Put in at HR in a.m. and drifted over tubes on Hampton side, drifted over Hampton flats, nothing but 'lil critters. By noon moved toward MMBT, within 1/4 mile of middle ground. Nothing but critters again. Report from bait and tackle at Sunset around noon said no one fiinding much going on. Too early for much spot, too late for croaker and Ernesto pushed flounder out around 3rd island CBBT. Left at 2:30ish. Hope ya'll faired better.

frazoo

Thanks for the report. Kinda depressing.

Thanks for the report. Looks like I'll stay home tomorrow and do Fall yardwork.

Not very good news for a newbee to VA

went out to the hrbt friday night.. got there just before slack tide.anchored just inside the two bridges. jigged berkly shrimp on a 1/8 oz jig.. I would hit the bottom then slowly move it a few inches mup and down. We nailed 14 trout 14-20 inches in about a half hour.. as the tide started to go out i let more line out so we were under the bridge.same jig and shrimp. BAM!! 21inch flounder.. had two more but lost em at the boat.. let alittle more line out when the tide was really moving. put us right in the light line and hit 19-26 inch stripers for the next few hours.. the boat next to us had two of my friends on and it seems we bet the tar out of them fish wise.. lots of fun.. looks like this year is going to be great for schoolies..on a not so light side. i just had my last two wisdom teeth removed.. the lower took 3.5 hours.. so im out of fishing for a few days good luck out there and try to be nice to your fellow anglers.. John

There are still flounder at the 1st and 2nd islands. Put 6 in the box yesterday between 2PM and 5PM with the largest at 23".

Looks like I need to schedule some nite time trips! Daytime navigation is still a challange for me, how do you do the night time thing? Am still slowly working my way out of the rivers into the bay, getting used to the boat and local conditions. Hope to be doing the three islands by 1st week of October. Good luck to all.

frazoo

Frazoo,

GPS is a god send at night... But a good compass and chart will work just fine. You just need to be especially careful and keep a close eye out for everything at night. When in doubt stop to get your bearings before moving further and pay attention to channel markers.

Tight Lines
Mark

if yor not sure.. go before it gets dark and make a mental note of all possible obstructions.. i recomend taking a trip at night on a path you travel often.. no need to go fast. just get used to it. before i had gps i would look at land marks verses my compass heading during the daylight hours and use that as a bearing at night.. sorry if my spelling isnt up to par..

Ernesto did not do anything to the flounder. I have been catching near limit bags each outing. Nothing giant 17-19". Fllounder are usually here until Nov and have caught them in December.

Fraz, you may want to take a more experienced person with you on your first night time adventure. Nothing looks the same at night. Your daytime landmarks disappear unless the are lit. Also I would avoid heavy shipping areas. My fishing career was almost cut short as a teenager in the Elizabeth River. My first night striper trip led to a pretty good catch off of NIT. As we were trolling towards the Navy piers, the lights of the city began to disappear. We thought it was a blackout of some sort. No, it was a 1,000 foot long coal ship less than 100 yards away. It was so large and the night was so dark that I thought the port running light was an airplane over the Navy base, and I didn't recognise what was happening until I saw the white bow wave. Since we were trolling, I cut hard left and gave it some power. All it cost me was some tangled lines and a pair of Fruit of the Looms. Could have been much worse. Would hate to see that happen to someone else. Tight lines.

Fraz,
I agree with George...take someone experienced with you. Also, DO NOT GO ALONE AT NIGHT. During the day, you have a pretty good chance of having other boats around but at night..... If you look at a nautical chart of the area, you can note which navaids are lit and what the lights are doing (color, # of flashes, and period). Try to locate these as you navigate your way out during a day trip so you get a feel of where they are located. Last, but not least, know the Rules of the Road for for proper vessel lighting while underway and anchored. Nightime trips can be very productive and are no more dangerous if you use a little caution and prepare for them properly. You do not want to sacrifice your boat, life, or your Fruit of the Looms. My $.02.

--Brett

Also I would recommend that you watch out for the wake or wave you can't see. Going slow at night saved me a couple times.

I agree with everything above. I would strongly suggest becoming familiar with the area you want to night fish with several daytime trips, so you can at least anticipate where the channel markers are beforehand. Even with a good chartplotter, the actual channel markers can be a few feet off--running at speed in the dark in a tight channel and that few feet can kill you. I always go slower at night--unless I'm in open water, just enough to keep me on plane. That being said, I love to fish the HRBT at night in the fall--one of my all time favorite fishing activities. Good luck--see you out there.

thanks to all for the excellent (and sobering) advice, I intend to use it all! Bought a GPS, picked up CG literature for safe boating (will sign up for a class) and will make MANY day trips before trying after dark (will also add a pair of fruitie-loomies to emergency kit ) .

I hope I can get to a meet and greet soon to put a face on the posts.

thanks all,

frazoo

Agree with everyone else.

Again, and I cant stress enough, Bring a proper chart AND a Mini Mag lite (or equal) with a red lens! Your eyes can recover from red light saturation much faster than white light. You dont want to wait 10 minutes to find landmarks you just looked at on the chart.

BTW, Never trust electronic navigation by itself.

FinnCatcher good advice went yesterday 9-26 around 6:30 pm tide was slack and the jig with berkley shrimp work well with the trout we caught about 8 keepers between 14 & 20" also caught 4 17" croakers fat ones. Also using other baits caught small blues, oyster toads, eel, and a skate. Tried to catch some stripers no luck... Tried storm lures and got back half a bait 3 times and some poppers with no luck...... Thanks Agian.....

I am planning a trip to the CBBT Friday night and was curious about what color gulp shrimp o use. White seems the logical choice to me, but I would hate to get there and it be the wrong color.


BTW this is a great Forum.

Last night At the HRBT we used a green jig head and the red/green or pink/green gulps which ever you want to call it.

Nocturn, I have a Chartbook for the Chesapeake Bay that lists bouys and depths, etc. and will pick up a red light flashlight this week. You mentioning the red light flashlight takes me back to when I was a kid and dad had the old L-shaped military red and gree lense flashlights around the house.

I noticed at HRBT, the bridge has signs posted all along it "no trespassing, no mooring to bridge". I understand the no mooring, but does the no trespassing mean you can't boat under the bridge between pilings?

thanks to all for the responses

frazoo

I don't think it means you can't anchor there. They don't want anybody to tie up or, i guess, try to climb on the rocks or pilings. It's all a post 9/11 thing. Norfolk PD is occ. out there, never seen 'em hassle anybody in between the bridges.