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.

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

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 Beach, 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

TKAA Kayak Fish for Charity Tournament 2012

                                          

On Saturday September 29th at 4am I awoke to the dreaded alarm going off.  Normally that sound signifies  a 35-45 min drive in to work.  Today it was to get me up to go fish TKAA Annual fishing tournament.  In the past years I had been unable to fish due to work or airshows.  I went in to this tournament with the mindset of just catching something and enjoying myself.  I had eye'd a few places that I had wanted to fish over the weeks leading up to the day.  All my surf casting friends had been killing bull reds from the sand in Back Bay and there were some pretty recent reports of a few kayakers going out and getting a bunch too.  I used to take the old Ride 135 I had through the surf in Hatteras a lot.  With the new rig and added weight I wasn't so sure how it would do and did not want to test it out for the first time on tournament day.  The spot was chosen and plans were made.  I asked my buddy Joe if he wanted to fish with me a few weeks earlier.  I figured at least id have some good company out there if I wasn't catching fish.  Plus he has good taste in kayaks too.

Blue Waffle Kayak Fleet?

sunrise

We arrivied at the launch early before we were able to get on the water.  A few familiar faces were out there  as well as some new ones.  We stopped to chat for a few minutes before we were let in by someone who could be described as "an old salty dude".  Fees paid and paperwork filled out we started unloading the boats.  The light was starting to peak over the horizon.  I really wished I had my good camera out there with me.  Even with the clouds and rain the sunrise we beautiful.  The water was crystal clear for us also.  The first thing I noticed were the bugs.  Lots and lots of them at the launch.  After a quick 15min Joe had finally stopped stressing himself out enough to push off at the launch.  We fishing a little on the way out and shortly into it I picked up a 16.5 Redfish.  

16.5 Redfish

The day was already a success.  I was photographing all my fish when we first got on the water because I figured I could maybe win the most species category.    Shortly after this I picked a small 9 inch speckled trout and a small pigfish.

pig

About this time the first batch of rain rolled through. We worked our way out of the creek and fished some moving water trying to find flounder.  The flounder fishing quickly became a pain as the wind and tide were working together and after getting hung up on structure a few times I was about tired of it.  Joe came over the radio and told me he was on some fish so I decided to head over.  This was also just after seeing a school of sharks swimming underneath me.  Yep time to move.  I paddled over and found Joe hooked up with some nice fish and began catching them myself.  

Catchin'

I floated over the area and saw that there were a few nice cuts and began fishing them.  This is where I began picking up flounder.  The first was small but I was happy to have caught a inshore slam.  Last years tournment I guess there was only 1 of these caught.  I continued picking through 14-16 inch reds looking for something a little bigger.  Joe had a few in the 17 area.  I eventually found a bigger flounder.  I was one 14+ inch speck away from having a qualifying slam for the tourney.  

After a good 45 min of picking through these fish we decided to head on over to another spot we had wanted to get to.  In fact I wont bother telling you where this is because its not even on any maps yet!  

As we approach I see one of a kayak fishers favorite thing to see. TAILING FISH!  I threw my lure and had a fish on the second it hit the water.  The splash from the hooked fish literally spooked a 20X20 ft school of reds.  It began peeling line off my ultra lite rod.  after a short battle he was in the kayak.  This fish was right at 18 and had some shoulders on it.  Compared to the other reds that I had been into the past few weeks.  Caught Photo'd and Released.  It was time to get back at it.

I drifted back further up this small creek and tried different fishing methods.  Again I had to pick through a smaller class of fish and a few small flounder.  The previous fish that went nuts and decided to break dance in the cockpit of my kayak had thrown up a bunch of shrimp.  I switched my baits to shrimp bodies and had a few nice hits.  This soon produced a nice speck.

At this point in the day I think the wind started to turn on and the rain really started to fall on us.  The was going one way and the wind pushing us the other.  I was fishing one bank that if I was a fish I would more then likely hang out there.  It looked good.  I casted into it and my drag went off again.  Another nice red.  Again as he was trying to rearrange the footwell of my kayak, shrimp bits were flying out everywhere.  Between the sand fish slime and shrimp I had fresh eastern shore trailmix now!  

The rain really picked up along with a cold north wind.  The wind combined with the tide were working against us.  We decided to make our way back across the stretch of water.  It was about a mile maybe a little more.  It was a hard paddled but eventually made our way through the seas that rose up to around 3 feet in no time.  We came to a spot where we could get out of our kayaks and stretch.  We took a 15 min break to rest and relax.  A few other kayaker did the same that as they had just made that same crossing as we were getting ready to leave.

We had about 2 hours to burn until our preset time deadline would be up.  We worked our way back up to the launch picking off some small stuff but nothing very impressive.  After 6+ hours in the cold, wind and rain We both had enough of being freezing and decided to call it a day.  Got back to the launch and loaded the Jeep up and made my way home to a nice hot shower.  Met back up with everyone at Lake Wright for a few beers and some food.  I was happy to have my wife come along with me and meet a few friends.  Beer and laughs were exchanged throughout the evening and turned out to be a good time with friends.  All in all it was a good day.  Had it not been a tournament you wouldn't have caught me out on a day like that but I exceeded my expectations for myself.  I'm going to steal a phrase form someone.  "Plan your fish and fish your plan".  That is exactly what I did and I was happy to have tournament class fish.  I am looking forward to next's years event.  Hopefully by that time the bug bites all over my leg will have healed up!

First picture on our camera roll had to be us holding tournament rule with green wrist identifier.

Heat on high headed home!

Until next time...

A.

South..

https://vimeo.com/42927649

Video from our OBX trip :)

Hatteras/Ocracoke Trip May 2012

I wish I could say that I have tons of pics of me hoisting up big red drum or bluefish but there really wasn't a whole lot of catching during this trip.  Once again my curse with the OBX was in full effect.  We had to battle weather which limited our time on the beach alot. After our vist to the permit office to obtain a 2012 ORV permit (ripoff) we headed out to ramp 43.  The wind was somewhat light out of the southwest with a forcasted change of NNE later that night.

So much of the day spent at 43 was spent sitting back relaxing with my fiance.  The other thing I really caught was a good buzz...not a bad thing.  Mandy got a field promotion and let her drive on the beach.  She did pretty good getting on and off the beach and dealing with the 4X4.  Ramp 43 can be tough to get off of sometimes, even i have had problems with it in the past.  

The trip was a nice get away for us with the upcoming wedding and all the craziness associated with it.  It was a nice relaxing trip for the most part.

What any fisherman loves to see.  Diving birds!

Pea Island Wildlife Refuge.

12 South.  The only road in and out of Buxton.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Fishfinder rig typically used in surfishing in the OBX

We left the beach Saturday around 5:30 to clean up and grab something for dinner.  Pretty much just as the clouds and storms rolled in.  They stuck around for the rest of the night so we called it an early one to get ready for our day trip across to Ocracoke Island.  

We woke up early and hit the Orange Blossom Bakery and Cafe and got some breakfast.  We missed the ferry by about 5min and had to wait an hour for the next one.  It was a pretty nice day at this point with lots of sun and some occasional clouds.  We had maybe 8 cars on teh ferry on the way over to Ocracoke.  This is where things get pretty interesting.

47 ft Motor Life Boat USCG Hatteras Inlet

NC Ferry coming to Hatteras.

Glass Minnow.

As we are crusing along in the ferry to Ocracoke we end up running aground in the shoals that have formed from the low tides and heavy currents.  Nothing beats looking over the side of the rail and seeing  2 foot deep water.  The Capt of the boat did a good job of getting us off pretty quickly and in no time we were cruising back in deeper water.  Later found out that this had been happening alot the past week.

Shoal we got caught up on briefly.

Honestly if we had been stuck out there for a few hours I wouldn't have minded one bit.  It was beautiful on the water at this point of the day.  It was literally "Gin Clear".  We made ti across the rest of the way without incident and got the wheels back on dry land.  Ocracoke is a 11 mile stretch of land with a small village at the end of it.  A very quiet and quaint little town that is pretty much in the middle of the ocean.  It is one of my favorite places to visit because it is so secluded.  Once you are on the beach the sand gets real white and the beach widens out.  In the past I have had good luck fishing there.  Again as soon as we got on the beach the weather struck.  The winds changed to that NNE and they started to blow hard. We maybe spent 2 or 3 hours out there before we called it quits and I decided to head back and figure something out for us.

Mandy on the beach

NPS puts these signs up to keep YOU off the beach....

NNE Wind rolling in hard!

HDR of the Jeep before the weather drove us away.

We air'd the tires up and headed back to the ferry.  We arrived at about 1230 and were inline to make the next ferry out at 1PM.  We waited and waited and the NC Ferry staff went car to car and told us that due to heavy winds, heavy currents and low tides the channel was impassable at this point in the day.  We didn't get out of Ocracoke until 530.  We barely made it out.  The place where we had gotten hung up earlier in the day was causing all sorts of problems for the ferry's all day long. As we came up to the spot the captain throttled the boat back and kept us stationary while Towboat US was working on getting a few charter boats off of the bar.  We were told to go in the lounge or stay in our vehicles as we passed this area due to the possibility of running aground in the extremely shallow water.  I will say the Capt did a great job steering that boat through there without us getting stuck.  

Stuck boat

Channel marker where we were hung up.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.  We made it across without any other problem and cruised on home.  It was a fun trip overall and just really nice to get away.  I think the Captain on the ferry did a great job and I wont think twice about going back to OI in the future, I just may keep my eye on the tide and weather a little more.  Its 10AM Monday and I don't think the ferry's have started running again.  I guess its not that bad being stranded on the beach tho is it?

Panoramic of the morning trip over

pulling back into Hatteras

Looking forward to my next trip down hopefully with less weather and more tide.

A.

After a long winter im back...

So I kinda neglected the blog over the winter and end of summer.  Really didnt do too much fishing in that time period.  Planning a wedding takes lots of time and energy.  A few trips in the works and plan to share some great photos of NC with everybody.  With any luck there should be a few fish pictures too

Andy