St. Jerome's, 7/20

[ictalurus]

Ron and I hit St. Jerome's today in search of specks. We launched a bit after 3pm to catch high tide and fished the ebb. I had a chartreuse Gulp grub, a 3.5" olive shiner X-Rap, and a Redfish Magic with a salt and pepper with chartreuse tail paddle tail Bass Assassin rigged up. I started working my usual speck and redfish spots and immediately starting having little hits from either rat reds or little croaker. I finally hooked into something a bit bigger:


This red measured 11" and slammed the grub as soon as it hit the water. From the way it fought, I thought it was a speck. I think it was a particularly fine specimen of a redfish, but I just wish it had been in the slot range.

I picked up a 10" red on the X-Rap, and then I caught an 11" perch farther down the shoreline:


From the pic, it looks a lot bigger than 11". I hope I didn't release my citation perch.

While I was working the shoreline, Ron was trolling his speck spots.


He ended up hooking into one of the biggest cownose rays I've ever seen. On top of that, he managed to bring it to the surface long enough for me to retrieve the lure.




Those S-Glass rods sure take a beating. It was a pretty impressive fight to watch.

Ron picked up a 17.75" striper on a popper a bit later:


Not long after that, he landed a 21-incher while trolling:


Things seemed to slow down a bit around 7:30, or so, and the sky started looking ominous. We decided to quit while we were ahead and started back toward the launch. It wasn't a bad evening of fishing, especially given that it was supposed to rain 2". The water temperature in the creek and just outside in the Bay was 84-86* according to my thermometer and my sonar. We ran into Mike from Buzz's Marina, who had been catching some bluefish, but the only evidence of blues by the creek mouth we had were a couple of missing tails from my grub and Bass Assassin. In all, it was a pretty good night and a nice way to top off the week.

[J.A. Veil]

Good report Bill. That was a nice mix of species. I like the action shot of Ron laying back but still pedaling fast enough to throw off a bow wake.

[kevinfry]

did not leave work till after 5:45 so i could not meet you. Looks like you had fun. no sign of breakers out front in the bay??

[ronaultmtd]

Thanks, Bill for helping me today- that ray kicked my butt- I am really TIRED...

[DanMarino]

What a great trip guys. You certainly caught a large variety of fish. Bill I miss your red hat...

[OBX_RAT]

Hey Bill let me know the next time you go out I'm in St Marys up in Mechanicsville

[Southerly]

good stuff! those little reds are fast growing. but i have to guess it would be an outlier fish to hit slot before water cools,... but what about next year?

is there an especially large number of them this year, in addition to it being salty further north??

of course there's possibilty of bad things happening to them in the meanwhile, but could next year be completely off-the-hook redfish mania in salty areas???

[surfdog]

nice. going to hunt some specs/rock at Nevatt on sunday

[ronaultmtd]

Filleted the 21 inch striper today and put it under the broiler sprinkled with Zataran's Cajun spices, a little lemon juice and a smear of pure butter- 15 minutes later we were eating like kings- Safeway had the 4 oz. lobster tails on sale for 5 bucks apiece- yeah, fresh caught striper with lobster for supper- wife is still smacking her lips as I type this-

[kevinfry]

Filleted the 21 inch striper today and put it under the broiler sprinkled with Zataran's Cajun spices, a little lemon juice and a smear of pure butter- 15 minutes later we were eating like kings- Safeway had the 4 oz. lobster tails on sale for 5 bucks apiece- yeah, fresh caught striper with lobster for supper- wife is still smacking her lips as I type this-

(mouth watering.........) I have got to get out there!

[ictalurus]

John--At one point, that ray was pulling Ron fast enough to generate a pretty good wake. It was one of the biggest cownose rays I've seen. I also can't believe that the leader, line, or rod didn't break a couple points in the fight. It was pretty wild.

Kevin--I wasn't sure we were going until I headed out the door. Even then, I wasn't sure we would be fishing very long before we got hit by a storm. Otherwise, I would've given you a call. As it turned out, conditions really couldn't have been much better. I thought we were really going to get into some specks or topwater stripers. I think the topwater action might've picked up if we stayed a bit later, but that seemed risky at the time. By the way, I can't find that brook trout colored X-Rap anywhere. I hit two different tackle shops in Fredericksburg today looking for a few things and struck out.

Ron--That was a good trip. Just watching the fight was tiring. That dinner sounds awesome, too.

Dan--Don't worry, the red hat will return. I thought I was going to end up in my rain gear, and that hat is hard to fit under a hood.

Rick--Will do. I do most of my fishing in the evenings. What time do you usually get off work?

Southerly--This seems to have been a good recruitment year for a lot of coastal spawners like croaker, redfish, spot, and menhaden. Those species benefit from dry springs, while anadromous species reproduce better in wet springs. Croaker larvae (and maybe redfish, too) can suffer from winter mortality if it gets too cold. This winter was warm, so I think a lot of things benefited from that, which might be why there are so many little guys around. Redfish start leaving the Bay when water temps get down toward the 50s, so all these rat reds will probably leave, or at least head farther south, this winter. By next year, some of these guys will be in the slot range (see http://mrc.virginia.gov/vsrfdf/pdf/F126-R8Final.pdf page 41). So I hope they make it to come back next year. Probably with the worst case scenario, red drum fishing will be really good in Virginia next year. We'll see, I guess.

John--Good luck. I'm looking forward to the report.

[kevinfry]

I'm lookin for a fishing evening next week. give me a call! I've been wondering about adkins rd and Tippy Witchety, thinking they might have some trout/puppies......then it rained. What you think Bill?

[ronaultmtd]

Bill- When you consider the hookup on the ray was just past the narrows inside the creek where you were catching rat reds and we ended up in the bay where you were able to hold the ray on the surface by the leader while trying to get the pliers on the lure- we both took a bath from it's wild flaying wings beating the water into a froth- You gotta give the W&McGill Capt Blair Wiggins Flats Blue SGlas rods some respect after watching that fight- I had that rod doubled from start to finish- (which seemed to me like a very long time) the Revo SX drag is awesome- Cabela's Rip Chord 20# braid and double uni-knots joining the 30# Trilene mono leader all held up as advertised, too- The ray was very thick, very heavy, very strong and like I kept telling you on the creek- "this thing has to be over two hundred pounds..." Looking back, I doubt it was anywhere near two hundred because according to experts on cow nose rays can grow "up to 50 pounds" (should have kept it and weighed it- it might have been a world record), but one thing for sure- it gave me a terrific fight that towed us out of St. J's Creek into the bay- I was glad you were able to get the lure out of it so it was unharmed. No way I could do anything with it at my boat- It seems like you and I always have an adventure when we fish together- thank you-

Try striper this way- It is delicious- start with one inch thick skinless, bone less filets- dry with paper towel- in shallow baking dish lightly coat with olive oil to prevent sticking- Lightly dust the filet with Zataran's (or Tony Chachrez) Cajun seasoning- place in baking dish- on each filet put several thin pats of pure real butter- no margarine please- lightly drizzle lemon juice over filets and place under broiler 15 or so minutes until the meat is lightly browned and flaky- serve with your favorite side dishes-

[surfdog]

i agree Bill, i hope they are smarter than the spot a couple years ago. that fish kill really put a hurt on them, they didnt know when to leave and got caught in cold water that shocked them. i hope they move out earlier this year.

no specs today but did manage a red drum. put 4+ miles in and had the most fun 30" from the ramp. i know the area around the ramp is good JA and GB pulled specs in the cove last fall. maybe the spanish will show up early this year

[OBX_RAT]

Hey Bill I'm off for the next 2 weeks so anytime works