Two Trophy Sheepshead, Spades, Togs, and a Keeper Cobia

A dim glow was slowly creeping across the eastern sky when my kayak set free from the beach.  The water was black and glassy and the glide was silky smooth.  I looked up at the stars, smiled, and whispered gratitude.  When I looked back down, my bow was cutting through thick bioluminescence creating Tron-like streaks on the water.  Each stroke of my Werner Kalliste sent clouds of electric blue swirling by and like the other times I've sat on an expansive touch-sensitive light-up body of water, I was reminded of what it feels like to be a child... giddy... full of wonder and amazement. 

The surreal Life-Of-Pi-esque scene, minus the gazillion jellyfish and jumping whale, faded as color spread and reflected on the mirror finish. 

I dropped my sheepshead rig in four or five spots before the sun was clear of the horizon.  Not too long afterwards, I got my first bite.  The strange yet familiar grinding with a sudden weight triggered that instinctual swing and urgent need to gain line.  Plunges of my rod tip preluded the high friction exiting of said line.  We exchanged possession of that length a few times while I kicked and pushed to get away from the big CBBT pilings.  When its rage wore off, I realized the hook was only holding on to a tiny sliver at the tip of it's lip.  I turned the fish so I could tuck my foot under it's pelvic fin, pinned it against the side of my kayak and pushed up as I pulled on the leader.  It measured right at 24".  

24" Release Citation Sheepshead

About 20 minutes later, I replayed the previous sequence much to my delight.  The 25"er had better hook placement on it though. 

25" Release Citation Sheepshead

It was 7:18 and I doubled up on my goal of getting a release citation sheepshead.  Since the bite was hot, I stuck around the area hoping for a third.  However, my patience ran out quickly thinking about the other goals I had for the day.  I had been wanting to make a print of a spadefish for a while, but haven't had a chance to bring one home.  After a quick paddle to different spot, the first drop down with clam brought on the rod-vibrating fight of a 10" spadefish.  Second drop down produced similar. Then, after 15 minutes of no action, I decided it was time to move on.  I checked off goal number two, as one of the spades went on ice destined to be inked.

The final goal of the day was to give it a good shot for cobia.  The sun was getting high enough to possibly see them.  Keeping a keen eye on the surface, I tried to cover as much water as possible in my Ultra 4.7.  However, when I got to one of my favorite spots, I had to drop a fiddler crab down just to see if anyone was home.

Anyone else remember Beetlejuice from Howard Stern?

After four togs up to about 15" I pulled myself away to resume the cobia hunt.  After a good long paddle, I saw what I was hoping for; silly brown clown circling a piling.  It wasn't very big, but I was definitely still going to take a shot.  It was swimming counter clockwise and I tossed a RonZ past the piling to the right side just as fish came around on the left.  I swam it near the surface and he charged as soon as he saw it.  He hit it but didn't eat.  I bounced it and he started chasing.  It was getting fairly close to the kayak and I was running out of line.  I dipped the rod down, thinking I was going to have to open the bail to let the lure drop, but then he grabbed it hard and I slammed it home.  Up until this point, I had only hooked up to cobia on friends' boats and charters.  I've seen plenty from a kayak, including some monsters, but for various reasons (sometimes beyond my control and sometimes my fault) I just never got a hook up.  So, I took my time and enjoyed this fight.  He immediately took some line, came up to the surface and thrashed, circled around and made a run back toward the pilings.  I was able to turn him and then he sounded.  For a smallish cobia, it definitely had some attitude; which I wanted all gone from him when it came time to bring it on the kayak.  I let him take as many runs as he wanted.  Eventually, he stayed relatively calm and I noticed the hook placement was good.  I grabbed the leader and slowly pulled him up.  

I quickly measured him at 38" and decided to keep it.  Knowing how strong they are and their destructive nature if it were to thrash in my lap, I took the hammer to the dome.  

I could have ended the trip at 7 in the morning and the 2hr drive home would have still been all smiles.  But with two release citation sheepies, spades, togs, and a keeper cobia under the hatch... you could say I was cheezin pretty hard. 
 
I made it back to shore by 2pm to get back home by 5pm as promised.  Cherry on top of it all was taking the kids to their first baseball game.  

That celebratory beer though...

Cheers.

Hopefully I'll be back out soon to upgrade that kayak cobia.

In the meantime, fish prints it is...

Video of the sheepies and cobia coming soon.

Fall Marathon

It was perfect.  

So perfect, that Lee went to work,
checked the weather, 

then decided that work didn't need him that day.  

 The text came in at 6:30 am saying "Leaving work. Togging it is today."

I happened to be sleeping on his couch at that moment.  

Jeff Lockhart and I got in around 1:15 am 

after fishing part one of what will turn out to be 

... a great fall marathon.

Mountain range leaf piles lined my sidewalk as we loaded two Trident 13s on my little hatchback.  After three and a half hours of raking both the front and back runways,  I was cleared for departure.   On our way out of town, traffic cone remnants of the Richmond Marathon bid us adieu as we refined plans for our upcoming fishing binge. 

Right on schedule, an hour and forty later, Billy Ragulsky (aka Willy Rags) was stocking up on his favorite lures at Ocean's East 2.  We all picked up live blue and green crabs for the next day's target specie and bolted to one of our favorite late fall spots for that evening's quarry, speckled trout.  The tide started dropping about an hour before we launched so we set up at the mouth of a creek and started casting.  Bait flickered here and there, which gave us hope.  Unfortunately, none of us had any hits.  Various Mirrolures, dines, PBs, topwaters, jerkbaits, and soft plastics didn't get the reaction we wanted.  So, we started trolling around the flat and that was the ticket.  I dragged a Procure smeared purple demon Mirrolure on one line and a 1/4oz jighead n dark bodied paddletail on another while the other guys kept to their confidence lures of choice.  The majority of my take-downs happened near the edge of the flat where it started to drop off.  Once I located a group of fish, I would try casting the same lures, but I couldn't get a hit.  And as soon as I trolled by, I would hook up again.  This has happened to me before many times and I always found it interesting.  In any case, we all had an amazing night.  20"-23" trout were prevalent as we all stopped counting how many we had of those.  Jeff ended the night with a new personal best at 26".  I scored two trophies at 25" and 26.5" and the extra point striper at 19" was good.  Willy Rags landed a big diva over 28" that threw a hissy fit on the hawg trough and refused a photo op.

26.5" Speckled Trout

The alarm hadn't gone off yet.  

Bleary eyed... 

I reached over... 

read the text and put it back down on the coffee table.  

Eyes closed, I processed what it meant.  

Smile creeping... 

the day just got way more interesting.

The water was like glass most of the day and in true form, Lee was on fire.  The bite in general was hot, but as Lee says in his own words... "I'm so much better at this than anyone else."  He was hooking up on every drop and laughing at you when you drop on the same hole and...

Over and over again.

Lee was pure entertainment all day and caught 25-30 togs with a lot of them going between 17"-19". Jeff caught another personal best at 18.5" and now understands why we get so excited about togs.  Billy had good numbers with a nice one coming on a crab tipped jighead.  Kevin showed up later on and scored decent numbers as well.  With the weather as nice as it was, several others were out on the tog hunt including a few Maryland Boys and some guys from local forums.  Everyone was pulling in fish, but for whatever reason, I started off slow.

Jeff Lockhart's new personal best tog at 18.5"

Lee Williams

Several little females had this cool yellowish tone.

William Ragulsky with a tog on jig.

Lee "____ 'em up" Williams

It took a little while, but I did find my rhythm.  Eventually, with everyone hanging around the same set of pilings, talking smack, I set the hook into one that got me a little more excited...

"oh ..."

I lucked out with the group's biggest of the day at 20.5"

I ended with 12-15 togs with a bunch in the 17"-18" range and the one over 20".  

Satisfied, we paddled back in on flat water.  

An hour later, Billy, Jeff and I found ourselves standing in line at the gas station convenience store still in waders, reeking.  Hoping for an encore of the previous night's escapades we rushed back to the same spot while cramming down some grub.  

The bite wasn't quite as good but I still wrangled over a dozen in three hours or so.  In contrast from the night before, my first five were caught casting instead of trolling.  Then when that bite turned off, I switched to trolling and found them again.  We got rained on a bit but that didn't bother us much.  With rain jackets and the hits coming steady we weren't fazed at all.  My biggest for the night went 26". Billy scratched another trophy as well at 24".

Thirty three and a half hours after we left, Jeff and I arrived back in Richmond chuckling at the luck we had.  The wind was virtually non existent the entire time and each leg of the marathon was an absolute blast.  I got the pullage I was craving and a good number of groceries to fillet.  

And 

I got my yard work done.

Hues and Saturation

I was on the water from sun up to sun down, hoping every moment in between that my quest for VA Saltwater Expert Angler status would come to an end with one last specie citation.  King Neptune graced me with a myriad of other species, but my trophy tautog still remains at large.

Photo Credit:  Jetski Brian

Keeping my frustrations at bay, I got to enjoy the many colors and shapes the CBBT had to offer.

Bergall aka Cunner from the wrasse family (same family as tautog)

I had several 12" Black Sea Bass and one right at 12.5" (keeper size).

Three puppy drum paid me a visit after falling for my tog intended fiddler crabs.

Oystertoad

Pigfish aka grunt

I tallied about 15 togs, most of them in the 15"-16" range with two going 17".   Chunks of blue crab and live fiddler crabs were the baits of the day.

 

Jetski Brian on his tricked out ride 

also did very good on vacuum packed frozen fiddlers.

 

At the end of the day, 

as the sun smeared breathtaking hues across the mirror calm bay, 

it was hard not to give thanks just for the opportunity to be there.

I soaked it all in...

...hoping my next adventure isn't too far off.

By the way, I saw decent numbers of light line stripers on the way in near the small boat channel.  I caught two in the lower-mid 20"range using a 1/4oz jighead and 3" white Gulp swimming mullet before calling it a (long) day.

10/5/13 Video Report

Clown Car Toggin'

The new kayak got a proper CBBT hazing as I banged and scraped pilings from sun up to sun down.  During the 13 hours out on the water I dealt with a fast outgoing current, slow incoming, and another fast outgoing current, along with light winds at first then the big fan in the sky whipped white caps across the bay.  My search for citation specie number 3 took me to a wide range of different areas and depths along the bridge. 

It started off slow with only two little togs.  As the day progressed, more yakers showed up with a few having fair success.  When the wind picked up, everyone else decided to leave.  It stayed slow until I revisited one of the holes I tried earlier.  The tide had changed and I guess the togs crammed themselves into a tight spot.  If I missed getting the bait into the small 2'x2' hole, I got no hits.  But if my fiddler made it's way in there, it got hit immediately.  I pulled 8 togs out of that little hole in no time.

This one must have wedged himself in pretty tight.

10 total were tagged and released.  

18", 18", 17.5", 16", 15", 15", 14.5", 14", 14", 13".

Late Afternoon Piling Hunt

After some back and forth deliberating on whether it would be worth it or not, 

I finally got on the water at 4pm.

Glad I did...

The conditions weren't the best with wind and current making things quite difficult.  However, the little spades were easy for the pickin', along with this little guy...

After switching over to fiddlers, 

it didn't take me long to hunt down a fiesty little tog.

The highlight of the short jaunt was a trophy sheepshead.

Tog Chowder

With the chill of autumn setting in and old man winter fast approaching, I thought I'd share one of my favorite feel-good soups, Tog Chowder. 

Here's what I use...

2-3 tablespoons of butter
2-3 cups of onions, chopped
About a dozen fresh mushrooms (I really like mushrooms.  Give or take to your preference)
2 stalks of celery
Small can of corn
4 cups of chicken stock
4-5 cups of potatoes, diced.
2 lbs of tautog, diced into 3/4" cubes.  Any firm white fish will do, such as striper/rockfish, cod, etc, but my favorite is tautog. 
1/4 teaspoon of ground thyme.  Some people like Old Bay, too.  Add to taste.
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 twelve ounce cans of evaporated milk
Finely chopped parsley

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat.  Saute the onions, mushrooms, and celery just a little bit.  

Add the chicken stock, potatoes and corn;  simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the fish and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Add milk, season to taste with thyme or Old Bay, salt and pepper.  Let simmer for another 5-7 minutes.  It should thicken up a bit.

Add parsley.  

Done.

I like those french fried onion things that go on greenbean casseroles, too.  Add a nice piece of crusty bread and it's a great meal after a cold day on the water.  Enjoy...

York River Toggin'

5:50am.  Hit snooze.  Baby's awake.  Ugghh...

As I rocked Miles back to sleep, I checked the wind forecast.  Over night, it went from just-maybe-borderline-doable to hell-no-you-dun-lost-yo-mind.  So I called Justin to call off the tautog trip to the CBBT first island and passed back out with a drooling baby on my chest.

As I made breakfast the brooding thoughts of big togs in the deep calmness crept into my mind, so I checked the wind again... with no reprieve.  I played with my little stinker-dinker kiddos and their laughter shut the door on fishing, and I was good with that.  My wife reiterated how I deserved to have some time to myself, and she was thinking about taking the kids to her mom's place anyway, so maybe I can do something else.  I said I would think about it (and reminded her how lucky I was).

A few hours later, Justin came up with a brilliant idea that I couldn't resist and since my car was already loaded, it wasn't long before I was on the road.  Justin had caught a tautog on the York River before, but always wanted to try again.  I wanted an alternative place to go when it was blowing at the first island.

We got on the water and the NW wind was not a factor in that area.  When we got to the structure, it didn't take me long to get a hook up...

19.5" Tog.  Photo credit Justin Mayer

However, the action was not "hot" by any means.  In fact we went long stretches with no hits.  Eventually, just before we were about to move to another area, Justin hooks up to a nice one that jackhammers his rod into the water.  He kept the beast from getting into the pilings and when it finally came up, it was a doozie.

Justin's new personal best 22" Tautog

The rest of the afternoon all the way until sunset was very uneventful.  We each had a couple of missed hits as we explored the new area and that was it.  When it got dark we caught a bunch of stripers up to 23" under the lights then called it a day.

Double Tourney Saturday

A while back, I was asked to join the TKAA team for the Catching for Kids 20th Annual Anglers Club Challenge Tournament.  Of course, I was happy to oblige not only because I love to fish, but the money raised goes to a great cause.  Click the link for more info about Catching for Kids.

The TKAA team divided up into several groups to target different species.  The CBBT group, consisting of Justin Mayer, Billy Ragulsky, Seth Goodrich and myself, met up around 5am, got things ready, set a good game plan, and launched to a gorgeous sunrise.

We stopped at several spots that usually produce quality fish, but either no one was home or no one wanted to come out and play.  Well, at least no one we were actually looking for.  The baby bluefish were everywhere, destroying any soft plastic we dangled off the kayak.  Justin and I decided to move close toward the 1st island while Billy and Seth tried a little longer.

As the current slowed down we were sure the bite was going to turn on.  Justin focused on the spades as I worked the fiddlers on the bottom.  Sheepshead, triggerfish, and tautogs were all on the list of species for the tournament and all of them love fiddler crabs.  Justin started off getting a few small spades, then the action shut off.  I caught a bunch of trash fish, which I actually didn't mind for this trip.  I'll explain later.

Justin and I were baffled.  All through slack tide, we didn't catch anything we wanted to enter into the tourney.  A little before, through slack, and a little after are the best times and we were at the spot that normally holds fish.  Staying persistent, I eventually caught a couple of small togs, one of which was tagged.

I love learning where, when and how big the fish was when they tagged the fish.

I had my doubts about whether those two little togs would rank in the tourney, so I kept at it.  I was also hoping for a good size trigger, since I hadn't caught one all year.  But I failed to find any.  After a while, I switched over to clams and enticed 2 spadefish around 12" to play along.  

Frequent CBBT kayak angler Kyle (forgot the last name) hooked up to a nice spade

We also met Seadoo Dave out there for the first time.  He seems like a good guy... check out his site.

Hoping for that big sheepshead, I went back to using fiddlers.  I tried a new area along the bridge and my hook started getting cleaned with a quickness.  On the third drop over the same piling, I finally hooked up to a nice fish.  After several line peeling bull dog runs, I brought it up to the surface...

... and twice it buried my rod tip deep into the water ...

... but in that tug of war, I was victorious.

It was the second 22.25" tautog for me this year.  .75" shy of release citation.  

Again.

Long story short, that fish ended up being the second place tog for the tournament and I was proud.  Justin had one of his spadefish end up being 3rd place for that specie as well.  There were many reputable angler clubs to enter teams in the tournament. And for us to be the only kayak team against a bay full of motor boats and placing 4th over all is a great achievement.  If my understanding is correct, we were only one point behind 3rd place. The weigh-in was a great time with excellent food and camaraderie.  I admit however, I left shortly after the food...

Remember how I said that I didn't mind catching trash fish earlier.  Normally, I'd be pretty annoyed, but I was actually double dipping tournaments that day.  Pirates of Lynnhaven held a week long trash fish tournament and it was the last day.  The weigh-in was at 7pm.  And even though I didn't think my fish were going to hold up, I left the first tournament awards early.  My croaker, spot and oystertoad (3 of the 6 species included in the tournament) measured a mere 1/8" more (combined) than the next guy and I ended up winning.  (Sorry Joe, I got lucky)

I won this cool trophy designed by Fish DV8 and also a 16 hour deep drop trip with Rudee Deep Sea Fishing.  On top of that, half of the money raised in entry fees gets donated to the charity of the winners choice.  So CCA of Virginia should be getting a decent little check from The Pirates of Lynnhaven.

My wife was happy I helped out two great organizations and also excited I won a tournament.  

But, she wasn't too keen with the idea of me going on a boat for 16 hours.  

I told her it's really not much different from my usual fishing trips.
Just not on a kayak.