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The hiking club I’m part of decided to go down to Assateague Island National Seashore to camp Saturday (6/1) night. I’ve never fished this area before so I decided to head there on Thursday for a few days of fishing before everyone else got there.
In the afternoon on Thursday (5/30) I launched from the beach at the end of the road where the bayside camps are. I headed up to the Verrazano bridge from there without finding anywhere I thought would be worthwhile to stop. I started jigging the pilings there hoping for flounder. What I got was my first lesson in how annoying cownose rays are. The first one broke off my jig as I got it to the kayak and was trying to grab it with my pliers. The second one I dragged over to shore and was able to unhook. I wanted to get my jigs back, but trying to get them to the kayak and unhook them is a real pain. Eventually later in the afternoon I found a piling that was holding some striped bass and I caught 3 that were probably between 16 - 20 inches. That night I spent an hour or two casting a black bomber along the beach without any luck.
On Friday (5/31) I decided to head up to the OC inlet to try my luck there. It was mostly more of the same. I started out drifting in the inlet towards to ocean and picked up a couple more cownose rays. I caught a short flounder that might have been close to 16”, but I didn’t measure it and threw it back. Then I tried around the rt 50 bridge. I didn’t get anything there and started drifting along the channel there. I caught a couple more rays, one of which wasn’t a cownose ray, but I’m not sure what it was. I also hooked into a couple bluefish as I was reeling my jig in. The wind started to really pick up in the afternoon and I was tired of dealing with all the rays so I called it quits by around 2 pm.
On Saturday (6/1) morning I got up early and launched by the Verrazano bridge to fish for a few hours before everyone I was meeting up with arrived. Once again a couple more rays, but this time they were what I would consider stingrays of some type. They had the almost round shape to them and the thicker tail with the barb on it.
Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures. The rays were difficult enough to get in and unhook and none of the other fish were anything special. I do have an interesting non-fishing story. Saturday evening most of the group I was with was in one of the cam sites around the fire. About four or five of us were standing between the fire and one of the cars. All of a sudden we see three of the horses there come galloping by and turn toward us. I know I was thinking this is interesting, but I’m sure they’ll turn away or go down the road instead of coming through where we’re standing. Nope, we all had to scramble out of the way as they came charging through. Who knows what would have happened, but I don’t think they had any plans to stop and if we didn’t get out of the way someone was getting trampled.
Overall it was an enjoyable weekend, the wind keep the bugs from being bad, I got some pullage, I had a good time with everyone I met there, and had quite the feast for dinner Saturday night with all the food everyone brought. But I'll be happy to never catch a ray again.
In the afternoon on Thursday (5/30) I launched from the beach at the end of the road where the bayside camps are. I headed up to the Verrazano bridge from there without finding anywhere I thought would be worthwhile to stop. I started jigging the pilings there hoping for flounder. What I got was my first lesson in how annoying cownose rays are. The first one broke off my jig as I got it to the kayak and was trying to grab it with my pliers. The second one I dragged over to shore and was able to unhook. I wanted to get my jigs back, but trying to get them to the kayak and unhook them is a real pain. Eventually later in the afternoon I found a piling that was holding some striped bass and I caught 3 that were probably between 16 - 20 inches. That night I spent an hour or two casting a black bomber along the beach without any luck.
On Friday (5/31) I decided to head up to the OC inlet to try my luck there. It was mostly more of the same. I started out drifting in the inlet towards to ocean and picked up a couple more cownose rays. I caught a short flounder that might have been close to 16”, but I didn’t measure it and threw it back. Then I tried around the rt 50 bridge. I didn’t get anything there and started drifting along the channel there. I caught a couple more rays, one of which wasn’t a cownose ray, but I’m not sure what it was. I also hooked into a couple bluefish as I was reeling my jig in. The wind started to really pick up in the afternoon and I was tired of dealing with all the rays so I called it quits by around 2 pm.
On Saturday (6/1) morning I got up early and launched by the Verrazano bridge to fish for a few hours before everyone I was meeting up with arrived. Once again a couple more rays, but this time they were what I would consider stingrays of some type. They had the almost round shape to them and the thicker tail with the barb on it.
Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures. The rays were difficult enough to get in and unhook and none of the other fish were anything special. I do have an interesting non-fishing story. Saturday evening most of the group I was with was in one of the cam sites around the fire. About four or five of us were standing between the fire and one of the cars. All of a sudden we see three of the horses there come galloping by and turn toward us. I know I was thinking this is interesting, but I’m sure they’ll turn away or go down the road instead of coming through where we’re standing. Nope, we all had to scramble out of the way as they came charging through. Who knows what would have happened, but I don’t think they had any plans to stop and if we didn’t get out of the way someone was getting trampled.
Overall it was an enjoyable weekend, the wind keep the bugs from being bad, I got some pullage, I had a good time with everyone I met there, and had quite the feast for dinner Saturday night with all the food everyone brought. But I'll be happy to never catch a ray again.
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