10Jul13 OV Beach.

There was a forecast for isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon for the day so I decided to head out early to Lynnhaven in hopes of some flat fish. I got the boat ramp at 6 am and paddled out onto the water. I fished the grass, the channel, and all over the place until about 11 with nothing but croaker and one curious little sea robin that decided he wanted a swimming mullet for lunch.

Sea Robin.

Being disappointed in not catchin anything I decided to try out the CBBT since it seemed like a nice day with hardly any clouds, maybe the storms would hold off or miss us entirely (last week I decided not to fish because of the forecast and in turn I missed out on some awesome fishing.) One I got over to Alexander's that idea quickly diminished, 15 mph steady with gusts up to 25 and I could see chop building up on the waves. Sure enough I check NOAA on my radio and theres bad storms forecasted for the CBBT so I figured id stick close to home.
I headed over to east ocean view and decided to paddle out from the beach. I got out on the water and paddled a ways out and then started throwing chum. I lowered 2 blocks of frozen clam juice mixed with sand and a block of chopped up croaker. I caught a few small croaker on pieces of gulp from the morning's failed flounder attempt.

 

I was hopin for cobia, or big reds, or really anything that would bite. I wasnt sittin long when the reel started peeling. I grabbed the rod and heaved it up and it hit the deck, pending into the water. I fought the fish for about 10 minutes and got it up and it was a big cownose ray. I grabbed my camera to snap a few pics and no sd card! I had take the sd card out to upload pics for my previous trips and forgot to put it back in. Got the ray off the hook and then I tried gettin my cell phone out, I keep it in a water proof box in the fish finder spot since I broke the chargerport that made my phone water proof. Once I shimmied up the kayak to reach it the ray started flappin his wings trying to fly and flopped into the water. So I rigged up and casted out again. Another 15 min and another bite! This time I had the cell phone ready and managed to snap a few pics. It was a nice clear nose skate, which might be a nuisance to some but its still fun to catch and looks totally wicked.

Clear nose skate.

The wind/current started to pick up and I noticed a large group of birds diving in the water, I was hoping it was some spanish mackeral chasing bait. I started casting gotcha plugs into it but never managed to hook up on anything if there was somthing then they moved on. I managed to catch another butterfly ray that didnt want to cooperate in the kayak and nearly took my fishin rod with him and another clear nose skate I believe was the twin brother to the one I caught before.

Cool lookin and fun to catch!

 The wind started to pick up and some large grey clouds started forming in the distance so I decided to call it a day and packed up. As I was paddling back to shore, I passed within 30 yds of 2 young (14-15 yr old) girls on paddle boards. They had drifted out a good ways from the beach and didnt appear to be having much luck in paddling. I paddled up and asked if they needed help, they laughed and said no so I continued to shore. When I got to the beach, 2 ladies who were on the beach asked me if I would call the coast guard on my radio for the 2 paddle boarders... I told them that as I paddled by I asked the girls if they needed help and they said no, so I started loading up the kayak stuff. Once I got my stuff up it started to rain, lightning, and thunder. Then 2 fire trucks, an ambulance, and 10 life guards show up. Apparently the 2 girls were there with their parents, who were out kayaking on touring kayaks, and left them on the beach with the paddle boards, the 2 ladies were concerned and called 911. So I told the fireman that as I paddled by they said they didnt need help and asked if they wanted me to paddle out to help them. The fireman along with the life guards said no, that they wouldnt let me paddle out in my kayak in the weather. So everyones standing on the beach and just watching these 2 girls drift further and further out. About 45 minutes later the group of kayakers along with their parents show up and paddle back to shore with the girls. They were obviously scared/shaken.
As I was leaving the group of kayakers were joking about how they would have been fine and even a few hours on the water wouldnt of mattered because they wouldnt have drifted that far. Short of lassoing them and dragging them to shore anyway I dont know what more I could have done when they refused my help, and the life guards wouldnt let me go out to help.

Rainbow after the storm passed.

 It was a long wet drive home in the soaking wet jeep, the storm barely lasted 30 minutes but left about 3 inches of water in the jeep!