I just looked at the ten day forecast, and the light northeast breeze may finally hit the OBX. It has been a lost summer with so much miserable SW wind and thunderstorms. Hopefully I can hit the water and soak a live bait before serious time starts next month. Football, drum, and panfish, a beautiful trio.
Post your reports, questions, and comments about fishing here. Also, if anyone in Richmond is looking for a 7 foot G Loomis spinner, I will negotiate with TKPers.
Got out yesterday and went hunting for some big drum, luckily we found a school and put it right in their face and got them to eat and doubled up. Slow the rest of the morning, one other yearling caught. Hadn't caught a big drum in a few years so it was fun to get on a big one and feel the power these fish have.
Can't spell DBU without Bud
Pain is Temporary, Chicks Dig Scars Glory is Forever, Let's Go Hokies!!
Can't spell DBU without Bud
At that size is it a keeper or a catch and release?
Those big drum are protected. Keepers are 17-28 inches if I remember correctly.
There are a lot of those big girls out there. I really hope the beach renourishment doesn't mess up fall drum season in the OBX, because there are going to be a lot of nice fish swimming down the coast.
Five star get after it 100 percent Juice Key-Playing. MAN
VA it is 18-26" 3 per day. NC 18-27" 1 per day.
Yea that's always funky. Feel like it shouldn't affect the pier as much as beach fishing but you know more than I do on that issue. Hope you get out to get on some big drum.
Can't spell DBU without Bud
Whoops! That is why I don't keep anything except bait!
Usually the storms push all the new sand out pretty quickly up there. But, king mackeral, cobia, and tarpon fishing was awesome down at Bogue Inlet Pier from 06-09. Then they did a substantive beach renourishment that made the water nearly 3-4 feet more shallow. The king fishing any time other than October and the cobia fishing completely vanished for a decade. After a couple of years, I stopped going.
I can't recall it messing up drum fishing *yet*, but with less structure on the beach, the fishing tends to trend downwards.
Five star get after it 100 percent Juice Key-Playing. MAN
Figures last drum I caught in HH, SC was 28".
Well in SC they have to be between 15 and 23".
Funny enough with the difference in fish regs by state. A guy I fish with tags flounder and caught a 14" here in SC which is 2" too short to keep. In 11 months it swam down to Florida and was caught and kept.
Did they return the tag?
Haha somewhere in the 50" range
Can't spell DBU without Bud
Gotta love those bucktail/spoon presentations to a big school of slob red drum. Did the cobia ever make their presence known?
Five star get after it 100 percent Juice Key-Playing. MAN
Gotta love those bucktail/spoon fly presentations to a big school of slob red drum.
You will see this game, this upset and this sign next on ESPN Sportscenter. Virginia Tech 31 Miami 7
His decision was made after a phone call with longtime Virginia Tech assistant coach Bud Foster. All Foster told him was, "We win. They don't."
Given how I handle a fly rod, I will stick with my doofus gear :D
Five star get after it 100 percent Juice Key-Playing. MAN
We saw plenty of tower boats but didn't look for cobia very hard.
Can't spell DBU without Bud
Upper james is getting a bit on the warm side but still decent fishing. The grass is really getting thick this year which is a big boost to the smallmouth fishery hopefully it stays that way. Caught some decent fish the last two trips but mostly small 2-3 year old fish which hopefully might get to the nice 14-18 inch range in a few years.
Snagged a flathead cat accidentally on a senko went from thinking we had a 8 pound smallmouth to aw fuck within seconds of the whiskers showing up.
Directions from Blacksburg to whoville, go north till you smell it then go east until you step in it
To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. @BuryHokie #ThanksFrank
I've struggled to find a good solution to bring all my soft plastics organized on my boat for awhile. My brother got me the zman baitlocker for my birthday, so simple and so much better than binders. Plenty of room for all my plastics and perfect sized top pockets for jig heads and hooks.
Just figured I'd let yall know it's worth it if you can't keep your tackle organized like me.
Here it is with about 50 or so bags of soft plastics. Still plenty of room for leader, my massive bag of texas eye jigs and some other isc goodies in the bottom. Then can fit smaller packs of hooks, jigs, ect in the top compartments. ultra handy
I got their smaller binders and theyre great for the price. Allows me to keep my salt water and fresh water baits separate and neat and organized. Never mix Zman with other plastics.
I really like the plano bags the latest one has magnet stripping on the top to hold pliers, hooks whatever as well. I havent seen the zman one here at the bass pro or greentop but I'll keep my eye out I'd like something like that for all my saltwater gear as right now its all in a backpack and hard to keep tidy.
Directions from Blacksburg to whoville, go north till you smell it then go east until you step in it
I love using those binders for terminal tackle. I have a binder for my tied drum rigs and the corresponding terminal components. Same for my cobia rigs (similar to drum, but octopus hooks instead of octopus circles and longer leaders) and bottom rigs (double dropper loops, add the hooks when I am ready to fish.)
They make life so much easier.
Five star get after it 100 percent Juice Key-Playing. MAN
Never mix Zman with other plastics.
That is a mistake that you make only once😂 bonus points if you (like I) hadn't heard or experienced that before, only fished ONE color, and had 13 bags combined.... Ah, the younger years....
"Look at this... This is just spectacular.... These people are losing their minds"
Thanks for the rec! I don't use soft plastics much anymore but if that changes I'll definitely get this. Topwaters, spoons, 27s for summer and a couple soft plastics in the winter along with mirrorlures.
Can't spell DBU without Bud
yeah planos are still the go too for my top waters mirro lures and spoons
Due to some unforeseen circumstances I couldn't go into work today. So I went fishing this afternoon. Left after lunch and got out to my spot. It was almost glass, slack high, and right away I spotted 3 reds. But they wouldn't even turn their heads. I was worried this would be one of those days. I drifted for a while and didn't see anything but one ray and hundreds of jellyfish. Motored back past where I started and picked up a slot red right away. Then the wind shifted completely. It was solid 15-20 from a new direction and white caps popped up everywhere. I was getting nervous in my small skiff. So I motored out to play the wind so it would push me back into shore. Nothing for a while and then I came up on a big school of reds. By the time I could throw at them they were gone (and I was blown too far the opposite way they were headed). A little while later I picked up an overslot red. Got him unhooked and released and made a few more casts and got another overslot. I repeated this a few times and got 3 more fish, 1 slot and 2 over. Then the wind died back down but the impending thunderstorm forced me back in. Made it back just in time. 3 hours of driving for 2 hours of fishing but it was worth it.
Fished a tournament Saturday (3 categories. flounder by weight, trout by weight, and 3+ spotted slot red by weight, calcutta most spots)
Put the boat in at 5am took off from the dock immediately realized I left my rain jacket in the truck but it was like a 15% chance any way. Happen to be going up the shipping channels to the first spot so they're well lit with good markers so I haul ass through the darkness.get out of the port lights and immediately hit a wall of torrential downpour. 0 vis soaking wet, cold, a little hung over. Eventually made it through that trusting my electronics. Get to my topwater trout hole a bit late, tides lower than I like it pull one 14" trout out and he goes back in the drink. The rest of the day was sloooowww just enough action to keep us out there. A spot we caught 40 reds at in the same tournament last year produced 2 very nice upper slot reds but both only had 2 spots. I caught what I believe to be a world record toad fish and that was pretty much it for the day hopped around grass flats as high tide approached and just couldn't get on fish caught a couple more shorts...didn't turn anything in skipped the banquet and slept.
In other news the Holy City Tarpon tournament was also this weekend and I'm for sure fishing that next year instead. If I'm not turning fish in I'm doing so because I'm tarpon fishing not because my reds don't have enough spots.
I would have won that tourney with some of the upper slot, 3-10 spot reds I was catching on Monday. They were thick as hell.
You will see this game, this upset and this sign next on ESPN Sportscenter. Virginia Tech 31 Miami 7
His decision was made after a phone call with longtime Virginia Tech assistant coach Bud Foster. All Foster told him was, "We win. They don't."
Sounds like a big temp cooldown is coming towards the end of the week. Hopefully that gets things going.
Five star get after it 100 percent Juice Key-Playing. MAN
Had what is seemingly an annual respect mother nature reminder today.
Weather has been spotty here but I had a rough morning. Worked my ass off all day and saw a window to get my little boat out at the end of the day. Dropped in ran about 3 miles to a creek fished up a creek. Immediately hooked a rat red. That was the last good part of the day. So here's a pic as a break before things go to shit.
Sooo here's where things went south. I made it up past that bend in the picture...got another fish on then suddenly my motor shut off. Lost the fish when trying to look at the motor whatever. Pull it no start. Immediately realize I'm screwed if I don't get out of this creek which I'm nearly 0.5 a mile up at this point. So I grab my push pole and pole/paddle against the wind and current out of the creek. I'm not on a real busy stretch but figured I'd see a boat which I do after a few minutes, flag em down they tell me they're headed out to to the sandbar but they're coming back before night fall so they'll grab me if I'm still out. Cool works for me its a nice day out I'll get my workout in and now that I'm out of the creek the tides working for me. Fast forward ~30 minutes. I've made good progress got to a shell bank walked the boat as far as I can but now I'm kinda stuck but whatever on dry land have a ride coming. I fish for a minute trying to burn time...turn around and out of no where there is an absolute mass storm coming at me and quick. A different boat is burning by thank god they stopped and towed me on a cast net line about 2.5 miles back to the landing. Would have been a nightmare if I was still out there. Here's a pic the initial people got of the weather from the sandbar. Glad I'm safe, have some safety equipment to add to little boat now. Turns out I've got about a gallon of water in my fuel too causing my original issue. (no idea who to credit for this picture but its epic)
glad you made it back!
Even when you get skunked; fishing never lets you down. 🎣
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