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.