Skinny Sweetwater Shenanigans

The 2pm kid-duty-switch-off agreement put the kibosh on 

hopes of returning to my salty big water conquests.  

Instead, little creeks became our stadium.  

And we came to play.

By the time the first rays of light pierced through the trees, Jeff Lockhart, Matt Anderson, and I were already well into our first creek.  A few small bass had been hooked and quickly released before finding what we were hoping for.  Snakehead.  

The 22"er struck Jeff's frog imitation in less than a foot of water.  Our expectations of a furiously savage fight as described by others encountering the invasive specie were muted by the fact that it quickly had a huge amount of vegetation around the line and covering it's face.  Regardless, we were ecstatic to confirm our hunch.  The area is not known to hold snakeheads but we thought it was worth a shot.  

As the day went on our search for more only yielded a few suspicious wakes.  However we were still all smiles with the abundance of other life in the area.  The little creeks were holding tons of baitfish and the largemouth bass were waiting around nearly every bend or dip to ambush them.  Weedless, weightless flukes and frogs yielded a little less than a dozen bass with most of them in the 18" range.  Topwater blow ups never get old and it was thoroughly enjoyable to watch bass take the fluke only a few feet from the kayak.  

Matt got into double digits of bass as well on various swimbaits and senkos.  In a larger part of the creek, Jeff landed the biggest bass of the day going a little over 21".  At one point, I kept getting short strikes on the fluke when I finally set the hook into something that surprised us all for this time of year.  The good sized yellow perch made me switch to the smaller set up with a little white grub.  The following 3 casts rendered 3 more perch with the biggest going a bit over 11".  Matt scored one just shy of citation at 11 3/4".  Not too long after that, I lucked out with a new specie checked off my bucket list; bowfin.  It tore up the baby bass fluke and provided a most satisfying fight on relatively light tackle.  Unfortunately, my GoPros turned themselves off due to the heat and the 23"er flopped out of my hands just before Jeff could click the shutter. 

For a relatively short trip, it was really a blast.  Jeff added one more specie for the day with a decent crappie from under a duck blind.  The call of the salt may be strong, but if weather and timing doesn't work out, we'll definitely be up for some more skinny sweetwater shenanigans. 

Rare Bluewater Treat

3AM and I struggle to focus my eyes.  I sit on the throne.  Haze clears.  Forecast double check provides a smile.  I wipe.  I'm out the door.

It was supposed to rain later but the lack of wind made it a good day to introduce my new Ultra 4.7 to the CBBT.  Looking to knock sheepshead off the yearly citation list as well as play with some spadefish, I picked up fiddlers and clams at Ocean's East.  When I arrived at the beach, I was more than a little disappointed.  The wind was sustained at 15kts at least from open water with gusts much higher.  I'm pretty sure I would have verbally abused if not shin kicked the crap out of the weather man if he were there.  Luckily, my good friend WillyRags, who was supposed to be there too, gave me the heads up about Ric and Lee about to head out on the boat.  

The trek out was needless to say, brutal.  It felt like we got airborne about 20 times but a smile crept on my face knowing that I rarely get to see that type of water; especially right out of Virginia Beach.  The little 20' Jones Brothers center console actually handled the rough water well... all 30 miles out.  And it got better as we went further out.  

Based on prior year catches on Ric's boat, the main target for this trip was mahi.  We put out a spread of 5 ballyhoo (2 outriggers, two short lines, one flatliner right behind the boat) and one big crankbait 10-15' down.  Within 5 minutes of trolling we were on them.  Then not too long after we lost them.  We put decided to mess around on some wrecks and I jigged up a thick 20" flounder.  Lee was working the Lucanus jig when all of a sudden he hooks a mahi and next thing we know had them all around the boat.  Ric hooks up on cut bait and keeps it in the water to keep the school around.  Unfortunately, they wised up quick and we only picked off a couple.  We go back to trolling and it was on.  The count for the day was 11 mahi with the biggest going 15lbs and the flounder.  

The rare bluewater treat was the farthest thing I could have imagined doing that day, but I'm so glad it happened.  I learned a little more about driving a boat, properly rigging ballyhoo for trolling, understanding outriggers, not to mention bringing home a bunch of excellent meat.  Big thanks to Ric and Lee for accommodating me as well as Rags for sending me their way.  Thanks guys.

Photo credits: Ric Burnley

Paperwork Shy Choppers

I seem to have a hard time getting away from that paper chasing game.  And again, the citation bluefish in Rudee have eluded me for another year.  I came up half an inch shy of the trophy 36" mark twice over the last few weeks.  The upper 20" and lower 30" fish were prevalent as usual.

Vernal Reds

For me, it is one of the most anticipated times of the year.  

Big.

Red.

 Drum.

 Roaming the flats of the Eastern Shore...

marauding...

annihilating...

leaving slicks of oily remnants in their wake... 

It's just a matter of finding the time 

to find them.

So far, I've only crossed the CBBT twice this season.  Luckily, I was able to find them both times.  On the first day, the weatherman's magic 8-ball was wrong again.  The wind stuck around too long and the rain showed up hours ahead of schedule.  However the water clarity was good enough to still spot schools at times.  The side scanner unit came in really handy though for JBrooks, WillyRags, LuckyLockhart and yours truly.

I found the school 4 or 5 times that day.  A few times, I couldn't have seen them without the Hummingbird 698ci HD si, and a couple of times my eyes saw them before the unit.  The first encounter was early in the morning with the sun in our eyes and wind on our face.  We spread out to cover more water.  I noticed a long diagonal marking on my screen to the right and before I knew it I was paddling right over it.  Then all of a sudden the water erupts violently about 40 feet in front of me.  I spooked em and several large reds exploded on the surface.  The wind caught my 5" paddle tail before it could get to the target area twice but Jeff took the cue and paddled up until he could get a good cast.  He hooked up, but broke off.  Jay was paddling near where the top end of the diagonal marking would go and hooked up a minute later.

Jay Brooks 47"ish Red Drum

We lost the school after that, but we knew they couldn't have gone far.

With the wind being stronger than expected, the water wasn't exactly stand up friendly.  However the Predator 13 was still stable enough for me to get up and take a look around.  And even with the clouds moving in, the polarization on my Maui Jim's cut through and I was able to find the school a couple of times.  After I pulled up a 48"er, Jeff Lockhart got one at 46"ish.

48"

As the rain showed up, I relied on the side imaging unit again.  After covering a good amount of water, the blank screen would suddenly get lit up with marks and I tried my best to choreograph which way my buddies should cast.  We all hooked up, lost fish, and hooked up again on the same school.  At one point we had 4 on at the same time.  I landed one more at 46", William Ragulsky got one at 48" and Jeff scored a 51"er. 

I ended up finding another small school and watched a big fish follow my lure to the boat, but ended up spooking.  All in all, it was a great first trip out for the big reds.

My second trip was a short one.  I had strict orders from the boss lady to be back at a certain time.  The sun was out and the wind wasn't too bad, but once I paddled out to the flat, I realized how dirty the water was.  Again, I was glad I brought the Humminbird side scan unit.  Normally it would have become a troll and hope kind of day, but I actually found a school using the imager and casted to them instead of trolling.  I only landed one though before I had to call it quits.

41"

I'm hoping to go again, 

but you know how life goes...

Surf Launching Tips Video

Hooked Surf: Launching and Landing Your FIshing Kayak Safely from Werner Paddles on Vimeo.

Til the Break of Dawn

10pm Friday night and Rudee inlet was completely deserted.  Slick calm water and a dense fog made for an other-worldly ambiance as I took the first paddle strokes of my new Ocean Kayak Ultra 4.7.  At 15 and a half feet long, it's meant more for open water rather than a small inlet, but I had to try it out.  The acceleration and smooth glide had me geekin' to say the least.  A full review and rigging post up will be up in the near future.

I wasn't quite sure what the plan was that night but I figured, like a party that I wasn't sure of, I can always leave and go home early.  I ended up wildin' out until 9:40 the next morning.  As long as I was back by noon, the boss lady was ok with it.  So I hit up the lights first after slowly navigating through the fog.  I was mildly entertained by small bluefish on little grubs n jigheads but thought about leaving if that was all Rudee had to offer.  I checked a few other lights with little improvement until I found one with bigger shapes cruising around.  I immediately recognized them as schoolie stripers and just as I expected, my paddletail got crushed as I swam it just under the surface.  I pulled two off the light then they disappeared.  After paddling around, trolling, checking other lights, and messing with more small blues, I came back to the same light and the stripers were there again swiping at little minnows.  Again, I danced with a couple more before they would shy away.  I repeated this process until I was satisfied with 6 stripers up to 23", all fat, strong, healthy, and released.  By now it was about 2:30 am and I was thinking about peacin' out but then I heard a massive splash through the fog.  Fast forward 4 more hours and I ended up with 4 or 5 blues in the upper 20" to lower 30" range with the biggest going 34".  I also had one on that felt really nice but I couldn't get her to join me in my new ride.

So as color streaked toward the east more and more people showed up.  Before I knew it, it was down right crowded.  As I paddled along, I heard my name and saw someone waving me over through the fog.  It was Ryan Clark with a few really nice flounder up to 22".

He found a good bite and started throwing a flyrod with sinking line after that.  Not too long, he had an 18"er on his own fly.

I'm not one to leave a hot bite, so I threw a little paddletail on 1/4oz jighead and...

31" Red

Red Drum Chamber of Death

Shortly after that, I finished off my night/morning with a 17" flounder.

Bluefish, Stripers, Red Drum and Flounder....
I'd say the Ultra 4.7 maiden voyage was a success.

Testify

I'm not a big mountain trout fisherman, although one day I hope to explore that avenue in this amazing world of fishing.  Regardless, if you fish, you'll enjoy this video/poem.  The last few lines are perfect.