A View from the Beach: Back From Fishing

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Back From Fishing

Trevor, Tom, Gary and I went out with Walleye Pete from Solomons this morning at 5:30, with the the rain that has been falling for 10 or more days still falling. We hit "Location X" first, and caught a few fish, and headed to the other side.

The first stop on the Eastern Shore was at Punch Island Creek, the outflow from Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, and part of the water system that separate Taylors Island from the rest of the Eastern Shore. In theory, you can take a boat from behind Taylors Island from the north, and down to the Honga River without ever going in the Bay. In theory. You would need a good tide, and local knowledge.

As we left the creek, the sun came out enough to produce a rainbow out over the Bay.

No leprechaun in sight.

The next stop was Barren Island, one of many small and disappearing islands. We caught a few fish off the northern point, protected here by rip rap.

The only fish picture of the day. Tom with a 27 inch striper, as seen through the windshield of the boat. We all caught fish, mostly around 20 inches, but some as large as this. I lost track of mine around 15. Cooler weather has the bite down a little. The water was warmer when I was here two weeks ago with Pete, in the mid 60s. Today it was 59.

Trevor casting into skinny water in one of Pete's secret spots in Bloodsworth Island. Bloodworth is a relatively large, very low, marshy island, long used by the Navy as a target zone.

The Navy’s 1981 Site Assessment (SA) of BWI states “The entire Bloodsworth Archipelago must be considered completely contaminated with an unknown quantity of unknown types of unexploded ordnance (UXO).” In response to this statement, the Navy conducted a Preliminary Assessment (PA) of BWI in 1988. This PA recommended No Further Action (NFA), indicating that scrap metal and UXO are periodically removed and or decontaminated for resale by the Defense Logistics Agency.

Looking out over Bloodsworth, there's more water than land. Switching Google Maps between street view and earth view is amusing. The salt marsh grass, Spartina, is just getting going for the year, and last years old dead grass is still higher in most places.