Breaking the Trend.

It was an early start to a Sunday at 5am. BB getting ready for work and making sure she had everything packed for her month out to sea. It has seemed lately that every time I decide to fish it rains and when I dont its a nice day and I read the reports of fish that were caught by other anglers. After I dropped her off I headed over to the Ship's Cabin to see if the rest of the TKAA guys were there. No cars in the parking lot and it looked a little cloudy so I figured it would be another rainy summer day, but not wanting to waste a day off work and being up so early I headed over to Ft Monroe to fish the HRBT. I figured if it did start to rain its closer to the ramp than Lynnhaven and atleast there is the bridge to hide under.

I figured id see if anyone who posted on the forums was heading out as well and gave Joe Archer a call, he was already launched so he waited for me to catch up. The sun seemed to make what clouds were around dissipate and there was a light breeze making for a nice start out on the water. Archer had already caught a bunch of small black sea bass and we started lookin for flounder. The pilings were a no go so we worked our way around the island lookin for fish in the rocks. The sea bass were everywhere, none over 6 inches but they were grabbing anything that was put in the water. I managed 3 monster ugly oyster toads and about a dozen small sea bass by the time we got over to the tunnel. It was nice and calm and no one else in sight when we started bouncin the tunnel in hopes of some flounder.

Big ugly!

 I had just started tellin a story about a recent trip to Rudee where William caught a keeper flounder right in a spot I had just fished when I felt my lure lurch to the left instead of hitting bottom so I set the hook home. A quick fight and up comes a nice flounder. I flipped him in the boat and got my hawg trough out to measure him. A solid 17 inch dinner plate. Surprisingly he was nice and calm while I measured him to make sure he was legal, and even when I hooked my stringer in his jaw, twice. I didnt bring my camera, and my cell phone was put away and I figured id either catch more or just take pictures of him later so I let him slide into the water. Then he started goin crazy jerkin his head. I had two clips in him, in both his lower and upper jaw, so I didnt think anything of it. 20 seconds later and he was gone, jerked the stringer right out of his mouth. I felt pretty bad about it, losing a nice fish like that after landing him.

 Little did I know I was dealing with a true legend. This flounder was no ordinary flat fish. He was scarred, with a white line across his back and he had only one eye. He must have been a veteran of the Rudee Inlet rail, having defeated the many attempts to harvest him below the limit he worked his way up into the bay and decided to fatten up on the baitfish around the HRBT. Rooster-as I have named him, is as grizzled and off-putting as the lawman he was named after. I know he is out there now, buried in the sand, just waiting for passing prey.

After I landed the flounder the motor boats started to appear everywhere, you could almost walk from one island to the other, and the wind started to pick up some more. We made a few more passes, I was hoping in vain that the fish gods would smile on me and I would land another good flounder (or the lost one would return) but we didnt get anymore keepers. Surprisingly I had not landed a single croaker or spot the whole time we were out, Archer did manage a decent 13 inch croaker. The sea bass continued to harass us though as we moved back down the rocks to the bridge. I got another flounder between the pilings but he was too short to make it to the rod pod (I had decided I wouldnt put another flounder on the stringer if I caught one id just throw him in the kayak!)

Not a keeper, but atleast I got pics of this one!

 I noticed off to our left gathering dark clouds and then heard the rumble of thunder. We decided not to risk it and headed over to the bridge and just in time. No sooner did we pull up to the beach then the sky opened up with lightening and torrential rain. I checked the radar and seen it was just an isolated thunderstorm right over the HRBT and was moving quickly east. We waited it out under the bridge and chit chatted with a local motor boater who pulled up to wait out the storm as well. His 7 year old son managed a nice 10 inch bluefish on his first cast out as we waited. More fish were breaking on the surface and Archer decided to try out his popping cork but didnt manage a hook up although his shrimp got torn to bits. The storm cooled things down and Archer decided to call it a day. I did manage a few more sea bass and oyster toads before another storm started to move in so I paddled in.





I am very glad to break my skunk trend and actually get a nice flounder, even if he did get away!