Black Drum

Posted on July 17, 2021 by admin

I fished a reef inside the bay again this morning. Today, I had my dental assistant, Meghan Wells with me. Apparently, I was there just to net her fish. I did catch a sea bass and a flounder on the same hook. Other than that, I spent the morning cutting bait and netting the black drum and tautog that she caught.

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More Sheep

Posted on July 16, 2021 by admin
Wes Blow and I went after sheepshead again this morning. We caught four up to 13.1 pounds. We also caught a red drum, a black drum, and a sad looking tautog. It was missing an operculum and had a messed-up eye. The tog and drum were tagged and released. The sheep went home with Wes. We were back in for lunch.
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Trolling and Wrecking

Posted on July 11, 2021 by admin
This weekend was trolling along the oceanfront and wreck fishing in the bay.
The ocean was nice and calm. Ribbonfish were plentiful but you could get out of them when you wanted. Spanish mackerel were jumping all over. The boats fishing for them did really well. I did not have my typical cobia encounter but some were caught. There were some king mackerel bites and one was caught. I did not encounter a king or the big red drum that have been popping up. What I did encounter were a surprising number and size of bluefish. Not big blues but not the little ones you usually catch this time of year either.
In the bay, there were tautog including four that already had tags, red drum, black drum and a big sheepshead. A couple cobia did swim by the boat that we did not get casts on.
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Independence

Posted on July 4, 2021 by admin
I went on a couple of morning trips over the Independence Day Weekend. Saturday, I did a fairly good job using up my chum and eels catching sharks. I did mess up and catch a little cobia.
Sunday morning, I hit one of VMRC’s artificial reefs and had a limit catch of toadfish. OK, there is no limit but I got a bucket of toads. I used to call those things Southall fish because Charles Southall was so adept at catching them and he passed his skill onto his son, Hunter. I think that I have surpassed the masters. I declare myself as the best toad catcher in all of the Commonwealth. If anyone would like to take my title…please do.
I caught a half-dozen tautog, one of which already had a tag in it. I caught a red drum that had part of a gill net embedded in it. I cut that out the best I could before tagging and releasing it. A small cobia swam by the boat and jumped all over the jig that I cast to it. I caught some really small croaker and then there were these sheepshead things.
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Teeth

Posted on June 27, 2021 by admin

Friday, I trolled the oceanfront and caught ribbon fish and cobia…mostly ribbon fish. The charters were doing well on Spanish mackerel and I heard of one king encounter. Today, I chummed in the bay and caught cobia and sharks…mostly sharks. Lots of sharp teeth this weekend.

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Tagging

Posted on June 13, 2021 by admin
I ran out for a short reef trip Friday with storms in the forecast. Tried for a sheepshead. Caught some tautog,  numerous gray trout, baby croaker and a bunch of oyster toads. No sheep encounters. Two togs already had tags. I put tags in the rest.
This morning, I ran out to tag some cobia with Stan Simmerman. We tagged 5 from 25 to 53 inches long. The largest was part of a triple hitter or so. We caught two. The big fish had another nice fish with that we were too busy to try for. I caught a shark that was followed in by a cobia. We did try for that one but it did not want to play with us. It wanted the rest of the eel hanging out of the shark’s mouth. Good cobia fishing right now. Should be a good opening day Tuesday.
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Tagging Cobia

Posted on June 5, 2021 by admin

Stan Simmerman and I went chumming to tag some cobia today. We caught 4 and missed a few more. I saw a v-wake coming towards the boat that I thought might be a cobia. It turned out that the lone spadefish was not interested in a bucktail I threw at it.

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Quick Cobia

Posted on May 31, 2021 by admin

I made two very short cobia trips this weekend. Tagged and released a cobia each time. Stan Simmerman went with me the first morning. I went solo this afternoon.

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Preseason Cobia

Posted on May 23, 2021 by admin

My wife’s birthday was Thursday. Thursday afternoon, our daughter just showed up at my office. She was supposed to be in Texas, pleasant surprise…the sneaky thing. It did change some fishing plans. No fishing Friday, family stuff. Saturday, I got up dark and early and went for a short cobia trip while the ladies were still sleeping. I came back in for shopping and going out for lunch. Then that evening, they went to have dinner with her grandparents (my parents), while I snuck out for a quick drum run. Back out after cobia early this morning. The short drum trip did not produce much, a pulled hook on a nice drag puller and a couple of missed bites. The cobia were more cooperative. My first two cobia of the year Saturday morning. Today, I caught seven cobia and missed as many including a couple of doubles where I only managed to catch one. The cobia season doesn’t open until June 15 but the fish don’t read the rule book. Good time to get some tag and release action in. When we put our daughter on the plane back to Dallas today, I reminded her that my birthday is next month.

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Yesterday’s Drum

Posted on May 17, 2021 by admin

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I did catch a big red drum yesterday. I spent most of my time trying for black drum without any luck. I saw a cobia swim by the boat. It was small. It did not even occur to me to cast the bucktail I had ready until it was gone. I was just: “well, would you look at that” and admiring the little fellow. Then it dawned on me that I was supposed to try and catch it.

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