Chesapeake Light Tackle

The Bay Bridge is now closed due to sustained winds of 62 miles-per-hour and gusts from 72 to 80 miles-per hour.  That was at 7:30 PM and the wind continues to build. We’ve lost a few big limbs from trees around the house, and we can hear trees coming down back behind our fence and around the neighborhood.  The power has blinked a few times, but has fortunately stayed on.  The center of the storm is now back over water and looks to be directly between Cape Henry and Cape May at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay moving north toward Ocean City, Maryland.  That’s still well to our south, so we have lots more to come.

Despite the conditions, I couldn’t resist a hike around the area to watch the storm.  It was quite an adventure. I visited Matapeake Pier and the beach at Terrapin Nature Area.  Winds were sustained at 50 knots while I was out.  I was surprised to see the Bay so rough even though this side of the island is protected from the northeast winds. I’m sure things look a lot more dramatic on the western shore.  There is no storm surge at this time. I’m feeling a lot better about that since winds are now pushing water out of the Bay instead of in.  I shot a few minutes of video while I was out.  For some reason it doesn’t want to embed, so click here or on the photo if you can’t see it:  Hurricane Irene, Kent Island, Maryland

As Hurricane Irene gets closer our biggest issue remains heavy rain.  It comes in waves, sometimes pouring so hard it completely restricts visibility.  At other times it almost looks like the sun could pop out.  The wind continues to build steadily. I’ve heard of 50-miles per hour gusts in Annapolis.  Thomas Point Lighthouse has reported gusts up to 42 knots.

The strongest wind recorded so far has been atop the Bay Bridge.  They recorded a gust of 53 miles-per-hour at 4:11 P.M. and announced Phase III restrictions.  That means no light trucks or hitched trailers.  They will close the bridge when wind speeds reach 55-miles-per-hour.  I think they expect that soon because I noticed emergency vehicles staging to close the road at any time.

We’ve had a few limbs come down, but nothing serious.  Just after 2:00 P.M. the hurricane seemed to be taking a more northerly track that would have put it coming right up the Bay toward us, but she’s wobbled back east now.  Either way, it’s appearing that we might get more of a storm surge than was initially predicted.  Our house sits about 4 feet above sea level on a 2-foot foundation, so we won’t be worried unless the surge approaches 6 feet.  On the other hand, there are lots of waterfront homes and business that are much lower.  Some weather sites are predicting a 4- to 8-foot surge.

I looked around a little and the water in the Bay is coming up, but it’s nothing more than a high tide right now.  This is also the predicted high tide period for today, so there’s still nothing unusual on the water.  It’s a new moon, so wider fluctuations are normal. There are some pretty steep waves out there though with reports of some over 4-feet in the Mid-Bay.  That’s nothing by ocean standards, but a little rough for the Bay.  We are no where near the full impact of the storm yet, so we’ll see what happens.

For now, our major concern is flash flooding.  Most of the storm drains are overwhelmed and there is standing water on all the roads.  We have a long way to go before this one is over.

It started raining on Kent Island about 8:30 AM, and has been coming down steadily since. The wind is coming up now, but it’s still little more than a rainy day here.  As of 1:00 PM, wind speeds are 22-knots from the northwest at Thomas Point Light House near Annapolis, and 34-knots at Point Lookout at the mouth of the Potomac River.  I got out and drove around in the truck a few minutes ago.  It is weird seeing all the businesses closed and buildings boarded up on what is usually a busy Saturday afternoon.  It may have been a little over-cautious to require everyone to close so early today, but time will tell.  A few more of our neighbors got out of Dodge this morning, but most are still around.

Traffic is light on Rt 50 and flowing smoothly across the Bay Bridge in both directions.  I heard the directional lane signals are out for reasons unrelated to the weather.  At this time, I see no evidence of a tidal surge.  I’m attaching a photo of the tidal stream across the street from our house. (click photos for high rez)  It’s my usual indicator of tide height.  The charts show predicted low tide about now, so I’d say things look normal.  I would guess we’ve had about an inch of rain so far.  The ground is saturated from storms we had earlier in the week, so I expect we will see some flooding in the area regardless of storm surge.

I saw two businesses open as I was driving around.  They are Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant (our favorite) and No Place Bar & Grill (hmmm).  I am taking this as a sign that God is on our side.

Kent Island is currently under a state of emergency and a mandatory evacuation order.  We have decided to ride out the storm since the house we live in – one of the oldest on the island – has survived its share of tropical weather. Most of our neighbors are also staying. I thought it might be interesting to pass along what we’re experiencing here on Kent Island as Hurricane Irene passes through.  Reload this page frequently, as I will be posting regular updates along with pictures and video.  Some storm trackers predict we are directly in the path of the storm, but most have it passing east of us, just slightly off the Coast of the Delmarva Peninsula.  I’m hoping for the easterly path, but we are taking the warnings seriously. This is a fishing website, so most of my observations will be about the hurricane’s impact on the Chesapeake Bay.  We don’t live right on the water anymore (thankfully), but we are less than a hundred yards from the closest tidal stream.

The Calm Before The Storm

I fished last night and tonight.  Every fisherman has heard about how good fishing can be before a storm.  Since Hurricane Irene is predicted to be the worst storm in decades, I was hoping for lots of big fish.  That didn’t happen.  Oh, we caught plenty of fish, but they weren’t the big ol’ good ‘uns I was hoping for.  Last night, Rich and I launched out of Matapeake and found breaking bluefish right out in front of the ramp.  Finding no Spanish mackerel or rockfish of any side, we ran south.  I guess we passed a half-dozen pods of breaking fish on the way, but all the fish were small.  I eventually spotted some bigger birds sitting over a drop-off, so we motored over to take a look.  There were no fish feeding on the surface, but the fish finder lit up so we started casting jigs.  Read More!

In my book, fishing and music go together like blue crabs and Old Bay seasoning.  It’s hard for me to imagine one without the other. I’ve been singing, playing, and writing music for as long as I’ve been fishing. Here’s a shot of me with my best friend Curtis Seals from back around 1979 picking and grinning on the deck of the houseboat I called home.  You can’t tell it, but Curtis is steering the outboard with his left foot while he picks his banjo. That takes talent!

Many of the songs I’ve penned relate to the water in one way or another.  My songwriting has slowed in the past few years because, in my opinion, a good song needs a firm sense of place.  After moving away from my home in the Appalachian Mountains to this Chesapeake Bay country, I needed to thoroughly steep myself in the culture before trying to translate local images into songs. A few verses have been showing up in my head lately though, and my old Martin D-18 guitar is coming off the stand a little more frequently than it used to.  My son Daniel has a gift for immediately capturing the spirit of the places he visits. He recently turned out a chilling ballad about the ghost of a barge captain who haunts the waters around Cape Charles, Virginia. I’m excited about the song because it’s laced with images of hurricanes, lighthouses, oyster bars, diving gannets, and blitzing rockfish. I hope he’ll record it soon. Read More!

No man, after catching a big fish, goes home through an alley. – Ancient Chinese Proverb

Maybe you’ve heard someone recite another old saying about “the three stages of a fisherman’s life.”  It goes something like this:  The first stage is when the angler’s main objective is to catch as many fish as possible, the second stage is when the angler only searches for the larger fish, and the third and final stage is when size doesn’t matter and the capture is unimportant, but satisfaction comes from the way the angler tricks the fish. I usually nod my head in agreement when I hear that, but c’mon now, I don’t know one single fisherman who, when given a choice, doesn’t cast toward the biggest fish in the pond.  We can wax poetic about the joys of baptizing ourselves in the boundless beauty of nature, and we can sing the praises of that peaceful solitude we find out on the open water, but screw it – the bottom line is, no matter how we are fishing, we want to catch a whopper!  In this third and final segment of the Gimme a Breaker series, we’re looking at ways to get the lunkers out of surface blitzing Chesapeake rockfish.   Read More!