As the summer winded down and my work schedule has increased ive found it more and more difficult to get out on the water. Trying to make the most of the time I do have off ive been driving around with the kayak loaded up on the jeep. Fall in south eastern VA always means rain and wind but on those rare calm nights the fishing in the lights can be amazing.
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| Mirror water surface and no boaters! |
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I went out to the HRBT looking for stripers the opening weekend and my first few trips I seen very little action. The spot and croaker seemed to disappear and all I managed to hook up on were small bluefish in the 10 inch range. I ran into very few boaters and even fewer kayakers. Everyone kept telling me there were no stripers yet, but I figure someone has to be the first one to catch one! I kept up my after work and spur of the moment trips and finally one night was able to find some fish. I was out on the water with only one other kayaker and two boaters when I found a school of silver sides a couple yards wide. You could see bluefish streaking through on the surface busting on the bait. I initially started throwing soft plastic grubs and paddle tails on jig heads into the school but after only hooking up on blues I switched to hard plastic baits and went deep. Thats where I found them. The striper were hiding underneath the bait. I managed to catch eight fish that night between 20 and 26 inches.
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| HRTB light line striper |
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My next trip out I managed to convince BB to come out with me and we paddled to the bridge hoping the fish were still there. No vehicles in the parking lot were a good sign and I immediately found some stripers as the sun set. After my first two striper at 23 and 24 inches the bite slowed so I went to a bucktail and slowed my presentation. First cast down and hooked up, drag going and fish holding the bottom I thought I had a good slot striper but it turned out to be a keeper flounder. The tide went slack and then all we were catching were small bluefish. BB switched to a small purple BADBC bucktail and started catching 12-14 inch speckled trout and then a 14 inch grey trout.
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| BB's 14 inch grey on a bucktail. |
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| Flounder and striper make excellent dinner fare. |
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| A fat 19 inch striper on a bucktail. |
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| The catch of the night! 4 inch silver side decided to escape being dinner and swim up my scupper hole. | |
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The next weekend I got BB out on the water again, she was determined to
catch a striper so we headed out. Unfortunately since it was a weekend
the boat ramp was already almost full by the time for both the kayak
parking and boaters. When we got the bridge it was slack tide and
nothing was biting so we paddled around casting at the pylons. We found
the small bluefish and more speckled trout so we kept going between the
island and the small boat channel. Finally the tide turned and with the
moving water came the stripers. I managed to land 3 in a row and BB was
getting frustrated so I put the lure I was using on her fishing rod in
hopes of her catching one too. I drifted out away from the bridge while
retying and when I paddled back I found BB quite upset over her first
"lost fish" at the kayak story. I wish I could have captured her
excitement and her expression as she told me how she hooked a huge fish
that pulled her kayak around and when she got it to the kayak it took
off, pulling line and she had to bring it back to the side of the boat
and then the intense sorrow as she informed me that it broke (40 pound
flouro) her leader and disappeared into the depths taking my favorite
lure with it. Luckily I pack a few of the same color and I managed to
retie her and get her back after a fish and in no time she landed her
personal best (from a kayak) striper at 21 inches.
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| BB's 21 inch striper. |
Unfortunately this is where things although very exciting went bad. There was a large group of kayak fisherman out that had used one of the local facebook groups to plan a fishing trip and throughout the night they had shadowed us and paddled around us. Paddling through the bait as we were casting into it, trying to paddle between us, paddling behind us trolling lures we got tangled up in, and all sorts of "not to's" on the water. It was when BB landed her striper that they all converged onto us, with one particular older gentleman who I "offended" after telling him exactly what was on my mind. As BB was trying to land her striper the current pulled her kayak into the pylons, the old man seeing she was fighting a fish quickly paddled up and was yelling at her demanding to know if it was a striper or not and blocking her from being able to paddle off, she paniced and almost lost the fish when I paddled in between and pulled her kayak off and out into the channel. He then kept yelling and asking about how big it was and yelling to everyone else that someone had caught a striper. I first told him to go catch his own fish and he could measure it, and then he actually had the nerve of saying I was being rude, even though he had almost caused BB to flip/swamp her kayak into the bridge. So if you do happen to read my post old guy who said I was a bad kayak fisherman for being rude on the water, hopefully after my tongue lashing you have come to realize that you shouldnt paddle up on people while they're trying to land a fish especially in dangerous situation, and I will say with no shame that I am glad when we paddled to the boat ramp you and your group had no fish to speak of landing and me and BB brought home a limit for both of us.
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| 24 and 26 inch stripers for another great dinner. |
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| Leg length fatty. |
Favorite lures this winter was a shad colored 1/2oz bucktail with a PTL plastic trailer or a River2Sea Fetch jerk shad in tablerock shad.
