Wachapreague and lower eastern shore

[J.A. Veil]

Last year about this time, my friend Todd and I hauled our kayaks to Wachapreague, VA for a long weekend. We spent two of the days launching at a park near the southern tip of the eastern shore and also fished the marshes around Wachapreague. We had a great time, catching about 13 different species.

We are going again this coming weekend, but instead of taking kayaks, we will bring my 16' Scout power boat, which is laid out somewhat like a flats boat. We plan to fish the marshes and the Wachapreague inlet for flounder and other bottom dwellers. We may tow the boat down to the lower eastern shore or to Kiptopeke park on one of the days and fish near the northern end of the CBBT.

If any of you plan to be down in that area and want to meet up or share fishing experiences, let me know.

[Memory Maker]

John .......... go out of Oyster ............ gotta follow the channels but out by sand shoals by the inlet they are doing REALLY well on Flounder and the big croaker are starting to show numbers .......... weekdays are best because the weekends can get crowded once the NC boys know the croaker are in ......

Good Luck

[surfdog]

good luck, wish i had tome to get down there. lol every weekend down there is crowded ramps at wach. will have lines of boats waiting to launch at least they spread out quick

[J.A. Veil]

Lower Eastern Shore Extravaganza - 14 species in 3 days!

For the second summer in a row, my friend Todd and I spent a long weekend in Wachapreague and fished there and at points further south on the lower eastern shore. We arrived inWachapreague mid-morning on Friday. Last year we fished mostly from kayaks, but elected to bring my 16’ Scout center console instead this time. We had been very pleased last year when we caught 13 species (12 kinds of fish plus one crab on hook and line). This year we exceeded that total by catching 14 species (13 kinds of fish plus crab).

On Friday we fished near Wachapreague Inlet for 6 hours. We caught the end of an outgoing tide, endured slack tide, then hit the flounder hard on the late afternoon incoming tide. We ended up with more than 20 flounder. Two of them were about 19”.

We kept them and took the fillets to the Wachapreague Inn and asked the chef to cook the fish for us. That was a good decision – we had an excellent dinner and even got a golf cart ride back to our rental apartment from the beautiful co-owner of the restaurant.

Also on Friday, we caught loads of small croaker and several tiny sharks (probably dogfish).

I caught two surprise species. The first was a large mantis shrimp. My advisor in grad school studied mantis shrimp, so I knew something about the species already. But I had never seen one in the wild before. It was a thrill to hook one and bring it on board for photos.

The second odd catch was a 6” silver minnow. My bottom rig had regular minnows on the two hooks. At one point, I wound in the rig and found that the bottom hook had lost the regular minnow, which was now occupied by the new type of longer silvery minnow. I don’t know how it got there. The same thing happened on Sunday too.

On Saturday, we took advantage of low winds and trailered south to a National Wildlife Refuge very near the bottom of the eastern shore. From there we had a short boat ride to the waters around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT). We drifted in 50’ to 70’ water along the first portion of the CBBT. Todd caught a large ray that gave him a great pull and several massive oyster toadfish (up to14” and several pounds). I had to settle for a few small black sea bass.

After losing several bottom rigs at that portion of the bridge, we moved to calmer waters near the first short bridge connecting the lower tip of the eastern shore with Fishermans Island. Over the next couple of hours, we caught many flounder, a spot, a bluefish, an egg-laden female crab (on hook and line),several sea robins, and a bunch of small whiting.

On Sunday we returned to Wachapreague Inlet. Todd had a hot hand on flounder and caught about 20 of them for the day. We found an area that was carpeted with croaker (larger than the ones we caught onFriday) and enjoyed some remarkably strong pullage for an hour or more. I caught one other species that I did not recognize. It looked like a spot, but had no spot or stripes. It was a bright silver color. Sad to say, as I was positioning it for a photo, it flopped overboard. That was our 14th species of the weekend.

We are tired but happy to have had three straight days of fine weather, great fishing, and camaraderie.

[J.A. Veil]

I had lots more photos, but was limited to 5 photo attachments per post. Here are a few more.

[ictalurus]

Awesome report, John. I really enjoyed your report from last year. Anyway, I'm jealous of the flounder. I wonder what the citation size for oyster toads is?

Regarding the mystery fish, I'm going to guess it was either a silver perch (Bairdiella chrysoura) or a star drum (Stellifer lanceolatus).

You might have caught more than 14 species as there are a couple different species of searobin in the Bay: northern, striped, and bighead (rarer).

Sounds like it was a blast. I'm glad to hear the Wachapreague Inn still has good food.

[kevinfry]

so bill what was the silvery blue striped minnow that was hitting the other minnow baits?

[J.A. Veil]

I'm glad to hear the Wachapreague Inn still has good food.

The Wachapreague Inn is under new ownership and management. In my limited experience, the new owners have done a good job -- better food, comparable or lower prices, attention to customers during the meal, and reasonable draft beer prices (especially after my beer buying experiences in Australia 2 weeks ago [$15-18/six pack in the beer store])

[jffoley]

Awesome report! Sounds like a great time. Congrats on the flounder action and number of species. Talk about a mixed bag.

Mantis shrimp, now that's pretty cool. I had one hitchhike on some rock I added to my reef aquarium some years ago. Very interesting, but unless kept by itself a destructive creature in an aquarium.

That silvery striped minnow looks like a bay anchovy:
http://www.chesapeakebay.net/bfg_bay...menuitem=32815

I may go to NJ this weekend. I need a flounder fix! Thanks for posting!

[J.A. Veil]

Regarding the mystery fish, I'm going to guess it was either a silver perch (Bairdiella chrysoura) or a star drum (Stellifer lanceolatus).

.

I think the most likely ID is a silver perch. I wish I had gotten a photo. Thanks for the help with the ID.

[surfdog]

great repotr JA. need to get my yak back to the shore!

[Grady-Black]

WTG John! Great report..
GB

[jet]

sounds like a blast, thanks for the pics