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.

Big Blues and a Grey Trout

Work and family life have been pretty hectic lately so my apologies for the late report.  Last month, I ventured to Rudee inlet a few times with hopes of crossing off a certain specie on the citation bucket list.  After coming up a half an inch short last year, I was pretty adamant about getting one this season.  Unfortunately, as implied earlier, work and family life come first and I didn't get as many chances as I would have liked.  I caught dozens in the upper 20s to lower 30 inches but couldn't get the three footer I wanted.  


I did however hook into my new personal best grey trout while using live bait for the blues.  I knew they were in there, but I was still surprised when I saw it.  I set the hook on it very close to the boat and it came to the surface and thrashed like crazy.  A near by boater said it sounded like I fell in!   As soon as the splashing stopped I saw what it was and immediately grabbed the leader and landed it very green.  It slide under the Predator seat and thrashed again for several seconds.  

27" Grey Trout

There's a chance I might run into the big blues in the lower bay later, 

but for now, 

it's time to move on to other species.

(when time allows)

No Dice

After spending a grueling 14 hours on the water (11/3), then 12 hours the weekend after that (11/9), I straight up rocked my hubby/daddy duties this past week.  My wife enjoyed her slack time while I took care of everything.  You name it, I did it.  I even threw in a few massages, a kickass video of the kids, and she got all the yoga she wanted.  When Friday came along, I picked up her favorite pizza after work and got the OK to go on a little binge.  Her graciousness, patience, and understanding toward my pursuits is nothing short of saintly. 

My quest for six hinges on one last specie citation; the tautog.  However, tautog don't bite at night.  So this weekend's marathon started with some night time speckled trout fishing.  I launched Friday night around 9:30pm at one of my favorite creeks where it dumps out onto a nice flat with a deep channel near by.  I've been jonesin for some topwater action and that's exactly what I got. 

Sorry for the burned out photo, but I was anxious to get back to fishing.  I stayed out until 1:30am after 7 or 8 fish up to 23.5" then drove over to the baitshop to snooze for a few hours before picking up some crabs for bait.

I launched with the sunrise at the base of the CBBT and the hunt was on.  But some of my favorite spots didn't produce much so my confidence started waning.  After several minutes on one spot, I started bringing up my rig to change locations when the crab got hit about half way up.  It ended up being a strong, healthy 27" striper.

I eventually found the togs and got about 6 or 7 with the biggest going 18".  Of course, I had several oystertoads and black sea bass in the mix as well.

Dark Female Tautog

Oystertoad Pectoral fin

The 11 or so hours on the water flew by without the satisfaction I needed.  So, I decided to take my mind off it and called up a few buddies to see if they wanted to partake in some topwater trout action.  An hour and a sandwich later, I met Richie Bekolay at the prior night's spot.  The water was eerie calm over the flat and my skitterwalk wasn't getting the same attention it was 24 hrs ago; and neither was Richie's.  After switching to a pink MirrOlure, I immediately had a few short strikes.  Two casts later and bam... I found my lure of the night.  Billy Ragulsky and Dan Smullen met us out there and quickly joined in on the fun.  Without a possibility of a citation tautog that night it was low pressure fishing.  And I had a blast!  It felt so good to simply enjoy catching fish... in good company at that!  I admit, I caught myself giggling like a little kid a few times on the hooksets.  A few hours later, a dense fog rolled in to add a sense of wonder and adventure to that kid-like feeling.  Before the night was over, I tagged a little under a dozen trout with the biggest going 23".  Unfortunately, I skipped out on taking pics, but Richie has a few on his report.


Feeling rejuvenated after 5 hrs of down time, I was ready to up jump the boogie on some togs.  I wasn't expecting the fog to still be there though...

It burned off as the morning went on, 

and I got into good number of the right species.

After 8 hrs (from launch time to recovery) I ended with 16 togs ranging from 12" to 17.5" and one 13" bergall, aka cunner.  Oddly enough, I didn't catch any other trash fish; no toads, no seabass, no none of that. 

For those of you who haven't spent a lot of time trying but want to give it a shot at tautog, here are a few tips.  Drop your rig down and find pilings with lots of rocks at the bottom.  Try to map out the bottom in your mind as you feel your way around. Raise and lower your rod tip until you find holes where the togs are usually hiding.  Sometimes, as you feel your way around you may find areas of rocky bottom away from the pilings as well. 

Pretty patterned female tog

Well, it's no dice after about 45 hrs of toggin' so far this month.  But that doesn't mean I'll stop looking for my trophy.  Hope to have a good post for you (and me) soon.