Hrbt 10/25-27

[JohnE]

Fished the Hampton side of the HRBT several times over the weekend. On Friday night, caught around 15 flounder from 12" to 15 7/8". Lost several more at the side of the yak. One puppy drum around 16". One small keeper striper. It was a little cold out there, with air temps dipping into the lower 40's before I paddled out.

On Saturday morning, found that keeper flounder I was looking for. It was a little over 17". Got around a dozen more smaller ones into the yak and lost many more at the side, one of which was well over 20".

It got very rough midday Saturday and a small craft advisory was issued for the remainder of the day into early Sunday morning. Did not get back out until Sunday morning around 10. I managed to find another small keeper striper in the same spot as Friday night. Got another keeper-sized to the side, but lost it when I was reaching for my net. Could not find any flounder in the area where I was catching them the previous two trips.

Got back out for a little while Sunday evening before driving back. 2 small stripers, 1 15" flounder, and 1 very long ribbonfish.

I was using very light jig heads with white or chartreuse curly tails and some paddle tails.

[camelbird]

Thanks for the report! Man thats a lot of fishin, good to hear about that keeper flounder!

[JohnE]

Sure thing. My shoulders are a little sore, but it was worth it. Definitely had to do a lot of trolling for the few stripers I found. Wanted to fish even more than I did this weekend. Almost went to Lynhaven Saturday afternoon, but I barely slept Friday night and needed rest.

[JohnE]

Most of the pictures I tried to take at night didn't turn out and my battery kept dying, but here's some pictures of hrbt striper from the water to my dinner plate alongside some Urbanna VA oysters with homemade goat pepper cocktail sauce. Very tasty dinner. IMG_0031.jpgIMG_0032.jpg

[ComeOnFish]

The dinner looks real good to me. I never thought about oyster along with the catch. Hmm Where can I buy oyster in Nova?

joe

[JohnE]

Harris Teeter has very good, fresh VA oysters often for about 50 cents each. You can order 100 count boxes in advance from the seafood dept manager, which we often do for the holidays. They are pretty much always excellent quality. Harris Teeter usually has some pretty good quality seafood.

Wegmans has them for a dollar or more each, depending on the variety--but more than a few times I've had to throw away two to four bad ones per dozen, so they end up being even more expensive. It seems like they try to keep them for too long sometimes before selling them. They should teach their seafood guys to test them. I can generally tell if one is bad by knocking it. Usually bad if very hollow sounding.

Very rarely, they have them at Hmart. One time when I was there, the seafood guys had this oyster cracking machine and gave me several free samples. I think it was around Thanksgiving time. Was there buying lobsters, they usually have very good prices on them.

Also, a truck driver friend of one of my brothers does seafood runs sometimes and gets awesome seafood from somewhere in southern VA. He can get bushels of either VA or NC oysters. The bushels are something like 300 oysters--which is a lot of oysters, but they keep well outside in cooler during the cold months. The NC oysters are usually quite salty. My brother likes them, but I prefer the eastern shore or other VA oysters (like the ones from Harris Teeter, which are almost always from Urbanna VA). My family loves the oysters.

Oh, and for the striper fillets, I made a concoction of melted butter with a little salt/pepper, onion powder, granulated garlic, a partial envelope of sazon, and just a little basil. I brush the fillets with concoction and throw them on a stove top grill pan.