Healthy Grin Sport Fishing

I ran out for the sunrise and made one drift across the flats. Topwater explosions ensued, and I caught trout from 21 to 24 inches long. After the sun got up, I went on out to the reef and caught puppy drum and tautog. One tog was already tagged. I had two big somethings break me of that I guess were fully-grown drum. I ran out of bait and came in for lunch then took Tricia Neill out for a little photography safari and she got more great shots that she may share at some point. What a fantastic time of year to be on the Chesapeake Bay!

Stan Simmerman took me after speckled trout for a short trip this morning. We caught 7 speckled trout with 4 being over 20 inches long. The first one was still in the dark on a topwater. The fish exploded on Stan’s lure right at the boat, scaring both of us. I pulled off a really nice fish. We also caught a couple of pups.

I went out and did a little, local wreck fishing this morning with Stan Simmerman and David Brabrand. We just took the crabs that were in my pots at the dock. We came back in when we ran out of bait. We had a nice catch of oyster toads with a few real bruisers. I set a personal record for number of conger eels. We caught sea bass and tautog. Probably the most impressive catch was a fully-grown southern stingray that Stan caught on his little sheepshead rig. We caught some nice red drum, a small sheepshead, and pulled off a nice sheep. Fun, quick trip.

Stan Simmerman took me speckled trout fishing this morning. We caught grey trout, silver perch, bluefish, sea robin, and a grunt. The speck bite was slow. It seemed especially slow for me. Stan caught 5 speckled trout including a citation-sized fish while I was sitting on zero. It was apparent that my job was to net and photograph his fish. The net he supplied for me to use had the handle break off on his citation fish. I had to lunge to catch the loop of the net to get his fish. I was amazing. Stan said we would try one more spot before heading in. I actually caught a nice trout before we quit so we stayed a little longer and I caught a nicer trout. I finished strong and we actually had a decent catch on a slow morning. I caught 4 of our 11 trout but they were all nice with 3 being over 20 inches long including the biggest of the day. Stan disputes this but I have photos of both citation fish on a ruler. All of our fish were 18-25 inches long with 4 being over 20 and two being citations. Stan pulled off a really big fish but we did pretty good on our hookup to landing percentage especially considering we were using a net with no handle.

Stan Simmerman took me after speckled trout this morning. At times fishing was spectacular. We had double hookups a couple of times. We missed bites, had topwater explosions that did not come tight, and we pulled off some fish. We managed to hang onto something like 14 trout. We had three over 20 inches. I got one of those. Stan got two, both larger than mine, but we don’t need to dwell on that. It was great being back on the water. Seems like it has been forever.

Photos by Tricia

I went looking for a king. I didn’t find one. I did find some other toothy critters. I had all 4 rods go down. Bluefish jumping all behind the boat, fun stuff… that I had to deal with. Managed to release all of those. Got the rods back out and went back. All 4 went down again. OK, that wasn’t smart. Next time, put out 2 rods. Then decided, one rod was best. Every fish I cranked in, had 4 or 5 others with it. They weren’t small blues. They weren’t big blues. They were medium blues that thought they were big.  I gave in after catching about 20 bluefish. I have managed to get kind-of old so maybe it just felt like 20 fish. No, it felt like 50 fish so 20 is probably a good estimate.

Stan Simmerman took me back after speckled trout this morning. The bite was slower and the grass was worse than our last trip. It was also a lot dryer. We missed and lost a few fish. We held onto 5 speckled trout, a bluefish, a croaker, and a spot. I caught 4 speckled trout, the bluefish, the croaker, and the spot. Stan caught the biggest trout. I guess that makes him more efficient.