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.