hengstthomas
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CHP 9-23 / 9-24-09
Hit the pier at about 3pm and looked for Mullet but it was high tide with stained water so that was out of the question but I did manage about 2 dozen and about 6 Snappers in 1.5 hours .
Started fishing at 5pm and found the bite very good but only 1 fish over 17 inches with the rest being runts at 10 to 14 inches .
I missed 2 nice fish on 6" Snappers . Left at 8pm .. I was famished and thirsty
I returned at 11pm and found 4 people on the pier and 2 of those left shortly after midnight .. Man it was NICE
I took the minnow bucket and tried a new approach for Snappers .. I stomped on a few Mullet and gently tossed them into the water and when I saw them moving I castnetted the Mullet and with it came PLENTY of Snappers . I picked out the smaller 3 to 4 inch Blues and kept 6 small 3 inch Sand Perch as well as 2 Big Bay Anchovies and 2 large Shiners .
I got a 19 inch Flounder on one Sand Perch and a 22 inch Flounder on a Shiner .. I missed a nice fat heavy fish on a Snapper and then landed 4 nice healthy Flounder in the 17 to 18 inch range . I had about 20 live baitfish but they went fast so back to castnetting .. 30 minutes and I got a few more small Snappers and went back to work landing another 19 inch Flounder and missed what would be my limit 2 more times making 3 keeper sized Flounder that I did not land .. I think I'm either gonna stop using Snappers or tweak the presentation a bit
Anyhow I'm happy as a pig in sh!t that the pier has finally thinned out and the bite surely reflects that
Overall I guesstimate I landed about 25 Flounder plus the 3 Keepers .
At 5am I saw Mullet darting under the pier so I tossed the net for awhile before leaving and landed about 4 dozen Mullet , 1 Trout , Lots of Snappers , 4 Flounder and 1 windowpane Flounder .
I was home at 6:20 am .
CHP 9-25-09
Hit the pier a bit after midnight and ran into Sport who was fishing with a friend Blake . Blake and his sister were after Spot but only had a few while Sport had been ripping TB Flounder pretty much all day .
Sport tells me he and a friend fished IRI from a boat and only got TB's so he gets to CHP and gets more of the same .. Kinda funny because when I arrived I asked him WHT he was doing fishing where he was and that NO keepers are there .
I set up on my light and use Mullet Strips and on the first cast I pull up to recast and I got 2 Speckled Crabs on my bait and when I try to shake them off I see a nice sized Flounder eye balling the Crabs ?? I start seeing Mullet everywhere and I purposely left the castnet and minnow bucket in the truck because of the chance of rain .. I didnt want to get stuck with gear everywhere . I asked Sport if he had his and he did so I castnetted a few Mullet , Blues and Sand Perch . I had 2 small Blues and 2 small Sand Perch and half a dozen Mullet . I rigged up a Snapper on top with a Mullet on bottom and got both Snappers stolen . I then put a Snad Pech on top and had the same thing happen .. Nice hard strike but no hookup .. Sport comes over and I tell him whats going on and tell him to put the last Sand Perch on while I look for more bait .. I turn my back to walk to the next light and Sport nails a nice 19" Flounder on the Sand Perch See sometimes I know what I am talking about .. Sometimes
The small baitfish were hard to come by tonight with the winds whipping and the water VERY dirty , about 2" visibility.
We decided to work back toward the beach around 2am .. I had 3 small TB's by then .
I get a few more Snappers and land 3 more TB's that were a tad bigger and missed a few more .. The closer to the beach I saw more Snappers but its a toss up of whether or not to get them because I dont want to spook the fish .. anyhow I get another Snapper and finally land a Keeper at 19" .
The winds had picked up even more and light rain had started and since I had to leave around 5am anyways we packed it in at 4am .
Nice fishing with you again Sport
Not many on the Pier and we were alone for the last 2 hours .
Ok I need some advice .. "Lips" and his woman were there and another young lady , who was "FINE" BTW came up to me and started small talk .. Kinda hard to concentrate as she was tipsy and on her way towards me he right **** popped out .. she had a tiny black shirt on and was brisk walking ... So anyways she comes up and is very very nice .. Too nice I think to myself so I engage in the conversation fully when up walks "Lips" woman and saw me and her so she says "Hey I need to talk to you for a minute" and the girl goes .. I know what she said basically .. She lied and said I was NO good .. The first encounter after Labor day she walked passed me twice and I heard her say .. "OMG not you again" and later under her breath I heard "*******" .
It was bad enough when they just lied about the fish but now .. It ate me up .
It hard for me to do anything because they are BOTH "touched" but I dont like being harassed or attacked and I know I wont be pleasant on the next encounter so I NEED some advice ... Please !
CHP 9-26-2009
I hit the pier around midnight and found stiff winds from the East to NE at 15 to 25 MPH .. Water was dirty and not much bait around . I walked out with my rod rigged with a tandem and a small container of Mullet strips and of course my mug of Coffee
I ran into Andy first and he stated it was slow as I expected and after some small talk I headed out farther to meet up with Sport who also said it was tough fishing .
I ended up on the skinny part and saw and heard feeding schoolies and since the wind and c urrent wouldnt let my rig stay on the bottom I went after some Stripes .. Took me a few casts but I land one about 18" . Still having problems with the wind I decided to head back to my truck to regroup with some Swimbaits ..
I get back and tie up a tandem 4" Swimbait rig but get no love so I go back to the tandem I had before and get 1 more strike that doesnt come tight . I found myself alone on the skinny part and decide to try deeper when I get another strike that turns out to be a Spike in the 11" range .. I get 1 more hit and no hook up and that was it so I headed back towards the wide section where I ran into Roger (Kwan's Buddy). Roger was nailing small 6 to 10 inch Flatties and his buddy got a nice 19" and while shooting the breeze with Roger I get slammed on 4" Fin"S" with an 18" and also got another 18" on a live Snapper .
I ran into Jimmy (WFAD) and showed him how to throw a castnet .. I got a nice Spot while showing the technique All I know is Jimmy didnt get skunked He can fill us in
So now I try like heck to come up with some baitfish and it was tough .. got more Speckles than anything with Jellyfish in close second but I did manage 3 Mullet , 1 3" Squid , 1 3" Flounder , A few Bay Anchovies and 6 decent small Snappers and out of that I left 2 mullet , 2 Snappers and 2 Bay Anchovies with Andy when I left .. Needless to say it was SLOW .
It was a beautiful sunrise for sure but the winds kept up and even got worse towards first light .
Total for me was 1 18" Striper 2 18" Flounder and 1 11" Trout in 6 hours of fishing (minus about 2 hours of castnetting) .
Other than Andy's and Rogers fish I saw no other fish landed except for 1 small Sand Shark .
CHP 9-28-09 ( A Sporting Day )
Hit the pier a little before midnight and met up with Sport . Sport report was grim .. The bite wasnt happening . I had no Fresh so I used plastics and got ZIP so I decided to search for some baitfish with the castnet .. That too was slow with hardly any visible bait . I moved around and managed a bit of everything in the castnet
Conch ..
Cobb (9") ..
Flounder (Had another even smaller ) ..
Squid (4 to 5 inches) ..
Snappers ..
Porgy & Trout ..
Lots of Sand Perch ( Silver Perch )
I got a small Spyder Crab at 1.5" but the pic didnt come out as well as Hundreds of Speckled Crabs that I decided to keep being that Tog Opens tomorrow
So with plenty of Snappers for bait and a few other baits I decided to try for some Stripers with the plastics and as I walked out I saw baitfish (Mullet) being harrassed by Mr Stripes and casted aways and Bingo .. I land a 18" schoolie and the miss 2 more and the land another at 20" . I went and got Sport and we took our gear to that spot but by the time we got back the tide had slacked and no more Stripers .. We could hear them tucked deep under the planks and out of range .
Sport started using Blues and picked up about half a dozen Flounder in the 16 to 18 inch range while I was trying to catch a few more Snappers for sunrise but after watching Sport nail the Flatties I just grabbed 2 larger Snappers in the 6 to 7 inch range and gave them a shot .. I got Zip on them and Sport nails a few more so I go get the minnow bucket with the pre-arranged bait from earlier and put on 2 smaller 4" Snappers and toss them out .. I dont even think they got anywhere near the bottom before I get slammed .. I miss the fish so I cast again and same deal 2 seconds after hitting the water I get slammed and miss the fish again .. 3rd time same deal but when I reel in to recast a Blue bites one of the Snappers and leaves me the head
I didnt have anymore small Snappers so I went to the Squid and sure enough I get hit and land a 16" or so TB .. I salvage the Squid and catch another but this time I only get a tiny piece of the Squid back .. I rig up the other Squid and land another 17" or so TB but he shreds the Squid . So by this time the sun is up and tide is moving out and I asked Sport how long he was staying and his reply was "Until I get a Keeper " and sure enough he lands another TB and then a nice 22" Flounder ..
That Flounder hit the planks and spit up a partially digested 7" Snapper .. At first we think its the one Sport used as bait but after further examination we can tell its bigger and decomposing .. Man that Flounder was THICK !
WTG Sport
So now the Snapper bite dies off and I switch to Blue strips and nail 2 more 15" ish TB's .. By this time we are preparing to head out as the fish got smaller and smaller with the average size being about 10 inches .. We make 1 more move and we both nail a few more 10's and then call it a day at 9am .
Winds were about 10 to 12 MPH from the West and the water was very dirty with about 1 to 3 inches of visibility .
When Sport and I left there was only 1 person fishing . The pier was nice and empty all night with less than 7 people the whole night . We saw Sand Perch caught , 1 schoolie , 1 Skate , 1 Sand Shark and a few Snappers caught by others .. One kid was throwing a castnet and got a few Jumbo Spot but those using Bloods got none .
I had a great time fishing with you again Sport and you can count on Hot Coffee from here till Spring
It was certainly your day .. A sporting one at that
CHP 10-1-09
Sport stopped by and picked me up around 10pm and we headed to the Pier . Get there and find quite a few guys fishing and stiff winds and very dirty water .. a few crabber here also . Saw no fish getting caught so we just kept walking out farther . We get to the end and rig up .. Sport goes to work getting some Snappers and I toss Plastics .. 3rd cast results in a 12" TB Flounder .. a few casts later I get another bite but no hookup .. nothing after that so I join Sport with "live" Snappers .
Had a Flounder interested but would not commit so I switched to Blue Strips while Sport kept after them with "live" .
We had the whole pier just about by this time and we moved about from light to light with ease picking up stray TB's .
At one point I hear Sport say I got one on and Iook over and see Sport waiting for the Flounder to eat the Snapper (which by the way was about 6 or 7 inches long) . When he is satisfied he sets up and I can see from 2 lights away its a decent fish and as he reels down to "flip" the Flounder I know its a good one .. Turns out to be a 22" (ish) Flounder .. WTG Sport !
So I head back and regroup looking for some small 4" Snappers .. Had a few bites but only the larger ones would stay on long enough to flip .. I made a longer cast and immediately get what I thought was a nice small Snappers .. I reel very slow as to not shake it off and when its straight up and down I bring it to the surface (I still have not made any hook setting motion) I see its a decent Flounder ?? I set the hook and flip the fish up and as it clears the fence it falls off mid air and lands on the planks .. A 19" Keeper . Kind of odd that Flounder was that high in the water colum but I took it in stride and mimicked the presentation and landed a few more TB's with that approach .
The bite was slow and I had hoped the Stripers would fill the void but we didnt see any or hear any .. UNTIL the tide swictched and the water erupted ... I put the plastics back on and land 2 in succession at about 16" . Its about 3"30am at this time and Sport asks how long I wanted to stay and I said it was entirely up to him so we agreed on a 4am departure ..
I moved down to the next light towards the beach and began to bang schoolies on almost every cast (maybe 6 or 7 ) and then notice Sport too had switched up and he lands a small schoolie ..
We packed up and left after the short flurry and left them erupting on the surface ..
Totals for me was about 8 TB Flounder and 1 keeper and about 8 or 9 Schoolies to 20" .
Sport had about the same #'s for Flatties and 1 Schoolie but he stuck with Floundering almost the whole night .
Boy I'm really missing being 10 minutes away from the Pier and Inlets .
A pleasure as usual Sport ..
Anyone thats heading down please keep me in mind .. Just think you get a free guide and pretty good company if you can snatch me up
Bills are stacking up so my outtings to the beach will be rare for the time being unless I get a ride .
Tight Lines folks
CHP 10-5 / 10-6-09
Sport picked me up and we hit the pier around 10:30pm . The tide was high and water Very very dirty and neither of us had high hopes but with no wind we were determined to give the good ole 1-2 .
I started off with Fin"S" while Sport went after Snappers .. We had NO bait . Took me awhile but I landed a small Flounder after about 30 minutes and then 2 schoolies ..
Switched up to a Rattle Trap and missed one then landed 2 more schoolies and the dropped another .. by this time Sport had a few Snappers and was gung ho after some flat ones
He nailed a half dozen or so with 2 @ 18" and then he headed off while I stayed and watched the gear and played with schoolies ..
Sport came back with the castnet and a bucket with some Snappers so I joined him in search of a keeper flattie . I couldnt get the hook into one while Sport landed a few more TB's so I cut up a few and then heard Peanuts going crazy so I grabbed the castnet and first toss got about 4 dozen .. Added them to the bucket and we both used them but I still could not hook into a flattie even though I had quite a few bites .. I did however land another schoolie on one .
Sport finally lands a nice 20+" and I have only 3 small TB's thus far . I was losing hope but kept at it and right before sunrise I get mine thats a twin to Sports .. It was very very cool to watch them go from solid brown to light brown with lots of spots in seconds after hitting the planks .
Sport nailed another 17" TB that regurgitated a smlaa Squid and a Peanut Bunker and he was throwing Bunker strips ..
He also landed this Blue Claw with a nice growth on its shell ..
It was SOOO Crowded
Our keepers
Sports Red Hake ..
I ended up with 7 schoolies and 6 Flounder while Sport got about 15 Flounder ..
Great fishing with you again Sport and good luck in NC with the Tourney !
There were so many Bay Anchovies that it look like it was raining
10-10-09 Bowers and the ST. Jones (Mirror Lake)
Jimmy came down for a few hours after sneaking away from his family in Rehoboth .. Winds were brutal at the Pier so we tried a place closer to Dover .
Hit Bowers around midnight and walked up on some popping going on but as we got close I noticed that the light that hung there was no longer there Seems to be happening everywhere .. No frigging lights !!
I had a tandem on so I added some plastic and land a small schoolie ..
Winds were blowing with the tide making the current rip and Jimmy had problems avoiding snags and spent much of the time like this ..
I got 1 more small schoolie and had a few more hits but we left as the action diminished with the incoming tide .
We hit the area known as Mirror Lake in search of a Striper or Hybrid but we got neither .. Tide was low and incoming with lots of leaves near the light (road) .. We caled it a day after an hour of fruitless casting ( I did manage 1 small LMB that was as big as my Spinnerbait )
Time to find a few more local spots ;
CHSP IRI Oct 10-11 DF Fling
I arrived shortly after 7pm and found a group of "DF'ers" standing in a group talking and chatting . I saw little baitfish but did see one schoolie under a light as I joined the group .
I dont recall everyone in attendance but here's those I do remember .. jl_rotary , Doc Watson , wingding , Jungfish , Jetty4u , Catcher , FishermanFrank , rebait , esquired , mookie , JoeS , fishhead , wannafishallday , willfishforfood , SSEddie , Kwan .. I know there were other but it eludes me now .
I chatted for awhile and then took a look at the water for some Stripers .. The winds were howling and water was DIRTY with very little visibility but as I got near I noticed a few surface eruptions and pointed them out to esquired who in turned landed a Schoolie ( Pic's on Dave's Cam) .. That was enough for me and I headed back to add more clothing and grab a rod & reel
I returned and found that people had moved around and were now fishing , too bad the fish were not cooperating well .
Lots of guys left due to the weather and some stayed and caught fish and some did not but overall with the conditions given us we did pretty well .
I managed 6 Schoolies to about 19" ..
I also got my first Ling of the year ..
I also got 7 TB Flounder throughout the wee hours and let me just say it was the toughest yet for a Flattie bite .
CJ started catching Snappers so I went out with CJ's castnet but the pickens were slim .. Got 1 nice Shiner and a few soft Bay Anchovies and a small Puffer and it really wasnt worth the effort with it being cold and windy with very dirty water so I gave up . I returned to trying for Flatties and then saw what looked like some type of FAT fish swim by . It came back and I noticed it was a Sea Turtle .. Pretty cool !!
By midnight or so most everyone is gone except for Me , Jimmy , Jungfish and JoeS but around this time WFAD and SSEddie and Kwan show up . Eddie and Kwan were underdressed and didnt stay long and CJ and Jimmy left around 3am leaving me and WFAD to round out the morning .
I ended up leaving at 9am but didnt make it to the highway till after 10am due to a Bike race .. What a PITA !!
For the night I got 1 large EEL , 3 Small Sandsharks , 6 Schoolies and 7 TB Flounder with a few small Snappers in the mix . I did see 3 Mullet swimming about but thats not saying much .
The hats were the highlight of the night as they turned out way better than the pics showed .. Thanks again CJ
To all that came out and braved the cold and wind I Thank you all and hope you still had a good time meeting some new faces and putting names to screen names
We are getting closer and closer to a real fishing fling Let hope next year the weather cooperates with us .
jl_rotary (Jimmy) tb flounder
jungfish tb flounder
Jimmy and his family
Tom and his 5th or 6th schoolly
Capts TB
Tom's puffer fish with the castnet
wannafishallday (Jimmy) tb flounder
Tom's 30" eel which we thought was a keeper flatty
full length photo
Tom's cool catch with the castnet (Sea Turtle)
LOOK AT THIS BAD BOY!!!
BARNACLES!!!
Mystery fish. What is this? I think its a Baby Pompano
CHP 10-13-09
Sport picked me up and we were at CHP around midnight . The water was a bit cleaner with very light winds . We didnt see much baitfish but the Schoolies were there so we both played with a few . Sport kept playing with the schoolies with plugs and plastics while I went in search of "something" else
Had fish flashing on my plastics and at times they had the distinct resemblence of a Crappie hitting in very cold water .. It was like slow motion and took forever to land one .
I landed one more Shad and then stripped them out and Sport and I both searched for Flatties .. Nothing wanted the Shad except for Snapper Blues . We both gave up and returned to jigging with plastics . Around 2:30am I finally get this guy
Spent the next hour in search of another but landed none .. We packed it in at 3ish AM and headed home .
I hope the water clears up soon but it sure isnt looking good with all the North winds expected this week .. Atleast the temps are going to be right !
FRESHWATER
Silver Lake 10-3-09
Hit the Lake around 11am and fished till 4pm . Here's a few shots of the area ..
This is the controls for the pipe used to drain down the lake ..
Catwalk acrossed the spillway ..
The spillway ..
Area in front of the boat ramp .. it was glass today
Top of the fish ladder ..
Below the spillway (leads to the St Jones River ..
Zoom shot of the walkover bridge ..
Playground area ..
Not a good shot but in the back is the swimming beach ..
The pavilion ..
The young kid on the catwalk was in the Dover Post last week for a 26" Striper he caught below the spillway .. I ran into another guy who gave the boy the lure he used to catch it .. he said the last big rain we had had flooded the spillway and the wash right beneath the spillway was full of Stripers to 36" .. He said he was catching them pretty good until the water subsided . This is the same area I target Hybrids and of course a few Stripers are always with them ..
I fished the Lake only and the Crappie bite was hot .. I got 3 around 12" and lots of 8 to 10 inchers . I also landed a 1 pound and a 2 pound LMB and a few nice Gills .
The fish were feeding on something small on the surface and those you could see would not bite anything I had so I used a 1.75" Fin"S" and it worked well as usual .. Some of those fish smacking the top were REAL SLABS ..
I took the young man under my wing and gave him some Fin"S" and a Bobber and we wacked them silly .. I pulled out some small panfish poppers and gave him 2 and we both used them but only Gills would play .. Could not get them out far enough for the Slabs .. I tried with the bobber but they wanted no part of it ..
It was nice to get back to my old stomping grounds and even better to know the Stripers were still around
10-4-09 Silver Lake and Garrisons Lake Golf Course
Took the grandson (Its Zack now and not Zachary) to Silver Lake at 9am but with the sunny skies the Crappie were tight to structure and he needs some work on his casting abilities yet . I pounded Crappie one after another for 45 minutes while he fished open water near the dam and picked off Gills ..
After awhile I could tell he wasnt happy that he could not lock into the Crappie so I decided to make a move to Garrison Lake Golf Course . The small pond there "USED" to be packed with nice LMB and Gills and I spent year stocking it with 1 pound + Crappie .. It seems either they all died of someone took them out of circulation :angry2:
Zach caught his PB LMB there about 5 years ago with a nice LMB at 24" and estimated 5 to 6 pounds (released) .
I have taken numerous LMB to 6 pounds from here and also released them all .. The Crappie numbered in the 100+ , just the ones I stocked alone and I know the were spawning as since I have caught smaller 3 to 5 inch Crappie . Not much vegetation either and this time of year its normally choked with the stuff .
Anyhow my first cast resulted in a decent Gill ..
Zack is old enough that I wanted him to be able to toss lures for LMB and this pond would be perfect so I spent some time searching for LMB and Crappie while he played with the Gills .. Most were tiny from 3 to 5 inches but he did manage a few like this ..
He had a ballgame so we had to pack it in at 1pm . We both got a kick out of the rookie Golfers trying to keep their balls out of the water and tree's .. LMAO !! I think that was "almost" as much fun as fishing that pond today .
On a GREAT note now I will have more time to spend with the youngster
Moore's Lake 10-11-09
Hit the Lake on my way home from the Fling . They must have had a tourney going on with all the trailers in the lot .. Sorry my cam was dead .
I saw lots of surface action in the lake and missed the first 2 fish but finally landed a 10" Crappie . I moved to the spillway and fished from the bowl into the lake .. there's a nice brush pile in reach that has always produced fish for me and it didnt let me down .. I got a few nice Slabs with some dinks in the mix then I moved my cast to the center of the lake near the tip of the brush and landed 3 2 to 3 pound LMB .. Didnt take the boaters long and they were hounding me for my spot but I didnt give in , heck they had the whole lake right ? Well the wind puched me from my spot by covering the water with leaves so I moved below the spillway and fished the wash .. Loads of Crappie from 4 to 9 inches with a few small LMB in the mix along with some small Gills .
Left them biting so I could get home for a bite myself .
Although the fish arent as big on average as downstate it good to know I got places still active for some on the spot pullage
Hit the pier at about 3pm and looked for Mullet but it was high tide with stained water so that was out of the question but I did manage about 2 dozen and about 6 Snappers in 1.5 hours .
Started fishing at 5pm and found the bite very good but only 1 fish over 17 inches with the rest being runts at 10 to 14 inches .
I missed 2 nice fish on 6" Snappers . Left at 8pm .. I was famished and thirsty
I returned at 11pm and found 4 people on the pier and 2 of those left shortly after midnight .. Man it was NICE
I took the minnow bucket and tried a new approach for Snappers .. I stomped on a few Mullet and gently tossed them into the water and when I saw them moving I castnetted the Mullet and with it came PLENTY of Snappers . I picked out the smaller 3 to 4 inch Blues and kept 6 small 3 inch Sand Perch as well as 2 Big Bay Anchovies and 2 large Shiners .
I got a 19 inch Flounder on one Sand Perch and a 22 inch Flounder on a Shiner .. I missed a nice fat heavy fish on a Snapper and then landed 4 nice healthy Flounder in the 17 to 18 inch range . I had about 20 live baitfish but they went fast so back to castnetting .. 30 minutes and I got a few more small Snappers and went back to work landing another 19 inch Flounder and missed what would be my limit 2 more times making 3 keeper sized Flounder that I did not land .. I think I'm either gonna stop using Snappers or tweak the presentation a bit
Anyhow I'm happy as a pig in sh!t that the pier has finally thinned out and the bite surely reflects that
Overall I guesstimate I landed about 25 Flounder plus the 3 Keepers .
At 5am I saw Mullet darting under the pier so I tossed the net for awhile before leaving and landed about 4 dozen Mullet , 1 Trout , Lots of Snappers , 4 Flounder and 1 windowpane Flounder .
I was home at 6:20 am .
CHP 9-25-09
Hit the pier a bit after midnight and ran into Sport who was fishing with a friend Blake . Blake and his sister were after Spot but only had a few while Sport had been ripping TB Flounder pretty much all day .
Sport tells me he and a friend fished IRI from a boat and only got TB's so he gets to CHP and gets more of the same .. Kinda funny because when I arrived I asked him WHT he was doing fishing where he was and that NO keepers are there .
I set up on my light and use Mullet Strips and on the first cast I pull up to recast and I got 2 Speckled Crabs on my bait and when I try to shake them off I see a nice sized Flounder eye balling the Crabs ?? I start seeing Mullet everywhere and I purposely left the castnet and minnow bucket in the truck because of the chance of rain .. I didnt want to get stuck with gear everywhere . I asked Sport if he had his and he did so I castnetted a few Mullet , Blues and Sand Perch . I had 2 small Blues and 2 small Sand Perch and half a dozen Mullet . I rigged up a Snapper on top with a Mullet on bottom and got both Snappers stolen . I then put a Snad Pech on top and had the same thing happen .. Nice hard strike but no hookup .. Sport comes over and I tell him whats going on and tell him to put the last Sand Perch on while I look for more bait .. I turn my back to walk to the next light and Sport nails a nice 19" Flounder on the Sand Perch See sometimes I know what I am talking about .. Sometimes
The small baitfish were hard to come by tonight with the winds whipping and the water VERY dirty , about 2" visibility.
We decided to work back toward the beach around 2am .. I had 3 small TB's by then .
I get a few more Snappers and land 3 more TB's that were a tad bigger and missed a few more .. The closer to the beach I saw more Snappers but its a toss up of whether or not to get them because I dont want to spook the fish .. anyhow I get another Snapper and finally land a Keeper at 19" .
The winds had picked up even more and light rain had started and since I had to leave around 5am anyways we packed it in at 4am .
Nice fishing with you again Sport
Not many on the Pier and we were alone for the last 2 hours .
Ok I need some advice .. "Lips" and his woman were there and another young lady , who was "FINE" BTW came up to me and started small talk .. Kinda hard to concentrate as she was tipsy and on her way towards me he right **** popped out .. she had a tiny black shirt on and was brisk walking ... So anyways she comes up and is very very nice .. Too nice I think to myself so I engage in the conversation fully when up walks "Lips" woman and saw me and her so she says "Hey I need to talk to you for a minute" and the girl goes .. I know what she said basically .. She lied and said I was NO good .. The first encounter after Labor day she walked passed me twice and I heard her say .. "OMG not you again" and later under her breath I heard "*******" .
It was bad enough when they just lied about the fish but now .. It ate me up .
It hard for me to do anything because they are BOTH "touched" but I dont like being harassed or attacked and I know I wont be pleasant on the next encounter so I NEED some advice ... Please !
CHP 9-26-2009
I hit the pier around midnight and found stiff winds from the East to NE at 15 to 25 MPH .. Water was dirty and not much bait around . I walked out with my rod rigged with a tandem and a small container of Mullet strips and of course my mug of Coffee
I ran into Andy first and he stated it was slow as I expected and after some small talk I headed out farther to meet up with Sport who also said it was tough fishing .
I ended up on the skinny part and saw and heard feeding schoolies and since the wind and c urrent wouldnt let my rig stay on the bottom I went after some Stripes .. Took me a few casts but I land one about 18" . Still having problems with the wind I decided to head back to my truck to regroup with some Swimbaits ..
I get back and tie up a tandem 4" Swimbait rig but get no love so I go back to the tandem I had before and get 1 more strike that doesnt come tight . I found myself alone on the skinny part and decide to try deeper when I get another strike that turns out to be a Spike in the 11" range .. I get 1 more hit and no hook up and that was it so I headed back towards the wide section where I ran into Roger (Kwan's Buddy). Roger was nailing small 6 to 10 inch Flatties and his buddy got a nice 19" and while shooting the breeze with Roger I get slammed on 4" Fin"S" with an 18" and also got another 18" on a live Snapper .
I ran into Jimmy (WFAD) and showed him how to throw a castnet .. I got a nice Spot while showing the technique All I know is Jimmy didnt get skunked He can fill us in
So now I try like heck to come up with some baitfish and it was tough .. got more Speckles than anything with Jellyfish in close second but I did manage 3 Mullet , 1 3" Squid , 1 3" Flounder , A few Bay Anchovies and 6 decent small Snappers and out of that I left 2 mullet , 2 Snappers and 2 Bay Anchovies with Andy when I left .. Needless to say it was SLOW .
It was a beautiful sunrise for sure but the winds kept up and even got worse towards first light .
Total for me was 1 18" Striper 2 18" Flounder and 1 11" Trout in 6 hours of fishing (minus about 2 hours of castnetting) .
Other than Andy's and Rogers fish I saw no other fish landed except for 1 small Sand Shark .
CHP 9-28-09 ( A Sporting Day )
Hit the pier a little before midnight and met up with Sport . Sport report was grim .. The bite wasnt happening . I had no Fresh so I used plastics and got ZIP so I decided to search for some baitfish with the castnet .. That too was slow with hardly any visible bait . I moved around and managed a bit of everything in the castnet
Conch ..
Cobb (9") ..
Flounder (Had another even smaller ) ..
Squid (4 to 5 inches) ..
Snappers ..
Porgy & Trout ..
Lots of Sand Perch ( Silver Perch )
I got a small Spyder Crab at 1.5" but the pic didnt come out as well as Hundreds of Speckled Crabs that I decided to keep being that Tog Opens tomorrow
So with plenty of Snappers for bait and a few other baits I decided to try for some Stripers with the plastics and as I walked out I saw baitfish (Mullet) being harrassed by Mr Stripes and casted aways and Bingo .. I land a 18" schoolie and the miss 2 more and the land another at 20" . I went and got Sport and we took our gear to that spot but by the time we got back the tide had slacked and no more Stripers .. We could hear them tucked deep under the planks and out of range .
Sport started using Blues and picked up about half a dozen Flounder in the 16 to 18 inch range while I was trying to catch a few more Snappers for sunrise but after watching Sport nail the Flatties I just grabbed 2 larger Snappers in the 6 to 7 inch range and gave them a shot .. I got Zip on them and Sport nails a few more so I go get the minnow bucket with the pre-arranged bait from earlier and put on 2 smaller 4" Snappers and toss them out .. I dont even think they got anywhere near the bottom before I get slammed .. I miss the fish so I cast again and same deal 2 seconds after hitting the water I get slammed and miss the fish again .. 3rd time same deal but when I reel in to recast a Blue bites one of the Snappers and leaves me the head
I didnt have anymore small Snappers so I went to the Squid and sure enough I get hit and land a 16" or so TB .. I salvage the Squid and catch another but this time I only get a tiny piece of the Squid back .. I rig up the other Squid and land another 17" or so TB but he shreds the Squid . So by this time the sun is up and tide is moving out and I asked Sport how long he was staying and his reply was "Until I get a Keeper " and sure enough he lands another TB and then a nice 22" Flounder ..
That Flounder hit the planks and spit up a partially digested 7" Snapper .. At first we think its the one Sport used as bait but after further examination we can tell its bigger and decomposing .. Man that Flounder was THICK !
WTG Sport
So now the Snapper bite dies off and I switch to Blue strips and nail 2 more 15" ish TB's .. By this time we are preparing to head out as the fish got smaller and smaller with the average size being about 10 inches .. We make 1 more move and we both nail a few more 10's and then call it a day at 9am .
Winds were about 10 to 12 MPH from the West and the water was very dirty with about 1 to 3 inches of visibility .
When Sport and I left there was only 1 person fishing . The pier was nice and empty all night with less than 7 people the whole night . We saw Sand Perch caught , 1 schoolie , 1 Skate , 1 Sand Shark and a few Snappers caught by others .. One kid was throwing a castnet and got a few Jumbo Spot but those using Bloods got none .
I had a great time fishing with you again Sport and you can count on Hot Coffee from here till Spring
It was certainly your day .. A sporting one at that
CHP 10-1-09
Sport stopped by and picked me up around 10pm and we headed to the Pier . Get there and find quite a few guys fishing and stiff winds and very dirty water .. a few crabber here also . Saw no fish getting caught so we just kept walking out farther . We get to the end and rig up .. Sport goes to work getting some Snappers and I toss Plastics .. 3rd cast results in a 12" TB Flounder .. a few casts later I get another bite but no hookup .. nothing after that so I join Sport with "live" Snappers .
Had a Flounder interested but would not commit so I switched to Blue Strips while Sport kept after them with "live" .
We had the whole pier just about by this time and we moved about from light to light with ease picking up stray TB's .
At one point I hear Sport say I got one on and Iook over and see Sport waiting for the Flounder to eat the Snapper (which by the way was about 6 or 7 inches long) . When he is satisfied he sets up and I can see from 2 lights away its a decent fish and as he reels down to "flip" the Flounder I know its a good one .. Turns out to be a 22" (ish) Flounder .. WTG Sport !
So I head back and regroup looking for some small 4" Snappers .. Had a few bites but only the larger ones would stay on long enough to flip .. I made a longer cast and immediately get what I thought was a nice small Snappers .. I reel very slow as to not shake it off and when its straight up and down I bring it to the surface (I still have not made any hook setting motion) I see its a decent Flounder ?? I set the hook and flip the fish up and as it clears the fence it falls off mid air and lands on the planks .. A 19" Keeper . Kind of odd that Flounder was that high in the water colum but I took it in stride and mimicked the presentation and landed a few more TB's with that approach .
The bite was slow and I had hoped the Stripers would fill the void but we didnt see any or hear any .. UNTIL the tide swictched and the water erupted ... I put the plastics back on and land 2 in succession at about 16" . Its about 3"30am at this time and Sport asks how long I wanted to stay and I said it was entirely up to him so we agreed on a 4am departure ..
I moved down to the next light towards the beach and began to bang schoolies on almost every cast (maybe 6 or 7 ) and then notice Sport too had switched up and he lands a small schoolie ..
We packed up and left after the short flurry and left them erupting on the surface ..
Totals for me was about 8 TB Flounder and 1 keeper and about 8 or 9 Schoolies to 20" .
Sport had about the same #'s for Flatties and 1 Schoolie but he stuck with Floundering almost the whole night .
Boy I'm really missing being 10 minutes away from the Pier and Inlets .
A pleasure as usual Sport ..
Anyone thats heading down please keep me in mind .. Just think you get a free guide and pretty good company if you can snatch me up
Bills are stacking up so my outtings to the beach will be rare for the time being unless I get a ride .
Tight Lines folks
CHP 10-5 / 10-6-09
Sport picked me up and we hit the pier around 10:30pm . The tide was high and water Very very dirty and neither of us had high hopes but with no wind we were determined to give the good ole 1-2 .
I started off with Fin"S" while Sport went after Snappers .. We had NO bait . Took me awhile but I landed a small Flounder after about 30 minutes and then 2 schoolies ..
Switched up to a Rattle Trap and missed one then landed 2 more schoolies and the dropped another .. by this time Sport had a few Snappers and was gung ho after some flat ones
He nailed a half dozen or so with 2 @ 18" and then he headed off while I stayed and watched the gear and played with schoolies ..
Sport came back with the castnet and a bucket with some Snappers so I joined him in search of a keeper flattie . I couldnt get the hook into one while Sport landed a few more TB's so I cut up a few and then heard Peanuts going crazy so I grabbed the castnet and first toss got about 4 dozen .. Added them to the bucket and we both used them but I still could not hook into a flattie even though I had quite a few bites .. I did however land another schoolie on one .
Sport finally lands a nice 20+" and I have only 3 small TB's thus far . I was losing hope but kept at it and right before sunrise I get mine thats a twin to Sports .. It was very very cool to watch them go from solid brown to light brown with lots of spots in seconds after hitting the planks .
Sport nailed another 17" TB that regurgitated a smlaa Squid and a Peanut Bunker and he was throwing Bunker strips ..
He also landed this Blue Claw with a nice growth on its shell ..
It was SOOO Crowded
Our keepers
Sports Red Hake ..
I ended up with 7 schoolies and 6 Flounder while Sport got about 15 Flounder ..
Great fishing with you again Sport and good luck in NC with the Tourney !
There were so many Bay Anchovies that it look like it was raining
10-10-09 Bowers and the ST. Jones (Mirror Lake)
Jimmy came down for a few hours after sneaking away from his family in Rehoboth .. Winds were brutal at the Pier so we tried a place closer to Dover .
Hit Bowers around midnight and walked up on some popping going on but as we got close I noticed that the light that hung there was no longer there
Seems to be happening everywhere .. No frigging lights !!I had a tandem on so I added some plastic and land a small schoolie ..
Winds were blowing with the tide making the current rip and Jimmy had problems avoiding snags and spent much of the time like this
..
I got 1 more small schoolie and had a few more hits but we left as the action diminished with the incoming tide .
We hit the area known as Mirror Lake in search of a Striper or Hybrid but we got neither .. Tide was low and incoming with lots of leaves near the light (road) .. We caled it a day after an hour of fruitless casting ( I did manage 1 small LMB that was as big as my Spinnerbait )
Time to find a few more local spots ;
CHSP IRI Oct 10-11 DF Fling
I arrived shortly after 7pm and found a group of "DF'ers" standing in a group talking and chatting . I saw little baitfish but did see one schoolie under a light as I joined the group .
I dont recall everyone in attendance but here's those I do remember .. jl_rotary , Doc Watson , wingding , Jungfish , Jetty4u , Catcher , FishermanFrank , rebait , esquired , mookie , JoeS , fishhead , wannafishallday , willfishforfood , SSEddie , Kwan .. I know there were other but it eludes me now .
I chatted for awhile and then took a look at the water for some Stripers .. The winds were howling and water was DIRTY with very little visibility but as I got near I noticed a few surface eruptions and pointed them out to esquired who in turned landed a Schoolie ( Pic's on Dave's Cam) .. That was enough for me and I headed back to add more clothing and grab a rod & reel
I returned and found that people had moved around and were now fishing , too bad the fish were not cooperating well .
Lots of guys left due to the weather and some stayed and caught fish and some did not but overall with the conditions given us we did pretty well .
I managed 6 Schoolies to about 19" ..
I also got my first Ling of the year ..
I also got 7 TB Flounder throughout the wee hours and let me just say it was the toughest yet for a Flattie bite .
CJ started catching Snappers so I went out with CJ's castnet but the pickens were slim .. Got 1 nice Shiner and a few soft Bay Anchovies and a small Puffer and it really wasnt worth the effort with it being cold and windy with very dirty water so I gave up . I returned to trying for Flatties and then saw what looked like some type of FAT fish swim by . It came back and I noticed it was a Sea Turtle .. Pretty cool !!
By midnight or so most everyone is gone except for Me , Jimmy , Jungfish and JoeS but around this time WFAD and SSEddie and Kwan show up . Eddie and Kwan were underdressed and didnt stay long and CJ and Jimmy left around 3am leaving me and WFAD to round out the morning .
I ended up leaving at 9am but didnt make it to the highway till after 10am due to a Bike race .. What a PITA !!
For the night I got 1 large EEL , 3 Small Sandsharks , 6 Schoolies and 7 TB Flounder with a few small Snappers in the mix . I did see 3 Mullet swimming about but thats not saying much .
The hats were the highlight of the night as they turned out way better than the pics showed .. Thanks again CJ
To all that came out and braved the cold and wind I Thank you all and hope you still had a good time meeting some new faces and putting names to screen names
We are getting closer and closer to a real fishing fling
Let hope next year the weather cooperates with us .jl_rotary (Jimmy) tb flounder
jungfish tb flounder
Jimmy and his family
Tom and his 5th or 6th schoolly
Capts TB
Tom's puffer fish with the castnet
wannafishallday (Jimmy) tb flounder
Tom's 30" eel which we thought was a keeper flatty
full length photo
Tom's cool catch with the castnet (Sea Turtle)
LOOK AT THIS BAD BOY!!!
BARNACLES!!!
Mystery fish. What is this? I think its a Baby Pompano
CHP 10-13-09
Sport picked me up and we were at CHP around midnight . The water was a bit cleaner with very light winds . We didnt see much baitfish but the Schoolies were there so we both played with a few . Sport kept playing with the schoolies with plugs and plastics while I went in search of "something" else
Had fish flashing on my plastics and at times they had the distinct resemblence of a Crappie hitting in very cold water .. It was like slow motion and took forever to land one .
I landed one more Shad and then stripped them out and Sport and I both searched for Flatties .. Nothing wanted the Shad except for Snapper Blues . We both gave up and returned to jigging with plastics . Around 2:30am I finally get this guy
Spent the next hour in search of another but landed none .. We packed it in at 3ish AM and headed home .
I hope the water clears up soon but it sure isnt looking good with all the North winds expected this week .. Atleast the temps are going to be right !
FRESHWATER
Silver Lake 10-3-09
Hit the Lake around 11am and fished till 4pm . Here's a few shots of the area ..
This is the controls for the pipe used to drain down the lake ..
Catwalk acrossed the spillway ..
The spillway ..
Area in front of the boat ramp .. it was glass today
Top of the fish ladder ..
Below the spillway (leads to the St Jones River ..
Zoom shot of the walkover bridge ..
Playground area ..
Not a good shot but in the back is the swimming beach ..
The pavilion ..
The young kid on the catwalk was in the Dover Post last week for a 26" Striper he caught below the spillway .. I ran into another guy who gave the boy the lure he used to catch it .. he said the last big rain we had had flooded the spillway and the wash right beneath the spillway was full of Stripers to 36" .. He said he was catching them pretty good until the water subsided . This is the same area I target Hybrids and of course a few Stripers are always with them ..
I fished the Lake only and the Crappie bite was hot .. I got 3 around 12" and lots of 8 to 10 inchers . I also landed a 1 pound and a 2 pound LMB and a few nice Gills .
The fish were feeding on something small on the surface and those you could see would not bite anything I had so I used a 1.75" Fin"S" and it worked well as usual .. Some of those fish smacking the top were REAL SLABS ..
I took the young man under my wing and gave him some Fin"S" and a Bobber and we wacked them silly .. I pulled out some small panfish poppers and gave him 2 and we both used them but only Gills would play .. Could not get them out far enough for the Slabs .. I tried with the bobber but they wanted no part of it ..
It was nice to get back to my old stomping grounds and even better to know the Stripers were still around
10-4-09 Silver Lake and Garrisons Lake Golf Course
Took the grandson (Its Zack now and not Zachary
) to Silver Lake at 9am but with the sunny skies the Crappie were tight to structure and he needs some work on his casting abilities yet . I pounded Crappie one after another for 45 minutes while he fished open water near the dam and picked off Gills ..
After awhile I could tell he wasnt happy that he could not lock into the Crappie so I decided to make a move to Garrison Lake Golf Course . The small pond there "USED" to be packed with nice LMB and Gills and I spent year stocking it with 1 pound + Crappie .. It seems either they all died of someone took them out of circulation :angry2:
Zach caught his PB LMB there about 5 years ago with a nice LMB at 24" and estimated 5 to 6 pounds (released) .
I have taken numerous LMB to 6 pounds from here and also released them all .. The Crappie numbered in the 100+ , just the ones I stocked alone and I know the were spawning as since I have caught smaller 3 to 5 inch Crappie . Not much vegetation either and this time of year its normally choked with the stuff .
Anyhow my first cast resulted in a decent Gill ..
Zack is old enough that I wanted him to be able to toss lures for LMB and this pond would be perfect so I spent some time searching for LMB and Crappie while he played with the Gills .. Most were tiny from 3 to 5 inches but he did manage a few like this ..
He had a ballgame so we had to pack it in at 1pm . We both got a kick out of the rookie Golfers trying to keep their balls out of the water and tree's .. LMAO !! I think that was "almost" as much fun as fishing that pond today .
On a GREAT note now I will have more time to spend with the youngster
Moore's Lake 10-11-09
Hit the Lake on my way home from the Fling . They must have had a tourney going on with all the trailers in the lot .. Sorry my cam was dead .
I saw lots of surface action in the lake and missed the first 2 fish but finally landed a 10" Crappie . I moved to the spillway and fished from the bowl into the lake .. there's a nice brush pile in reach that has always produced fish for me and it didnt let me down .. I got a few nice Slabs with some dinks in the mix then I moved my cast to the center of the lake near the tip of the brush and landed 3 2 to 3 pound LMB .. Didnt take the boaters long and they were hounding me for my spot but I didnt give in , heck they had the whole lake right ? Well the wind puched me from my spot by covering the water with leaves so I moved below the spillway and fished the wash .. Loads of Crappie from 4 to 9 inches with a few small LMB in the mix along with some small Gills .
Left them biting so I could get home for a bite myself .
Although the fish arent as big on average as downstate it good to know I got places still active for some on the spot pullage
