Josenhans Fly Fishing Blog

When I started this newsletter, a good friend said he was surprised to hear that I intended to write a report every week, like maybe I was being overly ambitious. Turns out he knew more than I did. Oh well, I’ll do my best to keep them coming as regular as possible.

 

I took a little time off the past two weeks, for the holidays, and a weekend trip to Williamsburg with the family. I’m going to need the rest because the schedule is fast filling-up for the remainder of the late summer and fall season. If you are at all interested in a trip, please let me know soon so I don’t leave anyone out. I expect some great fall fishing on Tangier Sound over the course of the next two months.

 

My lone trip of late was a super fun day with Pat Weixel, his wife Judy and their four wonderful children Jimmy, Brendan, Annie and Kate. These kids sure had a blast fishing the creeks and marsh banks of Tangier Sound, within a stones throw of Crisfield. We decided to bait-fish for the most part, to give even the youngest a chance to catch a lot of fish and the tactic paid off. I started out the morning scooping up a dozen and a half rank peelers (down here, rank means ready to shed their shell and become a soft crab in a matter of hours) from the floats of Dryden Seafood. We decided to do the fishing in shifts, as there were six of them, one of me and my 20 foot Jones Brothers. Safety comes first.

 

The wind was blowing a bit, so for most of the day the routine was to look for a protected spot near a marsh bank, toss the anchor and then fish bits of peeler crab on a standard bottom rig. After a slow start with bait-stealing crabs, and several moves, we finally dialed in to the fish. Everyone caught fish, including speckled trout, rockfish, bluefish, weakfish (gray trout) and spot. I think the total tally for specks was near 50 fish!!  Many were close to 10 …………      inches. In fact, all of the speckled trout were in the 9 to 12 inch range. Sure was great to see these little buggers and hopefully this will bring some great speck fishing next season. They grow fast and will be of legal size next year.  The kids were all great fishermen, casting was for the most part uneventful (I only had to duck a handful of times ) and their endurance was better than mine. It truly was one of the best times I have had on the water this season. Here are some photos of the day. Sorry some of them seem smudged, I think that was speckled trout slime on the lens 🙂

Till next week…

Kevin