Sweetwater Crankin'

I've never been much of a freshwater fisherman, as I grew up fishing the salt. What little experience I do have has been fishing minnows under a bobber- what I call kid fishing. Not that there is anything wrong with it, its just that as a kid you start out with a minnow and bobber and it always takes me back to those days. This year I decided to broaden my spectrum and spend more time fishing the local sweetwater.

While taking advantage of an early day off work, my buddy Alex and I have been out a few times recently targeting crappie and perch just to bend a rod. I don't keep any although I understand they both make great tablefare. We have had some good days bring in 15-20 between the two of us. Most have been in the 10" range and fat.Oddly enough, we have yet to find the crappie yet.

                                                              As expected we've also both picked up a few largemouth.

                  Alex has me beat so far this year for big bass, but there's alot of time left to fish. I took it last year.

   I couldn't pull myself off the water after he caught that fatty. It paid off just as it was getting to dark to see.  

The following week we decided to target the Largemouth Bass and Chain Pickerel, as there has been some good reports of consistent catches on crankbaits. Alex had picked up a couple small bass on a shad pattern in a private lake, so the next chance I got, I picked one up and we hit our little cove to see if we could crank up a big'un.

Just before leaving I made a Go-Pro mount to fit in my forward rod holder. It only took about 10 minutes to make and cost me nothing. I figured it will work until I can pick up a YakAttack Panfish and Panfish Protrait.

                         I will do a short post later with instructions in case anybody wants to know how to make one.

The afternoon started off slow. We each had a couple short strikes, and Alex hooked up a heavy fish, but it shook the hook loose before he could get it to the boat. I was spending alot of time picking my crankbait out of the bushes along the shoreline. At one point I jerked the pole and broke it in half. Luckily, it was a very inexpensive combo I bought about 15 years ago. Not long after, Alex finally hooked up with a heavy fish. It turned out not to be the bucketmouth he was looking for, but a 22" chain pickerel.

He was excited, as I believe this was his personal best. I was jealous, as I wasn't having a great afternoon on the water, and it was about to get worse. After getting some cool footage and a measurement on the Hawg Trough, we released the fish. Somehow while sliding it back into place behind the seat, I broke the lip off the end of it. Damnit! I paddled away to take a smoke break and get refocused. I just had to laugh and decide to get back at it.

 I moved over to a lay down and cast out past where I guessed the end of the tree was. I hadn't cranked more than 6 feet or so when I had a strike but didn't hook up. I paused and slowed my retrieve just a hair when the fish took a second swipe and smashed the bait. I knew right away this was a good fish. I also knew there was the top half of a large pine tree down there somewhere and had to keep the fish out of the structure. I have never caught a chain pickerel, so when the fish surfaced the first time, I was stoked to see a large, possibly citation "slime dart."
My crankbait was way down his throat and all I could see was my 8 lb flouro. It took some work without pliers but I was able to go in through the gills and release the hooks, and use my ARC DeHooker to work through the mouth to free the others. Not a drop of blood, from me or the fish!

Next order of business was to measure this ting and see if I had my first citation . . . . . 2 3 . 5" So Close! But I had my buddy beat and braggin rights, any real fisherman knows it doesn't get much better than that.

Its funny how quickly your mood can change, and it goes from a bad day of breaking equipment, to a great day of fishing, in about 2 minutes. We finished the day out fishing the mouth of the cove and both Alex and I picked up a couple small bass just as the sun was setting. It was rewarding to go out and focus on fishing one bait, target a certain species, and have it pay off. This fishing season is starting out pretty good!

Deep Bottom Blues

I got a call from Rob Choi on Friday asking if I wanted to join him on the James River in search of big catfish. Its no secret that just south of the city you can hook up to a 40+ lbs cat on any given day, so I was excited to give it a try. We met at the Deep Bottom ramp at 6:00am to colder than forecasted temperatures and a steady breeze that wasn't helping. Rob had a cooler full of gizzard shad his boss had left over from the previous day, and had some holes he thought would hold fish, so we were ready to get bowed up. The morning started out a little slow as we moved from spot to spot looking for a bite. Thousand and thousands of Canadian Geese overhead kept me entertained while waiting on a run. I couldn't help but wish I was in a blind. The daydreaming came to an abrupt end when my clicker finally made some noise and my line started moving across the water. I reeled down and let the line come tight, then immediately put as much pressure as I could on the fish, as he was getting ready to cross one of my other lines. I could tell it was a good sized fish, but not the citation blue I really wanted. He did get wrapped up in my other lines, but with the reels in free spool it wasn't a concern. As I lipped him and swung up and in the boat, the fish bit down on my thumb like a vise grip. Even after I laid him between my legs, he wouldn't let go.

                                                                         My personal best blue cat @ 30" 21lbs

Rob had a bunch of good runs and finally landed another blue just a little smaller than mine. We continued to try other holes but found no takers and ended the day around 2:00. I was asleep on the couch within the hour! Thanks for the invite Rob. Hope to give it another try again soon.

Eeling for the Big' Uns

With the water getting cold, I have had striper on my mind for weeks. Between work, school, and hunting, I haven't had the chance to get down to the light lines yet, and have gone striperless for almost 12 months. I called Rob Choi to see if he wanted to fish the HRBT on Friday night, but he wasn't in town. He did say he planned on toggin' or eelin' on Sunday which got me all fired up, as there have already been a few reports of Kows coming in from the Concrete Ships. The winds weren't great either for fishing the light line, so I decided to hold off and fish Sunday. In the mean time, my fishin buddy Alex Britland called and wanted to go to the ships, as did  William Ragulsky, so we decided to cross the big bridge in search of citation stripers instead of fishing under it for Tog. Billy's buddy Tommy would be joining us as well, and the plan was to meet at Oceans East for eels before crossing the tunnel.

We hit the water around 11 and headed straight to the alleyways between the ships. It was my first trip to Kiptopeke, so I was excited just to be in the mecca of kayak fishing for stripers.

Me and Alex set up on opposite sides of an alley and dropped our eels down, set the clickers, and waited for a bite....... nothing. A couple hours later...... nothing. There was a point when my eel was going nuts, but nothing ever came of it.

After an hour, I brought him up to find he had balled up on the line and created a mess. I decided just to cut him off and re-tie. The current was dying at the alleys, so Alex decided to drift the outside of the ship. He had only drifted about 60 feet from me when I heard his clicker scream. I looked over to see Alex set the hook, but the clicker screamed again.....? In all his excitement, he forgot to put the reel in gear........the fish was gone!
Billy had one run later in the afternoon, but all in all, it was an uneventful day and we headed in around 4:00.

 We all agreed, The fish are there, just not real active yet. Once the water temps drop a little lower, the bite will turn on. It was worth a try. We considered hitting the CBBT light line on the way home, but being Sunday, Alex and I both dicided it would be better if we headed home. Turns out Rob had gone toggin' and finally got his citation Tog. Congrats Rob! We stopped at Ships Cabin for some dinner with Billy and were home by 9:15.

                                                                             Sunset over the Ships is Beautiful!

It won't be long til I make the drive back over to the Eastern Shore. Kows are calling my name, and I can't catch 'em sitting on my couch! Tight Lines- See ya on the water.

Spots and Specks

Kamaron's granddad turned 90 years old this past Veterans Day, so we headed to Wrightsville Beach one last time this year to celebrate with him. He is in great shape for a man of his age, and still goes hunting and fishing when he can. Coincidentally, the NCKFA was hosting a small tournament at Fort Fisher the same weekend, so I could see no reason not to take my little plastic boat down with me and see if I could find some fish. William Ragulsky was also going to be in the area on other kayak fishing business, so we decided we would get together and try to plunder another kayak from a N.C. tourny. This would be a CPR event, with the combined total length of 1 redfish and 1 speckled trout being measured, hence the name Spots and Specks.

This was a very informal tourny, with the registration and captains meeting held the morning of, at the public ramp into the Basin @ Fort Fisher. Lauch time wasn't until 8:00. Billy had won the Hook, Line, and Paddle tournament with a trout from the fort, and I had fished here a bunch in the past, so we knew we could find fish, it was just a matter of finding bigger fish.

We started the morning trolling the wall that separates the Basin from the Cape Fear River with a 3" Bayou Thumper and Mirrolures. There are several places where the wall has broken apart, and the current rolls through carrying bait back and forth from the river. It didn't take long to get my first bite, and with the head shakes, I was sure it was a trout... until I saw those beady yellow eyes.... Damnit! Bluefsih.

We trolled the wall around to Zeke's Island and worked that area for a bit, drifting along the wall and casting. There was very little bait in the water, so it looked like it was going to be an all artificial day, which I don't mind one bit. We decided to head through the Cribs and down to the second bay. Billy quickly picked up a 13" Spec as we left the wall and trolled along Zeke's. A few minutes later my rod bent over but as soon as I picked it up, the fish came unbuttoned. I left the line out and began paddling again trying to match my previous speed when it bent over again. This time I made a good hook set. The fish stripped a little drag, shook its head a few times and came over the side of the boat.

At just under 17" in was no gator, but if I could find an upper slot Red, I might have a chance at this thing. We worked our way down the the second bay, trolling the whole way, picking up smaller fish here and there. We weren't hearing of any trout much bigger than 17" being caught, so I still felt confident that I had a chance at this thing.

Billy ended up way out in front and I eventually lost track of him, as his boat is much faster than mine. The tide was moving out pretty fast now, and having my specks, I went in search of my spots. I found a very shallow cut between a grass island and the shoreline with a muddy bottom. This looked promising, so I slowly worked my way in, keeping my eyes peeled for signs of activity. There was only about 18" of water and it was crystal clear, but the breeze was blowing a little, and I couldn't get the sun at my back, so spotting the fish was proving difficult. As soon as I entered the creek, I paddled right over a redfish and he spooked, leaving behind a cloud of muddy water. After spooking 3 or 4 more fish, I finally spotted one ahead of me slowly cruising around waiting for the current to push bait to him. My heart was beating like the first time I shot a deer. I made a perfect cast and he immediately hit the Thumper, but it was a short strike. Luckily, I hadn't tried to set the hook, and just kept my retrieve steady. He was chasing the bait- couldn't have been more than 3 or 4" behind it. I paused my retrieve for a split second and he short struck again. At this point he was only 15' from the kayak. He saw me and disappeared into a cloud of pluff mud. I worked my way throught the rest of the cut, a spotted a few more, but was unable to cast to them before they spooked.

I met back up with Billy, and we worked through the same area one last time looking for a redfish, and found one more, but Billy made a bunch of commotion and that fish was long gone. I'll let him tell you the story, if he wants. We trolled our way back to the ramp and both picked up a few more small trout, but nothing worth keeping.

        This one went somewhere around 13" but hopped back into the water before I could get a clear picture. We ended the day with lots of specks but no spots. The winner, with a 18.5" redfish and a 18.25" speckled trout took home a new boat from KC Kayaks. I took home dinner, so I wasn't empty handed.

Gotta love the bait well in the Malibu Stealth. Almost 5 hours after catching this guy, he was still live and kicking, and that's without the aerator plumbed. As always, it was a great day on the water. Always glad to wet a line with Billy. NCKFA puts on a few great tournaments every year, and the Wrightsville Beach/Cape Fear/Fort Fisher area is fantastic place to kayak fish. Check it out if your looking for a new fishing destination.

A Proud Older Brother

My brother Jeremy was never into fishing when we were kids. He grew bored very quickly and didn't have the patience. A few years ago he started talking about how he wanted a recreational kayak, but never had the money to spend. After I bought my Malibu last year, his desire to paddle re-emerged. When he decided to move to Charleston, SC with a couple buddies, he also decided he wanted to buy a fishing kayak and learn how to fish. Unfortunately, I didn't have alot of time to hit the water with him, as he moved 10 days after buying his Tarpon 140, but the guys he was moving in with would be able to teach him the basics.

Jerm finally made it out on the water yesterday and caught his first fish from the yak, his first redfish, and his first flounder!I was stoked for him when he text messaged me the pics and called him right away. Him and Chris decide to fish the Wando River for a couple hours before work after some helpful info from TKAA member Eric Miles. They were working popping corks with live shrimp underneath and slayed 'em! Jerm caught 6 reds up to about 18" and a healthy keeper flounder. I am super proud of him and can't wait to wet a line with him.

                                                                               Jerms First Red Drum Ever!!

                                                                                 Jerms First Flounder Ever!!

                                                                           Jerms Personal Best Redfish!!

GOOD JOB BUDDY!

A Speck-tacular Day!

Its no secret the speckled trout bite is hot right now. With that said, I was itching to bend a rod, so me and Alex headed down to meet William Ragulsky at Wallace's Saturday morning. We were late getting out of Richmond, so Billy was waiting for us at the ramp ready to go. It was after 7:30 by the time we hit the water, but we headed out optimistic. To make a long story short, we saw very little bait on the flats and even fewer fish. Billy managed 2 specks, but around 11:30 we decided to pack it up and head over to Lynnhaven. We took our time getting there, allowing the tide to turn. We headed out of crab creek and back through the marsh towards Bayville, and it didn't take long to find fish. Billy hooked up first.

 They were dinks so we kept moving in search a school of larger fish. As we came out of one of the creeks, Billy and I both heard a huge splash is a small cove in the marsh grass. Seconds later I see a large Redfish shoot from the grass and crash a school of bait, slashing the surface in the shape of a "z", then disappearing back into the grass. We both pressed in our Stick It pin's into the mud and to the fish, but it wouldn't take anything we threw at it.

Trout had began to bust the surface all around us, so Alex and I switched gears and started working the cork, while Billy headed on in search of more Reds. First cast, we both hooked up. They were small Specks @ 10-11" but we didn't mind- it was fun fishing.

Every other cast one of us was landing a trout and I lost count of how many double we had. 
The bite was slowing with the tide and Alex didn't have a light on him, so we had to leave as it got dark. We made a few more casts while waiting to meet back up with Billy, and found another school of spikes. They were a little larger than the others but no keepers.

 We trolled our way back to Crab Creek. About half way back Billy's pole bent over and we could tell this was a better fish.

After a short fight, Billy landed a healthy 19" Speck. He was kind enough to ask if I wanted the fish for dinner, and I graciously accepted. Both Alex and I ended the day with close to 20 fish. I never got a count from Billy but I'm sure he did better than us. Lure of the day was the Marsh Works Bayou Thumper. We hit the road and were home by 10. Great day on the water.... and a great dinner Sunday night. (broiled the trout with a little butter, salt, and pepper. DELICIOUS!

Its been a while

Things have been real busy lately, and though I have done quite a bit of fishing since my last post, I just kept putting off writing about them. So here we go...

My brother finally decided he wanted a fishing kayak( and to learn how to fish) since he was moving to Charleston, SC at the end of September. He found a great deal on a Tarpon 140 rigged and ready to go. Since he was leaving a couple weeks after buying the boat, and had lots to do to get ready for the move, we didn't get a chance to hit the salt. The rainy weather broke for a few hours on Saturday(9-05-11) so me, Kamaron, and my brother Jeremy hit the James River looking for some whisker kitties. We decide to stay close to the bridge since there was still a good chance of scattered showers.

I showed him how to tie off a fishfinder rig, and we put out some extra large minnows to soak. He hooked up with something, but lost it seconds later. Not long after, I had a solid thump and set the hook. Turned out to be a 5 lb bucket mouth.

                                         A little while later, Kam picked up a  little smallmouth. It was her first smallie.

The sky started getting dark so we packed it in and called it a day. Its too bad Jerm didn't decide he wanted to kayak fish earlier so we could have spent some time on the water together. I love teaching someone how to fish, but I would have really enjoyed teaching him. He's living with a couple guy that fish and one of them owns a yak, so I'm sure he will have someone to show him the ropes. His plans are to consistently catch bigger fish than me( remember he is in Charleston) and rub it in my face. Nothing like competition between brother, especially twin brothers.


The Tidewater Kayak Anglers Association held their 7th annual Kayak Fish for Charity Tournament on Sept. 23rd. This is a great event benefiting the Heroes On The Water. The weather sucked the entire week prior to the tourny, as well as the day of, but it didn't keep anybody away. This year, with 220 registered anglers, it was the 2nd largest kayak fishing tournament on the east coast. Kamaron and I decided we would fish the Poquoson area even though we didn't have a lot of experience there. All in all, it was an extremely slow day for both of us. Kam hooked up to a big trout early in the morning (on the same Mirrolure that Forrest kept getting stuck in his hand), but 15' from the boat it broke off and took the suspending twitchbait with it. I landed 1 dink trout that went 12" later in the morning fishing a Bayou Thumper under a Marsh Works cork. That was all the action we had and headed to the "weigh in" empty handed. We had a great time and were glad to help out such a worthy cause. I understand our tournament raised $10,000 for Heroes!

                                                          As sad as it sounds, this was the only picture I took all day.


Two weeks later on October 8th was the NCKFA Oak Island Classic. Kam's family has a house down there in Holden Beach, so it was a no brainer to fish this one. Instead of defending his title at the Poquoson Seafood Festival Fishing Tournament, William Ragulsky was itching to get back to the Cape Fear area after winning the trout division in the TJM Charity tournament in August, so he decided to join us. We threw his kayak on the trailer and headed down a day early to pre-fish. The wind was blowing 15+ on Friday, so we didn't cover much water. We did locate some fish but were unable to hook up. It was announced at the captains meeting that the King Mackerel division would be cancelled due to the small craft advisories offshore, but the Hobie prize would be converted to a prize for the biggest fish if the day. After weighing our options, we decided to fish the Caswell Beach area. Initially, we considered crossing the Cape Fear over to Buzzards Bay, but with the wind forecasted 15 with gusts up to 25 mph, we knew that was out of the question.
Launch time was 7:00am. We left the ramp optimistic we could find some fish. I found a very shallow oyster bed(got stuck and had to walk my boat 30 feet) with the tide ripping over it and decide to drop a carolina rigged finger mullet as I came over the back side where it dropped off about 4 feet. It didn't take long beofre I got a bite, but I knew right away it wasn't what i was looking for.

Billy was the next to hook up, and boated a small red about 15" fishing a small point where the current ripped over an oyster bed. That was followed by another redfish about the same size. In between Billy catching his fish, Kamaron was yelling to us, but with the wind blowing the way it was, I could just barley hear her. Turns out the saw a fish busting bait on the surface, cast her cork and hooked into a healthy 24" red.

         Although she tried not to get her hopes up, all three of us thought this fish would be competitive. I anchored up near hear and tossed out the carolina rig to soak while I worked my popping cork/thumper combo. After just a few minutes I see the rod with the mullet bend over. FISH ON! This one has some shoulders and I'm excited. After making a run for deeper water, I get the fish up....

                                                                                Sting Ray!?  Damn it!
We moved on around to the next creek. the tide had turned and we could drift back towards the ramp. It was getting late and we didn't have much more fishing time. Billy was after trout now and picked up a speck while trolling a Thumper. It wasn't huge but it another fish in the boat. He immediately headed for deeper water and quickly picked up a small flounder to complete his Slam. I heard him yell and paddled that way to hear the good news. He had his slam and Kam had a competitive fish so we paddled hard for the ramp. Ties are decided by who "weighs in" first.
    The results were disappointing- Kam's redfish was 1/4" out of placing. She made a comment about how bitter sweet it was to get beat by so little. There were 4, maybe 5 other slams caught that day and Billy's didn't place. None of us thought there would be that many people that caught all three species. There were a couple of joke divisions, Slum Slam(trash fish), smallest fish, and a Sting Ray/Skate slam. Anybody who caught a sting ray had there name put in a bucket and 1 winner was drawn. All three of us had caught a stingray, but Billy chose not to write his down on his score card. There were only 3 names and we knew me and Kam were in there. Guess who won the string ray slam? Yup- yours truely.  Billy errupted with a very mocking "YES!!!!!" and the room filled with laughter. I was awarded a trash can to hold my trash fish, and a rubber stretchy sting ray. We ended up making out like bandits with the raffle and brought home a new Bending Branches Slice Angler paddle, along with a Astral PFD, and a slew of tackle including Mirrolure's and an entire set of various sized Hopkins spoons, and a bunch of soft plastics. 

We fished the next day near the house in Holden Beach where we caught a bunch of redfish and flounder earlier in the summer. It's not very active fishing, soaking bait and waiting for a bite, but it consistently put food on the table this summer(refer to previous post). Billy landed 2 reds that day. One went 22"ish and the other got away while he was trying for the hero shot. We had Cajun blackened redfish for dinner. The weekend was over and Sunday we left North Carolina.

A week or two later, I headed down to catch up with Billy, his buddy Tommy, and Tom VanderHeiden, to be a croaker choker for the morning. Tom had the big silver drum pinned down and we were gonna get on 'em! As soon as we drop lines we are getting bites. I was using a medium action St. Croix Triumph spinning outfit. I lost count of how many big croakers we caught, but they were all in the 14-17" range. Man they were fun! The bite died later in the morning and we searched for reds and trout the rest of the afternoon. I managed 1 trout about 17"(again on the Bayou Thumper), but the hook just barely got the skin on the lip and I lost him at the boat. That night me and Billy wanted to go to the CBBT and try for the big Bull Reds that Rob Choi and Kayak Kevin had been catching, but the weather didn't look great, so we stayed inshore and went looking for pups. We were unsuccessful- tides were all wrong for the area we wanted to fish.

The light line is heating up and the water is full of Specks right now... I'm itching to get back down to the beach and hit the water. I will try to be more timely with my posts in the future. See ya' on the water.