i can haz wokfish?

On my trip to Tangier Island this week there wasn't much light on the bay until after 7 am, and the sun didn't rise until a while after that. But I was awake much earlier and wanting to sail. So off I was at dawn's first light.

This also happens to be a great time to fish on the Chesapeake in the fall. There's a reason why hunters and fishermen wake so early in the morning to head out into the woods or water. That's when the animals are feeding.

The first day out, the wind and waters were calm as I sailed out of a creek and into Fleets bay. But that didn't last long as I sailed into a flock of birds diving into the water. They were fishing from above on a school of bait fish. At the same time, Rockfish were fishing the school from below. The water was alive with action as the little fish jumped to escape the Rockfish, but were also being gobbled up by the birds above.

Into this mess I sailed, and my reel was promptly sent spinning when a Rockfish mistakenly took my lure for breakfast.

I could have spent all morning bringing in fish, but the legal limit is two Rockfish a day, and one was plenty for me anyway. They are big fish. I did put my line back in the water at the end of the trip, so I could have a fish to bring home and share with our new kittens.

I imagine if the pic below was on this website, it would be captioned "i can haz wokfish?"

Back in Port

Had a great fall sail on the Chesapeake this week. I went to Tangier island.

Raised the Spinnaker





Caught some Rockfish.



Hung out on the island.



Saw some dolphins (really, there are dolphins in the video!)



And some sunsets and sunrises.



Sorry for the quality of the pics and video. They were all taken with my cellphone camera. I'll also try to flesh out the blog post with more commentary soon, but I no longer have my verizon aircard and the internet at the marina is pretty bad. I just wanted to get the media uploaded before I worked on the commentary.