There are two days highlighted on the Mikey D Fishing calendar. The first is the High Holy Day; the opening day of trout season in PA. The second is our annual Cobia trip with Capt. Kenny Louderback (https://www.facebook.com/fishfreaks2014/).
This year's summer festivus took on a bit more meaning, for two reasons. The first was that weather cancelled our 2023 outing. The second had to do with a "little" surgical procedure I had in mid-June, which turned this:
Into this:
My only goal through the recovery process was to get the new ankle in good enough shape to get into the boat. Fortunately, the procedure went well, and for the next 7 weeks Mary went full RN and pushed me in the right direction.
So when we arrived in Cape Charles I was confident that the ankle could take a boat ride. And joining Capt. DiPaola and me on this trip was our good friend and former squadron mate Curt Toomer. An avid angler himself, Curt hails from Jacksonville, Fl. So much so that getting him north of the Florida-Georgia line is almost impossible. But the prospect of tying into a big Cobia lured him north.
The weather for the week was as good as it gets. High temps, no clouds, and light winds. Wednesday afternoon Joe and Curt spent a couple of hours warming up by wading off Plantation Creek. While they saw Reds swimming around, the bite was not on (low pressure perhaps). But Joe did manage to catch and release a keeper Flounder.
Fortified by dinner at the Oyster Farm (food was good, service not so much), and after dinner drinks and cigars, we boarded Capt. Kenny's boat at 0800 the next morning.
Conditions on the bay were great. Light winds from the northwest, clear skies, and temps in the 80s. There were some swells, but not bad enough to keep from spotting fish. Which is what Capt. Kenny is all about. We headed down to the bay bridge tunnel, where the fish were beginning to pod up prior to their fall departure. Lots of Rays and Sea Turtles around, which Cobia like to hang around. Unfortunately, we only spotted a few fish, got casts to only 2-3, and no hook ups. Kenny covered a lot of water, along with 60-70 other boats looking for "the man in the brown suit." There might have been a couple of boats who hooked up, but not many reports of fish landed.
We've been fishing with Capt. Kenny for 9 years and never got skunked. If he's not catching, no one is. It was getting late, and Kenny decided to move closer to the shoreline. About 4:20 in the afternoon, not long before we would be heading in, he spotted a bait ball of Menhaden and blind-casted a live Croaker under the bait. Within seconds the line went tight, and the fight was on. The fish came in at 39 inches, one inch shy of the limit. But we at least kept the streak going.
Some days the fishing is just hard, and Thursday was just one of those days. With Friday though came renewed optimism that we'd tie into some fish from the Mikey D. It has been a few months since we'd put the boat in the water. But it fired right up, and we lit off to find some fish.
Casting under a bait ball right off Cape Charles harbor, Curt landed a nice 15 inch Bluefish, his first off of the Mikey D.
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We then drove down to Plantation Creek and searched the area for Reds, heading well up into the creek. Despite throwing a variety of lures and soft plastics, we couldn't score a fish. It was getting late, but Capt. DiPaola deftly maneuvered the boat over some sand bars and into a cut that paralleled the beach. Water was 2-3' deep. With clear skies and no wind, you could easily see the bottom.
And that's when things turned on, at least for a brief time. We spotted Reds right next to the boat. Curt got a shot and immediately hooked into a nice fish that took him around the boat before it spit the hook. The remaning Reds beat feet, but it was apparent that we were in the right spot. A few minutes later Joe spotted some skittish bait, and directed my cast. Fishing a Strike King spinner bait, it only took a few cranks until a Red hit the lure hard. A good fight ensued, and we boated our first Redfish from the Mikey D, a thick 24 incher.
We released the Red, and fished for a while longer until it was time to head home and clean the boat. While the catching was so-so, it was a great time fishing. I think we turned Curt into a convert, and hopefully we'll see him back in VA soon. So it's time to put the aluminum pole back under the crawlspace until the next Cobia Festivus. But, with fall around the corner, the fishing will pick up. October is the month to be on the water in Cape Charles. And I plan to be continuing my physical therapy wading for Reds and Trout.
Tight Lines,
Mikey D Fishing.
