What a strage year – that about sums is up. One morning it was warm and the fishing bad. The next cold and the fishing good. It was inconsistant, at best, and the bizarre weather did not help.
Wednesday the 2nd was out-standing and many of us put more than 50 fish in the boat every morning and evening. After that, a big Low (tropical storm Andrea) formed off the coat, sucked in a big cold front and battered us with 50 degree nights and 30 mph winds.
While we had a few good days of 50+ fish (almost as good at the days we got used to over the last decade), most days saw us averaging 10-15 fish per evening or morning session. Artificials on spinning gear was the least productive method but live-bait almsot always produced and clouser on 450-600 grain sinking lines were pretty much the most consistant method of fishing. When it coms to artificials, the fly rod consistantly produced a good class of “keeper sized” fish that were much better than the 14-18″ fish we caught on jigs.
The highlight of the trip was a fish I caught on the last evening – instead of driving home early, I called my friend Anthony and he came down to fish with me for an evening. We caught about a dozen fish on the fly and I got my best fly-caught Roanoke Striper to date. 15lbs. Not a huge fish but it sure made my day.
Every 5 or so years we have an odd year like this – cold weather and a very postponed spawn. With some normal weather, we’ll be back to our 100+ fish days on the fly next year.
Brad and his father-in-law, Jean, with a couple nice fish. We only caught a dozen or so that morning (& a couple largemouths) but we had A BLAST together – the highlight was a big striper that Brad’s son lost right at the end of the day. We cna only dream about that one.
Norman and Matt with a few nice fly-caught fish
Kary and Bill with a couple…and man, did we work our butts off for these.
Catfish on the fly! (that’s a first)
