I spent a few days in Urbanna last week where a group of friends attended the Oyster Festival. A few of us also got in a little fishing in Urbanna Creek, about a half-mile from the Rappahannock River.
The fishing from our deep-water dock was actually pretty good.
Before the rest of the party arrived on Thursday, my regular fishing companion, Tim Tigner, went down to the dock equipped with a white grub and jig head and got into a school of white perch. He caught one on nearly every cast and quickly put 17 on ice. They were still biting when he stopped fishing and headed for the fish cleaning station. The perch were in fairly shallow water, about 4 to 8 feet. We also got into them last year for just one day, then they disappeared, as they did this year. I caught one more perch the next morning, then we never saw them again.
I did a little research on white perch and found out they are smaller cousins of stripers and native to the waters of the Chesapeake. They are semi-anadromous fish, thriving in brackish water, but never venturing out as far as the ocean. They average about 8- or 10-inches, but on the table, they are every bit as tasty as a striper, maybe even more so.
A cold front moved in on Friday and slowed the action until Sunday – when Sue Overton tried her luck and pounded the stripers. Most were 12- to 16-inches, but one was a keeper at 20-inces and was invited to the dinner table. Sue used a ¼-ounce white-bucktail with a six-inch curly tail worm as a trailer.
Later, I joined Sue and caught a few stripers before an 18-inch speckled trout nailed my chartreuse and white bucktail combination. What a beautiful fish!
The big stripers will soon be moving into Bay waters on their way down the coast from New England. That fishery peaks in December when the water temps hit about 50 degrees. The striper season extends through December 31 in the Chesapeake Bay and tributaries.
Nags Head
Surf Fishing: There were plenty puppy drum on the beaches Wednesday, but few keepers. Mike Brone caught a nice size black drum in Corolla, but it was two inches shy of being a keeper. The slot size is 14-24 inches with a creel limit of 10 per day. One black drum per person per day may be over 25”. The water is 61 degrees.
Sound Fishing: Inshore anglers fishing the sound caught keeper stripers, trout and puppy drum.
Offshore: Boats stayed at the docks. Rough seas.
Hatteras Surf
On Wednesday, Red Drum & Tackle reported
a good day of fishing. Malcolm Newberry caught and released a 45-inch red drum at Ramp 43 and Harrell Shoun caught and released a 46-inch red drum. Ramp 49 anglers had puppy drum, bluefish and small speckle trout. Avon Pier had several 40-inch plus big drum caught and released. Frisco produced some nice sea mullet.
Hatteras Offshore
Just one boat went offshore on Wednesday and reported choppy conditions. But the customers wanted to catch a swordfish and the Captain didn’t disappoint. Even though they weren’t able to boat it they did get to fight it for a while, some 2 hours before he pulled the hook at the boat. While looking for more Swordfish they caught a few dolphin. No inshore boats fished.
On Tuesday, it was slow fishing with some king mackerel and amberjack caught offshore. The inshore boats were not booked. Weather was chilly with a bit of a breeze.