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.

Windy day with a special guest

I had Tim and his Father with me today for a 6 hour trip . . . There was some hope that the wind was going to be a little lighter today, nope………  We made our way to the fishing grounds in some less then ideal conditions.

First drift was a little slow, I managed to hook the first one after about 20 minutes or so – then Tim lays into one.  Quality fish. . .

Move to another little area and thats when things changed.  Triple up – with a mother load school around the boat.  We could have caught 100 fish if we had 100 rods.   Fun times.

Shortly after –  A small group of special guests appeared off the bow.   5 or 6 Tarpon in the 4ft range cruising through.  We pitched spoons at them, but I think it was too late – they were spooked.   Really cool to see – but would have been insane to catch!

Got back on another drift and hit another big school – picked a few more up out of that.  With the windy conditions we wrapped it up and put her in the wind.   Great trip guys, Thank you!

And the fun continues

Still grinding away on the drum!  These things are still thick as flys and crowd pleasers.  They fight great, taste great, look great, smell great……  These fish can be extremely easy to catch by simply using cut bait to bring them to you.   OR they can be very difficult by enticing them into biting a fly using a fly rod.   I had a morning crew and we bait fished them and caught em good, then we moved on to the flounder and caught a couple with only 1 keeper.  We did manage to catch a stargazer?!?! First time on my boat…..

The afternoon I had Rick Nyles of SKy BLue Outfitters out with me to catch them on a fly rod.   Rick is a professional fly fishing guide so he didn’t have any trouble catching them on fly.  It was awesome to watch.

\