Home again for a sort while the sea calms . . .

Planned to return to my home as the forecast was for West winds at 17 and 2 foot seas?  OK, Bill got off early, and took his boat home as the planned guests cancelled due to the poor fishing forecast.  My search for lost items took me several hours to find things I should have packed/inventoried before Dec 1.  Found things I looked for weeks!  By the time I got on the CBBT, I looked down and the sea was almost glass like.  What happened to the forecast and why was I on the road and not drifting?  Well, truth is that Raymond was coming in to the Norfolk International airport at 5 PM, not!  Maybe 6, maybe later.  I didn't want to drive city roads at night, so I was on my way to the pick up at 3 PM.  Had to spend some time at WaWa.  Finally got Raymond and back to WaWa for a snack.  The drive to Bumpass was uneventful and arrived about 9 PM. 

At Bumpass, Raymond settled into his engineering mode and installed shelving in what used to be a guest coat closet.  Now, sort of a pantry. Had to drive to Fredericksburg to Lowe's and found a Chinese Buffet that Raymond liked.  So much, that the next day we opted to return for another lunch.

 Then, the cats!  Mel wanted a kitty door so the cats can get to the litter boxes.  Raymond applied his skills again and got the contraption installed.  But, the cats have never used this type of door.  Now Mel has to figure out how to train the cats.  Oh, one doesn't train cats?  So,  the door is still open, the new kitty door remains unused, and boxes  block the dogs from visiting the shit box for a treat .  .  .

Then, a trip to the dumpster to get rid of some boxes cluttering the house.  Unfortunately, Raymond stuck my knife in a box for safety and, and, it went into the dumpster.  When we went back, the refuse had been removed, lost knife.

Return to Kiptopeke will be Wed sometime, as we may be able to get on the water late and resume fruitless drifts?  Sure hope the larger boats come in with some catches to show that there are still COWs roaming the sea.  A stop at Bass Pro caused me to purchase a Coast Guard inflatible vest and a 4 pack of PFDs for the boat.  .  My boat will serve our needs if the bite doesn't improve, it's likely that we will call it quits on the 22 or 23 and stay home for the holidays.  The Mrs. will love that! :)

Eels are still chilled in the 3 bucket system I used for transport to Bumpass.  Gotta keep them critters alive and ready to swim as best as they can. But, many didn't make it as I erred and didn't flush the slime off them and remove the dead eels.  Will do better next time.

Having a very nice visit with my brother Raymond.  But he's very preoccupied with coordinating a family gathering at the ranch is Colorado.  His father in law broke his femur and can't get around well.  So, the family is coming to him.

Another fish day skunk . . . Sat. 14th

Relatively light seas at 10 A M and Bill and I decided to fish West of the cabbage patch.  Lots of bait and marks, but an hour or so of drift didn't produce.  Moved West of the Plantation Light with the same result. Reports of "fish on" came from the shipping channel, another 2 miles off shore.  SE wind continued and we fished on until white caps were numerous and the rain came earlier than the forecast.  Tough return to the launch ramp as the seas were building faster than the ability of my boat.  Slow return with lots of hull pounding against the wind.

The above photo shows the rod holder I mounted on the Sea Pro rail, and  it is functional to store rods on the water some what out of the way.  Can't be left when coming to the dock or loading the boat.

This photo shows the eel tube hanging with the eel tail protruding.  Sometimes difficult to get the eels to leave the tube.  With the eel tube out of the rod holder, the holder can again function to hold rods while running to a new drift start.  The layout and mount works really well.  The 1 1/4 inch PVC is necessary for the Ohner #10/0 hooks? 

Shows the three bucket eel bucket system in use on the stern of the boat giving access to crew on both sides of the boat.  The right bucket is the ice bucket to keep the eels cool, wet, etc. Good idea tow rinse the eels once in a while in the bay to remove slime that may drown the eels.

Well, sometimes ya gotta chow down.  Friday we went to Yak-Yak and the special was a great rack of barbe ribs.  Passed Don Valerios Mexican on the way and it was jumping.  Unlike the laid back Yak Yak.

Tonight, I'm not sure.  I could do Mexican but Bill isn't responding.  Well, it hasn't been my day.

Not sure tomorrow is a fish day, 2-3 foot seas .  .  .

Friday 13 was awful and Joy got skunked again

Yep, Friday the 13th and we tried to fish.  Morning forecast for 2 foot seas didn't happen.  The 5 foot seas laid down to about 3 by noon.  We made the attempt.  The 14 kt  West wind kept up and the drift was at 2 GPS mph.  Boat pointed East, but boat drifting SE against the incoming tide.  Made two drifts and only heard  of one fish in our network boated.  So, we called it a day and quit the 44.9 degree sea.  My experience is that the stripers leave the bay at 45 degrees.

Thursday 12th was a blow out.  So, we did errands.  Bill got his annual VA park launch pass.  I found that 12/13 meant Dec of 2013 and I could wait.  Kiptopeke is a VA park launch.  Then to Cape Charles to get a fuel card so we can fuel on the water or on the trailer.  Card requires a credit card, but the access pin allows fueling any time and at a 20 cents off a gallon for non-alcohol gas, it was a must.  Besides being the only source for about 45 miles distance as the Cape Charles station closed for good.  Another pin to remember!

Wednesday, the 11th,  was a relatively good fish day.  Bill's guest got an almost citation at 39.7 and 44 inches.  Bill had a break off at the boat and boated a smaller 30 pounder.  No more hook ups, so I got skunked.

Now Sat morning and neither I nor Bill are anxious to get on the bay.  Some of our network went home for a few days.   Sent a note to my brother advising that the fishing won't be and he should cancel his fishing plan.  He is to arrive Sunday night from his home in Rawlings WY.  Long trip for no COWS.

My catch back on the 5th of Dec didn't get a photo for Chris's Bait and Tackle "Facebook".  So, proof will have to wait until I get the citation from VA for the 54.1 pound COW.

Yet there's still a week to verify my temperature observations.

The 2013 season count down is on

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.

OK, the 2013 COW Season is here . . .

OK, the 2013 season is finally here.

Teacher (Jamie Beaty) and Adam are already at Cape Charles and tell me that they are settled in and .  .  .  no reports of fishing success yet.  But, I know Teacher and his CPR stuff will occur shortly.  Likely too early for the fall striper run, but they are pushing South and now reside off Long Island and New Jersey coasts.  The 40 degree weather today off the Northeastern shore will certaily help get them headed South.  But for now, I suspect that Teacher and Adam will be fishing the CBBT island 4 and the pilings for resident schoolies with jigs tipped with sand eels or 6 inch BKDs.  

JTB is just trying to get his junk at Gainesville packed and also get down to Scottsburg to ready some things for my travel to Kiptopeke, Sunset Beach Resort.  The move is coming along and the house closing seems to be on track for Nov 15, move in on Nov17.  My new blog: JTBs Lake Anna blog will tell of my experiences and other aspects of learning to fish a new lake for striped bass.

This year, my brother Raymond and two of his sons will be coming in from WY to fish with me for the week of Dec 15.  My son Hawley will be coming in during the same week.  Bill Fowler may bring his boat this year just in case we have an overflow crowd.  He'll be bringing his nephew Matt and another fishing friend and maybe his wife, Lidia.  Last year was an awesome year with very pleasant weather all the way to the end of the season on Dec 31.  Reviewing the archive posts of this blog will show that it was almost like living the dream.  Not like Teacher and Adam, but for us it was a dream season.  My brother's first trip had us boating 5 stripers with one a CPR citation for Raymond.  We had 5 fish on simultaneously with only two of us on board.  What excitement!  Of course, the big one pulled drag for more than a hundred yards when it was turned and line was recovered.  Unfortunately, the fish decided to make another run and the gil plates cut the line, excitement over.  So, the family guests are back to relive their dream catches.

You can tell that I'm anxious and excited .  .  . unfortunately, I'm not prepared!

oK, December 1, and 2 came and went without boating a fish.  The third took the skunk off the boat as Bill caught a 30 or so dink when we shadowed Teacher.    The net forgotten at the dock and the lip gaff weren't there and Bill lip boated the dink.  That was it for the day.

The 4th was socked in fog, but light seas, so we went fishing.  Though Teacher shared the info that the Texaco wreck off Cape Charles was the place, we didn't find it until after the fog lifted.  Lots of bait and sonar marks, but no hits .  .  That is until Bill boated another dink.  I went to repair tackle from a tangle when Bill said "fish on".  Reluctantly, I took the rod and with great difficulty we boated a 54.1 # COW.  

The 5th was a low off in the morning.  We hesitated and decided too late to launch.  Bills wife came in on Thursday evening and a visit was in order as she was to provide a home cooked meal, camp style.  Fri continued really heavy seas for my boat and we did tackle repair and boat maintenance in the 70 degree heat.

Sat was a blow out again and we did tackle and Bill went shopping with his wife. Wanted to clean fish, but it turned bitter cold, too cold to handle an icy fish.  

Sun seems like another blow, but the east wind can be fishable.  Of courser, Bill and I are not into punishment and don' challenge Mother Nature. 

Constructing a windscreen for the SeaPro

Thanks to Mike Smedley, I have been able to construct a wind screen for the Seapro that I will be completely functional.  But trying to use the voice recognition to type and find the appropriate options for adding photos to the blog seems impossible.  I may have to wait until I can use a desktop computer to connect with blogger.com to add this post.

Okay, I think I am able to post photos in the blog using the iPad. But many of the options available in a desk top to organize the blog are missing.

Unfortunately, it's the nature of clear plastic to hide in a photo.

This photo shows the wind screen deployed for use on the water.  The red straps at the top retain the rolled up windscreen when hauling on the road.

This photo shows the wind screen rolled up and secured for hauling on the road.

The red web strap on each side help hold the windscreen in place and are in addition to the vertical Velcro that is secured by adhesive to both the plastic and the stainless steel upright.

They sell adhesive Velcro is held on the stainless steel upright with stainless steel cable ties.  They are visible above and below the T top brace nuckle.  There are cable ties at each end of the Velcro to be sure it stays in place while deploying the wind screen.

This photo shows how the end of the wind screen looks when it is rolled up or travel.  The short section of rope in the photo is used to hold a pulley that is necessary to life COW stripers when a photo is needed.  A clear plastic hammock to hold the fish horizontal will be a future project.  Bill is in favor of a crane to lift the COWS on board.  The point is that Bill and I cannot lift a cow striper for a photo with out some kind of mechanical help.

Thanks to Mike Smedley's constant reminder that keeping it "simple is better", I was able to complete this project.  Of course, I haven't tested the windscreen on the water to be sure it will be completely functional. I will make a test run on the water in a few days to be sure everything stays in place at full speed.

I think this is the after "living the dream" catches, a new beginning!

Teacher, Jimmie Beaty and his first Cobia.  No specifics about the catch available at this time.  Still living the dream, lucky guy.

July 23 and I got the reel drag washers replaced with carbontex by Somooth Drag.  Pull even from the start with smoothness.

Here it is July 10, 2013 and the effort to get ready for Kiptopeke 2013 continues.  Here you see the 9 Shumano Charter Special 2000 LDs that are to be placed on the rods shortly.  Only two have mono as the terminal line.  Others have mono as backing and loaded with 40# braid.  In the background, two 1K meter spools of line color at 10 meter intervals.  For now, I'll just change the terminal color of 30 or 40 feet to help deploy baits.

Need a photo of the planer cork I'll be using to help separate the baits that do not have planer boards to pull them apart.  Mike Smedley uses planer corks for his fishing and gave me two small ones for Kerr a long time ago.  I stopped live baiting with the T.M. and strictly drop live bait on the Stripers heads after finding them with the Ray Jefferson Sonar.

Can a fisherman ever be ready for "living the dream"?  Bill Fowler is getting around great after his hip replacement surgery.  I'm still trying to get over my lower back pain and now doing physical therapy for my rotator cuff surgery.  December is coming on fast and hopefully our healing will be complete before then.

Have the v90 thread, clear vinyl, white canvas, and will shortly purchase 3/4 inch web and buckles so I can have my cousin fabricate a wind/spray screen for the T on my Sea Pro.  Very much needed when cold rain and it's needed to get back to the launch as the seas rise.

OK, enough for this moment.

An after thought .  .  . I found the forum at Shumano Charter Special reel maintenance dealing with reel repair and maintenance (tutorials) to be a great resource for my use maintaining the Shumano charter Special 2000 lever drag.  Ordering parts from Shumano seems economical, simple, and delivery is rapid. The shematic makes this possible. Smooth Drag washers and greases offers the upgraded drag washer and special grease mentioned in the forum.  

Guess I'll have to fabricate my own planer corks as I don't like the release offered on the commercial products.  Something else to ponder over the summer.

New information about RediRig TOS Planer Floats

                            

Well, Mike Smedley sent the RediRig TOS Planer Floats and I'm impressed.  Mike says they will pull moderately to the side to separate the eels, yet are large enough to float the eels.  The left huge cork was my idea of what would be needed.  The red and green Planer Floats are colored for the starboard and port applications.  The signal orange cork to the right is just for example and could be used in place of the 3" round corks I usually employ.  You can be sure I'll put them in their paces, or is it places?

Still working on reel maintenance and waiting for Shumano to restock pinion gears.

Shumano parts indicates that the gears will be available in mid September.  Can't do more than wait.  The reels I want to try new pinion gears are usable, but feel like a bit of sand in the gears when cranking.  Replaced the end cap spool shaft bearings, so that's not the problem. Gotta be the pinion gear.

Got two more graphite drag washers from SmoothDrag and I'll get the last reel modified shortly.

Will also add TLD 15 crank handles to several of the Shumano Charter Special 2000.  Fishing friends tell me that the new crank handles really do make a difference.

Whew, 99 days 'til time to hit Kiptopeke for COWs!