Hey all,

I've been lurking around on the board for a while, lots of good info comes up here and there. I've been a long time pier/surf fisherman all over the VB area for a while now. Well now, my brothers buddy has a boat (19', nothing fancy) and we'll be planning on going out and doing some bay fishing every weekend over the summer (weather permitting). I'm pretty new to the boat thing in the bay and have no idea where any decent areas/reefs/underwater structure is in the lesner bridge area, and was hoping anyone here could point me in the right direction. We went last Sat. and drifted up and down around the cbbt pilings and caught a ton of smallie croaker/seatrout, but nothing worth writing home about. Any insight anyone is willing to give would be much appreciated. Thanks

-Mike

Well,
I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to catch, but since you said you went to the CBBT theres lots of creatures you can catch there. Flounder can be caught at the small boat channel( first island marked by lights hanging down from the bridge), a little later spadefish can be caught at the fourth island, later aswell cobia can be caught around areas called bluefish rock and the CBBT( not sure how far your willing to travel because there are other places), and if your just going for the simple stuff follow the headboats out of the inlet with squid and a bottom rig for croaker. As far as rigs go incase you were wondering: Flounder can be caught on squid and gudgeon sandwhich on a flounder rig or a three-way to a live spot or croaker. Cobia can be caught bouy hopping or chumming(later on), croaker is pretty straight forward, and spade is a small hook with clam on a bobber or even no bobber. You may know all or some of the stuff i just stated I'm just tryin to help, if you were a little less general with the question I and probably a bunch of other people could help you out. O and there are many more fish and ways to catch them other than i stated, I just laid down some of the very basics.
Tom

This site is a wealth of information as well as listening on the VHF radio to find out what is biting and on what. When I first started fishing the bay I was to embarrassed to ask question so I would google the rigs the guys on here talk about. Then I got over that and just started asking. Boy did that help.

Anyway, I would start with a standard fish finder/bottom rig with just enough weight to hold the bottom (usually 3 oz is more than enough) with cut squid, minnows (I like gudgeons) or both on a 6.5 Ugly stick fishing pole and a reel (I use Penn 450 and 550 Spin fishers) with 15 lb or 20 line on it.

Bottom Fishing

Start around some sort of structure (CBBT, MMBT, HRBT, Thimble Shoals Light etc) and just drift with the current.

With that standard setup you can catch just about anything in the bay and won't have to work to hard at it.

After a few trips of that then you can start getting fancy by switching out your bottom rig with a flounder rig, spec rig etc depending on what you are looking for.

If you know when you are heading out, give a shout on the page and someone will probably even offer to ride along with you and give you some pointers or act as a buddy boat.

Good luck.

Thanks for the replies, i'll try more around the islands. Sorry, didn't realize I didn't state what we wanted to catch. Mostly looking for croaker/flounder and maybe some bluefish. My brother and his friend are both younger so would just be glad to catch about anything.

When we went out, I actually had most of my luck fishing a couple of 1/8oz marabous right on the bottom. I'll keep looking around to see whats working well for you guys. I'm more of a freshwater fisherman, so i'm pretty partial to fishing with marabous/bucktails (i tie them myself). Do the plastic baits seem to work better for saltwater stuff, or is either just as good?

White bucktail- One of the most versatile lures you can use. I keep stocked 1/2 ounces to 5 ounces for EVERYTHING. If your going for croaker, flounder, or bluefish a squid rig like Marrdro said will catch 'em. A little hint if you want to catch some horse croakers go to the fourth mid-june and put a hunk of clam on a fishfinder rig(its a rig that has a sliding apparatus that holds the weight before the hook, sorry kinda hard to explain) seemed to work pretty well for us last year when we were goofing around. It may work at the second or even first but i can guarentee at the fourth. Hope this helps a bit and always ask, I know I do.

For artificial reefs I use http://www.mrc.virginia.gov/reef_map/reef_map.shtm, also, you can buy some a chart for the Chesapeake Bay which shows depths, bouys, and wrecks along with a ton of other info.

so sk8rmike huh? since when are you allowed to fish. tell marc whats up. whos his friend with the boat?? ryan?? you know who this is......

There is some good fishing around Back river in Poquoson. We have had had some great days on the Back River Reaf which is only about a 15 min ride from Messick Pt. boat ramp.

Tight Lines Shep

Thanks, i'll look into that. The hardest part for me is going to be finding some underwater structure the fish are gonna stack on. Once im there I usually can always find some way to get them to bite

Yeah, i'm familiar with fishfinder rigs (I like to use 'em from the piers for sand sharks and whatever else wants to grab cut bait on the bottom). Thanks for the tip, we'll have to try that out.

I'll have to stock up on bucktails, the heaviest I ever carry with me are 1/4oz. I might actually just go buy some of the heavier ones to start with since its a pain to pour jigheads that big.

Hey, who's this? Are you one of marc's buddies or someone from the old neighborhood I used to hang out with?

you know who it is. your old fishing buddy you show no love for anymore. you wanna get on some fish let me know, you guys can follow me out. ill put you on some red drum, or black drum, or cobia or what ever you wanna catch

Holy shit, Shane? Damn man, i'll hit you up. We are going out there today so give me a call if you're out there.

ill probably be going out next weekend weather permitting going for blackdrum if you guys wanna follow.. gonna be a long ride though goin to eastern shore. what kinda boat you guys fishing on??