p6180032We’ve just had two of the most beautiful evenings of the year, and both were very unexpected. At 3:00 PM yesterday it was windy with pouring rain on Kent Island. Dave “Spynet” called and wanted to know if I was fishing. I looked out at the weather and said, “well, er, yeah, we can try it.” By 6:30 PM it was sunny skies and the Bay looked like glass. We didn’t have much time to fish, so we launched off Kent Island and risked the trip on a surgical strike to a nearby location that’s been holding fish. Dave had a new baitcasting rod & reel – dang, another carrot stix – and he was anxious to try it out.

He tied a hotrodded Mann’s Hardnose on to one of his custom jig heads and gave it a fling as soon as we came off plane. Boom, he hooked up on his first cast. Good initiation for an excellent outfit. He switched over to topwater after a while and was just as successful.  I was hoping to repeat past successes with the fly rod but I couldonly get small fish. I guess the big ones didn’t swim close enough to the boat last night.  
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The fish in this area are in shallow water, almost always 10’ or less.  As a general rule, it’s smarter to jig under breaking fish because bigger fish usually stay lower.  These schools all seem to be about the same size though, so we’ve been modifying our topwater plugs by cutting off the treble hooks and tossing them into the fray.  Here’s a link to a video of this week’s action.  

 Tonight I joined Mark onboard Fischadler II for a return engagement. We almost called off the trip because it was blowing pretty good in the early afternoon, but we managed to get out a little before the outgoing started.  We had to search for a while before we found the fish. They were about 5 miles south of where they were the previous night. Once again, the Bay was golden glass and we could see bait schools from 300 yards away. You might remember from past photos that Mark keeps all his rods in holders on top of the pilot house. After hooking them a half dozen times with my fly, I gave up on the long rod. Who can cast with all that crap in the way?  

p6180011More accurately, I have a lot to learn about open-water fly casting,  but I’m enjoying the process and kind of getting the hang of it.  It’s quite a bit different from stream fishing back in the mountains of Tennessee.  I’m hoping never to buy a rockfish fly.  It just makes a lot more sense to tie my own.  It’s less expensive and way more satisfying!  

It was fun catching fish in a lot of different ways, but the way I really like them came later. My wife called and asked me to bring a fish home. When I got back I found she had set out the ingredients for fish tacos including some homemade guacamole. I chunked up the fish, dredged it in old bay, bread crumbs and chili powder then fried it in melted butter. She took care of the rest.  Here’s the recipe.  Good eats. 

 

Dianne’s Guacamole Recipe

Peel & pit 3 ripe avocados

Mince half a small red onion (about 3 tablespoons)

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Chop 1 small tomato�

Chop 1 small fresh jalepeno

Mash ingredients together in a bowl with a fork

Season to taste with salt, pepper, and a squirt of lime juice

Rockfish Tacos

I like to cube and fry rockfish in butter for tacos. I take filets off a 22 inch or so size fish and cut them into quarter or half-dollar size chunks. Sprinkle liberally with Old Bay then add bread or cracker crumbs and a touch of chili powder. Mix together with your hands until the chunks are coated well and feel dry. Melt a half stick of butter then bring up the heat slowly so that the butter just starts to turn brown, then add the fish. Cover it as it fries and maybe turn it once with a fork. It only takes 5 or 6 minutes until it’s done.

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Posted Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Filed Under Category: Fishing Reports
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