Living in Delaware we don’t typically see many Red Drum in our waters. Traveling for the opportunity to target these game fish is exciting. Fortunately its only a 140 mile drive south from my home! It’s only a little over 2 and a half hours to make it to the trip to Cape Charles Virginia. I’m spoiled since I have been driving maximum an hour to the water all my life and now it has become my backyard. This drive is worth it though. This is the story of A Fourteen Hour Fishing Trip.

After Work Fishing

Midway through October 2017 and the days have been still warm. I have been getting out after work here and there for the evening Striped Bass bite close to my work. Some good fish but it’s still like summer. The size of the fish is still 30″ and below. Tuesday Oct 10th during an evening on the water I sent Joe H a text giving him a fishing report. He called soon after informing me that he was planning a trip to fish in Virginia for Sunday. The weather looked good so I decided to ask if it was cool if I met up with him there. The trip was on.

The Plan:

Photo by Joe Hosler

Meet up at 06:30 near the Eastern Shore Wildlife Refuge Boat ramp Sunday. Then go fishing targeting reds. Simple enough!

The Chesapeake Bay can get rough in this area but I loaded my Jackson Kayak Kilroy as i feel it is the best suited for saltwater creek style fishing. The kayak has a Torqeedo Ultralight 403 installed for those days when you need to get back quick or against a river style current ripping tide. It comes in handy!

Sunday Fishing Day!

Out the door by 3:45 am on the road. It’s still raining and foggy. The misting and fog finally became intermittent around 2 hours in.  I can spot the deer peering into my headlights while passing through heavily wooded areas. Warm coffee and maximum concentration. Thinking to myself how much i love my 2016 Ford F150 over my old truck. Waze on the consul broadcasting the distance traveled and my ETA its 6: 30 to start but traffic light s and such made it more like 6:40.

I arrived and everyone was there gearing up. It was just starting to become light. There was an eerie yellowish cloud as the sun hit it from below the horizon. We hit the water and fished a small creek. It was slow fishing only with a few small Speckled Trout.  So we crossed the channel and begun fishing that area. The tide was on its way out. A few more trout early. Paddling through the shallows I went as far back as I could. There were oysters all over in the sod banks. Not sure if these are edible or if they are even legal to harvest. I found one laying on the bottom and picked it up to examine it. They were pretty small and flat but i put it back and went back to fishing.

There was no water only an inch or two. I circled back and figured id throw some casts at a drop off I saw on my way in.

First cast reeling slowly bump bump across the bottom and bang fish on! Great fight on my bull bay rod paired with the Abu Garcia Revo Inshore casting reel. Peeling drag running towards the kayak and back deep again. A great fight to land a 23 inch healthy Red Drum!

Released him and caught a few more on that drop until there was inches of water left. The clouds had finally broken away to sunshine. It was nice and warm now as everything begin to dry out. The tide slowed to a crawl so did the bite. Managing a bunch of Speckled trout a few more reds and small Striped Bass. At this point it was 12:30. We realized we were now landlocked. We fished for another half hour on a slow bite until finally dragging the yaks across the sand bar to return to the launch.

I took a detour to go take a few photos of a large chunk of drift wood that had washed up on the sandy part of the island. As an amateur photographer I spot these things and have to get there to grab a few photos. This particular piece of drift wood i spotted from a mile away in the morning on the way across the channel. After getting my shots using the Torqeedo I went back full throttle. 6.5 mph most of the way. A following sea made it a bit strange.

Fortunately the drive home wasn’t so bad. I was worried that id be exhausted as I have been in the past coming back from really long fishing days in the summer heat. Arriving home around 5 PM the concluded the fourteen hour fishing trip.  Will defiantly be doing this trip again in the future.

Spring 2017 What??

Well The Spring of 2017 flew by just like the wind. Yes it was incredibly WINDY!! From March to May it seemed every day was gale force winds or more. Fishing from a kayak this is never fun or even doable most of the time. I can count on both hands the amount of times I was out fishing from the kayak. Although there were a few days the wind wasn’t so bad and most of them were when I was working.

Was able to get out with good friend Joe Hosler of the Delaware Paddlesports Hobie Team. We fished mainly back creeks and rivers to get out of the wind. He fished the Chesapeake a bit and did well. Unfortunately i didst make it over to that side.  When the big blues came in we fished Cape Henlopen at the pier and inner wall. Due to many Gopro issues I unfortunately was unable to capture some good fish pictures. Got out on the Indian River Bay on a few occasions in search of bass blues and flounder but had none.

Delaware Paddlesports Crew @ Cape Henlopen

A major highlight of the past spring was fishing from the Jackson Kayak Kilroy LT Realtree Camo Edition. As many of you that follow my blog know it is my new kayak for 2017! Since its first run out on the Indian River Bay it has been my main kayak. It is an excellent standing platform as well as swift paddling craft. Teamed up with the Torqeedo Ultralight 403 it is the Ultimate single person shallow water fishing craft! Check back for new videos and the extended use review shortly!!!

Always fun searching for the local fish. I hope to explore the spring more in the future. All I can say is please less wind next year!

So its hello summer and enjoying the long days for now. Flounder are in now and soon the Croakers will be too!

Fishing Journal 2017 04-21:

Well if your from Delaware or PA or NJ, and you haven’t heard the big Bluefish are thick at Cape Henlopen South Side then you must live under a rock! The daily posting has been crazy on Facebook. Planning the Delaware Paddlesports Crew and a few others decided to hit the bay on Friday April 21st Bluefishing Cape Henlopen. This would be my first time launching in the park and out on this body of water atop my Big Rig.

A good evening:

It was a cool calm evening meeting up with the DPS crew. We all launched around 5:00 PM from the beach by the pier. Some guys were still on the water from earlier. As the DPS guys were all grouped up and taking photos with their cell phones I broke out my DLSR. And took a few pictures of them posing on their Hobies. We fished for a while trolling. No fish for about an hour and a half. Then suddenly the clicker on my Abu Garcia Screaming Fish On! The SP Minnow was on! An excellent fight producing a bluefish just over 28″ in length. Bernie the River Stick guy landed 2 nice ones on a top water hard bait. Joe Hosler had a real nice one in the 42″ range on an SP minnow also. Kevin caught a 16.75″ founder on a large rattle trap. Although the fishing was slow it was a very nice night out.

I’m looking forward to Bluefishing Cape Henlopen and also fishing with the DPS crew again in the near future!