2018 - June 19 - Day 4 - Recap

Day four recap:
Sorry my posts are getting out of order a bit. This one is about the day yesterday (June 19).

It was a long hot day. A bit windy in the early morning but absolute doldrums for most of the day. That makes for easier paddling, but man was it hot.

I made a couple of navigating errors that added to my paddling including trying a shortcut that did not have enough water even for a kayak. I also had mentally put myself much further along than I actually was. Bummer when I realized that instead of two more hours I had 5.

Fishing has been slow. Far less action than last year. Some charter captains at the Davis Creek marina said the shallow water fishing is as bad as they can ever remember it. Reasons not clear for that but they advanced a few theories: salinity too low because of all the rain upstream this spring; spring freeze killed off a lot of speckled trout; menhaden overfished by Omega Corp so badly that the whole ecosystem is suffering.

Whatever the reason, I have caught no speckled trout and no redfish so far. Maybe I’ll do better now that I’m in tidewater. Any of you locals want to come out and show me how it’s done? William Ragulsky? Kevin Whitley? Ric Burnley?

Anyhow the afternoon yesterday went better when the fish started biting. I got into some small bluefish, a 16” striped bass, and a new one for me, a hound fish. When I Hooked it, all hell broke loose. It was jumping out of the water, running straight at me, going under the boat, just going wild. When I got him alongside I decided I did not want him and all his teeth in the boat with me so I did a boat side release. Lots of excitement with that one!

As I pulled into the Back River a pod of dolphins cam close to the boat. I could hear them breathing through their blow holes.

I was spent and about at my physical limit when I pulled into the Dandy Have Marina.

The hound fish!