Wade-fishing the beach this past week proved particularly unproductive. Weather was sunny with temps in the high 80s. Winds were relatively calm. Water clarity was pretty decent. And nearly every day I spooked small schools of slot Reds (aka "Puppy Drum") as I waded in knee to thigh deep water. Only problem was these fish were just not eating. The culprit, as the guys at Oceans East tackle shop informed me, was water temps. Too warm (78-80 degrees) for a good bite. My wade-fishing experience confirmed, at least as far as the catching went. I picked up only one decent fish, a 21 inch Red, early on in the week. That was it.
Disappointing, but the real reason we were in Cape Charles was our annual Cobia outing with Capt. Kenny Louderback of Fish Freaks Guide Service (https://www.facebook.com/fishfreaks2014/) This was our 6th year fishing with Kenny, and we were unanimous that it surpassed all our other times fishing with him.
How important is this outing with Kenny? Capt. DiPaola's travel itinerary answers that question. We were to meet up with Kenny on Thursday at 8:30 in the morning. On Wednesday, Joe began his day in Greenville, SC, then flew to Chicago for meetings and dinner with his company board. He boarded a plane at Midway Itl after dinner, arriving in BWI around 1:30 in the am. Then it was a four hour drive to the Cape Escape. He rolled in around 5:30, and fortunately got a couple of hours of rack time before fishing. Tells you all you need to know.
Our loyal blog followers will know the ins and outs of Cobia fishing in the lower bay in late summer. The most important variable is when the fish decide to migrate out of the bay to more southern waters. The later you get into the summer, the greater the chance that you'll head out into the bay to open stretches of water and no fish.
I'm almost certain, though, that even under the worst conditions conditions Kenny would find fish. As it turned out, our timing was good, the weather was conducive to productive sight fishing, and Kenny was once again on his game. About 11:00 am on Thursday, once the sun got high enough for good sight fishing, he found fish congregating about 4 miles north of the bay bridge tunnel. Over the course of the day Kenny (and sometimes us as well up in the tower) spotted well over 100 Cobia. A lot of singles and pairs, but also a good number schools holding with rays, and in one case about 12-15 fish swimming around the biggest sea turtle I've ever seen. And many of the fish we saw were quality fish; well over the 40 inch minimum, with some fish in the 50-60 inch range.
The only issue, and I'd classify it as a first-world problem, was that the fish were finicky eaters. We got plenty of shots with live eels and a good number of looks and follows. But we only got six fish to eat, and landed three. Technique was the villain in our losing fish. These fish have hard mouths, requiring sustained tension on the rod. Give a Cobia some slack and he's off. And to be honest, we lost some nice fish.
But ... we also boated our limit; two nice fish that went 48 and 51 inches! The third was a "rat" which went about 30 inches. We also got a few shots (and follows) with the fly rod.
To add to the experience, Capt. DiPaola enjoyed a short "swim call" in the bay when his fly line inadvertently got tangled up in the boat prop. (Pro Guide tip: keep an eye on your fly line when its dragging in the water around a running boat motor....)
So we went .500 for the day. But we limited out (we wore out the electric Bubba Blade with about 40 lbs of filets), and saw more and more quality fish than we had seen on any previous outing. Best of all was spending the day on the water with Capt. Kenny. It's the highlight of the Mikey D fishing calendar, and we're already booking into 2023.
Tight Lines,
Mikey D Fishing
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