Phil. W Kayak Fishing.: In a slump/BB's first trip out for 2014 at HRBT.

After the disaster of my first trip out at the HRBT I completely revamped the layout of my kayak, built a better crate, and replaced some of my fishing tackle I decided to head back out.
The Norfolk side looked windy so me and BB drove across the tunnel to the Hampton side and launched at Fort Monroe.
We quickly found the croaker using fish bites but the water was very cloudy and there was alot of grass and floating debris on the surface of the water. The outgoing tide was stronger around the island so we began searching for flatter and tastier fish up and down the pilings. For the majority of the day we only managed croaker and spot, but I did manage a small grey trout (weakfish) on a vudu shrimp and shortly after followed it up with a small dink flounder.

Small grey trout.

Croaker

Small flounder.

BB was havin fun paddling around catching fish and I had moved down around the island since the tide current slacked off. I managed a few more 12 inch croaker. BB came paddling towards me and she was really excited because she had caught "a fish with a tooth." She had caught another small grey trout.

BBs small grey all the excitement.


BB likes to catch any fish even croakers.

We never managed any keepers but we did have a good day on the water. I even managed to not get sun burned.

I headed back out two days later and it seemed I have fallen back down into a slump. I was very excited earlier this year to have broken what appeared to be my saltwater fishing slump. I managed to get out on the water when the redfish spring frenzy was at its hottest and even managed to catch some other species I was after like flounder, bluefish and speckled trout. Unfortunately as the weather has warmed up and now the unstable weather, and increased training schedule at work has caused my time on the water to be cut to one trip out a week if im lucky.
I started using bucktail jigs with PTL trailer and casting out fishbites just to keep myself occupied while searching for flounder. After a few hours and catchin nothin but spot and croaker around the pilings and between the bridges I paddled around the island to the tunnel. I switched over to just using a PTL hammer shad in pearl with the tail spiked in orange. I would jig it across the bottom slow with a few sharp jerks every now and then. The croaker I was catching got bigger and less frequent and then I got hit by something that immediately started taking drag. I fought the fish for a few minutes and then got it closer to the kayak and I see a monster of a grey trout. Unfortunately he seen the kayak and started running again and as I pulled my rod to turn his head my lure came flying out of the water past my head. I reeled in and sure enough my owner jig head had a hook like a needle. I had lost the biggest grey trout I had ever seen. I tied on a new jig head and drifted down the side of the island. I was once told that fishing is as much a mental activity as physical and I was feeling pretty low about losing the grey so I decided to head back in, atleast I didnt lose any fishing gear!