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Slow at PLO, 10/17
Pretty much every fishing decision I made yesterday was wrong. 
I met up with Dave (HokieDJ) and his buddy M. at Point Look Out at 9am (just after max flood). The wind was blowing pretty good from the WSW. I wanted to try for some redfish, and Dave had redfish and flounder on his mind. We could fish Lake Conoy where was a report of a redfish caught and deal with wind, or we could try a spot on the Bay, which was calmer and risk a total skunk. There's one spot on the Bay side where I heard redfish were caught in the past, and there is the oyster sanctuary for blues and stripers, but neither was a sure bet. I never caught a flounder on the Bay side. We decided to fish Lake Conoy, which was mistake number 1.
Mistake 2 was that I probably should have worn my dry suit because it was kind of chilly in the wind, and the water temp was about 63*, which was right on the edge of the 120 rule (if the sum of the wind and water temp is less than 120, then a drysuit is advisable). I didn't feel like sweating buckets, though because it was supposed to be 71* later.
The waves were the biggest I had ever seen at the inlet to Lake Conoy. I bet some were getting close to 3ft. Here's a pic of waves crashing at the breakwater, but it really doesn't capture the chaos:
I took a video of me just holding my position (click the pic):
Anyway, M. and I worked our way all around Lake Conoy hitting the shoreline and the riprap for reds using a wide variety of lures. Neither of us had any hits or fish. Terns were diving on bait, so I thought we'd have a shot.
Dave worked the area around the inlet. I think he and M. both caught an undersized striper each. I was still skunked. I tried jigging for flounder in the inlet and casting a Bomber minnow around, but didn't have any luck.
Around 1pm, we decided to go over to the Bay side. I thought we'd still have a shot at redfish, so we headed to the redfish spot. Mistake 3. It was max ebb by that point, and there wasn't much water there. We should've gone to the oyster sanctuary.
We worked our way back to the launch spot. I had a Stingsilver dangling in the water as I put my stuff away, and something slammed it but didn't stick. I started jigging it along the bottom as we worked our way back and caught a 13" flounder, which was my biggest for this year. Dave had spotted some nice flounder humps earlier, but I was hauling butt to the redfish spot (mistake 4). I guess it might be worth fishing for flounder on the Bay side after all.
Anyway, we quit around 3. It was awesome meeting Dave and M. Dave and I were actually at Virginia Tech at the same time, which was a cool coincidence. I also enjoyed checking out Dave and M.'s sweet Revos. Here's Dave:
I was impressed with how well the Revos handled the conditions at the inlet. At one point, the nose of Dave's Revo was out of the water almost to the flippers.
I wish I had a pic of that.
I guess the moral of the story is fish in the lee.
I met up with Dave (HokieDJ) and his buddy M. at Point Look Out at 9am (just after max flood). The wind was blowing pretty good from the WSW. I wanted to try for some redfish, and Dave had redfish and flounder on his mind. We could fish Lake Conoy where was a report of a redfish caught and deal with wind, or we could try a spot on the Bay, which was calmer and risk a total skunk. There's one spot on the Bay side where I heard redfish were caught in the past, and there is the oyster sanctuary for blues and stripers, but neither was a sure bet. I never caught a flounder on the Bay side. We decided to fish Lake Conoy, which was mistake number 1.Mistake 2 was that I probably should have worn my dry suit because it was kind of chilly in the wind, and the water temp was about 63*, which was right on the edge of the 120 rule (if the sum of the wind and water temp is less than 120, then a drysuit is advisable). I didn't feel like sweating buckets, though because it was supposed to be 71* later.
The waves were the biggest I had ever seen at the inlet to Lake Conoy. I bet some were getting close to 3ft. Here's a pic of waves crashing at the breakwater, but it really doesn't capture the chaos:
I took a video of me just holding my position (click the pic):
Anyway, M. and I worked our way all around Lake Conoy hitting the shoreline and the riprap for reds using a wide variety of lures. Neither of us had any hits or fish. Terns were diving on bait, so I thought we'd have a shot.
Dave worked the area around the inlet. I think he and M. both caught an undersized striper each. I was still skunked. I tried jigging for flounder in the inlet and casting a Bomber minnow around, but didn't have any luck.
Around 1pm, we decided to go over to the Bay side. I thought we'd still have a shot at redfish, so we headed to the redfish spot. Mistake 3. It was max ebb by that point, and there wasn't much water there. We should've gone to the oyster sanctuary.
We worked our way back to the launch spot. I had a Stingsilver dangling in the water as I put my stuff away, and something slammed it but didn't stick. I started jigging it along the bottom as we worked our way back and caught a 13" flounder, which was my biggest for this year.
Dave had spotted some nice flounder humps earlier, but I was hauling butt to the redfish spot (mistake 4). I guess it might be worth fishing for flounder on the Bay side after all. Anyway, we quit around 3. It was awesome meeting Dave and M. Dave and I were actually at Virginia Tech at the same time, which was a cool coincidence. I also enjoyed checking out Dave and M.'s sweet Revos. Here's Dave:
I was impressed with how well the Revos handled the conditions at the inlet. At one point, the nose of Dave's Revo was out of the water almost to the flippers.
I wish I had a pic of that. I guess the moral of the story is fish in the lee.
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