One of my favorite times of the year

[Miles Offshore]

When its a difficult time to choose what to fish for. Lets see- inshore we have , flounder, puppy drum, big red drum, cobia still hanging around, grey triggerfish, sheepshead, monster spot will be here real soon, togs on the wrecks, a few kings off the beach etc etc etc. But my real favorite of them all (this time of the year) is speckled trout. Yessiree!!!! Nothing like throwing that favorite mirrorlure of mine into 3 feet of water with my 1972 vintage ambassaduer 5000 and 8 lb test line. It takes me all of 10 minutes to get to the fishing grounds from my slip. I can go after work, weekends, slip out of work early when the tide is gonna be justtttt right- anyone know this feeling???? Marty , I saw that you made a comment on Lynnhaven in the another thread, well I love Lynnhaven. Grew up on the Lynnhaven living in Lynnhaven Colony. At one time it was world famous for both its oysters and speckled trout !!!! The oysters are polluted now but the speckled trout fishing although not real consistant from year to year can be outstanding. Growing up there where these old ass spec fisherman who were grumpy as hell and you aint never seen a group more secrective and onery in your life. Most that I knew never fished for ANYTHING else and didnt fish the rest of the year at all until the specks showed up starting in September. Heres a couple of their tricks that even I have adopted as they passed the torch to me as I am now the old grouchy fart. First thing you will find out is they (sometimes I ) will lose a fish before letting someone else see that you are hooked up. Good Lord forbid you hoop and holler or some such nonsense,lol. . If you have a hot bait you remove it before and after going to the "spot". Or you can do what I like to do and just change baits and put a color on that wont catch a cold, and chuckle to yourself when you see someone trying to sneak a peek!!!Damn, giving myself the chills just thinking about it, me and Mike are going to be out there at o-dark thirty tomorrow and be at my favorite oyster bar on the flooding tide. Since this site is so awesome for information sharing I thought I might give you folks a few of my tips, the way I trout fish and have been doing it for 35 years now. Part of my education came from being sneaky myself, you had to, cause none of those old guys were talking so recon, cloak and dagger tactics had to be employed. This involved knowing who the best were, not just knowing there boats (those little jon boats, skiffs etc), but knowing what these guys looked like. You couldnt put it past them to be in a different boat on any particular occasion either. assholes. I had an old 16 ft sears aluminum boat with a 1959 johnson and a 6 gallon tank. Got my ass yelled at to for banging the anchor or chain in the metal boat. (you were subject to damn near be shot if you just pulled up and threw the damn thing over the side, I will say that still holds true today too Where was I, oh yea, the stealth, the sneakiness, the persistance to catch one of those big , beautiful spotted trout. Get out there before they do, follow them around , not to closely, but from afar, i had a pair of binoculars , so I could see what kind of bait they were throwing, and the points, bars and rips where they were gettin those fish. Anyone bored yet? If so , some have already quit reading since the post is so long and that was intentional for obvious reasons. . Well, it happened earlier this week- found out that the "boys" had arrived (through top secret sources of course, if this gets out ill probably find some dead crabs or old squid in my bed). It usually happens that the first fish that arrive are the larger fish- not big by most other areas standards but they run anywheres from 2 to 5 lbs, and a 5 pounder is not very easily found in Lynnhaven these days. The fish being caught now are running 2 to 3 pounds, and get my heart pumping when i hook up on the light tackle, much the same way an offshore guys does when a 500 lb blue one jumps a teaser right alongside the boat. Ok, enough of the rambling , i almost exclusively use mirrorlures, model 52M and the tinee trout (sinkers). The best colors for Lynnhaven have always been red head with a white body 52M, same colors in tinee trout. Dark green back white sides in both sizes as well. These have always been favorites as they will always catch fish as the old timers knew. Around the early seventies the mirrorlure company came out with this flouresant pinkish head and white body and was really a hot bait, I still have several in my tackle box today- never know when I might need em again. But my whole trout fishing world came to a screeching halt when one of the few remaing old timers turned me on to another color mirrorlure about 10 years ago and I will not throw much of anything else. I was offered to ride with my old friend one morning (cant say where we fished) and after we got to his spot an anchored up he kinda looked over my way and grinned- you know the look, i remember thinking to myself, what the f*** is he up to now??? Out of his box he pulls out a brand spankin new still in the box new color mirrorlure that was the funkiest thing i ever saw. aint no trout gonna eat that??? its pink by god, and translucent too. My man says to me "son, give this lure a few minutes and if you are dissapointed go ahead and put your green back or red head bait back on and forget about it. Well i said wtf, ill give it a shot, its early and so I tied it on. My first cast and as i let the bait settle i had a feeling it might be a good bait. I asked Raymond how h3e liked to retrieve it and he told me slow- real slow. So slow in fact that if you think you are retrieving it as slow as you can then its not slow enough. No jerking the rod every three or four turns of the reel, that crap is for jerk jiggers fishing off a pier or something. Damn- three turns of the handle and i thought there was an explosion in my hands. Now with three sets of treble hooks it is not wise to give a big he-man hook set cause you most likely will rip the soft lips right out of the fish's mouth and then stand there cussin cause you just lost a big ol speck. I like to kind of put a steady , easy hook set on him- just enough and its a feel thing , not easy to explain. Anyways after I set the hook on this fish he started rippin drag like crazy and I see her come to the surface and make a big swirl before taking off aain. Damn, this is a nice fish. After several minutes I finally get the fish alongside and put her in the net. The net we use is not your normal net, you see, a mirrorlure with 3 sets of treble hooks really makes a mess and when you get on the fish you need to get your bait back in the water quickly or the scool will be gone. The net is modified, using chicken wire with a little depth (not much) in place of the nylon net that was on it when you bought it. This way the mirrorlure is easy to get out when the fish is netted. the fish was a 4 and a half pounder . Holy SHIT sherlock, I think Im on to something. After raymond netted the fish I got that sly grin again, and i could not hold back mine any longer as I was smiling ear to ear. OK i said, this bait has gotten my attention. And now it is pretty much the only bait I will throw. Caught probably a hundred or more specks with the first one i had that raymond had given me. At the risk of getting stoned to death ( not with the cannibus either) I left the bait in the dashboard of my truck, the bait faded and turned a kind of orange. Shoot the bait worked even better. Well the family just returned from a visit to VMI for my younger son to look at the school so I am going to wrap this thing up now. Here are my tips on catching specked trout in the Lynnhaven river- look for oyster beds that cut into little channels wit plenty of marsh grass. When the tide gets to moving and you see a nice little rip on one side or the other, fish the rip- its usually a good spot. Fish your bait slowwwwwwwww. Dont drop the dang anchor overboard- just slip it into the water real stealthy like. Modify your net with chicken wire- it wont help you catch more but it will make it a darn site easier to get that lure back out of it when you catch a fish! DONT ADVERTISE, when you hook up, look around wand see if anyone is looking, if there are, just act like you are not hooked up, keep your rod low to the water and fight the fish this way. When other boats ride by, keep your back to them so as you dont have to wave, or aknowlidge that you even see them. When the boat wake gets to your boat boat just use your sea legs to keep your balance but dont turn around. Back to the net- dont show it!!! I usually keep mine around my feet where i can lift it up and over the rail with minimum showage. And right before you leave to go back home- take that hot bait off or switch it over to a grub or red head or something else,lol( they quit making this color I love so much so i suggest you stock up on em while you can- there wont be any left in Va Beach before long if I have my way -) Well I guess the other thread got me to give give up my "methods" for catching specs in Lynnhaven- as far as places I fish, Dunkards hole, the barrel, keelings drain, fuentes point- you will have to find them on your own, some are well known- others are not. Took me a long time to find them as well- I wont do all the legwork for you, no way. Yep, its that time of the year again- soon the crisp fall air will be here too- so if you see me up in lynnhaven- please dont approach me, i wont acknowledge you anyway, and if by chance I happen to, it will be with a scowl. Call me later. Thats what you do. I am the old grumpy codger now. I will never repeat these tips again - you will have to dig deep into Sportsfishermen. com after awhile to find them. For Lynnhaven. My Lynnhaven. Peace- MO

[WAHOONBOX]

WHAT A POETIC DAY ON THE BRINEY...............SWEET.........LOVE IT AS USUAL!

BTW...MY MENTION OF "LYNNHAVEN" WAS USED AS AN ADJECTIVE ...A FICTICIONAL TYPE TOWN................ONE OUT OF THE BLUE

[want dem reds]

This is a fish I have a feeling I will never take the time to master....but, I applaud your skill......good work Craig....

[Honey Hole]

I will never repeat these tips again

Craig - GREAT info bud! Hope to see you in the skinny water soon. I caught a couple spikes at the shell pile near Fuentes Point on Monday night... sure was pretty out there.