Virginia is For Lifers!

[Johnsfolly]

Last week I was in contact with a friend from INAT that we have fished with a couple of times previously (got us onto oriental weatherfish in NJ). He was going to head down to VA with a friend from the UK on Friday. We talked about spots that we have fished frequently, mainly spots on Chincoteague Island and Kiptopeke State Park. Mark was hoping to catch his first ribbonfish and to get his friend on a bunch of lifers. I decided to take off Friday afternoon to meet them down in VA and fish. We left home around 1:15 pm. As we got lunch Mark called and said that his friend had serious car trouble and not likely to go down to VA. We did see a luna moth on the side of the restaurant.

Mark had to stay at work and may not get down to meet us at Kiptopeke around 6:30 pm. Livie and I decided to go towards a spot in Chincoteague that would be at low tide when we get there around 4 pm. It would be perfect to try for gobies and blennies amongst the oysters and we should still be able to meet Mark at 6:30. The water level was great, but the water was muddy and we would get mud washing around the oyster beds when each boat passed along in the channel. We saw a bunch of fish on a little rock ledge and Livie soon caught the first fish, a naked goby and a skilletfish, on a tanago hook with a piece of bloodworm.

I could not get a goby or one of the blennies to bite. I did catch my personal smallest silver perch and oyster toadfish at that spot.

We moved to another spot that we have previously caught a variety of blennies and gobies, including a freckled blenny. Still fishing with the tanago and worm, I caught a couple of naked gobies but no blennies. 

There was a man on the dock and he caught a couple of smooth hound dogfish. Livie fished for them for a while but only got a couple of small bites. We left soon after and headed down to Kiptopeke state park, about 1.5 hours further south. Once we got there, Mark told us that he might not get there until 9 pm. We started fishing before the sunset. We were fishing with bloodworms or fishbites on high/low rigs and got tentative bites. Livie only caught a single croaker and I was skunked so far. The sun went down before I caught a striped searobin using a piece of the croaker.

As it got dark I was using a small hook sabiki rig and hooked up and landed the first weakfish of the night.

Around 9 pm, we started to see ribbonfish jumping and striking at the silversides and other baitfish on the surface. Folks started catching a few ribbons. We switched to fishing with 3/8 oz jigs with paddletail swimbaits. We slow rolled these baits along the bottom, similar to how we caught ribbonfish down in NC last year. Nothing. The ribbons were in the mid or top layers of the water column. Mark showed up around 9:30 pm. He started fishing with a 1" Gulp minnow and a split shot. Almost instantly hooked up with his own weakfish. After a couple more weakfish and a small summer flounder, Mark hooked up and landed his lifer ribbonfish!

Livie switched to using 2.5" Gulp minnows from Mark and caught a couple of weakfish. 

She switched back to the tanago hook with a bit of squid to try for what we thought were atlantic needlefish. She has a love hate relationship with needlefish for a few years. She finally caught a redfin needlefish in Key west and a houndfish in Miami last year. She still needed an atlantic for the lifelist. There was one or two large atl needlefish in the school. Mark told us that the rest of the fish were american halfbeaks, a relative of ballyhoo. Neither Livie or I have caught these before. Livie quickly caught her lifer halfbeak!

I was using the 2.5" Gulp minnows and was catching weakfish and summer flounder.

I was fishing with a slow retreive and a lift every so often and got bit by and landed my first ribbonfish from this location. After I found out that folks caught ribbons at this pier, we have fished for them a couple of times in the last few years and have been unsuccessful. We ended up going down to NC last year and caught our first ones down there.

And I literally got bit by my ribbonfish🙄. I was bleeding from the couple of punctures from my hand and it got my shirt and then my pants😂.

Fortunately these fish were smaller than those in NC, which might have torn my shirt.  Livie was having no luck on catching any of the needlefish or juvenile cobia below the lights. I took over with the tanago and tried for the halfbeaks. I fished for them for maybe 25 mins or so. I lifted several and was getting pretty frustrated, but finally got my lifer into the photo bag😁

As the night progressed, we kept catching more weakfish, striped searobins, black sea bass, and flounder. I know another INAT friend that has caught conger eels from this pier. The spot that he caught them was crowded and I went to another section of the pier that had some larger unlit areas. I set up a chum basket with old shrimp, put out a chunk of squid and cast it next to the seawall. I set up one of our 8' heavy rods and cast out a half crab for stingrays or redfish. Mark and Livie came over and Mark casted out a 9" live croaker on his 12' surf rod. I got some small pulls on the crab, but since I was using a baitrunning reel, wanted to have the fish pull line before I got too excited. Around 1:20 am, Mark's line got pulled then went slack. He reeled up the slack and set the hook. The fish went off on a drag screaming run. Mark would gain line and then lose it on another run. At one time we saw the fish break the surface and thought it was a shark. As it got closer we could see that it was a big drum. It was deep bodied and pale, which got me thinking it might be a black, but it was a giant red drum!

 

Figured it to be close to 50lbs. I reeled in my crab setup and tried to get a croaker or spot for bait. Livie ended up catching an 8" croaker. I hooked it up and cast it out. 15-20 mins later the line was moving as the bait was getting fidgety. There was a slight pull on the line then a run. I set the hook and it the fight was on. The fish went on a long run. It started to move towards my right. I was able to gain a bit of line. Then the fish felt like it got me hung. I gave it a little line and it got moving again. We have experienced catching clearnose skates that would suction down onto the bottom, but would swim off once to gave them slack. This fish did the same tactic, but was much bigger than any skate. I was pretty sure that I had on a ray and not another red drum. This fish was much bigger than an Atlantic stingray that I have already caught and any other big ray except a cownose would be a lifer. I fought this fish for fifteen to twenty minutes while a crowd gathered. Once it got close to the seawall I could see that it was a big cownose ray. Still took a couple of smaller runs before we could get it netted and pulled over the rail. It took both Mark and Livie to get it up. Not a lifer but my personal best cownose. Easily 40+ lbs.

Livie and I fished until 2:45 am. We left Mark to continue fishing about 3 am and we started the three plus hour trip home. About 20 minutes from home we saw the sunrise over the Choptank river.

As we were pulling into the driveway, Mark landed his lifer cownose ray.

I wasn't sure how this trip would turn out, but we had a great trip! Now we have to figure out the next time we can get back down to try for those big red drum😉.

 

 

[Quillback]

Wow, what a sunrise! Congrats on a great trip!

[BilletHead]

              Great write up trip report! Congrats on the new species. Chalk them up to researching so well. Pat and I say HI LIVIE 😆.

[Johnsfolly]

42 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

              Great write up trip report! Congrats on the new species. Chalk them up to researching so well. Pat and I say HI LIVIE 😆.

I will tell her Hi for you guys😉

[FishnDave]

I saw some of the pictures on your buddy's IG acct.  The same guy that fished with @ham last summer, right?

That's some late night fishing!!