Welcome Home Buddy!

On Independence Day weekend it is only fitting that I would get to fish with my buddy Mike.  Mike has spent the better part of the past two years stationed in Bahrain with the Navy.  He is finally back on US soil.  The outing was bitter sweet, because this is also the last time I will get to fish with him for at least a year as he is being stationed in Gulfport Mississippi.  It is with great appreciation for what they do that I thank Mike and every other soldier out there defending our nation.  However, this is not a blog about military appreciation so you are probably reading this for the fishing report of the day.

We hit the water at 8:00am and launched from Crab Creek at the Lynnhaven Inlet.  We ran into Wayne at the ramp and discussed strategies.  Wayne indicated that he was going to focus on the back side of the inlet and we were going to focus on the bridge and front part of the inlet.  With that we began to launch.  We made our way to the bridge, however the current was full on ripping through and we decided to fish the main channel of the inlet first and when the tide slowed up a bit we would hit the bridge in search of Tog, Sheepshead, and Flounder.   We began fishing the channel and had moderate luck with some flounder, but mainly were getting torn up by crabs.  After fishing a bit, we noticed that the tide was slacking up.  We headed out to the bridge.

We had our ammunition and were ready for battle. The fish stood no chance against our sharp hooks and tasty bait.

We fished the pilings for a bit but had no luck with the Tog or Sheep's.  We began to drift the outgoing tide for flounder but the best I could come up with was a bit over 15".  

While fishing for flounder, I started hearing what sounded like fish jumping right behind my boat.  Unfortunately we found out that it was not fish, but it was two very annoying shore fishermen who appeared to be intentionally trying to hit us.  We were nearly into the channel and they were heaving as hard as they can, then reeling back in as fast as possible then casting again.  They are lucky we were in good moods, or else we would have called the cops on them.  If you are out there and see them doing the same, feel free to call the cops and if I am out there and see it I will do the same and show the cops this photo. 

We decided to head back in and try the tennis courts as well as a few back coves.  Mike gave it his all but we were not getting much love from the fish.

We anchored up and took a breather and stood up for a bit.  I was able to scare up a little croaker, and then one rod doubled over.  The fight was on.  I got the fish to the top of the water and saw that it was a Ray.  Having not caught a big fish in a while, I had hoped to land this one, but it came unbuttoned.  

Mike had dropped a piece of mullet in the water and noticed that the Gudgeons were going crazy over the mullet.  He began to catch the Gudgeons by hand and ended up with about a dozen or two.  

We departed and began our trek back into the launch.  On the way back, Mike caught a nice little grunt right in the butt.  Anyone can catch a fish in it's lips, but it takes real talent to catch on in it's keister.  

After that we called it a day and headed back in.  I did get the opportunity to get a photo of Mike with one of his prized fish of the day.  

The hilarity of the day was not over though.  After Mike left to go get a new rack put on his truck, I continued loading up my gear.  As I was packing up, there were two young ladies getting ready to go paddle boarding.  As they were bending over getting their boards ready, there was a kid just coming in from a day on the water with his dad.  Watching him staring intently at the young ladies as they prepared their boards was priceless.  Unfortunately at the time, my camera was in my kayak and I was up near my car.  However, here are the ladies.

And here is the kid.  

I only wish I could have caught his pubescent gaze as he stared at them.  The funny thing is that the girls did notice and were giggling about it, but it didn't deter him from his gaze.  

All in all despite not getting much love from the fish, it was great getting back out with Mike.  I wish him luck in his new adventures in Mississippi and know that we will fish again.  I look forward to that day.

Father's Day Weekend Day 2

Day one was such a blast, we decided to do it all over again.  This time we picked Rudee Inlet because there were reports of big croaker possibly making a showing and with Redfish eluding us, we decided that maybe we could pick up points for the bonus fish of the tourney.  This time the crew consisted of Trapper, J-Boogie, Bentpole, Agent VA, and myself.  Sure we could all have normal names like Jim, Jarred, Aubrey, Joe, and Thom, but where's the fun in that?  


As I approached the parking lot, Bentpole was there ready to hit the water.  He was nice enough to wait for a few moments until I unloaded and was ready to launch as well.  Now anyone who knows me knows that it takes more than a few moments for me to get my stuff together.  This shows that Bentpole has the patience of a saint to wait that long for me.  


After we launch, I begin a drift down the first shoreline and catch a flattie in my first cast.  This bodes poorly for the rest of the day because any angler knows, that if you catch a fish on your first cast, then you are screwed for the rest of the day.  


After I unload the potato chip sized flounder from my hook, I hear some chatter going on behind me.  I turn and see that Bentpole has befriended a young lady who was paddle boarding out toward the bridge. You can tell from her brisk stroke that she was indeed enamored by BP's charm and charisma.

We made our way out to the bridge and I get my lure stuck in one of the rocks beneath the bridge.  I ended up losing the lure and spent a bit of time getting myself set up again.  After tying on a new lure, I begin to paddle to the rest of the group.  I was oblivious to what was going on around me and JetSki Brian (www.jetskibrian.com) took this photo of me.  Thanks for the shot Brian.  

After getting set with the rest of the crew, I cast and immediately get hooked up with a 16.75" flounder.  Now at this point I am psyched because it was a bigger class of flounder than I had been catching the previous day and my hopes for a keeper were increased.  

After getting his good Juju from the swedish bikini paddle boarding team member, Bentpole started catching some flatties as well.  Having left his camera at home, I did the honors of documenting his catch for the AOTY race at www.piratesoflynnhaven.org.  

The rest of the day was filled with dink fish and lots of sight seeing.  We paddled up into what is commonly known as Rich Man's Cove only to find that even the crabs were not biting.  We paddled back and decided to explore the creek leading back to Ocean Breeze fun park.  As I turn the corner in the creek, I run across Agent VA making it look easy.  He sure appears to know what he is doing.

We drift back to the aquarium and that is when the action heated up.  

Hey Trapper, um..... there are people in the aquarium who can see this spot.....oh and there are a ton of windows in that building.  

Agent VA gets bowed up and is fighting hard.....he will never land that, I don't think anyone has ever landed a citation sized sign pole.  

I finally get something to bite my line and it is only this fella.  He had somehow gotten all tangled up in my line (no where near the bait, for what it's worth).  He was released to annoy another angler on another day.

That concluded the day on the water.  After that, I ran back to the condo to shower and pack for the POL Monthly Meeting at Bluewater Seafood (http://tinyurl.com/bwseafood).  Below are pics from the meeting.  There was supposed to be an awards ceremony for the tournament but since no one caught qualifying fish, the awards were not to be.  Given that the money raised for the tourney goes to a charity of the winners choice, we gave the choice to the first person to step up to sponsor this tourney.  As a result, Mark Lozier from Marsh Works Lures has asked that the money raised get donated to the Tidewater Chapter of Heros on the Water (HOW).  I have already been in touch with Tom V from the Tidewater Chapter and have made the proper arrangements. This is a great cause and I am happy to have our procedes help this worthy charity.  For more information about HOW please visit their website at http://www.heroesonthewater.org/

While at the seafood market, I tried my best to add some points to the Angler Of The Year Race at POL!!!! Do you think they will think they are honest catches?

Father's Day Weekend Day 1

The weekend started off well.  The Pirates of Lynnhaven were having a charity tourney targeting Redfish.  Unfortunately the Redfish did not receive the invitation.  However it turned into a great weekend after all.  I was with a group on Friday fishing out of Lynnhaven Inlet.  This was the second time this year fishing Lynnhaven and I still love the inlet.  I am not too fond of the boat traffic there, but I still love the inlet.

We launched out in search of some bait fish and were able to score a few mullet and some killifish.  We decided to head out in search of the target fish.  After getting skunked for the entire morning, we set up on an oyster bar right off the main channel and took out our ultra lite gear to take a break and catch trash fish.  And trash fish was bountiful.  I ended up catching more croaker and grunts than I could care to count.

After that I wanted to cruise over to a flat that I had much success with in the past and from the satellite photos on Google Earth, still looked to have the characteristics that I was interested in for Red's.  The fish were nonexistent but I did have some fun taking photos of the crew.  

Jim was more than happy to model his glowing green Malibu.

Dean was taking the minimalistic approach in a WS Commander.

I was loaded down with WAY too much gear on this trip in my WS Ride135.

Dave had disappeared and we found out later that he tried another flat with no success then headed in.  Jarred had just met up with us and we will have more on him later.

We headed over to the main channel and began drifting for flounder.  We each got a flounder or two.  At this time a boater in what looked like a massive old and dirty Yacht.  It was probably a good 30-35' ugly boat.  They seemed to take aim at our group.  Now typically we keep a calm and cool demeanor, but this was geting ugly fast.  Jim began yelling at them using words that perfectly matched his New York accent.  They got within feet of us at what seemed like near full throttle (it wasn't in reality, but it sure was enough to throw up a nice 2 foot+ wake in the no wake zone were were in).  Anyway shortly after this we drifted the channel by the Oyster Reef and I make one pass with no luck, but right behind me was Jarred and he scored a nice 18" flatty that he took home for dinner.  

The day was coming to a close so we paddled in and packed up for the day.  We did run into Chuck at the launch who reported that he had taken his son out and his son caught his first fish from a kayak that day.  It is great hearing stories like that, especially on Fathers Day Weekend.  

Rudee turned not so family friendly!!!!

I took the day off on Friday to get a kick start on the holiday weekend.  After getting my gear ready and packed, I got down to Rudee early to mid morning.  As I get ready to launch I talk to one fella who reports nothing but a couple dink's being caught in the morning.  I then run across Kayak Kevin who was waiting for Lee to show up to go attack the flatties.  We chat a bit then it is time to launch.  I paddle over to the cop docks for a bit and get no love from the fish, then work my way out to the front.  Once I get to the bridge, I get a little love but nothing major.  After a while, Kevin and Lee show up and then another kayaker shows up, but everyone is having about the same luck.  I move over to the other side of the bridge and set up with my foot anchor on the oyster bank and cast into the bridge.  I start catching the flounder.  They are all undersize but damn there were a lot of them.  The biggest I got was right around 17".

After a bit I caught a tiny croaker and wondered what to do with him.

I saw that one of my rods was still rigged for catfish and decided to put the croaker on the the 10/0 circle hook and let it soak for a bit.  I fished for another 30 min or so when my rod doubles over and the fight is on.  I had no idea what the hell could have gotten the croaker.  It was pulling drag like mad and it took a bit to coordinate myself to fight the fish.  Just as a line of Jet Skier's were going out, the fish made it's first appearance as it did a tail dance just by the wall of the bridge channel.  One jet skier stopped to watch as the fish did two more tail dances.  The head on this fish was enormous.  My heart was pumping because this would be the first serious fish of the season that I have fought.  I get the fish closer and it takes a dive for the oyster wall, then comes back up.  He does the a couple more times before becoming spent and finally succumbs to my fight.  As I lift the tip of my rod up to pull his head out of the water so I can get my lip grip's into his mouth, the line snaps and the fish slowly sinks before reviving and swimming away.  Having caught several big fish in my life, I would estimate this to be a bluefish over 35".  I had a tough time identifying it as a bluefish because it seemed a lot taller/fatter than a blue, but after reviewing photos online to match to my memory, I have come to the conclusion that it was just a great big blue.  When the line snapped, I shouted out a few words that turned Rudee into a less than family friendly environment.  The fella on the jet ski shouted over to me "I saw it, I saw it.  You had a monster.  I saw it."  It made me giggle but was still upset at the line break.  At least I got it to the boat.  I would have loved to have gotten a photo but it was fun just fighting the fish.  

I was able to catch my first red of the season though.  Here is a photo of it:

All in all I caught a couple tiny croaker, a bunch of undersized flounder, and almost landed a monster blue.  It was a great day!!!!

Lynnhaven Fishing Report

Little BRB (Jake) had a double header in the late morning/early afternoon so I didn't get free until later.  After doing some errands dropping off things at DV8's house for next weekend's demo day, I finally made my way to Lynnhaven.  I launched and fishing the entrance to Crab Creek and back along the grass line and picked up a few short flounder.  Though the action was not great, it was fun getting a little pullage.

After a while I paddled over behind the little oyster bar near Chick's and tried for some pullage over there.  Unfortunately the only things biting over there were the gnats.  They were everywhere.  I didn't spend that much time over there as a result.  It was too bad because I love that spot.  Never catch too many fish over there, but it is just a nice place to paddle around.

I let the outgoing tide drift me out to the bridge.  Out there I got a couple of really tiny flatties, actually thought they were hogchokers becuase of how small they were.  The sun was setting and it was beautiful out there.  I ran into a fella named Cory who goes by the name Sandy that reported the same bout of undersized flounder.  Anyway, the sunset was beautiful, the weather was beautiful, and despite a lack of good fish, it was a great day on the water.

Rudee this weekend

Got out on the water and caught fish....the end.

Nah I can't leave it like that.  First day out I hit the water to find out that this will be the first day of the year without a dry suit or waders.  Water temps were in the low low 60s and comfortable.  Paddled over to the Cop Docks and found two blues pretty quickly.  The first was a smallish fish but over all fun to catch.  The second was a complete mess.  It looked to be 20ish inches long.  Fun fight pulling drag.  However when I got him up over my boat, the fish came unbuttoned.  Then the fish dropped to my deck and started flopping around, jaws a chomping WAY too close to my twig and berries, so I reach down and grab the tail to get him in control.  This just pisses him off more and he launches from my grip doing a triple back flip with a twist and does a perfect reentry into the water.

I fish a bit longer and nothing happens so I move on.  I paddle over to the grass island and run into Tom V and his friend Kevin who was on the water celebrating Kevin's first day of retirement.  We shoot the shit for a bit about various things and I move on.  I troll the grassline and get no love.  I start paddling out to the bridge when I run into LivTaYak.  We talk for a bit and he heads in.  I go out to the jetty since it is kinda calm out.  I fished out there for a bit but the wind starts kicking up and throwing me into the rocks so I figure it is a good time to get back in toward the bridge.  Once over to the bridge, I run into Matt and he and I fish the bridge.  We both got into the blues and Matt is just bailing fish right and left.  They really liked his gulps.  They were less interested in my crystal minnow, but I do manage several fish.  I would show pics of all of them, but damn, they are bluefish.  They all look just about the same:

After the bite settles down a little, we paddle back to the cop docks.  After a bit, Matt asks if I have pliers or could help him with something.  I paddle over to see what he needed help with.  Well he asks if I could get something out of his front hatch.  I pull up and lean in and almost vomit.  He had a bluefish from the week before in his hatch.  Suddenly the entire inlet smelled like week old rotten bluefish.  I hand Matt my pliers and say, "You can get that out yourself".  With little love and an emanating stench over there we paddle over to the grass line near the launch were we see a fella bowed over looking like he is having the time of his life.  We get over to him and it is Robert (RLee).  It was his maiden voyage in a yak and that was his first fish caught by yak. There is nothing like the joy of your first fish from a yak and I could see the smile on Robert's face.  Glad you got that first slime Robert.  We all fish that area for a bit and I get one fish over that way.  I can't remember if Matt got any.  We continue to fish for a bit but it seemed to die off and it was getting dark so we packed it in.  Good fishing with you fellas.

The rest of the weekend went a little like this.  Blow blow blow......blow harder.....blow blow blow.....paddle hard....skunk skunk skunk.....see Matt again, he's got fish.......paddle hard....blow blow blow.....Then see DV8 and Alissa, and someone with them (not sure who he was but seemed like a really good lad).  Did come across a bunch of these over by the bridge:

Thought those were supposed to give you good luck, but that must only work on land.