Josenhans Fly Fishing Blog

October usually provides me with a day off here and there, what with the odd cold front pushing its way through. Well, beginning on the 19th a strong front kept me off the water for three straight days. I thought this just might do it for the specks, as we had some fairly cold nights mixed in with the wind. See the results for yourself..

Saturday, October 22 – I moved north a bit and met Tom Hylden and Shelley Davis in the small town of Nanticoke on the upper portion of Tangier Sound. This is a short portage for Tom and Shelley, as they wanted to tryout the fishing closer to home. We fished the shallows of Fishing Bay, Bloodsworth and Holland Islands. A cold morning it was..

Shelley landed this 24" rock on a brisk morning out of Nanticoke

Tom managed to get in on the action with his fly rod

Sunday, October 23 – Keith Campbell and Bill Martin flew into the Salisbury airport where I picked them up for the thirty-minute trip to Crisfield. We spent a beautiful fall day on Tangier Sound casting shads and Bass Assassins to the stumpy points and creeks of Smith Island. The morning started off a little slow, but as the tide ebbed in the afternoon the fish came alive and both Keith and Bill had good success with stripers to 24″ along with five speckled trout. Looks like the specks might hang around a while despite the cooler water.

Monday, October 24 – Boy, am I getting spoiled by this gorgeous fall weather. Matt LaFleur and Wil Goetz, along with Tammy and Tobey Godwin met me at Somers Cove Marina for a six-hour evening trip, and after a brief exchange of pleasantries I made a beeline for Fox Island. The tide was perfect for my favorite speck hole, and after catching a few yesterday, I wanted to see if our success was a fluke. The water temperature was down to 63 degrees, and though a bit on the cool side it was still  well within the specks comfort zone. It turned out to be a great evening of fishing with good friends and the speckled trout and rockfish proved eager to please. I think we finished the day with 15 specks to 20″ and a like number of rockfish to 23.”

Wil started the afternoon off right with this colorful speck

Tobey had the hot hand with the specks

Tammy got in on the action with this nice rock

Matt and Tobey double-up on specks

Wil took top honors on rockfish