sometimes i sit and think, and sometimes i just sit
Join Date
Feb 2005
Location
VaBeachVa
Posts
1,262
Boat
1978 Seacraft
Home Port
Lynnhaven Inlet, VB
Occupation
Sailloft Manager.............
Another awesome day- 7/9/5
I think I will make this post a little less detailed than my previous blog .(not) The size of my ankles has decreased considerably from last night as they were the same size of my calves after I arrives home after a 14 hour trip yesterday. Had the pleasure of fishing with Joe Benkert (Jo-Jo 2) and Mike Page (Good Golly) yesterday on another day where we were very fortunate to catch our targeted species. We met down at my boat around 7 armed with enough tackle ,spinning rods, casting rods, cobia type rods, 3 tackle bags, 4 coolers, holy smokes- would there be enough room to walk around the cockpit??? For bait we had fiddlers, about 3 dozen finger mulet and baby spot I had throw netted on friday , and a cooler of fresh mehaden and bluefish. Our plan was to target some flounder first and then when the tide died go and work on that continuing elusive nemisis (sp) of mine- Mr. Sheepshead. Then when the tide started moving agin set up for cobes over on the shoals. Well after some thought we decided to change the plan taking into consideration the fact that the tide early (incoming) was better early for cobes plus we could get in some time anchored up before it got too hot. (did I say this was going to be shorter?) Anyway we arrived on my favorite spot on the shoals and getting set up Mike and Joe I think were cussing my new 10' anchor chain that weighs about 100 lbs ([grin]) , but our timing was perfect. There was little current for the first 10 minutes or so making a mess out of our lines but it soon started moving and swung the boat around towards the bridge. Less that 15 minutes or so had passed before we had the first cobia in the boat and released at around 42" or so. Nice south west breeze and we felt we were going to be in for a memorable day. As I had just fininshed explaining to Joe that we catch very few critters in this area we fish Joe hooks up with a 50 lb plus ray and I quietly chuckled to myself without reminding him of this fact. Cobia action would remain slow until a little while later when a small one appears in the chum slick and my old trusty white bucktail goes back into action. I have not fished on the 9 ft shoals this year yet I dont think where I havnt caught something whether bait , cobe on this bait and its fun to do while soaking meat. Anyways after a little coaxing beside the boat, jigging dropping back the little guy nails it and goes straight under the boat, wrapping the power pro in between the power pro and my trim tab, then back around and across all four lines that have the bait. Sheeese- it was looking dim on getting this fish to the boat. I have the rod tip pointedstraight under the boat with the line going back 180° while joe and mike untie the chum tube ( that is secured with knots that only I have a clue as to how its tied). Finally get it untied, the line unwrapped and back over top of all the other lines and "wala", the battle is back on. Chinese fire drill over, I fight and boat the fish hile joe and mike are untangling the previously hosed up lines. "controlled chaos". Well we fished for another hour or so with no real action other than a 4' Houndfish eating as much chum as was released from the tube. With the current dieing out it was time to go through the ritual of changing the tackle out rods, rigs etc, cleaning and stowing of the "chum master" and changing modes to go sheepsheading. Now having Joe with us today, I felt pretty good about our odds because he had caught several paper fish up to over 13 pounds and I knew I would be able to get the real scoop on the way to catch these darn things. We motored over to a good spot and thanx to some board friends got a couple of tips on wind and current to get properly orientated to the "structure". Anyone who knows how much a love my boat would have been laughing to see the way I was cringing when we "kissed the pilings of the bridge a couple of times. But I thoughto myself, "what wound the box do??- so i just sucked it up and tried to be as careful as was reasonably achievable and it was well worth it. After some "learning from our teacher Joe, we managed 5 sheepies with 3 paper fish , I had a release, Joe had a weight and Mike had the big boy at 13-4.!! No sooner than Mike caught his fish the tide started making the boat do weird things and I was more than happy to get the heck out of there. (thanx again CB, RH and crew for the bouy and extra bait). Well two of our target species were accomplished so now it was on to number three, my least favorite fish to target- flounder. Most know I cant stand fishing for them- I dont like just drifting around for something I dont eat anyway and unless its big- I had just assume not waste my time,lol. By now its around 2 o'clock , my backs starting to talk to me, my arms aching from so much practice the previous day with the "throw-net"[wink] and I am about ready to just run the boat and let Joe and Mike do the fishing and if we got into some bigger fish then I would jump off of the Birdsall and pick up another rod. The boat doesnt have a livewell but we have been keeping the bait sloshing around in a big igloo I keep on the front seat on the center console. We take a peak at them and change the water a every once in a while and it seems to work real well. The big 34 dollar wally world special igloos dont exactly have a very good seal so the water sloshes out "aaaaaaalot" so it is more adding water and no removing water,lol. Now you have to be careful when checking the bait because with the rocking of the boat and the sloshing action going on you have to time opening of the cooler just right or risk getting a mouthful of "pretty brown mullet and spot poop water like I did yesterday, much to the delight of Joe and Mike, yea- very funny. Only thing I could think of was the video that Marty made of his charter with the guy eating the silverside that a spanish had just regurgitated. yuck.lol.Swmbo just read that line behind me and I guess its no more kisses for me !!! ( is that a good thing?)[grin]
Back to the flounder fishing where after starting out slow we ended up catching a lot of rockfish on those finger mullet up to around 32 maybe 34". Mike didnt want to measure the big fish and I dont blame him as the fish didnt look to healthy and had numerous sores all over it. Other than the one fish all the rest were very healthy looking . We also (Joe) had a good catch of large croakers and our healthy supply of live bait was quickly going south with only a couple of throwbacks to show for it. That finally changed though when Mike caught a keeper and Joe yanked a big fat 26" release citation out from the bridge. Mike had a problem I think see ing that bad boy going back over the side as he loves to eat flounder!!!! [grin]. A few minutes Joe boats a nice 5 lber goes ox and I am now about ready to come off the leaning post and grab a rod myself,lol. Only problem is we are now down to about 5 baits and in between rockfish and croakers they were going fast !!! Long story short we didnt catch any more flatfish and it was now 6 oclock or better and we decided to pack it on in and head for the barn. By the time we got the fish weighed , boat cleaned , yada yada yada it was close to 8 o'clock. Final tally was 2 cobia, 5 sheepshead, lots of big croakers and rockfish, and 3 nice keeper flounder. The only fish picture I took was of Mikes bit sheepshead and the last picture is me in about an hour from now. Really enjoyed the day guys , another memorable day on the water- Y'all have created a monster I tell ya. Craig
DANG SON.I'M PROUD OF YA!!
THE SWEET FISHING REPORT....THE MANUSCRIPT!!! HECK.....I HAD TO WIPE THE "SHEEP" SLIME OFF MY MOUSE TO JUST FINISH READING YOUR GIG...
NOW I DO TAKE CARE OF MY BOAT , BUT I'M NOT AS PICKY AS YOU.............BUT DINGS ARE WAR SOUVENEIRS....SORT OF LIKE NOTCHES ON ZANE GRAYS PISTOLOA................AND I HAVE BILLFISH NOTCHES ALL OVER MY RIG.........HECK YOU SHOULD SEE MY RIFLE AND SHOTGUN............I HUNT SUCH RUGGED TERRAIN THEY LOOK LIKE I DRUG THEM BEHIND A TRUCK
LET IT SCRAPE THE PILINGS DUDE! YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YA
KEEP EM COMING BRO........HELP ME MAKE IT THRU THE DAY!!!
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The size of my ankles has decreased considerably from last night as they were the same size of my calves after I arrives home after a 14 hour trip yesterday. Had the pleasure of fishing with Joe Benkert (Jo-Jo 2) and Mike Page (Good Golly) yesterday on another day where we were very fortunate to catch our targeted species. We met down at my boat around 7 armed with enough tackle ,spinning rods, casting rods, cobia type rods, 3 tackle bags, 4 coolers, holy smokes- would there be enough room to walk around the cockpit??? For bait we had fiddlers, about 3 dozen finger mulet and baby spot I had throw netted on friday , and a cooler of fresh mehaden and bluefish. Our plan was to target some flounder first and then when the tide died go and work on that continuing elusive nemisis (sp) of mine- Mr. Sheepshead. Then when the tide started moving agin set up for cobes over on the shoals. Well after some thought we decided to change the plan taking into consideration the fact that the tide early (incoming) was better early for cobes plus we could get in some time anchored up before it got too hot. (did I say this was going to be shorter?) Anyway we arrived on my favorite spot on the shoals and getting set up Mike and Joe I think were cussing my new 10' anchor chain that weighs about 100 lbs ([grin]) , but our timing was perfect. There was little current for the first 10 minutes or so making a mess out of our lines but it soon started moving and swung the boat around towards the bridge. Less that 15 minutes or so had passed before we had the first cobia in the boat and released at around 42" or so. Nice south west breeze and we felt we were going to be in for a memorable day. As I had just fininshed explaining to Joe that we catch very few critters in this area we fish Joe hooks up with a 50 lb plus ray and I quietly chuckled to myself without reminding him of this fact. Cobia action would remain slow until a little while later when a small one appears in the chum slick and my old trusty white bucktail goes back into action. I have not fished on the 9 ft shoals this year yet I dont think where I havnt caught something whether bait , cobe on this bait and its fun to do while soaking meat. Anyways after a little coaxing beside the boat, jigging dropping back the little guy nails it and goes straight under the boat, wrapping the power pro in between the power pro and my trim tab, then back around and across all four lines that have the bait. Sheeese- it was looking dim on getting this fish to the boat. I have the rod tip pointedstraight under the boat with the line going back 180° while joe and mike untie the chum tube ( that is secured with knots that only I have a clue as to how its tied). Finally get it untied, the line unwrapped and back over top of all the other lines and "wala", the battle is back on. Chinese fire drill over, I fight and boat the fish hile joe and mike are untangling the previously hosed up lines. "controlled chaos". Well we fished for another hour or so with no real action other than a 4' Houndfish eating as much chum as was released from the tube. With the current dieing out it was time to go through the ritual of changing the tackle out rods, rigs etc, cleaning and stowing of the "chum master" and changing modes to go sheepsheading. Now having Joe with us today, I felt pretty good about our odds because he had caught several paper fish up to over 13 pounds and I knew I would be able to get the real scoop on the way to catch these darn things. We motored over to a good spot and thanx to some board friends got a couple of tips on wind and current to get properly orientated to the "structure". Anyone who knows how much a love my boat would have been laughing to see the way I was cringing when we "kissed the pilings of the bridge a couple of times. But I thoughto myself, "what wound the box do??- so i just sucked it up and tried to be as careful as was reasonably achievable and it was well worth it. After some "learning from our teacher Joe, we managed 5 sheepies with 3 paper fish , I had a release, Joe had a weight and Mike had the big boy at 13-4.!! No sooner than Mike caught his fish the tide started making the boat do weird things and I was more than happy to get the heck out of there. (thanx again CB, RH and crew for the bouy and extra bait). Well two of our target species were accomplished so now it was on to number three, my least favorite fish to target- flounder. Most know I cant stand fishing for them- I dont like just drifting around for something I dont eat anyway and unless its big- I had just assume not waste my time,lol. By now its around 2 o'clock , my backs starting to talk to me, my arms aching from so much practice the previous day with the "throw-net"[wink] and I am about ready to just run the boat and let Joe and Mike do the fishing and if we got into some bigger fish then I would jump off of the Birdsall and pick up another rod. The boat doesnt have a livewell but we have been keeping the bait sloshing around in a big igloo I keep on the front seat on the center console. We take a peak at them and change the water a every once in a while and it seems to work real well. The big 34 dollar wally world special igloos dont exactly have a very good seal so the water sloshes out "aaaaaaalot" so it is more adding water and no removing water,lol. Now you have to be careful when checking the bait because with the rocking of the boat and the sloshing action going on you have to time opening of the cooler just right or risk getting a mouthful of "pretty brown mullet and spot poop water like I did yesterday, much to the delight of Joe and Mike, yea- very funny. Only thing I could think of was the video that Marty made of his charter with the guy eating the silverside that a spanish had just regurgitated. yuck.lol.Swmbo just read that line behind me and I guess its no more kisses for me !!! ( is that a good thing?)[grin]
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