Pre-Sandy Rudee and Post-Sandy Rivah Fishing..

Last Friday I had made the decision that I was gonna get some fishing in before this dumb storm pushed in.  I knew that with this storm came the possibility that the fishing which has been so good, would shut off.  I figured Id get out and try Rudee.  I haven't been to Rudee Inlet since the end of July.  The water was pretty cold and the wind was picking up.  Saw a few people from the VB Marine Rescue team out and about that I worked with.  They said it was starting to get snotty outside and the wind was forecasted to pick up even more.  I started by trolling around the islands with no success.  I fished a few parts that I hadn't been to before and pulled out a small speck.  He got a tag and released.  I worked my way back to the boat ramp and heard my name on the radio.  "Windknot Kevin Burns" was out and about peddling his cheater kayak with no problems.  We made it to the ramp just as Tom and Debbie V. were pulling up.  We sat and chatted for a little while and then decided to head back out and try a few more spots before it got to nasty out.

 We Paddled back out into the cold NE wind to the front of the inlet.  Trolled around for a bit and threw lures at a few places with no luck.  At this point I was tired.  It was cold and rainy now and the thought of going home and catching an afternoon snooze in front of the fireplaces was looking pretty good.  I decided to troll back on the way in and hoped maybe I would catch some lost fish.  I did.  A monster 10" Bluefish......Screw this I'm going home..

I more of kinda drifted back in because I was so tired.  Really didnt try to fish much.  The lure that I was towign behind was I guess dragging?  I met back up with Tom V.  We BS'd for a while while the wind continued to push us towards the launch.  I picked my pole up and decided maybe I should try to atleast look like a fisherman in front of my friends.   First cast out as im working the curly tail.  Bouncing it along the bottom of owl creek and bam.  The fish takes off and gives me a little run.  I could tell by the fight it was a little puppy drum.  Pulled a little drag on the trout rod and scooped him up in the kayak.  The fish went 17" and looked pretty healthy. He was hooked sorta deepin his mouth so i got the pliers out and had to dig in to get it.  Not far enough down to go into his stomach but enough to where I didn't wanna get my hands close to his crushes in the back of his mouth.  Hook came out with no other problems. 

While I was tagging the pup I had throw my lure out over the side.  Not really paying attention to is while I measured tagged and recorded my last catch.  Once I had finished and stowed my tagging kit away  I grabbed my rod and began to reel in.  The line looked like it was tangled around the bolts from my anchor trolley.  I tried to get it lose when my anchor trolley started to pull back?  I reeled it in and there was a 11" flounder on it.  There it is the most half assed slam.  I was almost mad at myself for catching those fish because I really put no effort into them.  There have been days where I have paddled all over the place in heat and humidity only to come back to the launch empty handed.  

That was it.  I was cold tired and I knew if I tried to fish anymore it would be nothing but disappointment.  I packed up and headed home.  All in all it was a cold and trying day on the water.  The thing that stood out to me was a few laughs with some good fishing buddies.  That's what makes it fun to me...Not the chance of nabbing a sponsor and getting free stuff.  Not the fame from writing a blog or beat my chest on facebook.  The reason I love to fish is because of the people I have met along the way.  So regardless of the commercialization of kayak fishing and the influx of mass blogging on the sport.  If I go out and have a few laughs with my friends on the water, Its still a great day.

Rivah Rat'n it 11/1/2012

Today was a cold day on the water.  Waders we put on due to the water dipping a few degrees along with the wind and cooler temps.  Man I was freezeing.  Today started with a first cast first fish kinda day.  I always hate those because I feel like the rest of the day would be a let down.  I missed alot of fish today for whatever reason.  Tha'ts always frustrating to me.  One of them gave me a really good run too.  Im afraid that may have been that paper trout I've been trying to find.  I ended up with 8 fish total.  3 Specks and 5 Puppy Drum.   I really do enjoy the pups.  They pull hard and are just a blast to catch on light tackle.  The surprise catch of the day came from Asian Rob Lee.  Fishing on a mouth to this small creek he pulled in a little Largemouth Bass.  I figured with all teh rain that the salinity was down and they ventured a little farther out then then normally do.  The fishing was alright and it was cold.  I made an early day out of it.  Heard of some bigger Specks caught too.  Decided to head in and get home a little early.  There was a few bread bowls full of homemade chicken noodle soup waiting for me.  A great day on the water with Rob as always. Untill next time...

The next 2 pictures are little mini stripers rob caught.  I couldn't stop laughing because all I could think of when he was trying to handle the fish was.  "WHAT DO I DO WITH MY HANDS"

Can you believe this guy has never thrown a cast net either?

Video for your enjoyment

A.

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.

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.

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.