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.
