Fishing Report 9/3/2014

The kiddoroosters and I hit the Jetty yesterday afternoon after I had finished tying the flies. I brought out the Suntech Field Master rod - I wanted to try out a 'tenkara' style rod again with the shrimp flies. First time I've used this rod in saltwater. I had to add a small split shot to get the fly to sink. I was able to see a bunch of small fish circling the fly - then one was right up on it and 'whack' fish on! I caught a fiesty Rock Blenny - lip hooked it. It seemed a little perplexed at it's situation. I had several chases after I caught htis blenny, but no other hook ups. I'm going to have to tie up a smaller shrimp fly to nail the other small fish near the rocks (I'm back in my "catch tiny fish" phase)... Marlon used his Ugly Stik with some shrimp flavored Fish Bites. He caught a small black sea bass (on his own I might add).

Fishing Report 8/8/2014

We went to the jetty late on Friday - I have been itching to chuck some flies again so I left the spinning gear back at the camper (but Marlon brought his - so we weren't without). We each caught a rock blenny - both on tiny jigs tipped with "Fish Bites" shrimp flavored - yes I know that is bait fishing even if I used fly gear - but I have a good reason. I lost the three flies I brought with me to the submerged rocks (or fish that grabbed the flies and pulled off by snagging me in the submerged rocks - I like that explanation better). I didn't have anything left but the small jigheads and the bait. I was using my Orvis Hydros 8 wt lined with a Hydros Depth Charge - despite the controversy, catching was fun.

Hooked SUP Fishing near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel

Saturday morning we took the armada to one of the beaches on the Southern end of the Chesapeake Bay. The wind was from the South-South West so it was pretty flat for us. La went for a long paddle and I anchored to keep an eye on the kids (who were trolling for plankton with some nets we made) and to cast a line further out and still use lighter tackle. I caught a few croaker while out on the Hooked SUP. I tried laying a crab line out with chicken neck on it and when checking on it, I saw the target I was hoping for - baby pompano. After catching the croaker and transferring them to Marlon on the Grom paddleboard to take back to the beach to our specimen bucket, I paddled back to the beach to try my hand at catching the pomps on a tenkara rod. After you take a few minutes to adjust, you begin to notice all kinds of small fish hovering in the shallows (to not get eaten I presume). Between Marlon throwing the cast net and me using the tenkara rod with #16 hook, we brought a baby bluefish that had a semi-circular chunk missing out of it's back (almost something's lunch), some anchovy type fish and several small pomps ranging from very small to almost edible size. I didn't end up paddling out too far since I was hanging out with the kids, but I can see how paddling out to deeper water, anchoring and throwing out a rig with a bigger hook could lead to a much harder tug-o-war match with a piscine competitor. We had a blast and all this made me miss living in Virginia Beach even more than I already did.