Okay it's now early morning on December 1, 2013. I am up all night trying to be sure that I have my stuff ready to load when daylight ones. I will meet Bill at South Hill, VA Walmart at 10 AM. Bill arrived early in the morning on November 30 to help me load my gear. At daylight, all I need to do is load the rods on the boat and load a few other items in the truck and I'll be out of here about 8:30.
The fishing report indicated that the big girls and pigs have not arrived in the bay yet. Most of what is being caught are resident, maybe 30 to 40 inches. The migration through the Delaware Bay canal haven't made it to the CBBT yet.
The wind will cooperate sun-tue, so we may find some success.
November 28 and headed to Norlina to dine with Bill Fowler as he invited Joy and Mel for the T Day event.
Hauling gear from the new house in Bumpass and correlating the gear at Scottsburg is near impossible. Have a freezer and fish cooler on the 14 foot utility trailer ready to travel this morning. It's a 3 hour trip to Bill's and the first hour is over roads that are hardly secondary. No curb white and faded center and barely wide enough for sub compact autos, let alone a huge trailer.
Mike Smedley UPSed two reels to my Scottsburg residence to give them a try. He will also bring two rod/reel combos. The Accurate reels are powerful and have a narrow spool without a line guide. One is already spooled with 30# big game mono. I'll spool the other with a couple hundred yards of 40# braid and a topshot of 30# mono. Mono has stretch and I'm told it will aid to prevent breakoffs. Yet, I keep my reel drag weight about 5 pounds for the strike and full drag might be near 12 pounds. A neat feature of a lever drag Shumano also the Accurate reels.
Most of my rods are Ugly Stix and have a varied weight range for the 10 rods. Some are 15-30, some 20-40, and some 30-60 all the custom that have many more line guides. A powerful rod that has handled 55# cows thus far. We always try to play the fish so it comes to the boat somewhat exhausted and not ready for a new run. But, the best laid plan doesn't always work. A fish that comes to the boat with little fight can be a monster drag screaming run that can break rods. While the 50+ pound Cows are powerful, the 40-50 # pigs can be much stronger and provide a tougher fight. We try to keep the same style reel on all rods to help those fishing know how to handle the equipment. Bill says he bought two new Shumano lever drag reels, but didn't install the graphite drag washer. All my reels have this update. We will see what difference it makes.
Several of my reels came from EBay and had seen severe service with West Coast salmon. The cloth drag washers were burned and the reel level wind was damaged and/or creased. Took some effort, but I got er done. A description was written earlier about this activity.
We'll have two boats this year as we have guests that might crowd our boats too much to be pleasurable. My brother Raymond Hansen and his son Brennon arrive on Dec 15. My son Hawley Hansen arrives during this week, but hasn't said when? Bill has a nephew, Matt that loves fishing the bay when it's glass like. Bill may have his Mrs. and another friend during the month.
Bill hasn't done the Kiptopeke season with his boat and I made the planer holders, had extra planers, made an extra 3 bucket eel container, Bill is tusseling with the purchase of an adequate net for the big girls. Bill's boat has a 4 stroke and elimintates the need for a trolling motor. The 2 stroke spooks the stripers just as a sonar may. But the stripers don't seem to spooke with the 4 stroke. Fishing with Yogi verified this when Bill and I went on a refresher learning trip with him. We both had fish on withing minutes of setting the planers.
By the way, Yogi also introduced us to the Walleye Planer boards that have a spring pin keeper. The planer board can't get off the line unless the line breaks. The release clip up front is a problem that I haven't solved yet when using braid, but the instructions tell how to get it done.
Teacher is on the bay as are others making the attempt, but looking KayakKevin's website shows that the anyone on the bay would be blown off unless in a much larger vessel. Think the cold and gusts to 45 mph sent Teacher and others home for T-Day?
Really anxious to converse with my mentor fishing Kiptopeke and Kerr for stripers. I enjoyed fishing with Greg Patterson on Kerr, but didn't realize that he taught Mike Smedley about fishing Kiptopeke in December. Both are great fishermen and share their knowledge willingly. Guess there are now hundreds that owe their Kiptopeke fishing successes to these guys.
As for me, I'm about to start a new blog adventure Fishing Lake Anna. This blog will begin in earnest this coming spring.
Then, there's Black Drum, Red Drum, Cobia, etc. at the CBBT arena of Chesapeake. Bill may have crab traps to provide a feast. Maybe the two gentlemen from last year will again provide bushels of clams and oysters . . .
Teacher says the big girls are in the bay coming in under the CBBT. Others have been migrating through the Delaware Canal and were at Mid Bay a few weeks ago near the Solomans. Mike Smedley says his buddies are still boating stripers off New Jersey and they are feasting on Sand eels.
Yet, the weather reports seem to say the bay is at 51 degrees. This recent cold might send the stripers back out to sea where the water is more to their liking. My experience is that they skat at 45 and are completely gone at 40. Other experts have a different opinion. Likely better fishermen!
Stay tuned for pending fishing reports and photos.
