Fish Taggin' Bender

Photo credit: Joseph Underwood

After receiving info on some of my tagged fish recaptures, I've been even more motivated to keep sticking it to 'em.  So much so that I went on a bit of a bender with Richie Bekolay.  On Saturday afternoon we went to Lynnhaven inlet and found the little red drum all over the place as well as a few small flounder and black sea bass.  We eagerly watched the radar knowing that a storm was on the way.  We got off just in time and waited it out in the parking lot.  After the longer than expected down time, we made our way over to HRBT and searched the light line for some stripers.  It took us a while, but we eventually found them.  Most were fairly small (16"-18") but we managed a few skinny ones that went 23.5" and 24.5".  I also jigged up a few itty bitty flounder and croaker.  We got off the water around midnight and got to passing out in the our cars around 1:30.

The 5 am rendezvous time for the CBBT came quick.  Joe Underwood was already there, amped up and ready to go.  The three of us made good time getting out to the spots and quickly found the spades. None of them were very big (7"-11"), but fun none the less.  After dropping fiddlers for a bit with no love, we moved on toward the 1st island and found the mother load of small flounder.  I was getting hits on every cast for a while and emptying out my tagging gun quickly.

Barely hooked

Eventually the bite slowed down and we switched to dropping fiddler crabs again.  Joe was the only one finding the bite and hooked up more than once to a big sheepshead.  Unfortunately, he couldn't seal the deal on any.  I was a good distance away when Richie tells me over the VHF radio that Joe was hooked up a third time to a big sheepie.  Then a few minutes later, the wind carried over a not-so-happy scream.  Dude was especially pissed.  Later on I found out he had it halfway in the  kayak and the leader popped.  I feel for him, but I'm sure he'll get one if not more before the season is over.


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