Couldn't stand it.

I woke up this morning with all intentions of hitting the water.  Unfortunately the wind was blowing pretty steady, the sky was gray, and the air was cold and rainy.  Around noon, the rain and wind died off and I hooked the trailer up to the truck and made a run for the ramp.  In the five minute drive from my house to the ramp the rain started again.  I sat parked at the ramp hoping it would clear so I could go chase some fish.  Apparently I nodded off at some point and woke up 45 minutes later and it was still sprinkling.  At this point I figured "why not", and put the boat in the water. 

I ran through the cold drizzle and ducked into a creek to find some fish.  I found several drum working through the bays and around the oyster bars.  I came up on a few redfish with their fins out of the water and was able to sneak up and hook one.  He came unbuttoned, and I moved on looking for another one.  I ended up fishing a deep hole in the creek and finding several flounder, with two being big enough to ride home with me in the cooler.  At this point, I had dealt with enough rain and cold, and made the run back home.

Gator, Flounder and Reds...oh my

I had the pleasure of having Rick Grither aboard my boat today.  Rick is an accomplished fly fisherman and photographer.  He fishes as much as any person I've ever met, and most of the time he can be found walking the surf line chasing blues, spanish and the like.  I was looking forward to seeing if I could put him on some reds in the marsh today. 

We met at the ramp this morning, and Rick presented me with a bag from Dunkin Donuts...so I knew we were already off to a good start.  The sky was mostly full of gray clouds with just a bit of blue sky peeking through, but the wind was dead calm.  We launched the skiff and made a long run down to a little creek that I hadn't fished in months.  The last time I was there it was full of fish, but they had moved on, and the water level was dropping quick so we split.

The next creek we stopped at is one of my favorite creeks...mostly because I've never been there without seeing fish.  I started poling and Rick snapped a few pics as we went along.  We started seeing wakes in the creek, so Rick picked up his 8wt and started making casts.  I couldn't tell if the wakes were from reds or big mullet at first, but then I started seeing reds cruising the bank heading out with the tide.  Rick made some well presented casts but the reds were in a rush and weren't interested in stopping for a bite to eat.

I poled up the creek and we continued to see reds moving ahead of us.  As we got farther up the creek, we saw several pushes in an area where I always see fish.  We saw a few tails pop up, but the fish were super nervous and were bolting out of the shallow water.  You could track the fish by the sprays of tiny grass shrimp as the reds shot out of the bay they were in.  Rick and I were focusing hard on the fish as he took shots at them and I quietly moved the boat forward.  As we moved along, I picked up my push pole and placed the foot of it in the water beside the motor.  But when I did this, something unusual happened...the water under the poling platform exploded.  I immediately did a 180 and saw a 6ft plus angry alligator right below me.  Apparently we poled right over him in the muddy water and woke him up when I touched him with the pole.  At this point the gator swam down stream, and stopped between us and our exit to the little creek, and came up to the surface hissing and showing off his pearly whites.  Rick snapped some great shots as I tried to pole the boat around the alligator in the middle of the narrow creek.  We made a decision to let Mr. Cranky Pants have those reds and we moved back to the mouth of the creek to find the first fish we saw. 

We got a hundred yards down the creek and found several fish working.  I staked the boat out and we both started making casts.  We had several fish follow the flies and turn off after a few feet.  We switched flies and had the same issue.  Although the reds weren't happy with our offerings, the flounder were, and we caught several.  I decided to continue poling down the creek and Rick tied on an old standby fly.  He made a cast to a fish working ahead of us and connected.  A few minutes later, Rick brought a really nice red to the boat for a few pics and a quick release.  On his next cast he hooked another big fish, but the leader broke before we could land it.  I poled us out of the creek and saw several more flounder zip out of our way, including one over 5lbs in 8" of water!






Storm clouds were starting to build, so I made a run to my current favorite spot.  I knew if we could get to the back of this creek before it rained, he'd have a shot at crawling reds in clear water.  As we entered the creek I ran past some reds so I killed the engine and started poling.  After a few minutes, we heard a whistling sound in the grass and looked over and saw a whirlwind moving across the spartina grass.  The grass was twisting and blowing in one spot, while everything else was calm.  We watched the whirlwind come across the grass and cross the creek a fly cast away from us.  As if the day hadn't been enough of an adventure already, the skies opened up into a downpour immediately afterwards.  We made the run back to the ramp in a torrential down pour.

Once we got back to the ramp and changed into some dry clothes, Rick treated me to a BBQ plate and some sweet tea at the local restaurant.  Some of the photos in this post were taken by Rick, so many thanks to him for the pics and the great day on the water.  We'll do it again soon.

Roanoke Rockfish

My buddy, Traner Knott, is getting married this month.  A few weeks back, we made plans to do a guys weekend on the Roanoke River chasing rockfish.  We decided to go for a few days during the first week of May, so that we could avoid the keeper season crowd.  Traner invited his brother George, and friend Ernie to come along with us. 

I love striper season on the Roanoke...but the stretch of river near Weldon can be like a Walmart Parking lot during the April keeper season.  The first few weeks of May see just as many stripers, but with a lot less people on the river.  The spawn is also in full swing in May, and it's an awesome sight to see hundreds of stripers fighting at the surface for a chance to spawn with a big female. 

Traner and I arrived in Weldon and met up with Ernie at the local campground.  There was a storm on the radar, so the three of us went to lunch, where we waited for the storm to arrive.  It never came so we hit the river and started fishing.  It was hot on the river, and felt more like a July day than early May.  We picked up a few stripers here and there as the afternoon passed.  With the sun still high in the sky, most of the fish were caught deep, either on jigged grubs or clouser flies on sinking lines. 

As the sun set, the fish started coming to the surface to spawn.  When a big female striper is ready to spawn, she comes to the surface to release her eggs.  Dozens of smaller males follow her up and literally fight for the chance to be the closest to her, so they can fertilize her eggs when she releases them.  These "striper fights" can be seen and heard from a hundred yards away, and there will sometimes be several of these happening all at once.  At this point we switched to top water and started picking up fish from the surface.  Right before dark, the air temp dropped and the wind picked up as a storm chased us off the river.

The next morning we met up with Traner's brother George, at the ramp before day break.  The top water bite was excellent for the first hour of the day.  A couple times, I could count as many as 5 or 6 stripers darting under my fly before one would inhale it.  Once the sun got higher in the sky, the bite slowed and we went back to dredging the bottom of the river for fish.  We called it a day around noon, and headed over to Ralph's BBQ,  where we ate until we went into a partial coma.  I had a great weekend on the river with these guys and look forward to doing it again sometime soon.