Binge fishing

I had Friday off (instead of Monday) for Independence day. My beautiful wife allowed me to fish until Saturday afternoon with the strict instructions to be back in Richmond by 4:00pm. So Thursday evening comes around and as soon as the wife got home from yoga, I was off to the HRBT. I launched around 10pm into light and variable wind (the weather man was wrong). I started off catching flounder. Ended up with 4 with the biggest being 18.25"
Par for the course, I had about a dozen lil' croakers too. In with the mix I caught this little guy.

Then after finding the schoolie striper, I got 13 of them to suck on the end of my line. Ranging from 20" to 23", they were very aggressive and very fun to stalk along the lights. Some of them even did some aerial acrobatics right after the hookset. Gulp, Yozuri crystal minnows, and Tsunami swimbaits did the job. I got off the water a little before 4am and passed out in the car.




I got up at 7:30 and headed over to ocean's east tackle for some bait then called my friend Thom for a wind forecast update. I spent all day in Lynnhaven for about a dozen dink flounder and one of 15.5" Sheepie. I took a break about at the launch around 5pm. After the wind died down a bit, I went back out to see if I could find anything under the bridge. No love. While packing up around 8:30, John Heintzman decided to accompany me back to the HRBT. After flapping the gums and picking up some Wendy's we launched around 9:45pm. The wind was nuts and the water under the bridge was like a washing machine. I thought to myself that if I didn't find fish under the first light we should leave. Well we pull up under the bridge and the fish were all around the light line. Needless to say, it was on.



Check out this crazy looking "frankenstriper"


My biggest striper went 26"


I got off the water around 2:30am. Passed out in the car.



Up at 8am. Met John at Chicks beach with fiddlers and clam. Made the long paddle out to the island and started looking for spades. I immediately start getting nibbles. They weren't the little fluttering bites, so I knew they had to be something good. But the bite disappeared, never to be found for the rest of the day. The few fluttering bites I did have ended up being 3" Black Sea Bass and some oyster toads. No love from the togs, sheeps and triggers either. On the way back I saw a couple of big shapes cruising the surface. I did a quick 180 and gave chase. They were what I thought they were. Two big ass cobia. One looked to be around 30-40# and the other was a biggun around 50-60# (guesstimates). I tossed the bucktail I had on from jigging flounder, knowing I would probably get spooled if I actually got one to take it. The first toss went unnoticed. The second toss had one turn and look, but didn't take. By this time, I got pretty close to them and they went deep. I desperately looked for them, feeling my nerves firing and adrenaline pumping, I look across the bridge and there they were. I gave chase again and as soon as I was in range.....

They disappeared.

Long paddle back keeping an eye out only to find rays.

Drove back to Richmond ending the fishing binge, for now.

Happy independence day everybody!

Black Drum video

This is an older video, just for $hIts n giggles.

Lynnhaven Reds n Flounder

I got off work a little early Friday, so I drove down to look around the marsh. I drifted for flounder around the tennis courts first and found nothing. By sunset I found myself by one of my favorite spots...


I tossed a chart gulp shad by the grass line and felt it bump along the bottom. I twitch twice and...... BAM!!!
Drag rippin', yak pulling, smile inducing 27"er.



About 3 casts later...
25.5"er



After the sun went down, I lost them. So I tossed out some crab and this 28" beauty couldn't resist.



A little while later...



That was it for friday night.

Saturday, I took my cousin (new to yakfishing) out on the flats. No luck for several hours. We tried everything. He had just one 12" flounder. Towards the end of outgoing tide I found these guys using a spro bucktail. I was crazy happy to finally to find a keeper.

HRBT, ES shoals, then HRBT again

HRBT Friday night, blues, croakers, dink flounder, stripers, storm with lightning, off the water at midnight.

Saturday, WRO demo day. It was cool to see all the big names. Kevin, Routh, Lozier, Hoover, TKAA, & POL came to represent.
Then went to the Eastern Shore shoals for 5 and a half hours to try for the Bulls. No love. Bite to eat, then HRBT again for the light line action.

Shad

Previously injured 22" striper

Strong, healthy, fat 28" striper

Had two other 22" stripers flop off while trying to take pictures.

"You've gone completely insane..."

So my wife says.

I just can't get enough.

I wanted to go to the HRBT lightline Friday night, but the wind was a bit too much. So I decided to try the James river for Richmond stripers. After 3 hours and only this dink.....


I called it quits and just as I was getting back to the launch, an old friend called (the kind of friend that you know you shouldn't go drinking with any more because it always leads to trouble). So I met him at the usual watering hole, along with Mr. Jager, Ms. Sauza and Sir Jameson.

Woke up with the usual regrets and did the mother's day weekend. My mom's still in Korea, but made the wife pretty happy.

Monday comes around, checked the weather report, and it sounded reasonable. I got the kitchen pass, but didn't tell her where I was planning on going (HRBT). She got around to asking before I left and I told her. Despite the wifes plea for sanity, I had to go for it. Drove down from Richmond at 6pm. Launched at 7:30. Met NAVYIDC for a bit and started lookin' for the fish. First came the croaker. LOTS of croaker. They wouldn't have been so annoying if they were bigger. Then came the flounder. Probably around 5 or 6. Dropped 3 right at the yak, one of which might have when 17 or 18". All pretty small. Then, finally, I found the stripers in the lightline. They weren't reacting the same to my presentation as they were last tuesday, so I had to keep switching to find what they wanted. By the time I figured it out, the current was slowing down. I managed 7. 18",19",19", 20.5" 22", 23.25"and a 26.25". The blues were pretty damn annoying too. I didn't keep track of how many, but it was a lot; the biggest being 20". Got back home at 4:45. Slept for a bit, up with the baby at 7, then off to work.


Worth it.

Feelin' kinda crazy

Last Friday, I got off work and decided I needed to put some points up on KayakWars. From Richmond I got down to rudee around 9pm and slayed the bluefish on topwater. Had a ton of them with 12 making the cut for KW. Man that was fun. Spent the night at my parents. Then after paddling 10 miles for OpSmile Saturday morning, I booked it over to Rudee to find some more. I ended up with 8 from 2pm to 10ish. Got back to Richmond late that night to do the family thing all day Sunday. Tuesday after work I drove down to the HRBT and fished the light line with Specks and Justin from TKAA. We launched around 8pm and the blues were out in force. Specks and I maxed out our limit for KW and went looking for stripers. I caught up with Justin as he was catching one after another in the light line. I ended up with 6 but 2 of them were too short for KW. I finally got off the water by 3:15 and got home by 4:45. Slept for a couple of hours and off to work.

I figured I would get my time in while I can since it's mother's day weekend coming up and I know I won't be getting any kitchen passes.

Caffeine=my friend

Satisfaction At Last!

After hearing about Skunk, Jimmy, and Kevin's recent tog shenanigans, I've been feeling left out. So I took Friday off, drove down from Richmond pre dawn. Met up with Jimmy and Skip and made it out to the island to find Skunk showing off his recent catches. It was a pleasant paddle out, but as soon as we get there, the wind picked up dramatically. It was one of those days that seemed like nothing was going right. I had to pull anchor and reposition over and over again. At one point, the tide and wind were going in opposite directions so I felt like it was impossible to stay where I wanted. I must have lost about 7 or 8 rigs and had nothing to show for it. And to make it worse, Jimmy pulled up tog after tog. I think Skip pulled up 2 or 3 as well, one that had to be close to citation. About 10 minutes after Jimmy and Skip leave I get a call from DV8 wondering how things were going. I vent my frustration, hang up, and WHAM! FINALLY! A nice 19 inch tog.


I tried for a few hours longer but nothing. Part of me felt like "at least I caught one" and another part of me was like "what the hell am I doing wrong? I know they're here"
The paddle back SUCKED! 11+ hours on the water and only one fish and a wicked sunglass burn. I was contemplating going out to the HRBT lightline, but that paddle back kicked my ass.

Beer, pizza, done.

I spent the night at my parents and got up pre dawn again. Picked up some more bait to go with what I had left over the day before. Met BRB and launched at 7:15 headed towards the island. After a nice smooth paddle out, I hooked up quickly. Poor Thom lost his anchor right off the bat. The current can be scary fast. I continued to fight the togs all day and ended up with 15 to 20 ranging from 13" up to 20.5". I even caught one with a tag. I called it in and released with the tag still in.

It turns out that Kevin's friend Zach had caught that fish two week ago and was tagged then. Amazing!

I only lost 2 rigs and only had to pull anchor 2 or 3 times. The wind was nice until we started coming back. It was a great day, worth the wait. I'll be in S. Korea for the next two weekends (grandmother's 80th birthday), so I HAD to get my tog fix.

Satisfaction at last!