Rudee and HRBT

Tufnik and I drove down on Saturday morning. We fished Rudee Inlet during the day. I was shooting for specks and Tufnik was looking for Tog. I ended up catching 24 specks, most were short. I ended up with 3 small keepers at 14 inches each, one was caught trolling and the rest were caught jigging. Tufnik caught a 19 inch rock at the inlet while hunting for Tog. We then headed down to the HRBT to fish the light line. We met Toadfinger, GrilledSardine, HoakDJ and his friend down there. Well, I have never caught a light line rock at the HRBT. The light line is always bad when I go....my curse. This time would not be any different. The Weather man said that the winds would die down in the adfternoon, but it seemed to pickup. It was not bad at the HRBT at first, but the winds and chop steadily seemed to increase for me. So much for the weekend weather prediction. I hunted for rocks in the light line, but I could not find any. Grilled Sardine told me that it was real slow tonight. Last night (Friday) was the hot night at the HRBT...so much for my timing. It seemed Friday was the best day for large trout too. From those who targeted trout on Saturday, Everyone only catching small ones. Grilled Sardine did manage 1 rock and Toadfinger caught over 10 rocks! He got them by tossing his lure into some breaking fish that would come and go, not the light line. Well, maybe one day I will see what this light line is all about. For me the drive home was brutle, but I made it home before 4 am.

All in all the 24 hours was fun. Thanks to Tufnik and Toadfinger for making sure that I made it there and back safely. It was a good time. I promise to break my light line curse, next year.......

[HokieDJ]

Your curse must of spread. This was my second time ever and both times the winds were 15-20 and I got nothing. I've given up on the night line thing. I expected to see fish stacked or swirling water, etc. What I saw was choppy water. I think that's it for me
with HRBT at night.

[tufnik]

I used blue crab along the jetties at Rudee. I got no nibbles at all, but a fellow yaker caught one tog during the few hours he fished. His buddy caught none.

I caught the 19" striper on a blue/silver rat-L-trap. Ten minutes later I got another hook up and a strong pull, but I struggled with messed up line on the spool. Used my hand to hold the line to fight the fish, but the fish came off. I would guess it was at least a 20 incher.

At HRBT I worked the pilings with lures and blue crab. I also went to Fort Wool to look for holes. Didn't find any, but tried the rocks part way around the island. Nothing, not even a nibble with the blue crab. The water on the leeward side of the island was quite calm.

I didn't see water boiling with fish at the light line either, but it was a good try at fishing in questionable weather conditions. No yakers were around and the water was getting rough coming in. I was off the water at midnight.

If the wx cooperates, I wouldn't mind trying again before the year ends.

[CB kayak 02]

Nice report, it does seem like the light line can be a hit or a miss!!

[ToddF]

Saturday was a pretty slow night. There were tons of power boaters driving around, spooking the fish. The wind picked up, rather than dying, like it was forecast to. Since it was blowing from the west, you had to back paddle to keep from getting blown into the light line and spooking the fish.

Sunday night was a different story. The wind had died down, and there were only a couple boats out on a work night. The fish were in the line, and working out in the light a bit, too.

For you guys who have to drive so far to get down here, it may help you to check out my weather page: http://mysite.verizon.net/t.ferrante...er/windNN.html

In particular, the current and forecast wind graphs for Norfolk NAS and the HRBT buoy. My rule if thumb is not to hit the water unless the predicted winds at the NAS are <10 mph, and the actual winds at the buoy are <15 mph. Otherwise, you are spending all your time fighting the wind and waves rather than fishing.

Todd F.

[moc]

Thanks for the tip Todd. I did see all the power boaters too. One of them was pretty rude to a yaker. I was trying to fish the light line and when the boat saw me he raced up and parked right infront of me blocking me and casting into my spot. Toadfinger was with me and as soon as he hooked up with a fish, that same boat raced over to him and started to cast as their lines into his spot, while driving all over the light line. It was a bright moon that night, so I do not know if it had anthing to do with the poor fishing at the light line.

Maybe next time I may get a hotel room so I can fish multiple nights when the winds are favorable. I still enjoyed being on the water.....

[Grilled]

Satruday was pretty slow at HRBT, tons of idiot boaters around. I was at my usual spot pretty much the whole time at HRBT, some dumb boater decides to cast over me...wtf! I looked at him and yelled REALLY! He had this big surprised look on his face like he did anything wrong.

Friday was a different story. It was a lot windier so barely no boaters on the water. There was one other kayaker out there. But I ended up with around 15-20fish all 22-27inchers.