Oc m&g recap 8/13

I'll start off...

We fished for a very long time today. 7:15- 6:00 with a short break around 1.

Jack/PINCH, Josh/fishyaker, mike/grilled sardine and I pretty stayed together for most of the day.

Between the 4 of us we caught plenty of fish. JAck and Josh both got a keeper around 18.5inches I believe. There were some other keepers caught as well by some of the other guys.

We worked the bridge for most of the morning, lost lots of gulp!! the Black Sea B@$$ are in full force and stealing bait every chance they get. The water was ideal for flounder fishing (very clear) we could see the bottom in 10ft of water. It was neat to watch your lure get followed and attacked by a flounder.

Anyways I had 2 flounder come in at 17 inches just short. but they put up a pretty good fight and were fun to catch. A few other shorts and one small sea robin.

Nothing on the new rod. still need to practice a lot with it. the stiffness of it was tough to get used to, but I think it will be easier jigging with it for rockfish based on the way they hit a lure.

[Rockchaser]

Sounds like a great day, sorry I missed it.

[mmanolis2001]

I'm sad i missed this M&G . Sounds like you guys had a blast. Its great to spend that much time on the water with a group of friends. How was the weather there today and how many packs of gulp did the little bastages steal?

I swear i have been spending more on gulp than i did on blood worms before. Everything loves to nip the tails off the suckers leaving you with a $1 nub that spins in circles in the current.

[CB kayak 02]

I'm sad i missed this M&G . Sounds like you guys had a blast. Its great to spend that much time on the water with a group of friends. How was the weather there today and how many packs of gulp did the little bastages steal?

I swear i have been spending more on gulp than i did on blood worms before. Everything loves to nip the tails off the suckers leaving you with a $1 nub that spins in circles in the current.

Our "Lunch Break" consisted of stocking up on gulp at AKE marine... we docked the kayaks and grabbed more bait and snacks. haha

I think I lost about 40 gulps, and about 8 jig heads. tough day for the wallet

[jffoley]

M&G Success!

Was really looking forward to this trip. I studied the NOAA charts and targeted the deeper waters of the south side of the inlet. Bigger water=bigger fish. The tide was perfect to work that inlet. End of incoming, slack, and start of outgoing. And early enough before heavy boat traffic.

I love it when a plan comes together! Caught 2 fluke at 23"+, 1 at 20", 1 at 16" and 1 oyster cracker that just about yanked the rod out of my hand. That was a surprise. Had a dropper loop above my jig and caught several of those small sea bass. Once the gulp got nipped just left the stub. Those little fish don't need much.

Couple pics. The one I took home measured 23 1/2" before filleting. Here's Tufnik with one of those gulp nippers!

Great meeting some new faces and seeing a few of you guys again. Couple cold ones at lunch were especially good! Great time!

[chirotrout]

GREAT report guys...I was with you in spirit. I have a patient who is a kayak fisher as well. I told him you guys were out in force in the OC inlet while I was seeing him Sat am...he almost left from the parking lot in Alexandria, Va and drove straight there.

[ictalurus]

Sounds like a nice day and good to hear several flat things were caught. Actually catching the fish you're targeting is pretty rewarding. Sorry I missed it.

For what it's worth, I've had nearly as much luck using the Gulp jerk shads and shrimp as the grubs, and they hold up a little better to bait stealers. I like new penny for the shrimp and white, chartreuse, or the white and chartreuse jerk shads.

[jet]

thanks for the report and pics, hopefully there will be more, any vids? i had to pull out last min. ive been working 12 hour days and there was no way i was going to be able to wake up and drive to oc sat morning. ive been beat.

[CB kayak 02]

thanks for the report and pics, hopefully there will be more, any vids? i had to pull out last min. ive been working 12 hour days and there was no way i was going to be able to wake up and drive to oc sat morning. ive been beat.

MOC, Pinch, and GS all had their cameras or go pros so when they post there should be some good stuff!!

[jsquare]

Looks like you guys had a blast. Wish I could have made it. Glad you had decent weather windows too. We had some nasty weather here on the west side of the bay.

Nice fish jffoley.

When I fish off the bridge i like to use bucktails with gulp mullets. that way if your curly tail gets nipped off, you still have the action from the bucktail hair and the scent from the gulp. Of course, after a couple bluefish you lose the gulp and the hair, but i usually lose them in the rocks before that happens anyway.

[Slackdaddy]

Nice to start putting names with faces,,
Besides my quick trip out of North Beach, this was my 1st real saltwater kayak trip, I'm hooked. Wife wants to plan another flounder trip real soon.
I went into this flounder fishing blind, what I learned on this trip, I know I can double production on the next one. (5 for me on this trip).
Long squid strips dipped in the "fish oil" ended up being the trick.
The Canoe was "hell" to paddle into the wind, but #3 still has a few years till he's ready to paddle his own.

[moc]

Just waking up from the trip. I slept my Sunday away. I am still worn out, but I will post a few pictures for your enjoyment. I have never kayak fished OC before. The only info that I went with was the info that everyone posted on this forum. I fished with most of the yakers under the main bridge first. Within 15 minutes I caught my first flounder. It was only a 6 incher, but the skunk was off early. During the day I caught over a dozen short flounders and one flounder that just scraped the legal measurement. I also caught half a dozen small black seabass. In the evening after lunch with Sun and John F, I headed back out to fish the inlet and join Pinch and company. I only got some nibbles, but I did not hook up with any more fish. The current started to rip and there was allot of boat traffic in the afternoon. The morning was fine. I started to turn around and head back in when I ran into Pinch and Matt and the rest of the evening yakers. The must have been over 15 yakers. I had strangers come up to me to ask me if there was a kayak tournament going on. They also were very curious of the rigged up kayaks. I did not take as many pics as I normally do. In the morning, for some reason my camera was taking out blurry pics, but then started to work fine for the rest of the day. Well, time to go back to bed, I need more recovery time. It was fun, and it was a good thing that Pinch offered to give me a ride, otherwise, I would not have made this M&G.

[Sun]

I had a great time as well. I launched the same time as everyone, and stuck with the group by the Rt 50 bridge. I headed back toward the launch ramp around 1:30, and fished a little by some of the piers of the waterfront houses on the bay. Lunch at Harborside was around 2:30 or 3, and headed home around 4 or 4:30. I didn't crash as soon as I got home, but I was pretty much in zombie mode till I hit the sack. Exhausting trip, but worth it! I will definitely try this again.

So about the fishing...I primarily jigged with a 5/8 ounce chartreuse jig head and white and chartreuse gulp mullet. I was using a spinning outfit, and was casting as far as I can to cover the most ground. Turns out that this was not really a good technique for flounder fishing. I also tried a 1oz gotcha plug that didn't produce anything.

Fishing the bridge was challenging. The water was flowing so fast and strong that I had a difficult time staying near the pilings. It looked like the guys with hobies held position pretty well - but they seemed to have trouble maneuvering whenever they got snagged. I don't have my one-handed paddling technique down yet, so I would be able to get in a cast or two before I'd be carried away and have to paddle back again. When I got tired of paddling, I did drift a little while north and south of the bridge, but it seemed like the bridge was producing better - it also got to be pretty shallow as I moved away...like 2-3 feet.

From jigging white and chartreuse gulps around the bridge and a little north and south of the bridge, I hooked up with 2 flounder (1 around 10", and another at 17"), a couple black sea bass, and a sting ray. That's twice in 2 consecutive trips that I've foul hooked a sting ray with a gulp mullet jig. I was so hopeful for a huge flounder, till I saw the stinking tail. Thanks to FishYaker for helping me net and unhook the stingray. I wasn't careful with the barb, and it scraped my finger while trying to unhook it. It stung for a while but it was bearable. The barb also got tangled in my net so I ended up de-barbing it to finally get it out of my net. I kept the barb, but I seem to have misplaced it somewhere....

At one point, it started pouring rain, so we all hid under the bridge to stay outta the rain. I pulled in next to the 2nd set of pilings next to the drawbridge. The water was 30-40 feet deep here. There was a small boat with 3 guys next to me that I got to talking to for a while. They had caught a keeper flounder, and were catching lots of bluefish. They offered to let me keep whatever bluefish they end up catching, so I gladly accepted. My wife would be more willing to let me take another trip to OC if I actually bring something home. They caught and gave me 2 bluefish around 20" in the time that we were waiting for the rain to stop (They gave me a third one later, but it flopped out of my cooler before I could close it). I asked them what they were using, and they were using live peanut bunker (3-4 inches) on fish finder rigs. They offered me a few so I took them, and 5 seconds after I put the first one down, I had one. It fought pretty hard, and the guys that gave me the bait had a blast watching me fight it on my light spinning gear in my kayak. I finally got it in my kayak, and it was another nice 20" bluefish - into the cooler he went! Unfortunately, that was the only bluefish I caught. I dropped down several more peanut bunkers to no avail. I also gave out a couple to some other MKFers, but none of us hooked up with any more bluefish...oh well.

On my way back to the launch ramp, I tried jigging some of the shallow areas in front of the waterfront homes on the west side of the bay. I hooked up with several more sea bass, and another short flounder. Moc also fished this area, and he got a keeper flounder here.

Overall, the trip was great. I wasn't catching fish all day, like I was hoping to.... but there were some exciting points during the day =).

Here are some pics:


I drove over to the beach around 5 to try to catch the sunrise....but this was as much of the sun I got to see before I had to leave to make it back to the ramp on time.


My first flounder of the day - he was a tiny little guy.


A picture of the Rt. 50 bridge I took during one of my drifts away from it.


The peddlers far ahead of me on the way out from the ramp. Should have waited to get a little closer before taking the picture...


A black sea bass.


The bottom side of the sting ray that I snagged. Thanks again FishYaker.

[Sun]

Some more pictures:



Half bitten gulp mullet. I snapped a picture of this one, because it actually looked like it was bitten off by a human.


Moc's keeper flounder.


The 3 bluefish I came home with. The fish were frozen in a curved shape, so the ruler there doesn't really give an accurate picture of their real sizes.

[Grilled]

Meet and greet was a success. It was good meeting everyone from the forum. Looks like mostly everyone hooked into some flounder. I didnt get any keepers but caught 3 around 15-16inches. There were tons and tons of black sea bass that kept biting the tails off the gulp. Lost an endless count of jig heads and gulp, but we ended up re-baiting during lunch.

In the afternoon we ended up fishing the jetty in the inlet. Holly crap that was no joke...the current was ripping so hard we werent even moving when trying to come back in. I was peddling and peddling and wasnt going anywhere. I pulled my mirrage drive out and saw that one of the fins came lose. Ended up screwing it back in and was gtg. While fishing the jetty, a life guard on a jet ski came up to us and asked if we do this often. We were like "do what?" He said "fish from a kayak" We kinda laugh and said "yeah!" Well he told us that a kayaker with a trolling motor had capsized and had to get rescued by the coastguard. He warned us not to go in any further. We ended up beaching the yaks and fished the jetty from shore for a bit and then headed back to the bridge. Hopefully the yaker that capsized is ok....

my go pro died within the first couple of min so i didnt get any good shots. here are a couple pics and short clip i took before it hit the fan...