock, Plan B go check out some public marshes for next year’s duck hunting and find a couple cedar stumps for a friend. Plan A, bust, tide was buckin’ the wind, it was rough, almost quit right then, but pushed the boat across to Chincoteague to be in lee of the wind. Got over and started looking around. Found an explosive ordnance still intact in good shape, If I call the officials to get it will they shut down the area to people?
an ordinance on Chincoteague
Good question, I didn’t call, she had been there 50 years, let her be. Don’t poke around at the south end of Wildcat marsh if you don’t like old munitions… Anyhow, loaded up on the cedar driftwood, 3 decoys, an old washed up crab pot, couple good boards and other trinkets you get when walking a marsh after a winter. On the run back across the bay the wind had died so we hit our spot for one “last” cast. That last cast turned into 5 rockfish in the boat and loosing 3 others. Damn if felt good to get some saltwater pullage the first week of March. We let them all go, still under the 28” mark, it didn’t matter, we won they lost.
A schoolie rock early march in Chincoteague bay
We did some freshwater fishing too, just got a text as the plane was pulling out that the bass were on fire tonight, o well, I can’t fish every day (even though I try). Have not caught the first chain pickerel this year, but only hit the spot once. Did have some nice crappie, bass, bluegill and pumpkinseed this spring; also saw a damn 3 foot KOI in a pond. The ghost fish people told me about is real; maybe he’s next on the hit list…
A early spring Crappie
Normally I don’t eat too many freshwater fish, but one evening the crappie just kept coming, the Aglia #2 squirrel hair was busting their ass every cast. Well, near the end of the evening I unhooked one and he fell in the boat instead of in the water, oops… Next cast a bigger one joined him. 12 casts and 5 fish later I had the stringer I wanted for dinner. I forgot how good crappie is, better than merganser…
Spent 2 weeks down in Tampa FL this spring, beautiful place, 75 and sunny, I see why the snowbirds go there in the winter. Worked 12 out of 13 days, but did get out and rent a boat for a few hours. Caught a good size sheepshead at the Gandy Bridge and some speckled trout in the deeper grass flats. Good times, first time being in a “Coyote Ugly” bar, Ybor city is a wild place.
This was supposed to be a picture of a Sheepshead, but I figured this wasn’t a bad replacement…
Its snow and ice for me for the next month or so. Maybe get a chance to get my seal this year, or help the locals skin a polar bear. Mainly will just be working, in the cold, at least spring is here. Next is surf fishing in May, which has actually become the time we catch our biggest fish with the smallest fuel bill. I like that… Talk to you all then…
A little crossbow hunting
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