A Killer Weekend

Wow! What a Deer season I’m having this year. I think I’ll be buying a lottery ticket tonight. If you recall my last post, I harvested a very nice (by SE Virginia Standards anyway) 130 class 9-pointer with my bow a few weeks ago. I figured I had used up all my luck right up front and I’d be lucky to even see another deer let alone another wall hanger. So you can imagine my surprise when this monster jumped into my lap! With the split brow tine on his right side, he ends up a 10-pointer. The rack has a 20" spread which will become more noticeable in the next couple pictures.
Two bucks of a lifetime from property just 3 miles apart - in one season. And the season still has a month and a half left in it. Most hunters go a lifetime and never see bucks like this afield and here I sit with two of them. Someone pinch me because I must be sound asleep. I won’t bore you with a long story. Suffice to say this one was more luck than the last. One of our dogs pushed him out of the cutover and into a finger of woods I was waiting in. He jumped the creek then quickly slammed on the brakes when he saw me standing just 30 feet away with a shotgun pointing at him. I can’t stop thinking about the look in his face. It was one of “Oh crap! This ain’t gonna turn out well” And it didn’t. One quick shot and it was all over. Here are a couple more pictures.





I get home around 10pm Saturday night knowing I have 3 guys showing up at 7am Sunday morning to go fishing offshore. So I take a shower and a few motrin then head to bed. 6am the alarm goes off and up I go again. Guys show up at 7, I hook the boat up to the truck and we’re off. Our plan was to fish the Triangles about 35 miles offshore for 10 to 15lb Blue Fish and we also wanted to get a mess of Sea Bass. Flounder were also a possibility.

Water was a little rough from the winds of the last couple days but we made our way out running 20kts. Once we got to the Tower (roughly 14 miles out) we decided to take a rest and fish some of the wrecks. Good move since we were catching a number of legal Sea Bass. When that slowed, we continued on our way to the Triangles when 2 of my crew noticed a beehive of birds about a mile off my starboard beam. They also noticed some commotion on the water that turned out to be 3 Sperm(?) Whales circling schools of fish for breakfast. I tell you what, between the Whales, Striper and Blue Fish, this isn’t a good time to be a bait fish. One can only imagine the carnage that takes place under water.

So anyway, we start marking schools of nice fish and begin to jig from the bottom up. Most of the time our jigs never reached the bottom as either a big Blue Fish or a nice Striper would grab it and the fight was on. We must of caught and released 15 quality Striper and came home with, I think, 10 Blue Fish between 8 and 14lbs for the smoker. We also got a number of nice Sea Bass and my buddy “White Boots Dave” jigged up a Flounder that was just an inch shy of taking a ride in our fishbox.

So that’s it. No pictures since I forgot my camera and of course, the crew kept reminding me of that fact, especially when the Whales showed up. All-in-all an exceptional weekend.

The Brunswick County Acorn Buck

So in my initial hunting post a week or so ago I said, and I quote
“Maybe next week I'll have a story that involves tracking, dragging, field dressing and processing some Venison.” Well, I’ve come close. I’ll have to skip the tracking and dragging while adding spooking, high 5’s, picture taking and loading.

The Plan:

Not unlike the previous Saturday, I got up early, loaded the truck, kissed the wife and headed out for the 2 hour drive to my club in Brunswick, VA. On this day, two additional members were planning to show up and do some work around the property. Yes, another working party. My plan was to get there early enough to sit for a morning hunt, work with the others on the property mid day then hunt from 3 or 4pm till dark. We were all staying the night then heading home after breakfast Sunday morning.

The Results:

My initial thought was to stop and hunt the morning on an 80 acre piece of property we have rights to in Emporia but somewhere along hwy 58 I decided to continue on to Brunswick. I arrive at our property as the sun was rising and quickly changed into my hunting garb. After spraying down with de-scent solution I grabbed my bow along with my tree stand then made way to my morning stand.

As I near the final 300 yards I run into a rather large flock of Turkey. Must have been 20 of them. It’s always an impressive site watching these large birds take flight. The cackling along with the sound of their wings pushing the air for lift is one I never tire of. Had I been toting a 12 gauge instead of a bow, I would have had a turkey for dinner. I digress.

I made my way to the far back corner of our property where weeks before I had cut a path through the cutover to the edge of the woods and to a tree just made for my climber. After settling in about 18 to 20 feet up, I sat taking in the morning, still hearing the startled Turkey’s clucking away trying to reassemble the flock for safety.

About an hour goes by, during which I stood 2 or 3 times thinking Turkey were working their way through the cutover towards my stand. They never showed up. Then I hear another sound. A much heavier sound. As I slowly look to my right and inside the woods, I catch movement, Deer! I watch, standing with bow in hand and release on the string loop while I wait for a shot opportunity. Four or five deer file through with just one Doe stopping, offering me a small window for a shot. As I begin to draw my bow string, one of the other deer playfully charges her and off they go, along with my “opportunity”.

I sat on stand until something like 10am then decided to head back to camp and help with the days work. On my way out I did jump a Doe that was bedded down on the end of our path, but that was the end of the morning hunt.

Fast forward once again to the evening hunt since no one wants to hear about working parties. I would point out however, I damn near didn’t hunt the evening. After all the work we did, I had talked myself into believing that no self respecting deer would ever be fooled into getting close enough for me to take a shot. How wrong I was..

Evening plan was to hunt my now favorite Oak Ridge. Knowing the White Oak acorns are dropping and the deer have been feeding heavily on them building fat and getting ready for the rut and Winter. I knew right where I wanted to be so I changed into a fresh set of scent free hunting clothes, sprayed my boots and hat, put my climber on my back, grabbed my bow and headed for my tree.

Around 4:15pm I was 18 feet in the air waiting for the dinner bell to ring. 30 minutes later, up the path from the opposite side comes another Cow-horn. If you remember, that’s all I saw last Saturday – Cow-horns and a 3-pointer. If this little guy continued on his present course, he would cross my scent path and surely bust me. Fortunately, he ducked into the cutover well short. No time to relax though, turns out he had reason to duck out of site.

Turning around to face the Oak tree, I notice more deer had arrived. Wow, this was just like the prior week. As these guys feed in and out of view I noticed a deer with a pretty nice rack on his head. As he worked his way closer to my stand, I see 4 tall tines and judge him to be a pretty nice 10 pointer. "This guy is going for a ride on the tailgate of my truck." I tell myself.

So about now, I’m obviously talking to myself; “Damn! This buck is nice.” “God I hope he gives me a shot.” “I sure hope none of these other deer see me draw on this guy.” So much was going through my head as this deer gets closer. Now he’s just steps away, all he has to do is take maybe three more steps and I’ll have a perfect broadside shot at just 20 yards. I drew my bow and held, and held, and held. Now I’m hearing a stomping sound behind me, you know the one. It’s the sound a deer makes when he senses trouble or is pissed off at something. My 10-pointer also hears it and instead of taking 3 steps out onto the path, he moves back under the tree. Now I have to try and slowly let off my bow and hope none of the deer see me do so.

After letting off my bow, I slowly turn to see what just kept me from a very nice deer and what I find starts the heart to racing once again. It was another very nice buck. Probably an 8-pointer, definitely a wall-hanger. He’s standing about 20 yards down, broadside looking right at me. Funning thing is, he’s not spooked. He just stands there. I can’t draw or for sure he’d see me, so I wait. A half a minute goes buy and he makes a quick move to the Pines. Now I have no shot! 30 seconds later, he goes charging into the woods and the next thing I hear is one cool buck fight. I’ve never heard deer grunting and fighting in the wild. It sounded like 2 pigs going at it. They made such a ruckus all the other bucks feeding under the White Oak all headed into the Pines to watch the fight. Damn! Now what?

The last deer to move to the Pines was a basket racked 6-pointer. He stopped, giving me a clear shot and while I wasn’t happy about it, I was drawing my string to take it. Just as I started to draw back, he too jumps in to see the fight.

What can I do? One minute there’s 8 to 10 bucks of all different sizes feeding 20 to 40 yards from me and the next, nothing. So I stand there, bow in hand and wait. Another 20 minutes or so goes buy and out pops a Cow-horn. Now after everything I’ve just seen, I’ll be damned if I’m going to take a Cow-horn. This guy walks right by my tree, up-wind. I just watch thinking to myself, “What the hell am I going to tell the guys back at camp?” I know they’re going to ask what I saw, I also know they aren’t likely to believe me. No, I decided that I was going to tell them I saw nothing since they wouldn’t believe me anyway.

About now the sun is starting to get low in the Western sky. I have maybe 20 or 30 minutes left of legal shooting light. Looking down the path I see my little Cow-horn buddy that ducked into the cut-over. He’s heading for the Acorns. Just as I had predicted, as soon as he got parallel to me, my scent hit that nose of his and he stopped dead in his tracks. He didn’t like what he was smelling. Sure enough, he turned and headed away. Once he got about 20 yards away, he started running. Thank god he didn’t snort at me or sound the alarm. So now I’m thinking it’s just about over. I decided to turn and take another look towards the White Oak and “Oh My God!” there’s another deer and he’s heading in my direction.

After seeing it was another buck I waited for him to get closer. Now I can see that he has a number of points and they are tall and wide. This was it! not the 10 pointer but still a very nice buck. “Please keep coming” At about 30 yards, he turns broadside and I drew my bow. Not real sure at the yardage, I make a bone-headed decision to use my 3rd pin. Don’t ask me why, I never use it. My middle pin is good out to 30 yards. Like I said, it was a bone-headed decision. I take aim, pick the spot and release. A split second later, I hear this thud. I’ve heard this before. It’s the sound a Broadhead makes when it hits bone. To my surprise, the deer drops to the ground. At this point, I knew what had just happened. Yes, I hit him high and in the spine.

When this happens, you just have to try and keep your cool. Don’t do anything to spook him. As he was laying, I had no follow-up shot at his vitals. However, with every attempt to get up, he was turning more and more broadside. Then, not believing my eyes, another deer snorts and spooks him. This caused him to start dragging himself across the path under the Oak tree. When he stopped. Thank God! I couldn’t see all of him but I could see enough through the trees to see his vitals so I quickly launched another Slick Trick, at the correct yardage this time and straight through his heart and lung. The hunt was over! The buck lay still. The woods are quite and my heart is POUNDING OUT OF MY CHEST!

After a few minutes of catching my breath, I lower my bow to the ground and turn to start climbing down when out of the pines comes another deer. He's moving slowly towards my buck, alert and stomping his hooves, not knowing quite what to think of this brute laying on the path ahead of him. As he steps out, I see that he’s yet another respectable buck. I had to spook this guy away in order to climb down out of my perch. Man what a hunt!

So here are the stats and a couple more pictures of the buck. I call him, The Brunswick County Acorn Buck. He has 9 points, 8 main and a 4 3/4” sticker sticking straight back from the base of his right antler. He looked to weigh damn near 200lbs. Inside spread of 20 1/2 and an outside spread of 21 1/4. I scored the antlers the other day using the Boone N Crockett web site and he gross scored at 137 2/8 Not bad! Originally I scored him at 127 or so but I found a mistake in my measurements.

My First Hunting Report

So, here we are, hunting season has now been in for just over a week. I skipped opening day on the 4th due to the warm weather and instead, took one of my buddies fishing. With predicted temps in the upper 70's, I may have skipped this second weekend as well, trading in my bow for a fishing pole. But with the a forecast of high winds and seas in the bay running up to 3 foot, I decided to Hunt. Besides, my new club; Lonesome Three Hunting and Fishing Club, had a scheduled working party during the middle of the day on Saturday.

The Plan: Set the alarm for 4am and get on the road by 5. Hunt my Headquarters Hunt Club property first thing in the morning until around 9:30 or 10am then drive over to the new club to meet some of the members and do some work. Then, for the evening hunt, I planned to hunt somewhere on the new property. Here's how it went:

I got up at 4am Saturday morning to my wife commenting in about the same fashion she does when I get up to go fishing, "You're nuts! Why do you do this to yourself? You never get to sleep in." And my typical response, "I know, I know, go back to sleep." It’s a good question, just not one I want to dwell on at 4 in the morning.

I quickly jumped in the shower and washed down with scent free soap and scent free shampoo, hurry up and get dressed, finish loading my gear into my truck and hit the road. 2 hours later, I pull into the club property just as the sun is coming up over the trees. On this morning, I decided to try a different location and set my climber up on a tree a few yards down wind of a very old White Oak tree that was heavy with acorns. This tree sits in between a field that's gone to fallow and a 1 year old cutover. I had high hopes for this location so up I went.

About an hour after climbing the tree, out comes a Squirrel. After he gets halfway up a tree about 5 yards from me, he freezes. What's that big-assed camouflaged glob in that tree over there? This little guy just couldn't figure out what I was or if I was a problem, but he was pretty sure I wasn't there last time he climbed that tree. A couple times, I thought he was going to jump on over to see for himself. He didn't. He did however, climb up and down the tree, stopping every once in a while to see if I had moved. One time he actually considered climbing up the tree I was in but changed his mind at the base of my tree. Back up he went on the tree across from me. This little guy kept me company for the better part of 2 hours barking and chirping at me before finally heading down and back to his den. Good thing for him I didn’t have a field point tipped arrow in my quiver since he is the only sign of fur bearing life I saw all morning.

At 10am I gave up, climbed down, packed up my gear and headed back to my truck, then down the road to the new club. When I arrived there were 3 other members hanging out on the porch and a kid mowing the grass on a riding mower. They had about a half dozen ducks hanging from the porch that they had shot during their morning hunt behind the club house. A little more productive than my morning ended up being. There were only 4 of the 12 members there on this day. They seemed to be a pretty good group of guys. I'm looking forward to the season.

Fast forward a few hours and we're coming up on 3pm. I had intended to hunt a location on the new property. Being new to the property, I solicited some suggestions. After a little conversation, it was decided that I was going to hunt a creek bottom between two cutovers on a property they refer to as "the Y-road” I head off with anticipation. 10 minutes later, I arrive at the Y-road property and parked my truck. After spraying down with scent eliminator and getting my gear together, I grabbed my bow and headed to the head of the wooded finger and creek-bottom. I had planned to work my way along the creek-bottom about 3 hundred yards in, find a small clearing and a climbable tree near a fruit bearing White Oak and hunt till dark. Not to happen! You know what they say about “best laid plans.” Yup, they often go awry. And so this one did.

After about 40 yards into my trek, I realized how thick this wooded creek-bottom was. What a pain. I pushed on another 50 yards or so. Now I'm dripping with sweat. Not good for a deer hunter. This was just way too thick. Where was I going to set up and still have a shot if a deer comes by? So I look outside the bottom area thinking maybe the walking would be a little easier at the edge of the cutover. Hell no! That was nothing but thickets and thorns. So about now I'm concerned my hunt is ruined. I give up and start making my way back to the road. After looking at my watch, I realize I have two options; pack up and get an early start on the 2 hour drive home or quickly drive to the more familiar acreage at the Headquarters club. I chose the later.

On the ride over I decide I'm going to hunt an oak ridge on the edge of our property again confident I'm going to see something large and brown. Might not see a deer in range but I was pretty sure I'd see a deer. And I did! Around 5pm the first of 3 deer sneaks on in and starts feeding on the White Oak Acorns on the ground. This guy was a bit on the small side but it was what we call a Cow-horn. For non-hunters, that's a deer with two horns sticking straight out the top of his head. Probably about 8 or 10 inches each.

Shortly afterwards, two more deer join the cow-horn feeding on the acorns; another cow-horn and a 3 pointer. This 3 pointer looked a lot like a 3-pointer I let walk last year about this time. Only now, his single horn is about 6 inches longer and curved in. These 3 bucks fed in and out of bow range from 5pm until the sun went down. I drew on two of them more than once but decided I'd rather get home at a decent hour than spend an hour waiting and another hour or more tracking. By then, I would have likely ended up spending the night. So for now, they are safe and only because I was tired and lazy. That won't be the case should I see any of them next Saturday.

So that's it. My first ever hunting report. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I hope I didn't bore you too much. Maybe next week I'll have a story that involves tracking, dragging, field dressing and processing some Venison.

Until then, thanks for reading.

2008 Wish-a-Fish

So let’s talk Wish-A-Fish. I believe I have already defined what Wish-A-Fish is, what I now want to show you is the smiles and enjoyment that comes from this charitable organization.

All the volunteer Captains and Mates start to arrive by land and by sea just before 8am the day of the event. Family’s are scheduled to arrive at 8am. If you trailer over, as I do, you get your boat launched and tied up to the pier then check in with the Dock Master. Once that’s done, you wait for your name to be called asking you to come pick up your family. It just so happened that Bill and I were one of the first to be called.

I met my family at the check-in, made sure they had life vests, signed the paperwork then walked them to their ride for the day. Checking out the first picture, you can clearly see the excitement on the faces of each family member as well as on my Mate’s face. He’s an old coot but he really does enjoy this event.

Shortly after boarding The Attitude, we set out for the fishing grounds. The kids always love the boat ride. I’d have taken pictures but I was a little busy handling the boat.

After making our way around a tug and a barge, we stopped briefly just outside the Navel Base to see if there were any schools of fish around. None showing up on my bottom machine, we took a brief look at the carriers, subs and tin cans of our mighty Navy and moved on out. A short ride later, we stopped to wet our lines in the channel between the Monitor Merrimack Bridge Tunnel and the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. Here, we found a few small Croaker for the kids to play with.

Here’s a couple pictures of the action:

After a few hours of fishing, we were ready to pack it in, wind up the motor and hurry in for some well deserved lunch. But not before getting Anthony's cousin Keven his Jr. Angler Award. This is an award the State gives to kids that catch 6 different species of fish, typically in one day but I'm not sure that's a requirement. Kevin caught one or more of the following: Oyster Toad, Blue Fish, Croaker, Sea Bass, Pin Fish and a Flounder. High fives and congratulations to Keven for earning that award.

So with that, Anthony gives us a peace-out and were headed back to the park for picnic, awards and a raffle.

Bill and I get the boat loaded up on her trailer and we head over to the picnic grounds where we were met with the smell and taste of deep fried turkey, barbecued chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, tater salad, beans and all the fixing's. We took up a seat next to our old friends at Whalens Marine, my X-Suzuki dealer and also a special friend from last years event, Michael.

We had the privilege of fishing with Michael during last years Wish-a-Fish event. This year, Brian Whalen treated him. Sure looks like he had a great time!

So this ends another successful Wish-A-Fish event. If you'd like to know more about this group, please visit their web site at http://www.wishafish.org/ After everyone has had time to stuff themselves, Al, our Wish-a-Fish coordinator kicks off the awards by presenting each and every kid with their very own rod, reel and certificate.

That's it. By they way, did I say it was Hot during this years event? It was Hot! We had a record high of 98 degrees this day. I love it!!! My buddy and first Mate Bill on the other hand, was hating it.

Thanks for reading. Until next time!!

Wait, might as well combine reports and give you a quick update of our travels the next day. Bill and I decided to do some, shall we say, more serious fishing. We launched the boat at day break and after searching for live bait, we headed off shore about 16 miles or so to a wreck I know of. We spent the day catching and releasing small Sea Bass and Triggers. The Triggers we kept. We also had 4 Sea Bass that were legal and made the ride home with us. We ended the day with 10 Trigger Fish and 4 Sea Bass. Here's a couple Pic's.

Update: What's Coming

Been a little busy lately and besides, the fishing, at least for me, has been pretty slow; when we’ve been able to fish that is. Couple weeks ago we planned to run off shore in search of Sea Bass. Change in forecast first thing in the morning put a change in our plan. Instead, we stayed in the lower Bay searching for the Flat Fish (Flounder).

Throughout the day we probably boated a couple dozen fish in all but only had 3 legal keepers over the 19” minimum. We fished from the 1st Island all the way over to the Eastern Shore and back again. We looked around some for Cobia but didn’t see any.

Next up on my list is the annual Wish-a-Fish event. (www.wishafish.org) The Wish-a-Fish mission is to “provide a little relief for a family from the daily stress of having a child with ‘special needs’… by taking the entire family out for a day of fun and fishing on the water.” This Saturday is the day for this year’s event. My regular Ho, Bill, will once again join me in this worthy cause. A captain can’t have a much better Ho than Bill. Not only does he know his way around a boat, how to rig lines and bait hooks, he is also a talker. So he takes care of the kids as well as keeps the parents engaged. Or asleep! Guess it depends on what side of the fence you’re on.

With all seriousness, this is a great event and a great time for these kids. I’ll post some pictures and a report after Saturday but until then, here are a couple pictures of Michael and Hanna from our last two events.

One final thought, this blog is called “Attitude Outdoors” and that means not only fishing, but hunting as well. And hunting is just around the corner. Bow season will start on Oct 4th here in Virginia. We know you don’t mind seeing dead fish; hopefully dead Deer and Turkey won’t bother you either. Stay tuned.

I’m joining a new hunt club this year,(Lonesome Three Hunting & Fishing Club.) I'm staying with my current club as well but this new club is just 3 miles from the one I’m in now and they have almost 3000 acres. More land means more Deer and Turkey. As important; this new club has a real club house with running water, electricity, bathrooms, showers, bedrooms and a full kitchen. I will attempt to keep this blog updated with both fishing and hunting reports throughout the winter season.

First Cobia

So let me set the stage. I have given a couple half-assed attempts at catching these fish over the last few years. All attempts proved to be nothing but hours of boredom. I'll explain. The way most people fish for Cobia is to get a couple gallons of chum, anchor out in one of the many "hot" spots, set one bucket of chum down on the bottom and hang the other off the bow near the surface. Take 4 or more lines rigged with various type bait; live Eel, live or dead Spot, Croaker or Blue Fish and maybe a Crab or two. Set them out at various depths, find a comfortable place to sit, open a beer and wait. And wait! And wait!

Well, if you know me, you know how much I hate sitting around waiting. There's only so much talking that a group of guys can do in one day. I don't necessarily have to be catching non-stop, but I sure has hell have to be moving around looking for the fish. Which brings me to the brief story as to how I came upon my first and Yes, second Cobia.

Each year for the last 3 or so I have been asked to fish in this Grady White owners tournament. But Bret, you own a Sailfish not a Grady. True enough. However, my neighbor owns a Grady. So last weekend was the tournament. Our plan (his plan) was to catch Spanish Mac's in the morning, look for some live Spot for bait then go after Flounder. If we were to run across a Cobia swimming leisurely along the surface of the water, we'd have a rod ready to toss something at it.

After a couple hours of trolling with just 2 Spanish Mac's to show for our effort, we decided to take a detour into Rudee Inlet for bait. I threw the 8 foot cast net a couple time near the rock jetty but only came up with Pin Fish. Looking off into a little deeper water, I see this Asian guy with a 10 or 12 foot net catching load after load of nice Spot. Ah, that’s what we’re looking for. So I tell my Captain, “move the boat out a little further where that Asian guy is.” Him (my Captain), being the owner of a Grady White, I knew he’d have no problem pushing his way through the maze of boats. And he didn’t. Have any problem with it, that is.

One cast of the net and we had all the Spot we could use for the day. Off we went, but instead of running back into the bay for Flounder, we decided to visit the buoy line about 3.5 miles off the beach and look for Cobia. Somewhere around the 2nd or 3rd buoy, we came across a Hammerhead shark. It tried to hook itself on my rig but once it got everything but the head, it took off. Then we see our quarry. A couple Cobia circling around a buoy. We threw live Spot and also bucktails at the fish but they didn’t want anything we had to offer.

Couple buoys later we find another Cobe. This one was also finicky, but once I put the live Spot next to it's head, it turned on it and took the bait. After a very brief (unlike this story) fight, in comes a little 25” pup of a Cobia. But hey, It was my FIRST!! I couldn’t be happier.

Fast forward to day 2 of this tournament. We spend hours looking for and cast netting bait then head out in search of Flounder. No love with the Flounder so we look around the 2nd and 3rd Islands for Cobia. Saw one but it spooked before we could get close enough to throw a bait at him. This time, I was armed with 6 lively and fresh Eels that I bought on the ride in. Long story short! (Yeah, as if that’s possible at this point!) Any way, we move on towards the Highrise of the CBBT slowly with the Captain’s son on the hardtop and me on the bow looking for Cobia. Finally, we see one. Dead ahead just swimming along on the surface without a care in the world. I cast the Eel out to him and he ignores it. Cast again and he turns on it but quickly moves back away. We continue our pursuit. On the 4th or 5th cast, I set the Eel directly in front of him and he Slams it. I feed him some line, flip the bail, check the drag then start reeling.

After a relatively and unexpectedly short fight, we net a nice 47” Cobia. My second but also my first keeper. We found one more fish but again, it took off before we could get a bait to him. I will also point out that this fish took 2nd place in the tournament. It weighed in at 28.7 lbs. Now, I plan to marinade it in some Italian dressing or maybe sesame ginger dressing and place it on the Grill for my big fish fry this Saturday. Yum, Yum!!!

Thanks for reading, hope I didn’t bore you too much. Sorry for the picture but it’s the best I have right now. Other pictures were taken but they haven’t been sent to me yet.

Next report will probably come later next week. I think I’m taking the wife, daughter and my daughter’s boyfriend out fishing on Tuesday. I’ll let you know how that goes. I have to promise to bring the boyfriend back in! :)

Reelaxing

Reelaxing

That's the kind of day it was. No pressures, no traffic, simply - no worries. We didn’t light the world on fire but we did have a nice enjoyable day. I don't think we even saw another boat until we came surfing back in. Today’s crew was Bill of Usual Suspects Fame and Jimmy aka Beancounter. If you ever need a crooked Accountant to handle your taxes, Jimmy’s your man. Kidding of course!

Fished a handful of wrecks and structure out and around the 10 Fathom wreck. Never saw 10 fathoms of water but hey, if that’s what Bill wants to call it, who am I to argue? Here’s a close up of one of the Knot Heads we caught.

And YES, if you're wondering, I'm talking about the Sea Bass, Not the old knot head holding it!

Had a hard time finding the larger class fish and finally gave up, then worked, I mean, Surfed our way back into the bay to finish up with some Spades. Jimmy and Bill worked for them while I held the boat off the pylons. Jimmy had the hot hand and Bill, well, I'll let him speak for himself.

After a fun day of fishing, a few very sore ribs, watching Jimmy take a dive (inside the boat), watching Bill tease the Spades and logging a hundred miles for the day, here's a final shot of the box.

Thanks for the company guys!

Weekday Trip

Two More Species Checked Off the List

I took the day off last Thursday to see if I could beat the crowds and catch a limit of Spade Fish, because once the word gets out that these fish have arrived at the “Tower” (Chesapeake Light Tower), everyone, and I mean everyone flocks to the Tower on the weekends to fight these tasty critters. To top it off, they are a whole lot of fun to catch. You see, pound for pound these guys provide some serious pullage. Not only will they wear your arms out after catching a half dozen of them, they can flat out destroy a second rate reel.

Problem with fishing during the week is trying to find someone to fish with you. Fortunately, I’m of the age that I now have friends in the retirement community. My regular Ho (Bill) falling into that category. Now before anyone takes offense to the word “Ho”, let me assure you it’s not meant as an insult. This is a label adopted in our local fishing community over the years for people that primarily fish on other peoples boats. Kind of like Mate. Although I’m not sure how they relate. After all, a Ho, in its original definition, is someone that’s paid for a special type of service-- yes? A boat Ho isn’t paid. He/she meets you at the boat, loads up their gear and then spends the day fishing with you. Furthermore, a boat Ho that expects to be invited back will usually offer to split the cost associated with the days fishing. A really good boat Ho will bring food and drink for the Capt and all boat Ho’s are expected to help with the clean-up duties at the end of the day.

So now that we all know what a Ho means to the local fishing community, I’ll continue with the better-late-than-never report from our trip last Thursday. We launched the boat around 9am at the Crab Creek ramp in Virginia Beach. On the way to the Tower, we decided to troll around the Cape for some Blue Fish to be used later in the day for Flounder bait. We caught 3 Blues and 1 legal Spanish Mackerel then picked up our lines and made the run out to the Tower. That, by the way, was the first Spanish Mackerel caught on the new boat. One more species to cross off my list http://members.cox.net/brarnold/Species%20List.doc in my quest to catch one of every local species before the end of the year. Off to the Tower.

After pushing our way through a heavy sea, dropping at least once, off the top of a nice 6 foot swell, we arrive to find maybe 14 boats anchored around the Tower. We picked us a spot and dropped anchor. After 4 or 5 unsuccessful attempts at sticking the anchor, we finally get a good set and we settle in for some fun.

It took a little while but after watching other boats catching, we finally hooked up. However, not before switching out the rig I was using for one with a long, fluorocarbon leader. I now have another species to scratch off my list.

Bill wasn’t doing as well. I kept telling him to switch over to the fluorocarbon leader but he’s a stubborn old coot. He finally caught a couple fish but I really believe the visibility, or in my case, invisibility of the fluorocarbon made the difference. After all, the water was extremely clear.

After playing around with the Spade Fish for a few hours we decided to drift a few wrecks sunken around the Tower area to see if we could boat any keeper Sea Bass. While there were plenty of Sea Bass to catch, only one made the length legal to keep. We ended the day searching for a Striper and then a legal Flounder. Didn’t do all that well on either, so we loaded the boat and headed home.

I almost forgot. As you may or may not know, we have a very active military presence here in SE Virginia and they often are found performing maneuvers in much of the same locations we anglers like to play. Here are a couple pictures of two Navy Seal go-fast boats that decided to take a high-speed lap out to the tower and back to shore.

An impressive craft for sure, but not much for fishing.

After cleaning the boat and cleaning the fish, which by the way, always seems to take the same amount of time no matter how many fish we catch. You see, Bill, while being a professional boat Ho, is also a master at filleting fish, so he heads to my fish cleaning table while I start washing the boat. Once he’s done cleaning fish, I’d expect that he help finish up with the boat. Whether we bring home 2 fish or 2 dozen fish, he always seems to finish cleaning our catch about the same time I finish with the boat. Yeah, I know! Strange coincidence isn’t it?

My neighbor tried to get a picture of Bill one night on one of the extremely rare trips where we didn’t catch anything that could be kept. It was rumored that Bill had a rag in his hand and was wiping down the boat. Wouldn’t you know it, the picture came out blank.

So that’s the trip. Nothing overly exciting happened this day. We didn’t have any notable mishaps to report. Just a nice day on the water doing what we love. Now I will be boat-less for the next week or two while she’s in for service and warranty work. I’ve been offered rides on other boats while mine is in the shop so it looks like I’ll be changing rolls from Captain to temporary boat Ho for a while. If so, I’ll be sure to post the results.

Weekend Fishing Report

The Crew:

• Capt. Bill
• Kerry
• Dave (Mr. Whiteboots)
• and myself

The Boat: The Attitude
Target Fish: Sea Bass

After watching the Marine Weather-Guessers forecast all week long, we assembled a crew to once again go hunt Black Sea Bass. This time, a little further off-shore. With forecasts all week long of low winds and relatively calm seas for Sunday, I was looking forward to a nice smooth ride within 50 miles of the shoreline. Of course, come Saturday, the Weatherguessers started tweaking the forecast. It’s almost as if the Weatherguessers are in cahoots with all of the businesses that count on weekend tourists, weekend anglers, campers, boaters, surfers, sun worshipers and fare-weather shoppers.

Before you say “that’s just crazy talk”, think about it! I’m not normally one of those conspiracy theorist types, but I can’t think of any other reason why Weatherguessers start off the first half of every week with an upcoming weekend forecast of beautiful, sunny and in my case, low wind and low seas forecast. Then some time between Thursday afternoon and very early Saturday morning, after all the plans are made and all the reservations are set, the forecast goes to crap. Too late! The plans are set, the reservations are made and in many cases, deposits have been paid. See what I mean?

Enough of that crazy talk. I think I’m going to work on a post specifically on the subject of Weatherguessers, their accuracy and what might be done to incentivize or otherwise motivate them to develop tools that make them much more accurate. Any and all suggestions are welcome! More to come.

On to the report: As commented on above, the Saturday morning forecast had changed and the small craft advisory had been extended into Saturday night. Not to worry. It was to be lifted by 1am Sunday morning. Another check Saturday night found the small craft advisory had not been lifted, but surprise! It had been extended to 6am Sunday morning. However, the sea-state prediction was only calling for 3 to 4 foot seas with an 8 second period and winds were out of the SW. If nothing else, we could stay closer to land. Either way it should be manageable and it was supposed to get even nicer as the morning progressed.

Fast forward to 6am Sunday morning. I have 2 neighbors in my driveway and one other crew member that drives 2 hours from Richmond, waiting for a fishing trip. Boat’s hooked up to the truck, fish boxes are both loaded with ice. Lunch, drinks, tackle and rods are all onboard so we’re not going to disappoint. After all, why did I buy this new boat if I can’t handle a 4 foot sea? We head to the ramp.

When we get to the ramp 2 other boats were sitting in front of them, still on their trailers. Seems one of them, a little Sea Hunt, had tried to make it to the tower but gave up, turned around and came back in. The other guy, hearing the Sea Hunt's story, decided not to launch. We however, continued on. I figured, what the heck, let’s at least stick the bow out past the jetty and see for ourselves. Let me tell you, my big - little Sailfish did right-well (that’s Southern speak for she did a great job) in the 4 to 6 foot rollers.

We made our way out averaging 25mph. Not a bad ride. It really wasn't that bad since the swell was spaced pretty nicely. After a 20 mile run, our destination was confirmed, first by the arrival signal from my GPS and then again as we watch the outline of a long ago sunken wreck-tuned-fish-heaven on my digital fishfinder screen. We caught Sea Bass steady all day and on every piece of structure we visited. Unfortunately we only had 19 keepers for the day. Well, 20, but I let one of them buggers slip out of my hand. I’m pretty sure it stuck it’s tongue out at me as it hit the water and quickly swam away. Biggest fish of the day was somewhere between 3 and 4 pounds. We caught and released another 30 or so that were too short to keep and I put tags in an even dozen.

As usual, there’s always something that happens on a long fishing trip. A blunder, a hatch dropping on a foot, a hook stuck in someone’s hand or an exploding beer. On this trip, it was a little thing called ‘Sea sickness’. Yes, one of my crew was going the extra mile to help chum up the fish. I won’t “out” the poor guy, but I will say it wasn’t me!!! :-) He got quite a bit of ribbing from at least one other member of the crew. Me, I learned my lesson a long, long time ago. I was fishing out of San Diego with an old friend, oh, close to 30 years ago. We had a couple guys on board and one of them started tossing up breakfast. Boy did I give him a hard time. Well, it was no more than an hour or two later, I found myself hanging over the side. So, since then, with the exception of a few times aboard ship, I don’t rib fellow fishermen.

Well, if you've gotten this far in the post, thanks for reading. Feel free to provide comments, your own outdoors story or any helpful suggestions.. Especially if they have something to do with improving marine forecasting. Just click on the 'comments' tag below.

Memorial Day Fishing Trip

Memorial Day 2008

I had assembled a crew of 4 for this trip to go 20 to 40 miles off-shore looking for some Sea Bass. I figured that would be a better choice than dealing with hundreds of yahoo’s scrambling to get their boats and jet ski’s in the water on a Holiday. Way too many first time boaters and people that only seem to launch on Holiday weekends. My plan was to stay away from the crowds. It worked; I don’t think I saw 30 boats all day.

Any way, the day before, my main fishing buddy called to back out of the trip. He gave some lame excuse but the result was one less on the boat. No problem, the other 3 were still in. So I thought! The next morning, about an hour before we were to depart, one of my other crew members called to cancel. He had a better excuse than the first, as this guy had a recent operation on his shoulder and was in way too much pain to be bouncing around on the boat. So then there we’re 3.

The plan was set and the shortened crew was assembled. We launched after a quick stop at the liquid gold station (gas).

Now everyone that knows me, knows what a huge supporter I am of the weather forecasting profession. :-) I call them Weather Guessers. I won’t get into it but I will point out that the forecast was for a SE wind between 10 and 15kts and 2 to 3 ft seas with a 12 second interval. This forecast was supposed to hold until around 4pm in the afternoon when the winds and seas were to pick up dramatically. I planned to be in long before that was to happen. Not!

We made our way out in a solid 3 foot chop, nothing the new hull can't handle. By the time we were 20 miles off shore, the winds were blowing closer to 20kts and the seas were 3 to 4 ft and sloppy. After wasting time looking for a couple wrecks that I thought I had good numbers for, we ended up moving in to one I knew was good. We drifted over it a number of times picking up small Sea Bass and wondering how much higher the wind and seas were going to get. With nothing but short fish to show for our trip so far - we moved.

That turned out to be the right choice. We started working a reef closer in and the fishing was much better. Still a lot of short Sea Bass but we did manage to put a few keepers in the box. The calamity of the day occurred when Dave (Mr. White Boots) dropped the hatch to my fish box on his foot. While Kerry and I were laughing and Mr. White Boots was cussing his bone headed move, he opened the lid to the fish hold just in time for me to step forward and then down into a pile of ice! This, of course, caused another outburst of laughter and for about 30 seconds took Mr. White Boots mind off his hurt foot.

That pretty much was it. We headed in, loaded the boat and carried her on to the house. After cleaning up the boat and our measly catch, we enjoyed adult beverages with our wives and my other neighbor well into the evening while Dave’s wife provided us all with some much needed dinner. Another Memorial Day in the books. Now it’s time for the boats initial service.

So, initial service; When you buy a new boat, unlike a car, you have to put it through a break-in period. Usually the first 10 hours of operation, never running more than 5 minutes at any one speed. After that, you can run the engine however you like. Somewhere between 20 and 40 hours, you need to bring it in for an initial service. The dealer changes all the fluids along with the fuel and oil filters, checks to make sure everything is operating properly and repairs any flaws that the new boat owner might have found.

So why am I boring you with this detail you ask? Because I have just hit the 30 hour mark on my new boats engine. This means I have to take it in for service. I cringe because taking a boat in for service is nothing like taking a car in. You take your car or truck in and you will likely see it by the end of the day - next day at the latest. When you take a boat in for service, you might not see it for a week. Maybe even two! I’m thinking I’ll be landlocked for about a week. I bought my boat from a very good dealership so I’m pretty sure they’ll get me in and out as quickly as they can. Only problem is, they are two and a half hours away and I don’t like being without a boat!

Wish me luck!

Whippersnappers Vs The Old Farts

Sunday's Adventure

This was one of those rare times when I end up fishing on a boat that isn't mine. My X Suzuki dealer has been putting on a fishing get-together that he likes to call "The Old Fart Fishing Trip". He gets a hand-full of older folks together to go out on his 27 foot Stamas center console for a few hours of fishing. No pressure to catch fish mind you, just to have fun and tell lies. While I'm not yet of the official age to be an "Old Fart", they let me tag along at times. Well, this time would be a little different. A mutual friend of ours decided to kick it up a notch. His idea; to get a crew of slightly younger folks together and challenge the "Old Farts" to a fishing duel.

The Challenge was made. It would be Team Whippersnappers against "The Old Farts". Lucky for me, the Capt. of the Whippersnappers set the age requirement to 55 and under for Whippersnappers and over 55 for the "Old Farts". The only real rule for this tournament was a requirement to have fun, and fun we had! Saturday afternoon our Captain quietly made his way to the "Old Fart's" boat and decorated it up a little for them.

Take a look at what the "Old Farts" arrived to Sunday morning.


The Whippersnappers, after talking a great deal of smack on the local internet fishing board, met up with our Captain Sunday morning. We loaded the boat; a real nice riding, fast running 31 foot Contender and set sail for the Eastern Shore about 20 miles across the Chesapeake Bay. Plan 'A' was to set up for some Red Drum action. Well, we had limited time and we wanted to catch a number of different species of fish; Croaker, Oyster Toads, Sharks, Sea Bass, Blue Fish, Striper, Grey Trout and Flounder, so we didn't want to waste too much time on the Reds. After about an hour we gave up and started looking for the other fish on our list.





In short order one of our Whippersnappers caught a 12 inch Oyster Toad.










Fishing was pretty slow, the water was dirty and the winds were starting to kick up. We managed to catch a 28" Striper but after that, luck had run out. Maybe it was a lack of luck or maybe it was all our Smack Talk. Either way, the fish were tight lipped for us. We fished our way back along the CBBT (Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel) to the Western side once again with nothing to show for our efforts. Along they way, we met up with the "Old Farts". One of which, felt it necessary to shoot us the moon! A site that will haunt us Whippersnapper's for some time to come.


Long story, less long. We logged a lot of miles on the boat, burned close to 60 gallons of fuel and had just 2 fish to show for it. At 3pm, the tournament was officially over and we met up back at the dock to see who would be the winners of the first annual Whippersnapper's vs "The Old Fart's" fishing tournament.


Well, it would seem that - for Sunday any way, the old fart's prevailed. Not only did they catch 2 keeper sized Striper, they also caught and released a few small Sea Bass, one or two Oyster Toads, some Croaker and a Flounder. So yes! They pretty much spanked our A$$'s. Can't really say as any of us lost though. We each pitched in a 10 dollar entry fee and all the money was donated to the Wish-a-Fish foundation. We also had a great time after the tournament at the Surf Rider restaurant eating some great sea food and enjoying a few adult beverages. Here is one final picture of Team Whippersnapper on board Fishin Fool

Six More Species Hit The Deck of The Attitude

I am on a mission to catch as many different species indigenous to our local area as I can this year in celebration of the new boat. So far we’ve caught Flounder (Fluke), Tog (Taug Tog), Black Sea Bass, Spiny Dog Shark, Oyster Toad and what I think was a small Atlantic Cod. Thursday night and Wednesday we added 6 more to the list. Striper (Rock Fish), Black Drum, Croaker, Spot, Gray Trout (Weakfish) and a Skate.

Still many more to go and thankfully we still have 6 months to work on it. Let’s see, what’s left on the list? I’m looking for Spade fish, Tile Fish, Red Drum, Cobia, Trigger fish, Spanish Mackerel, Blue Fish, maybe Mahi, King Mackerel and Amber Jack. Anyone suggestions, tips or other type help getting these fish on board, would be appreciated. Bring it on!

Wednesday night’s trip:

Our plan was to launch The Attitude around 6pm and head 18 miles across the bay to the Drum Grounds. Spend the last of the incoming tide and most of the outgoing fishing for these massive bull dozers then finish off the night (early morning) looking for a Striper or two. The Crew was Doug (I never catch anything but a cold) Johnson, my regular fishing buddy “Old Man” Bill and yours truly. We made way through a rolling 4 foot sea to the Eastern Shore and set anchor with a small fleet of other boats in 25 foot of water between buoy 13 and the Concrete Ships armed with 5 dozen good Chowder Clams and 1 dozen old nasty smelly Chowders. For a while we thought it was Bill letting off the odor but thankfully it wasn’t.

By-the-way, The Attitude made quick work of the trip across for the sea condition. We ran at a steady 35mph all the way. In the old Pro-Line, assuming we would have even ventured out, I would have had to slow way down so as not to beat the crap out of us. Or, more likely, I would have been running 30mph bouncing off the tops of the swell beating the crap out of us. The Sailfish really pushes down the seas and that bow flare keeps us nice a dry.

On with the report. We were at anchor maybe 20 minutes when the first fish hits. Doug (I never catch anything but a cold) Johnson is up first.

He makes relatively quick work of a nice 45 – 46 inch Drum.

Alright, things are looking good. The evening is set and now I need a new name for Doug since clearly he can no longer say he never catching anything but a cold. Not too long after that, the second run of the evening. This one I take after pushing the Old Man out of the way. After a fun little battle, we boat a nice 47 inch Drum. See above. Nice net work guys!!!!

So now it’s Bill’s turn. So we wait, and we wait, and we wait some more. The current is slowing and the boat is starting its swing to the East. Somewhere in the tide shift, we get another run. Bill’s finally up.

It may not have been the biggest fish of the night but we get a smile out of him anyway.

We caught and released 2 more nice Drum as the outgoing current slowed once again and decided to pull anchor and look for a Striper or two. After working the 4th Island for about an hour, we boated (Bill) boated the only keeper Striper of the morning and we made way “to the barn” as we say.

Once we got the boat cleaned up and backed into her spot along side the house, the sun was starting to rise. We took a 5 hour nap and headed back out into the bay to see if we could find a Flounder or Striper. After catching some very nice bait sized Croaker along with one Spot, we went searching. It was a nice day on the water Thursday but the fish didn’t cooperate. Came in just after 6pm with only a Skate to show for it. Water is a bit dirty but the Flounder bite seems to be real slow this year. At least for us.

That’s it for this trip. Feel free to add comments. I think that feature is turned on. Until next trip, thanks for reading!

Spring Race at Richmond Speedway

So this posting isn't about fishing or hunting. It's still about something that takes place outdoors. Racing is one thing my youngest son and I share. Jason was supposed to be here in Virginia for the Spring Richmond race but his boss ended up having other plans. Funny how work often gets in the way! Hopefully he'll have better luck for the Fall race.

So any way, I've been messing around with this blog thing and said to myself, "Self, maybe this forum would be a good way of getting pictures posted for others; friends, family and yes - even acquaintances like my buddy Bill who's always telling me - "you have no friends, only acquaintances." So let's try it out.

I'll try to keep this short and not get into the merits of how this race ended. It's the subject of every NASCAR sports show from Sirius radio to news print. Probably will provide all the material they need to cover a full weeks worth of shows. I will however, make one comment. Sorry!

All the Bush haters out there (and I'm one of them) are spending too much time trying to say Bush took out Earnhardt on purpose. Here's my take on the Punk. He's a cocky little SOB that's driving way past his ability. He has little respect for the other drivers - in all 3 venues; Nationwide, truck and cup. Everyone with any significant seat time behind the wheel of a "race car" knows that your best friend going into a turn is always the car to your outside. I know this from 8 years experience racing enduro's at our local track. If you have little to no regard for the car to your outside, you can run much harder into the turn knowing that if you get loose, you bounce off the other drivers car which 9 times out of 10 will straighten you up without loosing any time. What happens to the other guy, well, in an enduro, you didn't much care. And therein lies the problem with Kyle Bush, he doesn't care about the other drivers. With enduro's, it's all about excitement and wrecks. That's what packed the stands. In Nascar, it's a different story. That's my rant on this subject. Sorry!

Here are some of the pictures I took at the race for my Son, Jason. I wanted to give him a feel for the event, the hoards of people and the track itself. We'll start with a very short video:

Here are a few pictures starting off with the one he'll like the most. The 88 during the red flag.

Sorry you couldn't be here for the race Jason. Let's hope the boss will approve some off in the Fall for the next one.