Crazy Hotness and the Itty Bitties

It almost sounds like a band name, doesn't it?  "Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome The Crazy Hotness and the Itty Bitties with their hit single... Swamp Butt".  Seriously though, it was stupid hot.  But with hopes of catch up to Jay Brooks and Justin Mayer in the race to VA Saltwater Expert Angler, I braved the heat with several bottles of frozen water and ventured out under the CBBT.  Much to my surprise several other kayak anglers were out in search of that addictive tug.  It was nice to meet some new guys and see a few others that I recognized. 

The action was almost as hot...

Caught a few flounder up to 16.5" while jigging soft plastics.
Also met a guy who had a nice 20"er earlier in the day.

There were plenty of what Lee Williams likes to call "ChesaFreak bay Oyster Toads"

Dropped some fiddler crabs to the bottom and found a few tautog up to 15"

And you can't drop fiddlers in the summer without running into a few of these... Black Sea Bass.  Normally, they're extremely small. 
I was surprised to find some in the 10"-11" range.

I switched to clams and found the ever-so-fun spadefish.  Some friends went out earlier in the week and got into better class of fish, but the biggest for me was a mere 9".  At least there were lots of them to keep me entertained.

On a side note, I recaptured a spadefish that I tagged 6 hrs earlier.... it was still on the exact same piling!  I wonder if they'll send me a t-shirt for that.  I mean it was a tagged fish, right?

So in the end, it was a veritable buffet of itty bitties and no check off the citation list.  I did have one bite and hook up that still has my imagination running wild.  I was under the same piling that I caught a near citation tog at last summer.  It went on three absolutely amazing runs, then I used the remote to start recording on the GoPro... I get a little slack in the line and the fish gets off.  A boat near by gives me the "Aww man, that sucks... that really looked like a good one".  Pardon my language at the end of the video clip.  But notice the vein sticking out of my neck during the slow mode...