December 2011- Speckled Trout Fever

Just about a year ago I received an invitation to fish the Dominion Power Company Hot Ditch discharge canal for speckled trout and puppy drum. We had a fantastic time and caught many fish.

Shortly thereafter I got an invitation to accompany a few soldiers from the Warrior Transition Unit at Ft. Eustis, to join the Project Healing Waters club and fish the Hot Ditch again. These two trips seemed to peak my curiosity concerning catching these fish outside the hot ditch, in the Elizabeth River area, and a couple spots I had been reporting about on the Peninsula.
 
I also wrote about my first trip on the Elizabeth River with Louis Glaser, President of the Norfolk Anglers Club, and Ned Smith, a club member. Again we caught dozens of fish and I began my learning experience.
 
When fishing the waters of the Elizabeth River and its tributaries, I used the same un-painted jigs (1/8 and ¼ ounce) tipped with several different Gulp and Fishbites paddletail plastics. I caught a few fish, but not nearly as many as Louis and Ned.

They were using the small. Model 17 MirrOlure suspending twitchbaits in a variety of colors. It didn’t take me long to question Louis about the model and color numbers, and then head to Bass Pro Shops and pick up a few of each.

On my next trip I was really ready. We began casting and as fate would have it, I was being out fished three or four to one. Shortly before I was going to take up a different hobby, Louis, with a grin on his face, asked me to compare our baits. I knew we were using the same size and color, but what I didn't know was that Louis and Ned modified their lures by tying buck tail hair on the rear hook.

If I had not experienced getting trounced, I would never have believed that would have made that much difference. Well, another trip to Bass Pro to pick up several two-packs of small, treble hooks with hair, then back home to make emergency repairs to my lures.

My next trip was with George Wojcik, a member of the Mako/Mercury Marine professional staff at Bass Pro Shops, who invited me to fish the skinny waters around the mouth of the York River. My first trip with George produced mostly small flounder and croakers, but since I wasn't getting trounced in catching speckled trout, I was satisfied.

On my next trip with George I couldn't believe our totals. George, being a devout game fish tagging participant, doesn't keep any fish, he just puts them into the live well and periodically stops to tag and release them. We caught fish on several color combinations of MirrOlures; on small jigs, tipped with a variety of sizes and colored Gulp or Fishbite plastic trailers; on top water lures; and on my second favorite speck lure, a popping cork, with a 15-inch leader tipped with a 1/8 ounce jig and various colors of plastic trailers.

At the end of this particular trip, when we took a break to tally up the tagging sheets, we had caught, tagged and released 64 short fish (less than 14-inches) and 36 legal sized fish. On this trip we fished for about four hours and I know we pulled off at least another dozen keeper sized fish.

I fished several more trips with George and although we didn’t match the totals of our previous trip, we managed 27 short fish and 14 keepers on one trip and 36 short fish and 15 keepers on another.
As I mentioned, George is a devout tagger and I was almost in tears from laughing when he told me he was going to have to hold off for a couple days so he could visit Lewis Gillingham, co-director of the Tagging Program, to replenish his stock of tags.

I received my next offer to chase specks from Louis about a week later. We fished Little Creek and again, we had tremendous luck. The majority of our fish were taken on twitch baits, but I did manage to catch a couple on the popping cork, and a couple on a 4-inch Gulp mullet on a 1/8 ounce unpainted jig.

We were fortunate enough to bring in 16 keeper fish on this trip (10 fish per person possession limit). We would have easily had our limit of 20 fish, except we pulled off several right at the boat, and I using my expert netting skills, knocked three of Louis’s nice keeper fish off the hook, right at the boat.

By this time I am about ready to convert to chasing specks all the time. This is as close as anything I have tried yet, to fresh water bass fishing. I am slowly building up my selection of lures, jigs, trailers, popping corks, and a supply of pre-tied trailer hooks for each new MirrOlures.
The Project Healing Waters folks are going to fish the hot water discharge canal on the 15th of Nov. and I have been invited to participate. I hope to get some good pictures and add another chapter to my speckled trout adventures.

Saltwater anglers are reminded that the Chesapeake Bay fall striper season ends on December 31. After that, all stripers caught inside the Bay must be released.

Get out on the water. The Bay temperature is slowly dropping and the stripers are becoming more and more active. I have contact with several charter boats that are eager to get you on the fish. Call me at 757-874-4970 or email me at suthrncstm@aol.com.
Tight lines, sharp hooks and strong knots.