6/4/2011 - PLO Report (New member of the Dark Side)

After many months of nagging from me my buddy finally gave in and jumped on my dusty ole tarpon for a try at Kayak fishing. He is a former boat owner and avid fisherman but was Leary of the whole small plastic boat in a big bay idea. I think he converted to the dark side this trip.

The weather was perfect and the fish were hungry. I could not have asked for a better first trip.

My eyes are closing as i type this and i have 1.5 hrs of video to go thru and edit but here is a short teaser of the outcome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD1OYeq_xBQ

I will post more videos and details later tomorrow.

PS

It was nice meeting and chatting with you Tufnik. I just read you post and I'm glad you found them. Your motor setup was very nice and it had my gears turning on the paddle back to the car.

I also briefly waived and said hello Jimbo earlier but did not recognize him. I knew he looked familiar in that Hobie and now remember talking to him at the Bay bridge one day. You know this site is growing when you introduce your self to fellow enthusiasts by your screen name and you mutually recognize each other.

I love this place.

[ictalurus]

Those are some killer croaker. Did you swing by the Tackle Box and enter them in the big croaker contest? This month's leader is only 11.5" Nice tunes on the vid, too.

[Memory Maker]

Good Job !!!!!

[mmanolis2001]

Those are some killer croaker. Did you swing by the Tackle Box and enter them in the big croaker contest? This month's leader is only 11.5" Nice tunes on the vid, too.

I didn't know about the contest and the largest Croaker was over 17" too

Oh well just another excuse to make the trip and try again.

[surfdog]

real nice, might have to work extra hard this week to get my honey dos dont so i can get down for the M&G next saturday

[mmanolis2001]

Weather permitting next weeks M&G at PLO should be real good. I wish i could make it but i have other plans already set for the weekend

Man YouTube takes along time to upload a video. It has been processing for over an hour now......

My full report of the trip should be ready soon.

[jffoley]

Nice job, Mike! Good lookin' mess of croaker. Sounds like a good time. Surf, I got some of those "do's" out of the way today. I'll be there next weekend.

[moc]

real nice, might have to work extra hard this week to get my honey dos dont so i can get down for the M&G next saturday

I will see you down there too. I plan on being there.

[mmanolis2001]

OK YouTube finally played nice with me after 5 hrs of trying to post the videos.

Now for the trip details.

We hit the water around 9:00 AM and stayed in the lake around 30 mins. After my buddy got the once over about the kayak and found his sea legs we hit the mouth of the inlet to try cast some lures at the rip-rap. I tossed a rattle trap and he jigged a bucktail for 20 mins with no luck. We trolled the same lures on the way out to the Croaker grounds dogging crab traps here and there with no takers.

We settled in the area beyond the last pot line in 20ft to 24ft parallel to the last jetty on the swimmers beach. My buddy rigged up a bloodworm and I went with squid on one rod and a Jig and gulp on the other.

The current was almost nonexistent and we were barely drifting but that did not effect the fishing. My buddy immediately hooked up on the bloods catching two around 10” before I could finish rigging my rods. I stuck with the squid and about 10 mins later I boated my first nice Croaker around 13”. This is when things started exploding on the jig. The lack or a strong current and wind provided near perfect jigging conditions. The first horse hit my jig and it was on after that. We proceeded to boat Croakers over 14” with the biggest one pushing 18” all on the jig. No fish on the jig was under 14”. We continued to bottom fish while jigging so the double header happened several times and it was a blast.
On the bottom rigs the Squid seamed to get the better fish but the bloods were catching more often. One of the best 2 hrs of Croaker fishing I have had.

Around 12:00 we decided to head back to the car, stretch our legs and get the fish on ice. On the way back I noticed a group of kayaks and what looked like a swimmer. When we looked around we noticed more and more groups of kayaks with swimmers in the water. During the whole Croaker bonanza we were apparently oblivious to a marathon swim event that was happening around us. After talking to one of the kayakers in the event we were informed this was the yearly (7 mile.......) swim across the mouth of the Potomac. Are you kidding me... a 7 mile free swim across the Potomac river. Hats off to those that made that swim.

We met Tufnik heading out on the way back to the car and shared some fishing talk. (Nice meeting you Tufnik). After resting for an hour and getting the fish on ice we decided to head back out to the same area and try for some more bruisers on jigs.

We arrived at the same area and started work again. The fishing was allot slower this round with only 2 fish caught on the jig. The highlight of the trip came when my buddy set the hook on the jig and his drag started screaming. Could it be a large Rockfish? Giant Croaker? World record Flounder?

Well unfortunately we soon realized he wing hooked a large cow nose ray. (Remember our talk about a Chesapeake sleigh ride Tufnik). Well it happened to my buddy on his first Kayak trip. It was more of a circular sleigh ride but he got a ride no the less. After 20 min of the ray sticking on the bottom and turning the Kayak in circles it came up to splash us a bit. This is where we turned in the two stooges. One fumbled knife (Nice one Luis. Hehe), A rod that defies all high sticking failure rules this rod should have broke 3 times but somehow held together, and the line wrapping around a stringer we released it just like we planned. That’s a lie but we did release it unfortunately with a jig still en-beaded in it wing.

After that excitement we paddled out to the NOAA buoy and drifted so more. The wind started to pick up a little and it was 4:00pm so we decide to call it and make the long paddle back to the car.

What a first trip for my buddy. He will be back on the water in that plastic boat again I feel.

Video Recap
Part 1
Part 2

On another note this was my first test of my Budget Kayak rod builds I posted about early this year.

http://www.snaggedline.com/boatyard/...read.php?t=718

They preformed flawlessly and were a joy to fish. After breaking several high dollar blanks in the Kayak I will not worry if one of these snap. Both blanks were very nice for the price and had plenty of power. Not as lite as the thin walled high modules blanks with titanium guides but for $45 in parts I cant complain.


The rod leashes I designed for them also worked great. They stayed out of the way and I did not notice them while fishing.

http://www.snaggedline.com/boatyard/...read.php?t=810

[MetroMan]

Great vids, thanks for sharing!

[ictalurus]

Nice videos. I especially like the ray scene. That poor rod. Was that one that you built?

I love jigging for croakers, and the big ones love those Gulp jerk shads. What size jighead were you using? It's hard finding a jighead heavy enough to get the lure down but with a hook small enough and with a short enough shank to hook them in the mouth. I've ordered some jigheads from these guys but haven't gotten them yet:

http://tightlinesoutfitters.com/products.cfm

They're heads are exactly the right weight, they use good hooks, and the prices are low. The hooks they used for my croaker jigheads aren't listed yet, but they're a black nickle hook with a shorter shank--maybe a Gammy or Mustad. The gap might still be too big, but we'll see once I get to try them.

[MetroMan]

Bill,

when using a smaller (suitable) jig head for croaker, could you possibly use split shot somehow to acheive the desired weight?

[ictalurus]

That's a really good idea. I've been thinking of using a dropshot setup, too. Redfish12 was catching them using Gulp grubs on a top and bottom rig, so all of these seem like good options. Last year, the croaker seemed to hit after the jig hit the bottom, so I wasn't sure how to replicate that with a dropshot or bottom rig. Sounds like I'll have to do some experimenting this weekend.

[mmanolis2001]

That rod was a rebuild on an old Fin-Nor factory rod. He stripped and re-built it with a little help from me. I don't know how it held together thru that ordeal. I guess he built it right.

The jig heads were similar to the shad head you posted in the link. I think they were 1/2oz or 3/4oz. We were barely drifting so they held bottom fine. I don't remember where i picked them up. I found them in an old tackle bag laying around my house.

The split shot idea might work great. I'm just not sure if or how adding split shots above the jig will effect its fall while jigging. I have tried using a dropper loop rig and using 2 jigs, 1oz on bottom, 1/2oz on the dropper loop. It seamed to hold bottom while drifting but i only used it once and only for 10 mins or so. Might be another option.

[Memory Maker]

Bill,

when using a smaller (suitable) jig head for croaker, could you possibly use split shot somehow to acheive the desired weight?

That won't work ......... it affects the action too much. However, there's a trick I learned from a guide in Texas ........... take some bank sinkers ...... 1/4 - 3/4 oz ......... when you need more weight (and rigged w/hook buried in the lure w/gap exposed) add a weight by hooking it thru the eye and letting it hang from the hook in the gap. Makes the lure fall horizontally and will get it to the bottom ......... If the current changes then change the weight .......