Wednesday, October 24, 2012

3 Trips worth of Photos and vids on the Rivah

This past week I have been luck enough to get out 3 times to fish.  Thanks to my beautiful wife for not giving me a huge honey-do list during the weekdays im off.  So the first trip I took I set off early.  Made to the launch at 730 and was on the water by 8.  I worked a few spots that had produced previously.  Nothing came through for me until later in the morning.  My friend Adam pulled a few corn-cob trout up trolling along the bank but nothing too big.  Once to tide got moving and their was a little current I started picking off the bigger fish.  Moved around to a few different spots and tried a few different lures.  The hit lure for me that day was the Chartreuse Bayou Thumper.  Ended up with a stringer full of fish.  Kept 1 and gave a few away to some people.  It was a short trip but it produced pretty good.  17 17 18.5 19 and 22.5 were the totals for the day.



 




Dracula



Short vid from the trip.


Monday came around and I was ready to hit it again.  The tide was high and I had just picked up a new batch of tags from VMRC.  Trying to get out and tag 300 fish this year.  Just under 100 fish to get and the way the trout have been biting I was sure I could put a dent in that today.  Got out on the water and the tide coming in.  The water level was pretty high and lots of bait was pushed into the grass.  I went to a new spot that I had fished briefly during my last trip and gave it a shot.  It was non stop puppy drum for the next few hours.  A few nice 16"ers with some shoulders that were a blast on light tackle.  A few times I was able to sight cast to these fish back in this creek and watch them hit.  Fishing like that is always fun and I stuck around for a while catching these fish and giving them a little state sponsored jewelry.


15" Puppy Drum with VMRC tag placed by me.



One of the coolest thing I saw that day on the water was a red tailing through the grass feeding on some little crabs.  I wish I had swung the GoPro around and got it on film.  It was cool to see all these fish really active and eager to eat.  Made a little vid compilation of a few of my hookups from that day.  



Finished the day off with a total of 10 fish.  9 Drum and 1 small speck.  Everybody was tagged and released. It was a beautiful day out there and the pictures speak for them selves.

cool spots



peaceful




Today was a trip thrown together to with some of the newest additions to the plastic navy.  A few guys I work with at the fire dept got into the whole kayak thing after hearing me go on and on about it.  Gregg Rob and Rob's nephew Ben from DC came out today.  I was really hoping to put them all on some fish.  Tide was real low all day and didn't really start moving until we were coming home.  We all caught fish and once again like the 3 previous times green was the color to have.  Pups and specks were caught today.  Everybody caught something.  It was a picture perfect day out there and I even got a little sunburned   I really don't mind that because its almost November.  A few 17 inch specks were pulled out by Rob and Ben.  Ben actually had a few throw backs.  I managed 5 Puppy Drum today and Gregg got him self a few pups as well.  This was Gregg's second time out and his first fish caught from his kayak/  Another person that I have sold on Wilderness boats.  3 in total so far.  2 Rides and a Tarpon 120.  So today wrapped up and Im still in search of my speckled paperfish.  Im sure they are out there and came pretty close earlier in the week.  Just gotta keep on keepin on.  Might be taking a few days off from the fishing scene with a impending Nor'acane bearing down somewhere on the East Coast.  I hope to get out again soon and continue to catch some fish..


pretty colors

Ben with his keepers

Asian Rob Lee

Gregg price'n it w00t w000t!


A.




Monday, October 15, 2012

2 days of Elizabeth River Speck'n

So the past few days a friend of mine has been doing pretty good on the Rivah.  I had been wanting to get out and give it a shot.  This year I kinda skipped over the speck fishing and the ER all together.  I guess I;m more of a fair weather fisherman?  I got a few tips about the bite that has been going on and decided to give it a shot.  I set out with my buddy Rob Lee.  He had recently bought a kayak and has the fishing bug hard!  We set off and paddled to a few spots.  Today was going to be more of a scouting trip.  I wanted to try a few spots that I had seen on google maps.


We stopped at a few spots and caught fish.  Rob got his first keeper fish from his kayak.  He was pretty stoked about that.  It was a nice speck that came in at 16.5 in.  We stuck around that spot for a while and picked up a few puppy drum too.  I love the color on the river fish.  They carry that nice gold hue to them.

In total we put 7 miles in the water.  It was a long day with just over 7 hours spent on the water but we covered alot of ground.  I picked a few spots that I wanted to fish in the coming weeks and started to develop a plan for finding the bigger specks.




We ended our day on the water with a nice sunset....


I put together a short video from that day on the water.. we can call it Part 1...

PART 2....Today!!!

With everything that I picked up from the previous trip I wanted to go out and put it to use this morning.  I got to the launch before the sun came up and was on the water in the dark.  It was calm and cool out.  I had my game plan set and was gonna do this trip solo.  The paddle out was easy as no current or wind to throw me around.  I got to the spot and started fishing.  It took awhile for it to really pick up but once it was light out it all turned on. All in all today I caught 8 fish.  6 of them were keepers but were all released back into the river to get bigger.  I got alot of video but the battery died about half way in.  I missed a few fish and had a few follow the lure all the way to the boat and then split when it saw me.  I didnt get any big gator trout but my biggest was 19 in.  The sunrise was beautiful and that alone was worth coming out that early.  It was a great morning to be out there and look forward to hitting it up in the near future again.

sunrise

First fish of the day



wheres my rula?

I threw together another video form todays trip filled with a few hookups before the battery died.




A.






Thursday, October 4, 2012

A quick Lynnhaven Trip

Decided to make a run at Lynnhaven for a quick trip.  Winds were light when I got on the water but picked up not soon after.  Managed 1 keeper red in the grass.  Made a little video while I was out there.  I hope you enjoy it.

Quick Lynnhaven Trip

A.



Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Media Filled Summer!

I decided to throw in a bunch of videos from this summer below.  Most of these are filmed with a GoPro HD Hero 2.  I hope you enjoy them.

A.

Surfishing Back Bay NWR in Va Beach


Puppy Drum in Lynnhaven



Cruising through the grass at Lynnhaven.


Stand up Paddleboarding



Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Official TKAA Fishing Tournament Results

2012 TKAA KAYAK FISH FOR CHARITY 
TOURNAMENT WINNERS

Hobie Kayaks & Wild River Outfitters Slam Winner (largest redfish, trout, flounder)

Richie Bekolay    Newport News, VA Slam Total 54.25” slam
(Hobie Mirage Pro Angler 12)
2nd- Revis Napier  Portsmouth , VA   53.5”
3rd-Jake Lusk  Sedley, VA   52.5”
4th-Russ Overton  Apex, NC     52”


Appomattox River Company Speckled Trout Division

1st-  Bryce Morris   Hampton, VA  24.5” ($500 Gift Certificate to ARC)
2nd- Tim Morris  Hampton, VA   23.75”
3rd-Jack Daughtry  Columbia, MD   22”
4th-Tom Powers  Portsmouth, VA     20.75”


Tar River Paddlesports/Nu-Canoe Redfish Division

1st- Kevin Kennedy  Norfolk, VA 18.5” (Frontier 12 kayak)
2nd- Andy Backowski  Virginia B
each, VA  18.25
3rd- Seth Goodrich  Richmond, VA   18”
4th- Jim Covais  Spotsylvania, VA   18”


Wild River Outfitters & Release Reels Flounder Division

1st- Robert Clemente  Woodbridge, VA 22” ($400 WRO certificate &  
Release Reels reel)
2nd-Matt Greschak    Coinjock, NC   20”
3rd-Scott Harmon   Troy, VA   19.75”
4th-Gerardo Elvir  Virginia Beach, VA   19.75”


Kokatat Striper Division

1st- Eddie McCormick   Newport News, VA   25”   (T3 Nova Dry Suit)
2nd-Ben Kleeger  Virginia Beach,  VA 23.5”
3rd-Matt Anderson  Portsmouth, VA   21”
4th- William Ragulsky  Norfolk,  VA  17.5”


KayakBassFishing.com/Wilderness Systems Largemouth Bass Division

1st- Ray Montes   Virginia Beach, VA 19.25” (WS Ride 115 kayak)
2nd- Forrest Short    Yorktown, VA   19.25”
3rd – Drew Haerer   Hillsborough, NC 18.25”
4th- Charlie Hill  Newport News, VA 18”

Hurricane Kayaks Kayak Female Angler Division

1st- Heather Hammock   Farmville, VA  21”
2nd-Paige Davis   Dunnsville, VA  18”
3rd-Kam Owens   Richmond, VA   17.25” 
4th- Allie Brooks   Hampton, VA  16.75”  


Dick’s Sporting Goods Youth Division

1st- Daria Burnley   Virginia Beach, VA   19.5”  (Old Towne Trip Angler kayak)
Donated kayak to Tidewater HOW Chapter!
2nd- Gehrig Girard   Linden, VA   16.5”
3rd- Austin Poole  Virginia Beach, VA  15”
4th- Luke Cromwell  Virginia Beach, VA  14”
 

Croaker/Spot Slam
Larry Newman   21.5” total  


Most Species Caught
Larry Newman   11 total species