Ultra minnow...

Ok, here's my first attempt at a .5oz powder painted ultra minnow with googly eyes and bucktail! The powder paint is a pearl white with a second coating of clear silver glitter. It was a more involved process cause I had to bake the dang lead heads to give the paint a harder finish. John, your critique would help here...

Yorktown action...

Well guys, I headed out at like 4:30pm this afternoon after my work X-mas party and slayed em! I hooked into a fat 19" in less than 5 minutes and proceeded to pull in like 15 total! One keeper and the rest were in the 14-15" range. It was a blast though and the water was so calm that you could literally see the fishs' dorsal fins outta the water when they were chasing the bait at the surface. I saw like 10 rock skim and swim all over the surface at one point! It was pretty cool and was a cool way to end my dang day!

-Capt. G

It ain't over til' the fatty is caught...

Hey bubbas, remember that rock season is on up to the end of
March. Read below and here's the demarcation map line. I
fished pretty much right up to March of last year for Taug and
Rock right off of Cape Henry. Inshore fishing rocks cause you
don't know what kinds of fish you will run into trolling deep
lures (demarcation map).

Virginia Coastal Seasons
..................................................................
January 1 through March 31
May 16 through December 31

Minimum Size Limit............................................. 28 inches
Possession Limit............................................... 2 per person

Sunday, on the Rocks please...

B-Mo in the Cabin.

Greg rocking it waterman style, where orange PVC is the right choice for any occasion.

Fifteen days without rockfishing during the fall season can seem like an eternity, or it can slip past you without really noticing - its been a little of both for me. I've been insanely busy at work during the day, then at night and I come home to work on the 31 or 32 paintings that I have going at once ( ranging in size from 12 to 48" high), the steady stream of applications for grants and art exhibitions, making the rounds to a few gallery openings, or discuss wedding preparations with Rochelle. Thinking about fishing always seems to jump in at the wrong time, there is always something to do, and some other place I have to be . Sunday I found myself heading out with some pals in pursuit of big Rockfish, the "Hogs" as the are Known in Gloucester, which come into the bay from the Atlantic as it gets cooler.
We had a gentlemen's hours on Sunday, due to strong lunar tides and steady south winds keeping the tides 3-4 below normal. We waited about and hour and a half after a scheduled late start, and Greg looked like he needed all of that time, as apparently he had a late night in Williamsburg on Saturday, after limiting out with his friend Will on schoolies in a honey hole across the river (they did a repeat of our previous cbbt trip trolling for hogs to no avail).
With the low tides, we had to bank everything on one tide, deading out and back before the tide dropped so low, the Parker (soon to be officially named "Lawdy Be") would be sitting on the sand (the previous, day Greg had to jump out of the boat into 48 degree water in his jeans and pull the boat the last few yards, all one ton of her, notice he went to a bar instead of the hospital - this guy thinks he is hypothermia proof).
Our late start out to York spit reef and York spit light, but we saw no dive-bombing birds, no schoolie Hogs, so we high tailed it to a few honey holes and caught them up on topwater lures. Greg landed two on a bucktail I had tied and given to him. He was getting a ton of bites, and and fished with it for less than ten minutes before he had hooked into a nice chainlink fence, 10 feet up on a peir. Of course it was a prototype, so thanks Greg - back to the drawing board with that one. Brad caught his first topwater Rockfish, landing two, but they were under size, or too close to call, and since we didn't have a ruler just returned them to the current. I managed to catch five fishing slug-gos subsurface and topwater. All of the fish were fat and healthy, with a few in the maybe range. No ruler, no keeping fish that aren't clearly keepers using my forearm test.
We had a blast all day with an almost steady strem of laughter - it was great, but for better or for worse, no "hogs", no blitzing fish and birds. Perhaps that is reason, myself and a few of my friends will most likely find ourselves on the very same boat in the last days of this year, freezing our asses off in 25 degreeg weather with 10-15 mile and hour winds, laughing our asses off, having a great time, and for a few minutes out of the day, catching rocks.

Perrin Islands in the distance. Sunday, all water, no big fish.

Greg and Will's Rockfish from Saturday, the Captain was nice enough to let Brad and I spit these porker schoolies, since we didn't keep any of the 10 we caught between us.

Ok - I'm hard core - after barely getting the boat in - we all split, and as I drove across the bridge with the sun setting, I just had to stop. I parked under the bridge, grabbed my rod and headed for the rocks, but there was nothing biting or breaking the surface, so instead, I got the obligatory sunset-lit (sometimes, sun-rise) shot. Greg and blair - I know you will laugh at me for stopping off - but really - it just shows how hardore I am. Fish on.

John can't keep the days straight

oh I'm a dumbass - good luck Saturday - i'LL SEE YOU SUNDAY! (ah, I've been at Rochelles sisters party after and art opeing tonight - I should hit the sack! later!

Fishing Sunday

Greg - I'm going to a friends birthday dinner at 6 pm on saturday - I'll be leaving DC no later thant 8:30 with my shit packed - I'll see you around 11 to 11:30 - we can still hit the dock late night if you want - regardless - I still want to be out and fishing before light on sunday... fish on - good luck sunday - send pictures...

New Years is on and I'm fishing this weekend

We have a place for Dec. 30 and 31 and leave on the 1st. Blair-you can join in still - its sheap and will only get cheaper if more stay. rochelles sister and some friends of hers have a condo that weekend too - so it will be a blast - don't be a pooper blair (or get your own room - its doable at the place we are staying at this hotel
I am excited about rockfishing this weekend - did you catch anything Blair?

snowshoe butter...

Snowshoe taken on 12/2/2006

new years in the air - striper in the water...

Bummer we have no place for new years - Greg is going to call tomorrow to see what he can set up, but no promises.
On the bright side, I am going to do my best to be in Gloucester in time to hit the night-time run at Amaco Saturday night with Captain Greg in the skiff. topwater, topwater, topwater... We are planning on being out in the parker before sun-up Sunday patroling the bay for birds and a rockfish blitz... wish us luck - plenty of photos to follow....

Snowshoe for New Years

There are no time-shares available at Snowshoe. However, Canaan Valley has some openings...

Rockfish and Vail

clip 1, clip 2, clip 3, clip 4

Deer kill...

Blair, did you happen to keep any buck hair or skin with hair
attached for bucktail tying?? Oh man, also, I'll trade you some
rock for some deer meat??!!

-G

Trout fishing with a GLOCK

So Blair, if we planned a trout fishing trip on a premier river in West Virginia this spring, would you be able to carry your GLOCK to save us from any bears trying to eat us after having our trout for an appetizer?

The Vegetarian Deer Slayer

Sorry that I don't have any pictures to tell the stories of my fishing chronicles from the Windy Gale. Last Tuesday I embarked on a solo fishing adventure to the Jimmy Rivah Bridge. Stoked from hearing about Greg's fishing trip, I was excited to hook into some nice rocks. However, my day was filled with disappointment. No fish, not even one hit. I returned home only to clean the Windy Gale and prepare for a busy week of work here on the Plantation.

On Saturday, the park hosted the annual Southern Heritage Deer Hunt. I sprung out of bed at 3am to start a 16 plus hour work day. Shortly after we got all of the hunters to their stands Chippokes Plantation State Park began to sound like Iraq, gun shots everywhere. Hearing these shots made me think two things. One, these hunters can't shoot. Or two, we are going to have to process a lot of deer. Well against my wishes and hopes, Wendy's warning to all the deer in the park to leave before the deer hunt, did not work. We began to bring out deer after deer to be processed. By 11 am 16 deer were killed, and by the end of the day at 5:30 25 deer were harvested from the park. Since this hunt is a special hunt, we also butcher the deer for the hunters. Having to Butcher 25 deer takes a long time and requires team work. At first I refused to butcher the deer, it's just plain disgusting! By the end of the day I was soo tired and wanted to go home I sucked it up and skinned 5 deer. Covered in blood and hair, I turned into another person. The sound of ripping skin, strange sucking noises and cutting these deer did not affect me at all. I rallied and got the job done, I was able to go home sometime close to hour 17.

Although Saturday had some pretty disgusting events, it was also a pretty awesome day. It made me realize how much I love my job. As a Park Ranger you never know how your day is going to be. Canoing up the creek to find a half alive deer stuck in the mud (needed to be shot by my gun when I arrive), being covered by deer parts, squeezing Doe nipples to see if they are milking or just drinking coffee by the fire.

I hope to go fishing later this week........

Help a brother out

Hey fishing dudes - were are the picks from this week and weekend - I can't get out of the city to fish the weekend - help a brother out with some photos and stories....

Powder paint!

Here's what I ordered in the hopes that it all will arrive before Dec 31st:

Item Ref.   Price ea.   Qty.  Description

516-15-001  $4.99       1     Pro Tec Pro Flake - 1-1/2 oz.
                               Bottle - Silver Hologram
520-02-008  $4.99       1     Standard Powder Paint - 2 oz.
                               Bottle - Silver
520-02-030  $4.99       1     Standard Powder Paint - 2 oz.
                               Bottle - Pearl White
545-01-008  $1.90       1     3-D Molded Lure Eyes - Size 1
                               - Shimmer Silver - 20 Pack

With this I should be able to supply us all with bucktails for the
rest of our fishing careers!

Rockfish Thanksgiving

Pre-dawn patrol on the Parker at 25 knots with a long exposure.	Sunrise from the cabin of the Parker, about 40 minutes later.
The days haul of fat schoolies 19-21 inches up to 2.75 lbs.	My top water rocks caught Saturday evening on slug-gos, I took the picture when we returned to Greg's dock at sunset (I told you we fished all day).
Awesome light on the York and a long day of fishing, ahh, good stuff.	Blair took his blushing bride Wendy on her first fishing trip out on the James, and she jigged up this 26 incher, which fed their family for Thanksgiving. Wow, Blair I can see it now - you will never get to fish again - you will be stuck driving the boat while Wendy pulls in all of the Rockfish. Photo courtesy of Blair.
Greg's biggest this year so far- 26-27.5 inches and 7 lbs - the hogs are moving in. (Blair - this puts him in the lead of the 2006 Three-Monkeybubba Rockfish Tournament) He ran into a blitz of diving-bombing gannets (large torpedo-like seabirds, that bomb the water for the fish a huge school of Rock are feeding on). He caught 11 fish bottom trolling with huge heavy weights during this, all while driving the 21 ft Parker. Photo courtesy of Greg.	Greg back at his homestead - the fish looks a lot smaller because Greg is a big lanky ape and he is holding the fish several inches behind his gorilla head. Photo courtesy of Greg.
Rocks in the live well (I think Greg needs a bigger one). Photo courtesy of Greg.

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, my lady and I had a great dinner at my parents, brother, sister in law and their girls . I helped my Dad put up less than 25% of his Christmas light display (which ends up covering 2.5 acres when finished, I'll send pictures). I went out with the high school buddies on Friday and then got up at 4:30am early to troll for Rocks with captain Greg and Jason West - We were day early for the striper blitz Greg found fishing solo on Sunday - Jason caught two decent schoolies about 19 inches but no hogs that we expected to find and we fished all day - only to return to a honey hole across from Greg house on the York, near Yorktown. With the light tackle I landed for schoolies and kept two in the twenty in range (2.5 lbs) and Greg hauled one in - that only took 20 minutes - I had my limit in 5. Saturday night we went to Wren and Derek's, where I got to listen to Derek razz me all night because he didn't get to go out with us. It was great to catch up with people.I finally got some pics from some of my fishing buddies so check them out.

Tight lines - John

permissions...

Guys, I gave you both admin permissions so that you can pretty much do whatever you want to the blog. What do you think of this template? It allows for a wider post at any rate. Also, John do you think you post that last email you sent out on the blog? With images and all? Thanks tough guuuy!

-Capt G

Rockfish Salad

Here's the recipe captain Greg requested, it can be adjusted depending on how much Rockfish you have (great for leftovers if there are any):

1 lb grilled or broiled rockfish (cold, set aside, add last)
1/3 to 1/2 cup light mayo
3 to 5 chopped green onions (bulbs and greens)
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon sweet hot mustard
1/2 tablespoon dried dill
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1/2 red pepper chopped (optional)

Set aside Rockfish. Combine all other ingredients in a non-metal bowl, stir well. Carefully flake Rockfish into mixture and fold gently into mixture (you wan to have big flakes of fish in there, don't shred it to pieces). IMPORTANT: Refridgerate salad for at least one hour prior to serving to let all the flavors meld, otherwise, it will just taste like mayo. Leaving it overnight is great! If your are ina hurry, mix the other ingredients in advance while cooking fish, let it cool then add it and eat up. Its great on toast or slices of bagette, makes a killer sandwich and can be a fancy dip for your next shindig.

figure it out

Hmmm - this is a weird format - I will try to post an image - can you stack them?

That's the law...

Hey kids, when you're out Rock fishing all day you need to remember to not break the law. Before you throw that fish in the cooler it needs to be at least 18 inches and no longer than 28 inches. But, it's OK to have one fish larger than 34 inches. Just remember that you can only bring home 2 fish per person per day. So have fun and stay safe out there.

Conservation Officer C. B. Evans