Roller Coaster

Wow, today was pretty crazy.  This morning Doug joined me for a morning of drum fishing.   We tried the trout for a minute first thing in the morning, but pulled a few off and flopped one off by the boat.   We had drum on our minds.

We got to the flats and started tossing spoons.   Covered a little ground with no bites.   The wind was calm, the sky was blue, the sound was empty.  We were going to have a great day no matter what!

After about 30 minutes with no bites we headed on to the next flat.  As soon as we arrived we came across a pack of 6 HUNGRY puppy drum.  Doug puts a perfect shot right in the mix and they all fight for it before one finally commits and comes tight.  The ice was broke and we were pumped.

We proceeded to scan the flats from the tower – looking for another pack of fish.   It didn’t come for another hour.   With the slick calm conditions we were able to see a mile.  Out in the distance I saw a fish tailing.  Nose in the grass and tail sticking straight up.   We don’t see this very often….. Then there was another , and another , and another – they were tailing all over the place!  It was the most epic sight I have seen in a long time.  We were the only boat in sight and we were staring at tailing reds all over a oil slick grass flat.  Jackpot!

The fish were too shallow to access by boat, so I dropped the Power Pole and we started wading.   We walked around scanning the horizon for orange tails, picking out targets to try to entice a bite.  They were a bit tricky to get to bite, but we made it happen and it was all time.   Such an epic experience, Until……..

We get back to the boat to wrap up the trip after some hoots, hollers, and high fives.  Only to be greeted by a boat that was sitting to shallow to budge.  The tide had kept on falling, and stupid me got so tied up in what we were doing that I didn’t even think about it.  So there we sat, in the middle of the sound, nobody in sight, and high and dry. Shit!

To add to the situation, we had a pretty large squall forming to our west, and it appeared to be heading our way.   It was a pretty helpless feeling to be out there with nowhere to go and nowhere to hide.  Not a great situation.   Fortunately, I know alot of people with boats, and alot of them are in there boats – everyday.   I called  Bryan and he came to the rescue.   We walked out and met him at the channel and headed in.   I went back later in my kayak to pick up my boat and head in – after the tide had come up.

You live and learn, and today – I learned.   We brushed it off and planned out our next trip together.  I really enjoyed meeting and spending the morning with Doug and I am looking forward to a long time friendship.  Here is Doug with one of his Drum today.

Bay Cobia and Reds at home

Made another trip up to the bay this week.  This time my brother and I headed up for in an effort to catch a cobia on fly – a first for both of us.  The day started off great – we started seeing them right away.  Catching a cobia on the fly is VERY hard.  We ended up having to break the ice with the spinning rod just to put one in the box.  We were seeing too many without a hook up.   Matt finally hooks a decent fish on fly, but had the fly line wrap up around the reel during the first run, POW.   That was a heartbreaker – I was so pumped.   We kept grinding away and caught a few more fish on spinning tackle.  Finally, I got back up on the tower with the fly rod and managed to catch my first cobia on fly.   It was a small one, but I was pumped!  Can’t wait to get back out there and try for a bigger one.

Had my buddy Matt Myatt on the boat this morning for a little puppy drum action.   We had to bounce around a little bit to find them but we managed to find some fish and wind on a few.  No matter what the wind forcast is when I take Matt fishing, it is always windy as hell.  Charters on Friday so stay tuned for more reports and thanks for checking!

Bay trip

My Buddy Patrick and I headed up to Virginia Beach this morning to chase the cobia.   We have been hearing of some insane reports the past couple days so we both had the green light and headed on up .   We got delayed by the Marathon, but the roads finally opened and we put in at Owls Creek boat ramp in Rudee Inlet.

We headed out to Cape Henry and started seeing fish right away.  We missed the first fish, but caught the next one we saw.  We continued to cruise around all the Rays and came up on a pack of 20+ fish.  We picked up another one out of that.   We stayed in the area and saw some fish, we did go on about a 2 hour lull of no sightings.  Finally found a few fish at the end and plucked out a nice fish to put in the box and head in.  Unfortuantly the wind was really cranking and we were faced with the roughest conditions that I have ever been in, in my boat.  We powered through it, and an hour and a half later (12 miles)  we were back in the inlet.

Fun day – a few trips this week so stay tuned and as always thanks for checking!

8/29/14 Fishing Report

I am running out of clever blog post titles. . .

This morning was pretty awesome.  I had Chris from California (relocated to DC) on board for some morning pullage.   We started out throwing some bait out while we threw spoons.  Didn’t take long and one of the bait rods went off.   Then it happened again, and again.   We got tired of catching them on bait and made it a mission to get them on spoons.   The rain came in and it was absolutely pouring its ass off.   We were just laughing – it was epic.   During that time I managed to hook a solid 30″ drum on the spoon.   A couple pics and away he went.   A little while later Chris finally connects but it ends up being a keeper trout.   Wrapped it up and headed in, very fun morning thanks Chris.

This afternoon I had the Jersey crew with me.   We headed to the drum grounds and got to work.  We were in them pretty quick and filled the box up.   We managed a bonus keeper flounder to top it off.  Thanks guys – fun time!

Another fantastic day!

Today was just one of those magical days.  I had a trip scheduled this morning, but we both surf, and agreed that Friday would work better.  The waves were really good this morning, so I woke up early and cruised down to Rodanthe to log a little time in the ocean.

Met up with my first charter at noon. I had an 8 year old and two 4 year olds and the Dads.   I asked them if they wanted to catch a lot of little fish or a few big fish. Of course, they were screaming BIG FISH!!!! So we headed to the drum grounds….

Well, we had 2 on in the first 5 minutes.  Lucky for us, we caught alot of big fish!  We had a limit of nice drum in under an hour with a few missed opportunities thrown in there.  Great start.  We headed on to the next spot – but not before a great show from the dolphin.

We setup at the bottom fishing hole and start cranking on the pin fish.   It wasn’t long before I heard the drag burnin’ off again.  Turns out Ryan had a small pig fish on and a 19″ speckled trout decided to eat it.   We managed to get the trout in the boat and in the box, BONUS!   We also managed a little striper on a bottom rig too.   Closed out the day with some hermit crabbing and playing in the water.  Thanks guys – really enjoyed it!

This afternoon I had Jerry , Jack, and Dave onboard for some more drum pullage. First spot was kind of a bust with only 1 in the box.  Made a move and game on – one after another for a couple hours.   Called it a day a little early.  Another great day for Salt Minded Fishing Charters! Two trips tomorrow so stay tuned and thanks for checking.