Healthy Grin Sport Fishing

I got to fish on the Special Kate today with Charles Southall and Hunter Macon. We were joined by Warren and his daughter, Brooke. We had 5 marlin bites, all on the same rod: the short shotgun. We missed one, hooked four. Managed to break off one. Released three. Brooke caught her first billfish. Her father got one also. Brooke’s was larger. I caught the last one. Brooke’s was still bigger. We also caught a couple blackfin tuna.

That was fun. I had never fished for smallmouth bass before. I have caught some while muskie fishing and while fishing for striped bass at Smith Mountain Lake. Today, I joined Sam Scott at Blue Ridge Musky to target them. It really was a lot like fishing for speckled trout. The water is moving a lot more. The same size tackle and baits. I caught bass on topwater, on jigs, and on jerk baits. There were plenty of blowups on topwater that I did not catch, and I lost the big fish of the day right at the boat…just like speckled trout. The river is very low and there were spots where the boat needed to be dragged over the rocks. Sam did the dragging, I took pictures. It is gorgeous up there. We did see some muskie but none bit the bass lures.

Had 3 “sheepshead” bites this morning. Broke one off, pulled the hook on one, and the third turned into a black drum. Really smokey out there.

I made a short trip to Poquoson Reef this morning. I had a good oyster bite going that was interrupted by a black drum. I tagged and released it but it wasn’t ready. It popped up, floating. I unanchored to go revive it and it waited until I was almost to it, then swam on down.  

I went out to see if I could find a speckled trout. I was soon reminded of the rush of those topwater explosions. I was also reminded how frustrating these dang fish can be. I had 6 or so bites that I did not get. I pulled off two big fish. I did not catch any little fish. I landed four. The small one was 18.5 inches. The other three were 20-22 inches long. All were tagged and released.

Went after flounder today with Charles Southall and Johnny Boyd. We caught 8 before the afternoon breeze sent us home. We had two larger creatures hooked up that we could not handle on the flounder gear. Johnny thinks he had a cobia on. I think I had a big drum. We broke both off. The oyster toad bite is strong.

Fireflies and a rather impressive sky at the Alison Krauss concert last night. Got up this morning to see in the sunrise on the Poquoson Reef. I got into a surprise bite of grey trout. I caught several in the 19 to 21 inch range. I let them go, hopefully to grow into the tide runners of yesteryear.

I went out with Stan Simmerman this morning and hit a couple reefs. We caught maybe a dozen tautog, a great catch of toadfish, and a black drum. Stan lost the largest gray trout I’ve seen in some time. He thought it was going to be another tautog so we were not net ready. We didn’t catch the sheepshead we were after. Apparently, I did not catch anything.

Did some wreck fishing in the bay today. Oyster toad population is good. Caught some tautog and triggerfish, including one which had a tag.

I went out to tag cobia this morning. I caught 4, all small.