Johnsfolly

I have only caught one blackfin tuna and lots of false albacore (little tunny, bonitos, etc.) when we lived in FL (way back when😉). They are incredible fighters. I would love to tangle with a big one😉

Local rains blew out the MD and NJ creeks for the weekend. On our last trip to a local saltwater spot, we caught only one fish. I didn't measure the water temp, but it may be cooler due to the lower than normal airtemps. My wife and I decided to get away for the weekend and headed south down into VA. The hope was to get away from the rain and get into some active fish. As with every trip there is always the hope to get into some lifers, aka fish that neither of us have caught before. We decided to fish the VA beach fishing pier. I have seen YouTube videos of fish caught there, but we have not fished it before. We went down on Sat. I checked out a spot in Cape Charles VA that I had hoped to do some night/sight fishing for some odd ball flounder and bottom species, e.g., blackcheek tonguefish, smallmouth flounder, hog chokers, stargazers, etc... Water was very dingy and choppy due to the winds. No go on the night fishing. We did have a nice meal at a restaurant right next to our room. In the mornign we had breakfast at a local diner and drove across the Chesapeake bay Bridge/Tunnel down into Virginia beach/Norfolk area to get to the pier. As with any pier in a tourist area, you never know who you will encounter and what you may see. We did see a carrier off in the distance (not a surprise since the naval base was not far from us). Then there is this guy. He is fishing with an ice fishing rod and it's upside down🤔. I see a lot of folks fishing with spinning reels like they do with their Zebco push button reels. This guy had me scratching my head. I could see flying down with a small rod that could fit in my luggage (I have several), but if you brought the rod I would have expected that you knew how to use it. I met one other guy fishing the same way. I was going to correct him but his buddy was fishing normally and I figured that he could tell his friend😉. We were fishing our typical dropper loop bait rigs and using bloodworms and pieces of crab. We did not get a bite for well over an hour and only after we moved deeper. There were a bunch of skates and a couple of singrays caught towards the end of the pier. We both have caught the clearnose skates previously, but Sue has not caught any type of stingray before. I put on a small piece of Fishbites and soon caught our first fish, a silver perch. That guy was unfortunate since he became cutbait😉. I think two things happened when we moved. We got into deeper water and there was a tide change that got the fish active. We really started catching a variety of fish using bloodwomrs, Fishbites, and the cutbait. We both caught a couple of the clearnose skates on the cutbait (always fun to hand line them over the rail, especially with braided line🙄). Lots of silver perch were caught. Also more standard species on the bloodworms and Fishbites. Southern kingfish Spot croakers Pigfish (one of my favorites😁) Sue caught a lifer striped anchovy on a tiny piece of bloodworm. I caught a menhaden (hook had cut its gills. Too bloody for a photo😒) and my own striped anchovy on the Fishbites and bloodworms, respectively. I caught a couple more anchovies just by keeping the bloodworm baits a few feet off bottom and just bouncing the rig. I should have put on a Sabiki rig (a six hook multirig used for baitfish), but didn't want to deal with the hassle of dealing with the rig after we were done fishing. We didn't catch any prized species, like bluefish, stripers, cobia, etc. But as multispecies anglers one man's trash is another man's treasure and we had fun catching a variety of fish.

@FishnDave have you caught white catfish on fly?

Here Kitty kitty😉

Looks great @Daryk Campbell Sr! Congrats on a great trip with all of you self made items! Can't wait to see more future trips.

I saw that movie not too long ago. I liked it. That was a crazy tuna scene for sure. That was the way they used to catch them.

Love these breeding colored fish! I can't seem to prioritize and put together the time to head back up to NJ or PA to get after bowfin😒. Still chasing lifers or PB fish.

What fly did you use to catch this one🤔

Sounds about right😂

I know that PETA had a time when they were trying to rebrand catfish as sea kittens🤣

For @snagged in outlet 3😉

I can't think of one off hand.

Hey snakeheads are now rebranded in Maryland as Chesapeake Channa🙄

I do like blue cats.to eat. We keep a few each year. Don't fish for them much though but have gone out on a couple of occasions now trying for gar and cats. I gave away a nice 4-5 lb blue on our last trip since I didn't want to deal with cleaning any. I'll have to remember to post a photo for Pete😉.

I do like muffuletta sandwiches and this looks delicious!

Lots of great head shots!

Looks delicious!

I thought that chicks loved the long ball😉🤣

More on the short sighted governmental stockings in VA and the impact now on the Chesapeake Bay. https://www.outdoorlife.com/fishing/maryland-invasive-blue-catfish-problem/

Still find these baby skits hilarious. I'm trying not to post all of the ones that I've seen. I love this movie and the way they toddle after each other made me laugh out loud😉

These crack me.up.

My BIL lives about 90 mins from Bellafonte PA. Due to the necessary travel realistically it would be tough to get more than ten species from their list and get back in time for the check-in. Though I do know spots where you can catch bluegill and the "other" sunfish, LMB, SMB, and brook trout. Should be crappie and rainbows as well. There are two sculpin species in that area, mottled and slimy and I do doubt that folks there would be able to tell the difference. 20 points if you could catch both 😉. I would love to do a tournament like this one, but with conventional tackle.

@Quillback Nice Stripers! sounds like a great time and decent meal!

Marty you know that we microfishermen only advocate the catch and cleaning of micros for streamside sushi😉😂!

This may get deleted by @Quillbackor @Terrierman for being political but I think this is hilarious and well done parody.