Josenhans Fly Fishing Blog

Friday, October 7 – Paul Anderson, his son Matt, along with Paul’s brother Mike joined me for a day chasing rock, blues and specks. At daybreak we had rock to 26″ on poppers,  hard-fighting blues to three-pounds mid-day and ended with a speck apiece ranging from 18″ – 20″ for three Tangier ‘Slams.’ It doesn’t get any better than this!

Paul, Mike and Matt with some Tangier variety

Saturday, October 8 – Chris Cianci, Chuck Prahl and Don Cochran took a break from their home waters on the Choptank River to put Tangier Sound to the test. We began the day with some topwater rockfish action, with many more blow-ups than hook-ups. Sometimes rockfish aren’t very good at eating poppers. The excitement of the strike though is well worth the effort. The surface action was interrupted when Don switched to a 4″ shad and began to hook speck-after-speck. It didn’t take long for the other guys to take the hint and soon all had boated a nice speck or three to 21.” Final tally on the specks was eight. I think we could have done much better were it not for the super pretty day, light winds and an abundance of Saturday boat traffic. A guide’s gotta have some excuse..

Don Cochran had the hot hand on specks

Monday, October 10 – Ed Roach, Doug D. and David Blorstadt enjoyed great daybreak topwater action on stripers up to six-pounds. The shallow-water rockfish really put on a show, smacking the Storm and Stillwater poppers all over the sound. The action died once the sun came up so we turned our attention to blues. While the size of the blues has diminished, there was just enough action to keep the guys entertained. After the blues quieted down, we went speck-hunting. While playing hard-to-get, we did land a few nice specks, with Doug’s 22″ beauty the prize of the day. We picked at school stripers for the remainder of the day while enjoying good weather and conversation.  Three nicer guys you could not fish with.

Dave Blorstadt had some early topwater success

Tuesday, October 11 – Jack McKenna had a day to remember with speckled trout. Overcast skies, calm winds, clear water and plenty of spotted fishes! To top it all off, Jack is a fly fisherman, and an eight-weight was his weapon of choice. Specks jumped all-over Jack’s pink Cactus Striper as he boated 22 trout to four-pounds! To date, a 2011 high for my boat. Great job Jack, and be sure to tell your son in Florida that speckled trout fishing is alive and well here in Maryland..

Jack McKenna with one of many specks on the fly

Another fat speck

The pink Cactus Striper was a speck favorite

Rock have been giving my clients a super top-water show during the early morning hours casting Storm Chug Bug and Stillwater Smack-it! poppers. Bluefish in the two to four pound range seem to be everywhere, and they will chase the same poppers – even with the sun high in the sky. But the fish that has everyone buzzing is speckled trout. We have had some fantastic speck fishing this fall, much like days of old. While most of the specks are running 16″ to 21″ there have been quite a few in the four-pound range, with one tugging the Boga all the way to the eight-pound mark! That big fish was fooled by a Stillwater Smack-it! Jr. popper. Some highlights!

Monday, September 19 – Don Harrison and Drew Clemens had some fun with rock on poppers early casting the skinny water near Tangier Island. A cold front during the weekend had dropped the water temperature at my bluefish honey hole from 80 to 68 degrees. Not good. However, after moving to the bay proper west of Tangier we found warmer water and school after school of hungry two to three-pound blues. Don and Drew had their hands full – and kept the captain busy – for the remainder of the trip.

Wil Goetz with a 29-inch skinny water striper

Tuesday, September 20– Matt LaFleur, Wil Goetz and Alan Fiekin joined up for a trip to the lower end of Tangier Sound. From the first cast it was non-stop blues and rock anyway you wanted to catch them. While Matt and Will battled it out with three to five-pound blues while casting Storm Chug Bugs, Alan kept busy in the back of the boat throwing a popper with his fly rod. At times, the blues would literally become airborne in a head-on charge, before landing choppers-first on top of the fly. Stripers to five-pounds were in the mix as well. I was kept busy netting, releasing and re-tying for a good three hours straight. Who says fishing is a non-aerobic sport! To finish the day, we hit the skinny-water for some fantastic rockfish top-water action.

Matt LaFleur enjoyed non-stop action with rock and blues

Alan Fiekin caught his fish on the fly

Wednesday, September 21 – Jeff Kaplan had a great trip with early morning stripers on top-water, followed by all the blues and rock he could handle out on some underwater humps in the main bay. The rock ran up to 28 inches while the blues averaged two to four-pounds. I was finally able to drag Jeff away from the non-stop action to head to the grass flats for a try a speckled trout. Jeff was not disappointed as he landed six nice specks from 16″ to 23″ during our final hour of the trip! What a way to complete the Tangier ‘Slam!’

Nice speck Jeff!!

Makes getting up early worthwhile!

Jeff with another nice speck

Don Harrison with a nice rock

 

Drew Clemens caught this fat speck to complete the 'Tangier Slam'