Holiday weekend fishing.....

From the July 4th weekend this year.........

As we wrap up a weekend of celebrating our nation's independence, I take pause to reflect on how fortunate I am.  As a former service member, I know all too well the sacrifices that our military personnel make for the safety and comforts people like me are afforded.  This past week was no different.  I was fortunate enough to fish 3 times, albeit with limited success.  My first outing was a perilous event braving the huge swells, brutal winds and hail from a sudden storm at the Hampton Roads Bridge tunnel on Tuesday night with 3 other kayak friends (Eric, Justin and Rob).  We all caught fish, but the weather changed our plans of fishing to staying out of harm's way until the storm passed.  A variety of species were pulled in by our group - an Oyster Toad, several Croaker, some Flounder, a Speckled Trout and some Striped Bass

On Saturday night, I pedaled around Rudee Inlet checking out the random parties and lights of the locals celebrating the holiday weekend.  I had a few more Croaker and missed what felt like a nice Flounder.  With the action dying off, I made my way from the ocean front inlet all the way back to the Owl Creek launch and headed home fighting sleep all the way.

On Monday, I spent the day with a fellow kayaking friend (yakndave from KBF) in search of Flounder and Croaker on the York River.  We launched out of Wormley Creek shortly after 8:30am and headed out.  We were greeted and wished along our merry way by an Osprey at the mouth of the creek.

Shortly after we pass the creek mouth, we started pounding the grass line for anything that would take our offerings.  I spotted a nice little cove with some nervous water, so I peddle over to find a couple fish chasing glass minnows all around but showed no interest.  So we pedal back out into the main river and work our way down.  We setup in 10-12 feet of water and tossed Gulp! Swimming Mullets and bait on a dropper rig.

Dave lands a smallish flounder pretty quickly, and I ended up with a small Croaker before the bite turned off for about an hour.  We contemplated calling it a day but decided to tough it out for an hour or so more.  We each landed 6 or more Croaker with the largest measuring in right at 11".  Croaker are feisty little fish and pull very hard for their size.  This one below put up a fight much like a Smallmouth and fought for over 30 seconds.

By now, we started to get a little tired from the heat, so we headed back in stopping along the way to take in some of the scenery........

All in all - a good day and a bad case of sunburn to round out a terrific holiday weekend.