The Lines on the rods whistle

The Lines on the rods whistle
all day long
but only in the silence of the night on the bay
do they sing

2 trips: Late October/ November 2019 - Tautog and Striped Bass

"Shitty Launch"

We took a quick trip to Nummy to hit some bridges for Tog.  We got two dozen green crabs each.  I'm still new to this type of fishing and since I ran out of bait on my last attempt, I figured, better more than less.   We arrived at the bridge just before slack tide, but it was a new moon and once the current switched from ebb to flood it was on full throttle.  It was slow picking at small fish.  KGB was getting frustrated, his kayak not holding position under the bridge with the wind and the current picking up.  He literally said "F... this" and as he was pulling away from the bridge, his personal best Tog comes tight.

KGB with Tog-Mothra

After that, the current was too strong for Tog, so I went to some creek mouths to try to entice a Striped bass and had a few blow ups on topwater.  Then we called it a day.  My plan came together, just not for me, but sometimes that's even better.

Short Tog (my PB)

Early November: The big Striped Bass are migrating down the easty coast and are pretty much anywhere along the Jersey coast this time of year.   The easiest Ocean Launch is at Avon by the Sea, at the "EL" Jetty by the Shark River inlet.  Mike and I hit it at first light.

Sunrise at the Ocean

I had repaired my Lowrance so it was working again, and marked a small school of bunker pretty quickly.  Nothing came of it.  So we headed east.  We saw some birds working some bait but they were moving pretty quickly.  I had heard rumors of Tuna out there, and maybe that's what the splashing was that I saw, but I was rigged up with Mojo's and snags, and didn't want to switch lure or tactics at that point as I was still hoping for a large Striper.

Mike at sea

After messing around with the birds we headed back towards shore and found larger pods of Bunker to snag and use as bait.  The Bunker was getting decimated my swarms of Spiny Dogfish.

Spiny Dogfish

As nothing but shark after shark was going on around the bunker we started to head back.  It had already been quite a long day, and now we were heading South, against a stiff wind and current.  I noticed birds working smaller bait, so I switched lures from Mojo's to some slightly smaller presentations, and we both hooked up with 25" stripers.

Ocean Striper, just not the big one

We both a few hits and misses after this, all close to shore and near bait pods.  I'm pretty sure it was peanut Bunker but I never got a good view. 

The conditions were not ideal for landing.  The tide was very low, and now the sets of larger afternoon waves were breaking out at the El jetty instead of behind it.  We eventually found a hole in the breaking waves and made a break for it.

Both trips were successful in finding the targeted species, and no one got hurt!

 

the end

Return trip to Virginia Oct. 2019

This time:  I tried getting a cheaper campsite in Virginia Beach, but as it turned out, it was on a Navy base and they didn't want to let civilians in.   My default campground was First Landing.  At least I know the program there.  I found a nice isolated site, and made it my home for two nights.

First Landing

First day of half day/ sunset fishing in Lynnhaven was pretty productive with lots of small speckled trout, and one sunset keeper, but no redfish.

Sunset Keeper Spec, my biggest. around 20"

I decided to switch up my plans for the next full day of fishing and headed back across the CBBT to the Wise Point boat ramp in the hopes that there might be redfish on that side of the bay.   The fishing was pretty good on that side, as well as the conditions.  I caught a variety of species, just no reds.

Speckled Spec

 Bass in the 20" range, another two keeper specs, one on topwater, and a couple of bluefish in the 20" range.  Also several/ many short bass, specs and blues, all from 10-20".  I was mostly trolling/ throwing bass assassins with small jig heads, but also throwing topwater lures whenever it seemed appropriate.  The fish were spread out, but the creeks and banks seemed to produce better than the flats.

Dinner fishes

All in all a great trip, I'm pretty sure I'm dialing in the area more and more and figuring out what I like about it.  the Mockhorne Island area (Eastern Shore) is much nicer, has much less fishing pressure, and is easier to access than the Virginia Beach side of the CBBT.

Wise Point Sunset

Chasing my own blog posts from last year....Mid- October report

Any more, If I want to get inspired to fish, or get an idea to try a new tactic, I might check out the internet.  There's so much information out there these days, but there's a few folks I really like to check out.  One of those folks is John Skinner.  Sure, he fishes different waters, mostly Long Island Sound, but it still gets my fishy blood simmering.  (That, and I checked out what I was doing last October.)

Tog Spot

  I rarely fish weekends, but this past week, the only day I was available that the wind was under 15 was Saturday, so I headed down to N. Wildwood for some tog and striped bass fishing.  I was considering catching my own crabs, but also knew that the tide was extra high, and that would make crab-catching for bait more difficult, so I bought some green crabs.  I was still hoping to catch some fiddlers or Asian shore crabs if I ran out, but that just didn't pan out.


I had bites, and bites, and bites, and my bag of crabs dwindled, until I finally had a solid hook up.

PB Tog  (I know its tiny)  13"

I made my way back into the spaghetti, (the little creeks of Nummy Sound), and found feeding bass in the mid 20" range spread out.  Some on top-water, some on soft plastics.

Nice sized South Jersey October Bass

All in all, it was quite a full day, and just as the sun was setting, even though I didn't really get a super early start, I had pretty much accomplished what I had set out to do, so I called it a day.

October Bass along every Sod Bank

The Church of the Sedge Islands

The days are growing shorter. The moon is waning gibbous.  The baitfish are being scooped up at every corner, at every turn. 

Winter Anchorage

It was supposed to be a 2-person Wednesday trip but turned into a solo- Monday trip.  The weather forecast was, dare I say, wrong. 

My half-assed original plan was to only take my fly rod.  Unfortunately I'm at a handicap with that plan and wasn't really willing to go there yet.  Confidence is a MAJOR factor in fishing.  If I had confidence in my fly-casting skills I might have tried a "fly only" trip.  My compromise was to bring just one spinning set-up (as opposed to the ten I might normally bring on any given fishing trip). find a consistent bite on the Bass Assassin, then switch to the fly rod.

I found a lone bass within a few minutes.

Typical fall sedges bass

It was a good sign.  I went to Snake Ditch and started to fly cast along the banks.  My fly casting skills are still minimal at best.  That being said, the current was doing much of the work for me, and I was able to work the banks.  I started with a Clouser pattern fly.  I had no hits.

I let the current take me towards the inlet.

ol' Barney

Sometimes there's just too much debris in the outgoing tide to effectively fish Snake Ditch, so I headed back to Horsefoot with the plan of finishing up the day in front of the clam-shack.

I had a few more random Schoolie bass along the way and stopped to cast the fly at a few notorious banks.  I had switched the fly to a shrimp pattern that I had bought at an Orvis shop a year ago.  In a little creek on the way to the clam-shack I pulled over and started fly casting.  It was here that my plan came to fruition.  Within the time-span of an hour, as the sun set,  I must have landed a dozen small bass on the shrimp pattern fly. 

Shrimp fly

Unfortunately the leader was old, and I lost the fly to a fish, so I tied on a super simple pattern, teaser fly and caught one more on the flat in front of the clam shack. 

Sunset, rope, salt air on the lens

Suffice it to say I left them biting.

Tangier Sound - Annual birthday (not) camping trip

   
 Due to a strange set of circumstances the annual Janes Island camping trip was converted into a family Air B-n-B rental situation in Chance, Md just spitting distance north of Deal Island. 

Tangier sound

I arrived a day ahead of the rest of the guests and sussed out the fishing situation.  One thing I noticed pretty quickly is that I wasn't getting any strikes on topwater lures, even though they had worked consistently just to the South at Janes Island previous years.  In an effort to come up with a consistent bite before I had to play the role kayak guide for family and friends I ventured off of the flats and into the creeks the second morning.  there I found what seemed to be an infinite supply of striped bass (rockfish locally) ranging from 10 inches into the low 20's.  They were all caught trolling a soft plastic bass assassin type lure.  Most of the fish were stacked up in schools in the holes that were in every bend of the creek.

 There were two days of fishing as a group.  Both trips were as follows: under the bridge, across the flat and into the creeks, then back out again.

Bridge/ flat/ creeks

Across the flat is where the speckled trout were hanging out. 

Speckled Sea Trout

 The first of those days I got really lucky and hooked into what is to date my biggest fish for the Tangier sound area.  I had also caught a keeper spec and a bluefish, Most people like to hold their fish out when taking pictures to make their fish look bigger, but it's always nice to have to do the opposite in my kayak because the fish too large, so I have to lean back to fit it into the frame.

31" Striper

The second day was also pretty epic, but more so in numbers.  Jon and Mike both caught innumerable short striped bass in the creeks.

Jon getting ready to troll

Mike chilling because he caught too many fish

Steve also did pretty well with a keeper bass the second day, and keeper white perch.  

That evening was a feast from the local waters: crabs, striped bass, bluefish, speckled trout, and perch were all on the menu!

September 2019 so far...

I've been giving my best effort at meeting a Sheepshead at a bridge in south Jersey and this is all I got:

Bottom Sweeper jig for the micro black sea bass!

So, I tried for Fluke instead and all I got is a Bluefish and a Weakfish....

Bluefish

Weakfish

...well, I did also get a 17.5" Fluke.

...and ahead of annual Trip to Janes Island, Md, which this year will actually be at Deal Island because of some plans gone awry....I made a solo trip to CBBT and Lynnhaven, Va for Bull Reds and possibly slot reds.

CBBT

This trip was planned around the weather.  There were two calm days.  I trolled a large storm shad and a big MOJO out to the first island.  I tried to time it with slack tide, and I rode the tide back to the pilings, then back to the beach.  I did not catch a giant redfish.

pilings between the CBBT and Lynnhaven inlet

That afternoon I went in the back bays of Lynnhaven.  

Spec

I caught a short Spec and one that just made a keeper size.  I also caught two of these Ribbon fish AKA Largehead Hairtail.

Ribbon fish

I also caught a Spot on a small soft plastic lure, which is only funny because as a kid we caught millions of them on bait and small hooks.

Spot on a lure

All in all it was a pleasant trip with a swing and a miss for my target species, Redfish.....they say it's better in October.  (It may warrant another trip South.)

Several Trips - one half hearted mission - South Jersey Sheepshead

It always takes me a while to learn to catch a new species.  I've recently been half-heartedly targeting Sheepshead.  A little obsessively.

  How can it be both obsessive and half-hearted?  I always intend to commit more time to Sheepshead, but after an hour or so of no action I revert to my "plan-B" whatever that might be.  Usually this time of year it's Fluke fishing.  

They are often 17.5"

Fishing for Sheepshead is like Tog fishing, another species I targeted half-hearted and only recently caught a few of.  In this type of fishing you become very intimate with the bridge you are fishing.    (Whichever one it may be)

office cubicle

...also, because it's bait-fishing, there's a higher chance of by-catch like this Toad-fish.

Opsanus tau

There's only so long that I can stick around in one spot and let the little black sea bass at the bottom steal my crabs.  I had fiddlers one day, asian shore crabs another, and even bought some shedder crabs to see if that would work better.  I would become impatient and then change gears...

...like trying some night fishing by the lights. 

Sunset Paddle - Mike

 We did an early evening session and only managed to catch weakfish.

Fishing in the dark

 Also, a by-catch of fluke fishing is millions of 12" weakfish this year.

12"weakfish

I might squeeze one or two more South Jersey Sheepshead trips in, but September is here, and I'm about to change gears and do some long distance runs to target Bull Reds in the Southern Chesapeake.

Solo Trip - first keeper Fluke - Mid August

I took a trip to Stone Harbor, 

Bought some killies, caught a few Fluke.

  Lost one by the boat.  

Landed another that was 17 3/4".  

Got caught in a thunderstorm and hid under a bridge.

The drift was slow,

the clouds had passed.

My rod felt heavy with the weight of a fish,

as it neared the surface it took a run back down, 

and then back up, and into my boat.

It was delicious!

19" Fluke

Fishing With Nick

The main plan was to fish Great Bay,  catch snapper blues and live-line them for fluke. 

The back-up plan was to use a bucktail and gulp.

We had a window in the AM of relatively low winds. 

Fish Factory

 The snappers weren't at the launch, and I probably gave up too soon, but after about ten minutes of casting a snapper zapper at the banks, I switched to gulp and hooked into a sea-robin pretty quickly.

Sea Robin

The rest of the day was SLOWWWW.  I found some snappers in the main channel, but I think they were just a little too big.  Also, the water was really weedy.

After the incoming current picked up and the wind picked up, we headed back into the feeder creek.  

Summer Sedge Grasses

There we both had short Fluke, and the day was already getting long.

Nick and a fluke

Micro fluke

The ghost pulled up to the boat ramp as we were loading.  His stories were many.  He talked about fly fishing in PA, and Md, and his secret spots in the area.  He told us about his day recently of catching the "big 4."  (Striper, Blue, Weakfish, Fluke), and showed me his secret weapon lure.  As awesome as that sounded, I felt pretty good about just catching the big three; Sea Robin, Snapper blue, and short Fluke!