After work rock...

Waited til' dark and headed out knowing I would catch some but NOT in such a short amount of time! Caught 2 keepers in less than 10 minutes... no shit here. Landed a total of 7 with 1 hour before peak low tide with the wind blowing against it. Kinda made the boat just sit there in front of the Amoco docks that we always catch em at. These 2 came outta the corner and the rest were caught on the side dock.

Spring fishing out on the bay!

Well, this season is getting off to a great start. Here's some fish:

Here's the first night of rock season.	Another night of rock fishing with Bob ;-D
Great set of blues caught at York spit light tower. These guys pulled harder than 25" rockfish!	Nasty little rock with lesions. Makes me sad and angry in that disease in these fish is primarily caused by human factors! Dumb ass rednecks with chem-lawns...
Lastly, another shot of one of the blues above.

Come on Brad, Emily will be jealous

Haha, I made Brad hold the fish. I figured that since Brad only got a few bites with no hookups that it wouldn't be a bad thing if he held MY fish! Hahaha, sorry Brad! - Capt. Greg

Lucky bastards - I miss fishing and hanging out! Soon the condo will be done, I've done a ton of work and will update that blog soon visit here
Brad i hope that french kiss on the rockfish brings good luck when I get up there. Greg keeps texting me these photos and it is driving me nuts (but don't stop sending them). See you guys soon enough.

Sea Gal

Here's a great trip Angus, Harold, and I went on to take both Angus and Alice's boat the Sea Gal from Norfolk harbor up to Reedville VA for a rail hauling that includes bottom painting and repairs. Seas were a nice 2-3' with winds 10-15kts sustained. She's a GREAT riding boat and one of kind that you just don't see to much of on the bay anymore. She was built in Reedville in 1960(?) by a local boat builder. All three of us took turns at the helm throughout the 8hr trip:

Greg needs a digital camera

Ok Greg - this is the best I can do with photoshop. The image you text me was so dark i could tell what or how big it was - I thought it was a flounder. Dude- you can get an ok point and shoot camera for 100 bucks and a pretty darn good one for under 300. Think about it - you have too many fishing adventures that go unshared because of the cell phone camera.

Man, night pics with a freakin cell phone SUCK! At any rate, I took my neighbor Davy out this evening and we caught 6 rockfish with 3 of em around 18"! With the first cast I had a bite and the second cast landed a fat 18". It was FUN...

Additional Cranberry Photo

This was my third backpacking trip to Cranberry Wilderness (but the first time fishing there). Every time we go, we take a photo in front of this bush at Aaron's right before hopping in the car. The reason Aaron and I look so excited is because his 5 year old Daughter was taking the photo, and it took her nearly 5 minutes to find the shutter release! When she shot it, she went into rapid fire mode and I guess this was a secondary shot. Left to right - Jason Walker, Mike Brandt, Sean Flaherty, Myself, and Aaron Coleman. Photo courtesy of Maya Coleman.

On another note - Captain Greg needs to create some posts of his recent trips - did you take pictures of any of those sharks you caught while flounder fishing last weekend?

In the woods - Cranberry Wildnerness

Cranberry was as beautiful as ever, well almost. Its a wet place, tons of moss, and so it does get its share of moistures, so it rain, rained, and rained some more. It was wet for more than half the trip, but we made the best of it and got some good weather too. Here is a nice shot between our second campsite and what became my favorite fishing hole of the trip.
A down stream shot of the lower end of my favorite hole on a sunny Tuesday. I can't count how many times I saw the flashes of large trout chasing my spinner, and every once in awhile I would catch one.
This is the upper end of my favorite hole, its early as you can tell by the shadow of the mountain.
Campsite 1: We arrived at the crowded cranberry parking lot about 4, much later than I hoped. We had stopped at Aaron's in Lewisberg, WV to stretch our legs as well as catch up with Aaron, and Jason Walker. Sean, Mike and I strapped on our over sized packs, loaded with fishing gear and our affects, and hiked as fast as we could to our campsite, many people were on their way out, but the first few campsites were occupied. It was a long 3 or 4 miles. We arrived at a comfortable camp complete with a rustic fireside bench around 5:15, set up camp quickly and Mike and I were fishing by 5:35. Here is our first camp.
The pressure was on to catch dinner before dark, Everyone wanted fish for dinner. Within 15 minutes I had landed my first wild brookie! It was gorgeous, with red spots and orange fins, so cool! the only problem was, he was only about 4 inches long! I was amazed he had gone after the spinner I had tied on (which was the size of his head). I admired him for a few seconds and carefully released him. I was optimistic we may have dinner soon. A few minutes later, another strike! Another tiny brookie. Minutes later, same thing. Then again. I was surely glad to be catching fish, and these were some of the coolest fish I had ever seen, but I did want dinner! Mike caught a brookie and then went back to help Sean look for wood. I was on my own - further downstream, I hooked into a big rainbow, but two jumps later and my line went slack. Crap, no dinner for me. I was sure we were screwed, but as anyone I have fished with will tell you, I am a persistent MFer. When fishing, that pays off. I hooked the guy in the photo a little before dark and he fought HARD, nice 14.5-15 incher, but I had covered a mile or so quickly that evening, so I hoofed it back to camp with fish in my vest. When I got back they said "ah, no luck?" Then I whipped out the fish and we all started laughing - Mike said - "See I told you he wouldn't come back without a fish" Damn right, its dinner time. We cooked it up with some potatoes on the fire.
Well , it started raining Saturday night and rained all night, the next day and that night too. The fishing sucked, Mike and I each caught two tiny brookies on Sunday, thats it. No fish for dinner that night. Trout fishing was new to Sean and the fishing was rough on this trip, so he didn't have any luck. We found out the river had missed 3 stockings due to snow, things weren't looking good. Monday we got up at the crack of dawn and broke camp, hiking further in. A mile or so down the trail we heard a noise, I said it could be the stocking trucks, but Mike said in a hilarious voice "Aw its the horses, its always the horses John, its never the trucks" A minute later we heard the noise slow, and a big splash! - It was the stocking trucks, and we high-tailed it to the next good campsite, set up our tents and headed out. Mike caught the first trout - a nice 14 incher, within five minutes of us getting to the hole. It took me twenty more minutes to hook the biggest trout of the trip - the 15+ incher on the right. We fished on and off for the rest of the day, catching 6 fish total (mike caught two of the ones I'm holding in the afternoon photo above) by 3pm. I cleaned my share and went to meet Aaron a few miles up the trail, he was hiking in from the top of the mountain, and was an hour late...
I changed out of my waders for a hike, and I left my fishing gear behind. I figured if I brought it, I end up stopping before I had finished the two mile hike through the catch and release area. I would have been really late to meet Aaron. Sure enough it was beautiful, full of good water as you see above and of course Aaron was an hour late (well, in his defense he did have to hike a really rough 7-9 miles across the top of the mountain and then descend almost 2000 feet to the river very quickly), I should have brought my gear, damn it, the weather was beautiful and no one was there fishing. when he got there, he told me he hiked through a snowstorm on top of the mountain. I called it BS, it was over 50 degrees down by the river! Aaron promptly produced a large snowball. Cranberry weather was crazy, it had rained a little earlier, and I could see clouds near the top of the mountains, but I guess that was snow!
Aaron and I hiked back to camp. Mike, Sean and I went out fishing again and I landed 3 more trout in the last 1.5hours before dark - here is a smaller one I landed as the sun was going down. I caught so many jumpers that day, some clearing the water by 3 or 4 feet! Some of these fish were the weirdest jumpers, they just came straight out of the water like a rocket and dropped straight back down, tail first! This one jumped a boulder 3 feet wide from one pool to the next, it was so cool. We feasted that night, I had landed 7 trout that day - it was awesome!

After a late night trying to eat and drink most of what was left in our packs, Mike and I got up early to fish. I had forgotten my net but didn't realize it until I had a good 14 incher on the end of my line, so I landed him by hand and realized I didn't have my stringer (it was early I tell you) so I stuck him in my vest. I got so many strikes that morning, but we were down to our last lures and I missed quite a few. I landed another good fish and after removing the hook he slipped out of my hands and and Mike almost fell in the river laughing as he saw me drop to my knees and flounder around trying to catch the fish by hand in the shallow water. For the record, the fish won, and Mike was smiling big time. around 8:30 we went back to camp and started cooking a big late breakfast, coffee, trout, fresh eggs from Aaron's chickens, and a bunch of ramps (a delicate, garlicky wild onion that grows on steep inclines in mountainous soil near flowing water). We slowly packed up and broke camp about noon, leaving behind the moss and all the trout for every other redneck that was still camping in the wilderness. Good times.

If anyone has any photos from the trip to add let me know, I'll put them up. - Fish on.

Global Warming

Here's some proof that the earth is warming. Freak snow on April 7th in Guinea!

Amoco Fishing for Spring Rock...

Well, I took my neighbor out fishing this evening to Amoco on the York. Under a full moon and glassy seas it was an AWESOME night. John, I'm sure you are having a blast up in the mtns with this moon. At any rate, I figured we wouldn't do much but all lanty hell if I was mistaken! 30 minutes into fishing I NAILED, what was at least, a 25-30"er' that had to have been a solid 8-9lbs! He fought his ASS off the entire way up to the boat - taking out line and diving deep to avoid being caught:

I was blown away at the size and ferocity at which these fish fought dudes! I boated another one that was of equal size and he took even LONGER to bring in. Davy was using 8lb test line and lost a huge fish who took his line and the bucktail straight to the bottom. Incredible folks and I can't WAIT until the season is catch and keep. These fish were all released. A total of 5 were caught with 3 schoolies and two whoppers!

The Magic of Spring Equinox

Blair called tonight and told me that on the spring equinox you could balance an egg on end. I got off the phone and tried it - Here is the magic of spring Blair. I'll see the rest of you on the mountain in a week and a half.

Back to Passage creek again

I made an after work quick trip back to Passage Creek to fish the last few hours before dark. I found the current flowing hard and full to the banks, but not too muddy. Mike came for a bit but we had no luck early on, so he headed home. As it got darker, I hooked into a good rainbow right above (upstream from) that channel up there. He bent my rod in half and fought an excellent battle, using the current to his advantage. I love these guys in a good creek or river,

Here is the little tough guy. Seen you soon on cranberry.

Cranberry Updates

Changes in the agenda are marked in red for the trip. People have started to post (and here)what they are thinking and what they are bringing - join in. LURE REQUEST NEED TO BE IN BY FRIDAY - SEAN, ADAM AND MIKE (ALREADY HAS ONE IN PROGRESS) ARE GETTING ONE - WHO ELSE?

Snowshoe, WV (part 6)

Nuff said about this trip. Had about 7" of powder the 2 days I was there and had a blast. Focused on the 100yd hip at Silvercreek terrain park and pretty much have frontside 360s down to a T.

Snowshoe, WV

Well fisherman, the winter for me is playing in the snow so I thought I would post a few pics from Snowshoe from the 4 trips I've been on up there this season WITCH, BTW, has been AWESOME for boarding

	The skiff pic is from a lunar low tide in the dead of winter. Usually in the winter, the bay has lower than low tides due to stronger lunar cycles

The Cranberry Trip is Drawing Near - WooHoo

In one month - we will be heading into the woods for our Cranberry Wilderness trip. The only problem is, I haven't heard back from a number of you (No one has left a comment on the blog). Please leave a comment on the Blog if you are coming or not, and let all of us know what equipment you have (such as a tent, backpacking stove, etc.). If you have trouble when trying to leave a comment, let me know. At most, you will just have to create a login (your email address) and a password of your choice, you will not receive cheesy junk mail from Blogger. So go ahead an do it!
Also - THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE FISHING - I NEED TO KNOW IF YOU WANT ME TO GET LURES FOR YOU BY NEXT FRIDAY, MARCH 9 - thats in just over a week - I need to order things and get to tying up some lures for you. If you can't commit by that time, you can still go, but I just can't put together the lure package for you. (remember, fishing is not required, but bringing some booze is - ha!)
Ok - so let us all know when you can make it and how long you can stay. Aaron needs to know as well since we will be crashing out at his place Friday night(March 30)- Adam and I are leaving DC by 3 on Friday to get there at a reasonable time - remember Aaron has 2 little kids, so we can't be raising hell at 1 in the morning. We are leaving his place by 10 am or so on Saturday March 31. to camp out Saturday night - some people will need to come home on Monday, I will be in the woods until Wednesday, April 4. Let everyone know via commenting on the blog so we can plan carpools.
In the meantime I included a photo from yesterday. I had to take a day off to get work done for the AP Audit (they wouldn't give me time to do it at work), so mid-day I felt lame as shit for taking one of my sick days to actually do school work, so I went fishing for 2.5 or 3 hours and caught these guys at my local trout stream, then came home, cooked some for dinner and worked until 11pm. I look forward to catching up with you guys, comment away!

A good day fishing fixes most things

Thursday, I had an awful day at work. I did what any sane (or is it insane) fisherman would do. I canceled my plans, left work as early as humanly possible and went trout fishing at a nearby lake. Much to my dismay, it was still frozen, yet the new fishing pier had enough space around the pilings that had melted to fish. Something like a 10 foot runway of open water on the south side and a few feet here and there on the shaded side. Dudes - I had one of the best days of fishing I have ever had - I forgot about work as soon as I hooked into the first porker, and I do mean porker check them out... the big ones were up to 16 inches and the heaviest went almost 2lb!
This was my creel - I should have had one more fatty on there, but somehow the second fish I caught came off the stringer when I went to put the fourth one on. Who knows - I guess His magic was too strong and I wasn't supposed to steal his big fish "medicine". Ha - whatever - it was a great day.
Yes Greg notice I caught them on my hand tied jigs (orange was hot that day), with my new St. Croix rod. It is sweet!
This fish was from Friday - I stopped by the local creek for an hour after work and caught him on a white micro jig I tied. Check out the colors, probably the best coloration on any rainbow I've caught - beautiful stuff.

Ninja Fishing Cub Run

So what do you do if one of your buddies gets out of the hospital for stay longer than he would like? You talk him into driving HIS car into George Washington National Forest on a sketchy 4WD only road covered in ice and snow. We saw a bunch of rainbows and a brown or two, "tickling the ice" as I like to call it - Mike hooked into a small rainbow, but lost it. We got skunked, but the "ninja" image of Mike was worth the post - Fish on Mike!
I hope to get some FC trout in after work over the next few days - I'll keep you posted.
This is a sample ninja fishing hole in Passage Creek - normally, all of the flat area you see without trees is flowing water, and I am standing on the ice while taking this photo (don't worry - I'm wearing waders and it is less than 18" deep here.