Orange Cay Panarama

"Lonely and forgotten" Orange Cay. This panarama was taken from the tuna tower, that's my excuse for how shaky it is. I'm only going to leave this up for a few days because the file size is pretty big >5 mb. Right click and "save picture as.." if you use a pc. please use the comment form to let me know if it's loading too slow.

Four Days of Fishing in the Bahamas

I could write a novel about all of our experiences in the Bahamas this past weekend, but I'm going to focus on the fishing and save for another time the tales of pirates, mutiny, and being nearly stranded in the middle of the ocean. Michael and I met my friend Don in Miami and loaded up his boat with groceries, ice, and bait, for four days of fishing in the Bahamas. We cruised twenty or so miles down the Florida coast to Fowery rocks then began our passage across the Gulf Stream to the "lonely and forgotten" island of Orange Cay. Along the way we saw several blue marlin and some dolphinfish, but we weren't able to get a bite. When we arrived at Orange Cay we immediatlly tried our hand at some deep jigging for grouper, the primary target of our expedition. Our efforts were quickly rewarded as we pulled several nice strawberry and red grouper from their haunts in nearly 400 feet of water. We then found an anchorage and enjoyed a grilled grouper dinner. After dinner, we tried for grouper in the much shallower water beneath our anchorage but only managed a few short ones, although we did boat a few barracudas to use as cut bait. We did really well on the grouper in 400 feet throughout our trip and all of us got a workout from pulling these monsters up from the deep. We knew we were getting too tired to crank anymore in when the barracudas were stealing more than their fair share of the catch. We also tried for big grouper in 700 feet of water. Cranking in that much line even with no fish is a gruelling chore. I did manage to pull up one strawberry before Michael had a big hookup. He played deep water tug of war for over half an hour before we saw his catch. It was a 200 plus pound shark that had swallowed an entire barracuda filet, not the fifty pound grouper we were hoping for. We lost the shark boatside so we didn't get any pictures, which is too bad because it was an impressive sight. Exhausted from fishing, we made our way in close to the cay, which is just an exposed coral reef right on the edge of the Great Bahama Bank and the Straits of Florida. We went hunting for spiny lobster, they call them crawfish, hoping to catch a few for dinner. None to be found, though. The reef must either be fished over or the lobsters have headed into deeper water. We really enjoyed snorkeling around the beautiful coral reef, though. Lots of colorful fish ranging in size from tiny up to "I hope that thing doesn't bite me," including a half dozen barracudas that watched us explore the reef from a safe distance. We also saw lots of enormous conch and the biggest starfish I have ever seen, it was as big around as a bus tire and just as thick, too. We stayed up late fishing every night because the temperature was much cooler and the powerful tropic sun wasn't scorching us, also the lights on the back of the boat attracted all types of baitfish to the boat. At night we saw schools of ballyhoo, flying fish, squid, needfish, and others. The bigger fish followed suit and we watched them feed on the bait. On two occasions we had flying fish fly right into the boat. One landed on the fly bridge, at least fifteen feet up from the water level. We caught dozens of super colorful snappers and other bottom fish, I had to consult the Smithsonian Field Guide to Fishes at least a dozen times during the trip. The next night we had a school of horse eye jacks hanging out behind the boat, which kept Michael and I up all night, because they are so fun to catch. We caught several dozen each, and these powerful fighters take ten to fifteen minutes to reel in even on medium class tackle. That was some of the best fishing of the whole trip. I'm sure this is leaving some out, but all in all we caught red gouper, strawberry grouper, tomato grouper, yellow tail snapper, yellow eye snapper, lane snapper, and several unidentifiable snapper, horse eye jacks, several types of grunts, lizardfish, sand tile fish, barracuda, and a two hundred pound shark. What an amazing experience, fishing around a deserted island in the middle of the ocean. The water was amazingly blue and clear. We could see the rocks and ferns on the bottom even in 80 feet of water. When we returned to Miami it seemed like we had spent four days in another world. Almost a week later and my arms are still sore from catching so many fish!

Notice the octopus hanging out of this red grouper's mouth, it made great snapper bait!

A great example of how colorful the fish in the bahamas are

Offshore Virginia Beach

My friend Jay invited me to go fishing with him and his father offshore of Virginia Beach a couple of weeks ago, and of course I could not pass that opportunity up. We were hoping to raise a billfish, particularly a blue marlin. Unfortunately, we didn't see or raise any. We trolled around some birds hoping to hook into some yellowfin tuna, but we didn't have any luck there either. We also trolled around a bunch of floating lumber hoping for a dolphin to bite, but again, nothing. We were 72 miles southeast of Rudee inlet at the cigar, and the water was clear and royal blue. When we got back to the dock we learned that nobody out there had a banner day, but a small few had been caught. Nonetheless, the weather was great and we all enjoyed the boatride through those calm seas. The highlight of the trip was a school of bottlenose dolphins that were curious about our boat and came in for a close up. They did some nice aerobatics for us and swam close enough that we could clearly see them swimming through the water. Thanks again Jay and John for having me along. Next time we'll celebrate with sushi!

Bottlenose dolphins off of Virginia Beach

Motor Trouble

No summer fishing log could be complete without a bit of motor trouble. Alice, Jason, Steve, Dad, and myself piled onto Dad's boat to try and find a few more cobia. The boat was running great, after a little trouble getting it started, so we headed across the bay. We stopped off near the high level bridge to jig for trout but only boated a few croaker. We then headed out to the shoal and started chumming for brown suits. We had two runs and lost an eel, and managed to hook a small shark. I mortified everyone on board by hammering Louisville Slugger into the back of his head. We noticed a powerful thunderstorm was steadily coming closer so we decided to head for home. Half way back across the bay the ignition squeals, the dash lights up, and the motor completely dies. The nearby lightning strikes and gusting winds made this a pretty tense moment for all of us. Thankfully, we were able to diagnose the problem and get home safely. Alice got this great photo of what Steve called the "brain trust" of the operation. I also identified a sensitive place where I will definitely be using sunblock next time.

Alice really captured the moment with this shot!

Chumming for Cobia

Jay and I ran out to the middle grounds and set up a chum line and bait hoping to hook into "the man in the brown suit," cobia. We set out live eels and live fish and began sending chum drifiting behind the boat. Within a few minutes a long skinny fish with a long bill, possibly a houndfish, was cruising behind the boat enjoying the small offering of chum. He stayed right behind the boat all day waiting for us to throw him some more handouts. We also saw a school of nice spadefish finning the surface just ahead of us and I thought maybe we should have been after them, or at least we should have been prepared with the right kind of bait. A small school swam right up to our anchor line before they decided to veer off in another direction. All of this excitement was fun but we had caught no cobia. We had caught a few mullet on the bottom to use as live bait, but otherwise we were getting skunked. I checked a few of our baits that had gotten some suspect bumps and found one eel chomped in half, probably by a bluefish. A few mullet in my livewell had checked out, so I decided to use cut chunks as bait. I put a big steak on a hook and threw it in, followed by some tiny chunks I had cut to try and entice anything swimming in our slick. Wham! The rod with cut bait doubled over and Mr. Brown splashed and fought on the surface. He must have turned and swam right to the boat because I cranked him right in. Jay netted him and all forty inches hit the fish box right away. I put a fresh chunk of fish onto that some rod and pitched it behind the boat. I started throwing a few more chunks and... Wham! The same rod doubled down again. Jay grabbed it and began fighting this tough fish. This one took several runs away from the boat before we finally got him into the net. We measured him at just under the legal size limit, so we took a few pictures and let him go. We quickly got back to fishing but the big action was done for the day. We tried more cut bait and caught our first clear nosed skate of the day. We decided that hooking that skate, the wind starting to blow, and a racing cigarette boat running through our chum slick was a sign from above. Jay and I each caught our first cobia and all of the hard work really paid off. Cobia, I learned tonight, really is delicious eating.

Two cobia caught chumming the middle grounds

Trout Jigging

The weekend of the fourth I went out on a solo mission to catch some grey trout around the pilings of the Bridge Tunnel. I cruised the bridge looking for the tell tale marks on the fish meter and wasn't seeing much. I started jigging with a homemade stingsilver and had several short strikes and lost a few small trout. Then I had a big hookup. I was sure this trout would go eight or ten pounds as I was reeling him in so I decided to stop cranking and reach for the net. As soon as I stopped pulling that big boy to the surface my rod nearly pulled out of my hand and the drag started screaming, someting had eaten my trout! I cupped the spool and was able to turn the fish, but he soon took another long run away from the boat. I turned him around again and got a few cranks before he ran again. I was hoping it was a cobia but ended up pulling a huge shark up next to the boat. He looked like he was half the size of the boat! Once he saw me he exploded into action and water was flying in every direction. He pumped his tail hard, smacking the side of the boat, and took the longest run yet. I was able to turn him around and crank him all the way back to the boat before he shook the hook, which was bent out and barely clinging to the jig by the stretched out ring. What a fight! I didn't boat him but I did get my tackle back. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture. Pretty amazing that I even got him to the boat with no leader and a thin 4/0 hook.

No Bananas!

Michael and I went fishing last Friday with my friend and former employer, Captain Sonney Forrest. The Fin Finder is clean and comfortable, with all the top-notch tackle needed to do some serious fishing. Check out http://www.finfinder.com We started our day of fishing by catching our limit of grey trout near the high level, we then set up on Latimer Shoal and chummed for "the man in the brown suit," cobia! We caught our limit of sharks but Mr. Brown never made an appearance. We watched one of the menhaden purse-seine boats out of Reedville lay their set and haul it in. Very discouraging to watch this operation because the menhaden are the primary forage of game fish and other predators in the ocean and bay, they are the primary forage of ospreys, bald eagles, and other shore birds, and our dwindling menhaden stocks are grossly over fished. Less menhaden in the bay also contributes to our dirty water because menhaden are very effective filter-feeders, using baleen to filter nutrients and micro-organisms out of the water. These purse-seines are highly efficient vessels guided to the slow swimming schools of menhaden by spotter planes. The mothership sends two purse boats around the school with the net before coming back alongside the mothership where the catch is pumped from the net. The most depressing part is that these fish are used primarily to make cat food and chicken feed. Check out http://menhadenmatter.org/ The rest of the weekend was spent working on the boat and creating the greatest bait keeper ever. Now all we need to do is fill it with volunteers and draft recruits! Thanks for all the help, Dad! Maybe we'll go after one of those cobias this weekend.

Mothership and purse boats gathering their haul of menhaden off of Cape Charles

Doormat!

Dad and I spent all day on the bay Saturday and really enjoyed ourselves. We put the canopy on the boat so we had the luxury of fishing in the shade. The breeze was blowing just enough to pick up the 2 - 3 foot seas and spray them all over the boat, soaking us from head to toe. Dad said it's really a wet boat but in the heat it was pretty refreshing. Our day of fishing looked like it would really be great when we immediately spotted a school of breaking fish outside the inlet. After I threw a huge backlash into Dad's baitcasting rig, seven or eight boats ran right through the middle of the fish. So much for that, we headed to my favorite flounder hole and started our drift. The first four hookups we had were sharks. We boated all four and released them unharmed. I even managed to get all of my tackle back without losing a finger. When the flounder finally turned on, the action was red hot! We caught and released several dozen nice flounder, most of them just under the 16 1/2 inch size limit, but some were definite keepers. The highlight of the day was a 25" doormat that would have been really close to the 7 pound citation weight. We decided to call it a day, and headed in. We were stopped for nearly an hour to be inspected by the Coast Guard in Long Creek. All safety equipment passed and they said I was as "good as gold" for the season. We made the best of the situation, gave them some good laughs, and I know Dad loved showing off that doormat!

Flounder caught on Saturday, a regular doormat!

Light tackle stripers!

A beautiful day on the water and a successful fishing trip with Giselle, Michael, and myself provided enough flounder and rockfish to feed the whole family this week. Michael started the day off right by landing a nice flounder in the first ten minutes of fishing while Giselle and I were busy cranking in horse croakers. We were startled when and enormous sea turtle came up for a breath right next to the boat. It must have been seven feet long and five feet wide with a head even bigger than mine. I can't imagine what it must weigh. When the action turned to hooking skates two at a time, we decided to try for spring stripers at the bridge. We made the right decision! Catching big striped bass on light tackle is really a blast and Giselle caught her first one ever. There were lots of boats on the water and I wonder if everyone was as lucky as we were.

Twenty pound striper caught at at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel

Floundering

Ali and her friend Matt must think flounder fishing is as easy as pie. We went out to the small boat channel and caught 'em steady all day, except for a few breaks when the croaker were eating us up. Biggest one was close to 22 inches. What better way is there to spend a holiday weekend than on the water, catching fish, and enjoying the great weather. The sunshine was just what Ali wanted and I have a feeling she got more than she bargained for. . . sorry Ali, thanks for putting sunblock on my back, and I hope that "tan" is feeling better soon!

Nice flounder caught Memorial Day weekend.

Rappahannock Tug'o War

Jay, Michael, JB and myself went out of Mosquito Creek (thanks to Jay's
dad for the dock) for some bottom fishing near the White Stone bridge and the croaker bite was on! All after a slow start . . sorry fellas. We got a day's worth of pullage in, even caught a small sea trout. Sorry to those who missed out on the fish fry!

Michael beatin' up croaker in the Rappahannock.