2017 recap video

[jhoss]

https://vimeo.com/247254032
I spent the past few weeks paring down a year’s worth of GoPro footage and pulling the best clips together for my recap of 2017. Video editing helps me get through the cold, less fishable parts of the winter. Maybe this will help get you pumped up for 2018? Hope you enjoy it and thanks for watching.

[J.A. Veil]

Congratulations on a marvelous fishing year. You had good variety and quite a few large fish. I hope you can do even better next year.

[jhoss]

Thanks John!
yes...always trying to outdo what I’ve already done. But ya never know. Until you have perspective you never quite know how good/ or bad the year was. I remember 2014 when the puppy drum were everywhere, thinking “I can’t wait to get back on this next year”....and it hasn’t been the same since. One thing is certain 2018 wil be different.

[J.A. Veil]

My year in 2017 was way behind yours in large fish. But I did have quite a bit of variety. Here is a short numerical summary of my fishing year that was part of my longer pictorial review (available upon request - send email address to my pmail account):

146 days I went fishing
- 34 days in my 16’ Scout center console boat
- 29 days kayak fishing in Tampa with guide Neil Taylor
- 3 days in Corpus Christi
- a few days fishing on friends’ boats or charter boats
- a few days shoreline fishing (shad fishing in the Susquehanna and Upper Choptank)
- ~70 days kayak fishing in my own kayaks

48 species caught

10 new personal best size for a species

8 new species
- Atlantic mackerel
- Bonnethead shark
- Brown bullhead
- Cod
- Gafftopsail catfish
- Lane snapper
- Ling
- Remora

Nearly all fish were caught using artificial lures and light tackle.

[ronaultmtd]

All my 2017 kayak fishing was in Maryland waters...99% in Southern Maryland counties of Charles and St. Mary’s...in five different launches...and it kicked off in January with some really large blue catfish caught and released...I caught the most speckled trout ever this past year...several dozen, including two Maryland citation spotted sea trout (26 inch was the biggest) and a good number of keeper Redfish, including a 7 1/2 pound 25 inch Redfish...best year for keeper stripers- over 2 dozen limits, largest was a 30 inch fish...and so, so many big white perch...I got sick in early November and lost all of the fall Striper season...but no complaints...2017 was my best ever! Looking forward to trying to duplicate it in 2018...ps...catfishing was with bait...every other species was caught exclusively on lures...

[Mark]

I admire you folks with video skills and the tenacity to keep detailed catch records.

Great video John H. Your catches are impressive.

John V. -- Your species variety is amazing.

Ron -- I'm coming your way next year for sure. I hope we can meet up on the water.

My year was mundane compared to most, but still very enjoyable. I get out as much as I can when family obligations subside enough to allow it. And I fish hard when I do get out.

I do not keep a written record but I take my camera on most trips and save the images by date. That helps in creating a year-end review.

I had pretty good year with LM bass from the Eastern Shore.

I got some real nice ones to hit fly rod poppers in both Trap Pond and Smithville Lake. Here's one from each location caught in April and May respectively.

A.jpg P1020738.jpg

I caught many more like those two above. We're fortunate to have a lot of ponds to choose from on the Eastern Shore and they make ideal kayak angling locations.

I caught 11 species on the fly during my outings with the Free State Fly Fishers from rainbow trout in the Casselman River on dry flies to a flounder near Hog Island on an outing to Goodhands Creek with the ever productive Clouser Minnow:

P1010694.jpg P1010988.jpg

In Tampa FL this past April I caught my first Snook, followed by two more and my first FL Red:

P1020671.jpg 18157160_10155208480812433_1743090417974041971_n.jpg

Each hit a jig with a soft plastic trailer. That snook in the photo raced into the Mangrove roots after I hooked it. I literally retrieved it by hand-lining it to the boat.

In November, I found redfish Nirvana in Port Aransas TX, in one outing catching a dozen like this on topwater:

2017-11-04 11-17-30.jpg

I also caught a dozen specks that day. That was a memorable outing.

I thought striper fishing was generally disappointing this year. My largest was 25 inches caught in John Veil's boat. In my kayak, I caught this 24 incher in Weems Creek in October on a popper I assembled:

A.jpg D.jpg

I've caught a number of stripers on these poppers this year but the one in Weems was the largest.

While not an unusual accomplishment around here, I caught 61 white perch on one outing in the Severn last July on this handmade jig spinner:

P1010768.jpg

It took a beating. I retired it after that session. I never tire of catching white perch. I think they were God's gift to anglers to make us feel productive when no other fish will bite.

I had other memorable catches including fat pickerel in Eastern Shore ponds but I am limited to 10 photos per post. So no pictures of them in this message. Unfortunately, I caught no tidal pickerel in 2017. That's a big concern. Something has clearly impacted their population in our tidal waters and I hope whatever it is just a short aberration.

Also this year I revisited an old wading site for me -- the Potomac River at Brunswick. That's where I cut my teeth as a fly rodder. I made several trips there in September and found that the SM bass are still very receptive to poppers and wooly buggers. Each trip was lots of fun.

So, all things considered I had a very good year catching a variety of freshwater and tidal fish, most of them in my kayak.

Maybe next year I'll find the diligence to keep a written record. I actually started one last January and never made it through the month! I'll try again in 2018.

Happy New Year and tight lines to all,

[jhoss]

I love hearing (and seeing) how everyone’s year was. Thanks for sharing guys.

[yakscientist]

2017 was a very good year for me, I think I spent less days on the water due to being in FL for a very long disaster-recovery related work stint, but I certainly had a few very memorable catches. I caught my PB fish from my kayak (40" blue catfish) on 1/1/17, and my PB striped bass (29") in August of all months. I caught a ton of good white perch, keeper striper (had 2 great fall trips for the weekends I did manage to get home from FL in Oct/Nov), and had a successful outing at the Jbay tournament with flounder, blues (to 27"), and sea robin. From other kayaks, from HI to FL, I caught some real "fish of a lifetime" including sailfish, and giant trevally. I doubt I will get any fish that are as cool as those 2 anytime soon, but who knows. One thing I've learned, is to always be prepared, but at the same time, be spontaneous and fish whenever you can (safely). I had 1 day off really in 6 weeks of FL work, and I was flying out that evening. I chose to checkout of my hotel at 3am, drive 3 hours from Orlando to Delray FL, fish from 6am to 12pm, get my fish filleted and pack into a cooler to bring back home, then run and gun the 3 hours back north to the Orlando airport that night. I would do it again 10/10 times, because it allowed me to catch some great offshore fish including 3 different mackerel species, and a sailfish, which was almost an hour of a fight. In HI, I also saw a 10+ft manta ray circle the kayak several times after landing the GT, which was incredible.

Species caught from a kayak in 2017: Blue catfish, pumpkinseed, yellow perch, white perch, rockfish, sailfish, giant trevally, spanish mack, cero mack, king mack, flounder, sea robin, bluefish, spot, croaker, cownose ray...and I think that's it. Quite a year indeed.

Top targets for 2018: 30"+ rockfish, 30"+ bluefish, and any 1 of the following would be great: false albacore or other tuna species, cobia, big red drum, snakehead, flathead catfish

Newest additions fishing wise to 2018 will include some sort of Go-pro esque camera, and hopefully (though I've said this before) a hobie outback or revo. bluecatfishMarshallHall_1_1_17.jpgGT_maui_8_30_17.jpgSevernPB_7_23_17.jpgsailfishAboveBelow.jpg

[bunnielab]

My 2017 was spent almost exclusively fishing for largemouth bass from the bank. I only began fishing a few years ago and have been all over the place, bouncing from one species/technique to the other. And while I accumulated an impressive pile of tackle, I never really got good at any one thing. So this past year I would guess that 80% of my trips involved a single combo and a single lure or presentation. It was slow going, but by this past fall I really started feeling confident in enough freshwater bass presentations that I feel like I have a good foundation to work from. I also spent a ton of time off the water reading everything I could get my hands on about bass physiology and habitat. It was very very exciting to get to the point where I could approach a body of water and be able to read it and find bass without having to randomly cast until I got lucky.

What suffered was kayak time and any non-bass fishing. I never made a single kayak trip for perch this year and that is unacceptable. My goals for 2018 is to take what I learned and get out there in the yak. I have gotten over the worry about keeping it on my car, that little plastic boat is going to live on the roof starting the moment the water temp hits 55f until it gets colder than that again.

[ComeOnFish]

Here are some species caught during my regular day trips in Mid-Atlantic (DE, MD, & VA) in 2017:


January Hybrid Striper - I expect many keeper Hybrid in 2018 in Lake Anna. The Hybrid was stocked 4 years ago:





February Tautog - I finally caught tautog in February. Finally, I caught tautog in every month of the year (one of the bucket list items). I think I was the only one, ever, caught Tautog in February at CBBT:





March Tautog - another citation Tautog:





April Speck - another citation Speck:





May - I rarely target striper. I went for striper for Memerial Day video "Stars and Stripers" series:





May Bluefish - Another large Chopper Bluefish:





June & July Cobia - Finally caught my first keeper Cobia out of about 20 for 3 years:





August Tarpon - I think I was the only one so far (recorded by Virginia Marine Resources Commission), who caught a large tarpon in Chesapeake Bay (not in ESVA).
Expect a tarpon report next year from me - My new and the final item on my bucket list. :





September Bull Redfish - another typical September Redfish:



October Speck






November Speck




December Tautog - "Limited out" has been rare this year:




The Last Pic taken on Dec 29th. I caught both Tautog and Speck




Thanks
Joe

[Mark]

The size of the fish that some of you guys catch in kayaks is incredible.

I'd cut my line if I hooked anything close to their size!

The only way I'd handle any fish as big as some of the photos you folks have posted is if it was already fileted and I could drop it into my shopping cart.

Congrats to each of you big fish catchers.

[Slobber Bob]

Excellent recap, John; you had a banner year! Hopefully I'll see you out on the water this spring come drum season.

[yakscientist]

https://vimeo.com/247254032
I spent the past few weeks paring down a year’s worth of GoPro footage and pulling the best clips together for my recap of 2017. Video editing helps me get through the cold, less fishable parts of the winter. Maybe this will help get you pumped up for 2018? Hope you enjoy it and thanks for watching.

I noticed a lot of this video looks like it's shot outside of MD (I may be mistaken though). Do you travel a lot to fish, or travel for work and then make time to fish in between? Looks like there's some sawgrass marshes in there, are those from NC? Only asking because I go to NC 1-3x per year since my family has a house in Avon, and I've always been a die hard surf fisherman there, but I'm trying to branch out and fish some spots with the kayak this year.

[silasvirus82]

What an awesome year 2017 was for you!

[nhunter344]

Great write ups and awesome year for you guys!

2017 has been my first year kayak fishing and thanks to the many contributors here, has been fairly successful. A lot of new species and a lot of personnel bests. I only managed to get out on the water about 10-15 times (I wish I was closer to everything) but I tried to make those trips count (luckily no skunks!). A special thank you to those of you who shared a good spot or two for a newbie to catch some fish!

Species caught this year from kayak:

SW: Bluefish, striper, tautog, croaker, ladyfish, black sea bass, flounder, redfish, speckled seatrout, gag grouper, mangrove snapper, gafftopsail catfish, remora, pinfish, white perch, 1 blue crab and a foul hooked menhaden

FW: LM bass, SM bass, bluegill, sunfish, crappie, blue catfish, channel catfish, striper (right below great falls, md), hickory shad

For 2018 my theme is hopefully bigger and better and more. I'd like to refine some techniques, catch some new species and get out on the water more. Hope everyone has a great New Years!