With the lower temperatures coming and the leaves starting to turn the fall red drum run was in full swing. I dropped a leave chit for my birthday and got my tackle ready for chasing after some big bulls. The reports were lookin good with fish being caught out at the first island of the CBBT so I headed over to Chics and launched at the beach. Three days in a row of tough current and winds and no bites of any bulls (but several witnessed landings by boaters,) or even any flounderI was getting frustrated.
On the fourth day I headed out at sunrise with a forecasted wind of only 5 mph and over cast skies I was hoping to hook up. I grabbed some fresh mullet from the tackleshop and a freshpack of fish bites for spots and headed out. I got out to the island and started fishing for spots/croaker to use for bait on fish bites and caught a small flounder. I switched to a buck tail to see if any bigger flatties were sitting in the low washed out area near the pilings and managed two flounder but they were short of 16 inch keepers. I caught two small spot and had the mullet so I decided to try for some reds, I paddled over to the eastern side of the first island and let my first bait down on a 9/0 circle hook and 2 oz weight. The current was pulling me towards short and I had to paddle a few strokes just to keep my bait near the bottom. As I was drifting I seen a boater's rod double over and he started scrambling on deck, he had hooked up on a good size bull drum. Jay Brooks and Chuck Wrenn were also out in their kayaks lookin for some bull drum action. Jay landed a nice drum, bigger than one id ever landed. Then I seen The Man himself Kayak Kevin jigging and seen his rod double over, he was hooked up on a bull red! He fought the fish and landed a nice lookin bull. I was excited to see it that close in person and just knew it was my day to land one, they were in the area! I did a few more drifts with the mullet and then switched over to a live spot. I made one pass, nothing. Paddled back up to the front of the island and drifted back down, then I felt my spot getting jumpy, bzzt bzzt bzzzzzzzzt! A bite! I slid my lever out of free spool and in my excitement jerked the rod hard hoping to set the hook. Rookie mistake. Slack line. Circle hooks set themselves by steady pressure, and I had ruined my chance by jerking the hook right out of the fishes mouth, and right in front of two of the most well respected kayak fisherman in the area. I still had bait though so I was determined to get one and paddled back up to set another drift. Kevin seeing that I lost a fish gave me some advice to keep my reel out of free spool and let the fish pull down on the rod so I get a good set. After a few hours it seemed the fish had moved on and Jay and Kevin paddled on but I was hoping to get a fish before the tide turned. I kept using a whole spot and jigging for flounder while I drifted by. Then I felt it, the sudden jerk of somthing big on the end of my line, I quickly reeled up my buck tail and stowed my flounder rod and got ready for the hook up. I kept my rod bent and slowly reeled down and felt the weight increase on the line. Then it bolted, peeling line off of my reel and swinging my kayak around to face the island. I was hooked up! I felt my kayak lurching with each head shake. Then I felt the line go tight and felt hard snaps like someone playing the guitar on a string, and then nothing it was slack. I reeled up to see a frayed and clean cut 80 pound flouro leader. He must have rubbed down on the rocks and cut me off on an oyster or sharp edge. I fished a few more hours and managed some skates and more small flounder but no more excitement. It was definitely a learning experience and I cant wait to get out there next fall and land me a bull red!
The worst thing about that week is two days later (on my birthday) after attempting to fish in a 25 mph small craft advisory, making it to the first island and turning around and paddling back I turtled my kayak after landing on the beach.
Summer coming to a close too fast and the 10th Annual TKAA Charity Tournament benefiting Heroes on the Water and Project Healing Waters was quickly approaching. I had a little more confidence in my prospects of atleast having a fish to weigh-in as I had been doing pretty good around the HRBT. Last year I only caught small croaker and toadfish and BB managed a 14 inch striper so we were looking to get on the board.
The weather was phenomenal in August and I had a pretty light schedule so I got to head out onto the water several times. I was paying attention to tide tables, time of day, and presentation to try and better the chance of me catching a fish on tournament day. I managed several flounder in the 12-17 inch range and consistently caught red drum in the 20-25 inch range during high to outgoing tide. I kept logging hours and paddling miles to make sure I was prepared for any sudden changes. Rudee inlet which had been on fire in the spring and early summer had seemed to fizzle out and I only managed small speckled trout and croaker. Lynnhaven with increased activity on the bridge project and fewer parking places was an option but I was having a hard time locating fish in the vast stretches of grass and shallow sand. Power Team Lures 4 inch grubs in white, JP Hammer Shads in white on a 3/8oz jig head with chartreuse spiked tails, and Egret VuDu Shrimps in natural and white/chartreuse continued to be great performers for me.
As September came and the buzz of the coming tournament got hotter and hotter unfortunately the bite did the opposite. The few times I managed to get out onto the water were slow days with several missed fish, a few small fish, and left me feeling uneasy about my initial confidence in being able to reverse my small fish from the previous year.
BB and I were keeping our eyes on the weather forecast and couldnt
believe it when the day of the tournament we had a beautiful cloud free
and sunny day. The previous two years had cold, rain, and windy days of
the tournament so this was a welcome change. We got a late start due to
over indulging in adult beverages at the captain's meeting and got out
to the boat ramp well after sunset. I was still pretty optimistic and we began looking for flounder around the pilings.
The sky was clear and the sun was shining but the water was very dirty
and murky and we were getting no love from flounder or even croaker on
fish bites. I paddled around hoping to find some fish and that the
coming tide change would trigger a bite. I ran into several fisherman
out on the water who were also fishing the tournament and no one seemed
to be getting any bites.
Unfortunately I repeated last years results
and we headed back to the conference center with no fish to weigh in,
which was alright since I also broke down in the jeep on the way to the
weigh in and had to wait for BB to drive all the way back through the
tunnel to come rescue me and we arrived after the weigh in time.
The weigh in and dinner were awesome and we spent the evening with some great friends talking about fishing and anxiously waiting on our raffle numbers to be read. Apparently our table had all of the luck, with several of the large raffle prizes going to people sitting at our table which was a pretty good feeling honestly considering the money from the raffles and tournament go towards two amazing charities.
$16,500 was raised for Heroes on the Water and Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing. What these two organizations do for our men and women who served in our military is amazing and I am very proud to be a volunteer and support what they do.
Congratulations to the winners!
Below is a video that Robert Lee put together that shows how awesome the tournament is.
BB lookin for some fish.
The only fish I landed during the tournament, a 10 inch black seabass.
A short pre-tournament flounder.
A short 11.5 inch flounder.
A very hungry roundhead.
One of the biggest pigfish id ever caught out at the HRBT.
Congratulations to my little brother Matthew and Sara on my new nephew and their son Lennon 7 pounds 19 inches! Thats an awesome catch little brother! Wish I could have been there and cant wait to meet the newest member of the family!
With an awesome weather forecast I have been distracted at work and the weekends havnt been long enough. Between the croaker and bluefish I was out of my favorite style/color of lure. Luckily for me PowerTeam Lures was having a discount on pro-packs, so I put in an order for some jp hammer shad and 4.5 grubs. Placed on Monday and received by Wednesday! The quick shipping and awesome customer service is one of the main reasons I like using PTL. The tackle box stocked back up and nothing holding me back I was ready to put some time in out on the water. My trip out with BB was eventful but not very productive. My first cast after launching I managed to hook up on about a 19 inch bluefish unfortunately he unhooked himself in my lap and began flailing around so I tried to grab ahold of him and keep him from flipping around and he decided to latch onto my hand. After he attempted to dismember me he flipped over the side and got away anyway. After he swam away I noticed there was blood all over my kayak and I was thinking I didnt gill hook him since he was barely lipped when I noticed the blood wasnt the fish's but my own. My left hand was covered in blood so I quickly splashed water from my water bottle over my hand and I was surprised to see bone on my index finger and a large chunk of me missing! I quickly wrapped it with a wet wipe and a ziptied over to keep it from bleeding until I could get the proper bandage. I have a first aid kit but it just so happens I had taken it off the kayak before this trip.* Wont be making that mistake again.
I got a boo boo
I suppose the bad luck of catching a fish on the first cast is true and it continued the rest of the day. As I paddled around the rocks looking for fish I came across a very large dead redfish. I couldnt tell how it had died but it is a shame to see a fish that big dead. Then just a few yards from the dead red there was a large dead sea turtle. I called the VA Beach Aquarium and reported the turtle and they came out and removed it from the rocks.
I did manage a few small fish but nothing worth putting in the cooler and bringing home.
I woke up late on Saturday and headed out solo, BB wanted a day to relax and catch up on tv shows and sleep. I loaded up the kayak on the jeep and made my way to the HRBT to try for some flounder. I got on the water as the tide was coming in and started my search for the flatties using bucktails and shrimp. After a few short strikes and oyster toads from around the old docks I moved closer to the pilings. There was huge schools of small silver baitfish in the 1-2 inch range but all too small for the holes in my cast-net. I started fishing under the bridge but didnt manage any bites. Something was making the bait scatter and jump so I switched to a jerk bait and managed to catch a few Bluefish and made sure not to make the mistake of getting my appendages anywhere near the teeth. I used one for live bait trying for a shark (it is shark week after all.) Besides blues it didnt seem anything else was around the bait or wanted to play so I switched over to a silk chartreuse PTL grub on a jig head and worked my way out to deeper water and away from the pilings. As I worked my way towards the channel I felt the tap and pull of a flounder and set the hook. After a quick fight I netted another short flounder. Even small ones are fun to catch and theyre one of the coolest looking fish. I kept working the deeper water near the channel and as I got around the rocks I hooked up on a bigger fish. Its an awesome feeling when your lure doesnt hit the bottom and instead you see your line jerk as a fish nabs it on the fall. After a good hard fight pulling line from my reel I landed a nice 25 inch slot redfish. Theyre a blast on light tackle! I had found a small school of them and had fun reeling in slot sized reds. The PTL grub and jp hammer was bringing them in. Unfortunately I had forgotten to clear my memory card in my camera and didnt manage any video. I didnt manage to find anymore flounder or any keepers but I did catch a few more blues and a small grey trout that decided he wanted a 4.5 grub.
On Sunday me and BB decided to paddle out again and see if we could find the school of reds. Unfortunately we never did find any fish other than a few small croaker and seabass. We did get surrounded by a large pod of about 60 dolphins who decided to put on a show for us which was pretty awesome. It was great to see that many of them all at once flipping, splashing, and jumping. Several came right up to the kayak and we stayed with them for about 30 minutes until a bunch of large tourist boats came up and they swam off.
I have been trying to find ways to get BB out on her kayak more. She enjoys being out on the water but she is from the desert of Arizona and it is all new to her so she gets uncomfortable on rough and windy water. After looking up several DIY and marketed outriggers I couldnt find anything that BB liked or I thought would be stable enough or work for her kayak. I knew that if she didnt like how it looked, or felt comfortable using it then it would make her not want to kayak more, the opposite of my intentions. I had almost given up completely then I seen a Facebook update from YakAttack that said they were toying with the idea of releasing somthing. I was pretty excited because all of the products that I have used have been excellent quality and very easy to mount and customize. I waited anxiously for more news or pictures to see what would happen. The first photos posted were awesome. A collapsable/modular system that mounted using geartrac and two pontoons that looked to be very sleek. Then I thought I hit another snag, after looking at the components I knew it wasnt going to be cheap, but then again what hobby is? I got the break I was looking for however because Luther announced a demo run of the outriggers. Ten demo sets were up for 175.00$ so I jumped on the opportunity and three weeks later I got the box in the mail.
Right out of the box I could see why the final price will be as high as announced. Every component is already available on the market for various installs of rod holders and accessories. The assembly was pretty straight forward even without instructions. The hardest part was finding where on BBs Hurricane Phoenix 120 we were going to put it. We finally decided on a spot right after the rear stoarge well and mounted the 4 inch geartrac. BB wanted lime green so I went with the GTSL90. I believe the GT175 would be a more stable platform. The mounting plates are slotted so that if you have angled geartrac it will still slide in which came in handy during this install.
On her first trip out BB was very happy with how the kayak handled and how stable it was. She was more comfortable on the water and therefore stayed out longer and went more places. She even braved boat wake sideways without any fear of tipping over. She stood up in her kayak and moved around, although the Phoenix isnt really made for standing and the thinner plastic was bending the kayak itself was stable and nowhere near close to flipping. While she paddled the pontoons cut through the water and waves very easy. BB's favorite part about the install was how cool it makes her kayak look, and thats always a plus right? If your looking to add stability to your kayak check out YakAttack when they release the outriggers. Dont let the price scare you, this setup is built with quality components. This is only a demo set, its gonna be tough to improve an already awesome setup. Just make sure you place it where you can make a full paddle stroke without making contact with the pontoons.
Box came in the mail!
Base plate added to the pontoon.
Side view.
All it needs now is some mini shark decals!
Mount attached to base plate.
Side view.
Arm attached, wide range of adjustability.
Side view.
Complete pontoon assembled with attaching arms.
Ends connected to the plastic bar. I just pressed them on and used the screws provided.
Geartrac installed.
Notice the angle of the geartrac, the mounting bracket was slotted so it still slid right in.
