Henlopen Marathon 8/17

[Shady]

Met up with Sparky, Abumasgouf, Toyomo, Moc, and Coop to fish the Cape walls at about 0530. I started off very slow outside the fishing pier with only a crab caught in a couple hours. Next, headed to the first wall and got a few nibbles, but no hook-ups.

Around 0900 I braved the rough conditions to push out to the outer wall to meet up with Tufnik and Comeonfish. First fish of the day was everyone's favorite, a toadfish. Finally, about 4 hours into my morning, I hooked into something good. It pulled hard and ran off some drag so I new it wasn't another dumb toadfish. I had visions of a big Tog coming up, but I was very surprised to see a 20" Blue emerge from the depths, my biggest ever! Efran and Joe were catching some nice fish, but for the next several hours, I could only manage to get a hundred bajillion Toads.

Around 1300, tired of catching so many Toads, I sort of gave up trying for Tog and Triggers and started fishing in much deeper water. I pulled up a few nice Croaker and 2 dogfish. The dogfish were a first for me. We made our way toward the north end of the wall and eventually turned around and started heading back toward the south end.

Around 1500, on the way back to the south end, I finally hooked up with another nice non-Toadfish and this time I knew it was a Tog. Got it on the measuring board and found it to be 1/2" short. Oh well, it was a fun fight! Maybe 1/2 hour later I hooked up with another Tog that ended up being about 14 and 15/16th. I decided it was too close and snapped some pics and turned her loose to grow a little bigger.

The next few hours I caught Toads, Toads and more Toads and a couple of Sea Bass including the biggest one that I've ever caught. I also caught a couple of smaller fish that resembled Tog but were slightly different. They had similar coloration and body shape, but their lips kind of stuck out more and the teeth were pointier. Sorry, I didn't take any pics of them. I also caught one spot.

Final count of the day was nine different species including 2 new ones for me and 2 personal bests. Just after sunset, I was back on the beach for a total of nearly 14 hours on the water.
Despite all the Toads caught, it was a great day on the water!
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[Shady]

a few more pics
20 inch Bluefish.jpg
Toad 2.jpg

[sparky1423]

It was a slow day for our group. After catching a toad at the pier, we ventured to the inner wall. I caught a small flounder and a few croaker worthy of the stringer. Moc ended up catching a baby sheephead and Abumasgouf came home with the only keeper flounder. I ventured the outer wall, but saw no kayakers...maybe you were north of the bend and out of sight

We packed up, had a nice lunch at an Irish Pub near Roosevelt Inlet and relaunched close by. The boat traffic was relentless, but the current provided all of us with a nice drift. We all caught at least one short flattie...Toyomo had a nice keeper that wasn't anticipated and spit the hook. It broke all our hearts hearing about it---being on the water so long, but that's fishing. No worthy pictures for this trip, but another great day on the water.

Greatest part of the day...I finally met Tufnik and ComeOnFish's wake touched my kayak!!!! I was star struck!

[tufnik]

Cape Henlopen State Park 8-17-13, Sat

I was on the water 8 am on what turned out to be a pretty good day of fishing. The wind was not as bad as expected. The Outer Wall was another story.

On the way out I met Abu, Coop, Toyomo and Sparky fishing at the pier. Chatted a bit and then headed for the Inner Wall. Saw moc in the distance.

Fished ten minutes at the Inner Wall and then went to the Outer Wall with ComeOnFish. It was a wet ride out to the wall. We were later joined by Shady. We fished mainly with shrimp and live sand fleas. Caught a keeper for the day, a trigger, and ComeOnfish and Shady later caught a lot of other fish too.

ComeOnFish did do some diving, but it was too murky, so he quit after a short while.

In the afternoon, and looking for more action, Shady and I fished the north side of the wall. It was windy and rough. (See video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng9p2tTIUW4). That's Shady in the distance in the video. We didn’t catch much of anything there, so we went back to the south calmer side. Wow, it was wet and wild out there.

It was in the evening so we headed to the Inner Wall to do a bit more fishing. Nothing much caught. On the way back to shore, we jigged at the pier and caught nothing.

I ended up catching a trigger, four short togs, ____ fish (see pic; looks like a tog; anyone know what this fish is?), sea bass, croakers, blow/porcupine fish and lots of big toads.

We were off the water after 8 pm, after 12 hours on the water. Wow, what a long trip. Good fishing with you guys and meeting new friends.

[MetroMan]

Sounds like a great, long day!

[Pinch]

Tufnik, the fish you caught was a cunner.

http://njscuba.net/biology/sw_fish_t...er.html#Cunner

[Shady]

Forgot to mention that Joe gifted me his Triggers at the end of the day. Thanks again Joe! Can't wait to eat them!
Don't understand why people think they are tough to clean, seemed pretty normal...

[Sun]

Nice report and pics. Nice list of species caught too. Congrats on the PBs too.

[Shady]

Tufnik, the fish you caught was a cunner.

http://njscuba.net/biology/sw_fish_t...er.html#Cunner

Thanks for the link. Explains why they look so similar.

[ComeOnFish]

I think both shrimp and sand flee works for tog and triggerfish. I brought shrimp only so far. Next time I will get 3 dozens of sand flee along with 2 dozens of shrimp

Here is the Fishing Log:

Joe

[tufnik]

"Tog"...."Tog"......."Tog"........lol......... . I guess your good luck companion, Hacksaw, was trying to help you catch fish.....lol......... After you told me about him, I had Hacksaw II in my yak, but it didn't talk to me like that. Anyway, another interesting video, Joe. Hey, thanks for the fish.

Thanks, Jack. I thought someone told me it was some other name, which I forgot. Anyway, your link to the cunner seems like it fits the description.

Ryan, 14 hours on the yak ?!?! You beat me by two hours on my longest ever trip. These trips really do a number on the butt, back and legs...lol....

[johnsmith789]

This is really wonderful. I always want to do some excitement but I missed by somehow. I love to spend more time here and hope for the good day in future.

[MetroMan]

Thanks, Jack. I thought someone told me it was some other name, which I forgot. Anyway, your link to the cunner seems like it fits the description.

I've caught them numerous times on the Morning Star. Cunner, "strawberry bergall", "strawberry bass" are the terms I've heard used. They are tasty!!

[tufnik]

I had croaker, trigger and cunner for dinner last night. No sauce used for the taste comparison. All flour coated and fried. All were tasty. I'd rank order them: trigger (the best), croaker, then cunner.

[AbuMasgouf]

Toyomo and I were out there Friday afternoon, with water temperature around 76, and ventured out to the outer wall by around 6pm. We only fished for about an hour or so because we wanted to head back before the sun set (being new to the area). We caught a few toads and Toyomo caught a puffer. We could definitely see the potential of the outer wall and not to mention the amazing sites of Dolphins swimming less than 30 feet of you.

As we headed back we inadvertently veered off past the protection of the wall and got caught in 2-3 foot swells. This was a first for both of us to be in such deep water and high swells, but as you can see we made it back safely Nothing like rising above the water line 2-3 feet and then sinking past it for another 3 feet to get your heart pumping! That experience gave us major respect for such conditions which is why we decided to not venture out there Saturday with the higher winds.

Here are a few pictures from Friday...

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Saturday was a great time with great friends. Water temps were colder at 74. I caught many small black bass, a few flounder, and endless toads including one that pulled drag. The keeper flounder was a funny experience because when I was trying to measure it in the net it came up short and I was about to throw it back. I couldn't get the hook out while it was in the net so I had to use the "boga grips" to get leverage. After I got the hook out, I said to myself, let me just measure it again just in case and sure enough it was past 17". Lesson learned: measure twice throw back once!

My observations this time versus in May was the flounder seemed to be around the perimeter of the pilings rather than inside, as they were then. I also found again that a three way swivel with a pre-snelled flasher kahle hook tipped with a live minnow, and a 2oz weight on the bottom, really produces fish. I kept bouncing the rod in my hand lightly up and down, but the deadstick I had on the other side was also producing (although slower). All my fish were caught on that rig around the pier.

CHSP continues to be a really nice place...