We interrupt this hurricane blog to bring you a fishing report.  Yes, this IS a website dedicated to light tackle fishing, and on most Sunday evenings, that’s what I do.  I spent most of the day singing the lumberjack song with chainsaw in hand, cutting up the trees and limbs that fell in our yard.  After seeing all the trees down around Kent Island today, I’m surprised that we didn’t have more damage than we did.  We are also fortunate that the only complete tree that was uprooted in our yard fell harmlessly instead of taking out our picket fence or part of the church next door.  We worked on the house and yard most of the afternoon, finishing about 5:00 PM.  That left just enough time to go fishing.

I launched Thunder Road at Matapeake and ran north to the Bay Bridge.  Winds were about 12 knots out of the west when I started, but came down to near zero as the evening wore on.  The water was stained, but not as much as I expected.  Water temperature and air temperature were exactly the same at 76 degrees. That’s significant because the water has been well into the 80s.  It means there was a lot of top-to-bottom mixing due to the storm. I did expect the fish to be freaked out and hunkered down, and they were.  I gave the Bay Bridge a good shot, but only caught one little rockfish.  I thought the fish might be deep, so I started my fishing trip looking for more of a winter pattern.  I marked a few fish deep, but I couldn’t get them to bite.  I moved to the shallow pilings and there wasn’t anything going on there either. 

Traffic was relatively light on the bridge tonight.  I noticed a few vehicles loaded up with belongings, obviously returning after evacuating the Island or the beaches, but there were also many emergency and military vehicles traveling across the Bay.  There’s a lot of cleaning up left to do all along the eastern seaboard.

I decided to check on the fish that have been breaking to the south of the Matapeake ramp, and sure enough they were there.  I was also glad to see the water color improve as I ran toward Bloody Point.  I played around with the little rockfish and blues that were breaking, but I didn’t catch anything big enough to brag about.  I saw one Spanish mackerel jump, so I started casting and ripping a spoon.  I might have hooked one mack, but he got off before I landed him.  There was no problem catching blues.  I noticed several additional pods of birds around, but it was already sunset, so I didn’t have time to look at them to see if any held bigger fish.

I finished the evening by throwing top-water plugs to some rocks along the shoreline, but I didn’t even get a smell.  Still, I was happy with the results of my trip considering the conditions.  I don’t think it will take but a day or two for fishing to get back to normal.  The most interesting thing I noticed this evening was the business-as-usual ospreys out hunting for fish. Amazingly, many of their nests are still intact.  Even though I saw a half-dozen 100-year-old oak trees uprooted at Matapeake Park, the osprey nests survived the hurricane.  I’m no engineer, but if I were, I think I’d be studying the construction techniques those birds are using.  Wow!

Posted Sunday, August 28th, 2011 at 9:55 pm
Filed Under Category: Fishing Reports
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Responses to “We interrupt this Hurricane blog….”

  1. Mike Burrows says:

    Glad you came thru the storm ok. Thanks for the pics and video they were very interesting.

    Mike

  2. Mike TJAM Dunlap says:

    Very jealous. Glad to hear you made it through the mess. I was curious who would get out tonight after the wind fell off, I should have known….thanks for the updates.
    Sea ya out there!
    Mike

  3. uncle phill says:

    Thanks for the report! Looks like you may have a bent guide on that spinning rod…

  4. JOE YACK says:

    Thanks for the report… glad you made it thru O.K. and good to hear the water quality is not that bad…I should be able to fish this week and not a moment too soon! See ya on the water!

  5. Roger T says:

    Thanks for the report,good to hear the bay is not in that bad of shape,lets hope runoff is minimal.

  6. Doug M says:

    Thanks for the update glad to hear you and your family are ok!

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