HRBT Thursday

Chase and his first light line experience.

One fish two fish no red fish but a bluefish!

I met my buddy chase out at the HRBT on Thursday. My original plan was to try for tog but i couldn't find any deep areas with structure so i didn't find any tog. I gave up on the tog and headed back towards the ramp and picked up a bluefish while trolling. As i got close to the shore i saw the surface exploding with bait fish and the blue fish busting them hard. I caught about 10 bluefish in the 18"-20" range. One of the bluefish decided to get a case of lockjaw on my left index finger. It was pretty painful and i had to cram pliers in the side of its jaw to pop it open and let my finger breathe. I hate bluefish! Later that night another bluefish kicked my pliers out of my hand into the water. Stupid animals. I fished the light line for a couple hours and the grand total was 10-15 striper, 12-15 bluefish, 2 hickory shad, and 2 croaker. Not a bad night. I'd still rather catch a BIG RED!

Eastern Shore

I saw a report on Tidalfish.com forums that said the bull red drum are in the Fisherman island shoals! For some reason there still isn't any work so i made my mind up fast. Turns out I'm not as hardcore as i thought. I paddled out to the shoals and dropped anchor but the current was rippin. It kept pulling me closer and closer to the breakers and it was jerkin me all around. I fished for about an hour but I'm sorry people...i got nervous and left. On the way back i got caught in a large breaker and surfed it for about 10-15seconds. In case you've never done that 15 seconds feels like 2 minuets on to of a wave. It scared the crap out of me but at the same time the adrenaline was awesome. I decided to go back turn on my camera and catch another wave. It was nothing compared to the first one but fun none the less. After i got back to shore i searched the marsh for fiddlers so i could use them for tog at the ships. caught about a dozen and headed out. The wind died down to nothing by the time i got to the ships so it ended up being a nice calm evening. Caught 3 small tog on blue crab and fiddlers within 2 hours...no keepers.

Tog, bass, more bass!

Never ending pilings.

Luckily i had Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off so naturally i went fishing! Thursday i decided to hit up the 1st island of the CBBT for some tautog. As soon as i got out on the water i saw Lee Williams and "Kayak" Kevin Whitley Heading in. They had pretty good luck with about 15 tog between the two of them. I talked to Kevin for a few minutes and decided to start my long voyage to the island. I have a word of advice...stick close to the pilings while paddling out there otherwise you will be way off track in no time without even knowing it. That current is fast! It took me about an 45 mins. to an hour to get out there but it was a calm day so i enjoyed the paddle. There were five other kayakers there when i arrived. I met two of them and forgot both of their names already. Nice guys though! I had all the same bait I've been carrying (clam, blue crab, and fiddlers) and yet again the fiddlers were the best bait. I had several hits when i first dropped down and even broke one off. I HATE breaking fish off. One thing i hate more than breaking off fish is having to cut a snagged anchor. The good news is i learned two good lessons... make your leader longer than the rocks are tall and make sure your breakaway on your anchor is actually weak enough to BREAK AWAY. Barnacles and braided line are archenemies and the barnacles always win the fight. I lost two fish that way. Needless to say i wont make those mistakes anymore. I ended the day with a nice sunset and a 16 1/2" tog.

Friday i fished in a private lake with my friends Forrest and Ashley. It was a great day on the water. I burned my arms and feet but also caught 15 bass and 3 pickerel. All the fish were caught on white zoom super flukes. I got some really nice top water strikes too! Most of the bass were about 16" but the biggest was 18". I cant wait to try it out again! Thanks Forrest!

On Friday i bought a Go-pro video camera that Forrest won in a tournament but i didn't get batteries for it till Saturday. Before going to my buddy's cookout on Saturday i went to Beaver dam reservoir and tried out the new camera. It works great! I got shots of the two bass i caught and an underwater shot of some bream.

Tog fishing again 4/10

I had a great time out on the water in the concrete ships at Kiptopeake this past Saturday. I fished with my buddy Terry for tog inside and around the ships. It was a pretty calm day and clear as can be (which is not usually the best weather for catching fish). All and all it was a slow day but fairly productive with the total going 3 Tog ranging 12"- 14" for me and 4 Tog ranging 12"- 18" and one oyster toad for Terry. At first clam was the only bait working but as the day progressed the fiddlers started working best. One fun part of the day was when the dolphin showed up. There had to be a hundred or more out there. I had to get some pictures so i paddled out to meet them and got some nice video footage. One of them even jumped for me! Another great day on the water!

Finally! TOG!!

I cheated on my kayak and went out in my buddy's boat this past Saturday to fish for some Tog! When we launched out of back creek we saw literally thousands of bloodworms swimming all around the pier and dead ones on the ramp. It was insanely foggy so we had to putt along for a couple hours before heading out to the 2nd island of the CBBT. There were millions of boats on every piling it seemed but we managed to get on one and start fishing. I caught the first one of the day on cut blue crab which happened to be my first one ever. It was about 18" and fought really well. Over the next 2 hours i caught three 15"-18" Tog and one oyster toad. My friend Chris Fox caught 3 tog about the same size. After those few fish the bite turned off and we didn't catch anything else. On the way back we circled around the island a bit and saw some seals sunning on the rocks. That's a mouth full. SAW SOME SEALS SUNNING. Say that 1000 times fast. We waved to the seals they waved back then we took off home. Good Times!

Harwood mill Stinky skunk 4/1

I had to get out on the water due to my fishing withdrawals so i loaded the yak and headed to a local lake. Its a place where i have been skunked before so i dont know why i expected anything more. i guess thats the extent of this blog entry. no fish. Just saw a dead stinky beaver and some birds...oh boy.