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Some of you may already now, but for those that don't, I volunteer with Heroes On the Water as often as possible. HOW is an organization that offers service members the opportunity to experience kayak fishing at no cost to them. For many of them, this is the only means of escaping the confines of the VA Hospital or some other form of rehab. It is very fulfilling to say the least. Last weekend, I took my son along as I had done on several past HOW outings, only this time it was a smaller event where we were paired with a lone service member. Along with another volunteer, we managed to put the veteran on several bass on the day. During the event, the volunteers are also fishing as well. My son and I ventured back into a protective cove and both hooked into fish. I landed my first bowfin, while my son landed his new personal best largemouth bass measuring out at 17 3/4". It was an awesome day!

1st fatty fell prey to a PTL Sick Stick 2nd fatty fell prey to a PTL Gator Guess you could say she really like the Gator!

Had a rare opportunity to fish three days in a row this past weekend when the wife took the kids and went to visit her parents. I loaded up my gear and the Hobie Pro Angler and made my way to three different locations. The first day was a late start, so I opted to hit a local pond I hadn't fished in over two years. Ended up with 5 bass on the day with the largest at 17". Hot bait for the day was the wacky rigged Sick Stick and the 4.8" JP Hammershad on a texas rig. The next day was a casual day at a larger impoundment with a friend and his wife who was just learning to kayak fish. She was the hot stick on the day landing ten fish all in the 14-18" range. I managed a few as well on the Sick Stick again and on the 7" Finicky Tickler but nothing worthy of a photo. The final day found me fishing with a couple of good PowerTeam friends - the owners themselves . Needless to say, I was stoked. I landed my best fish of the weekend and lost a citation in the process. The start of the day was not so great. As Bob paddled up to me asking how's it going, I see my jig n craw swimming away from me. I set the hook and immediately my flipping rod doubles over and drag starts peeling. I fight the fish for about 30 seconds and bring it alongside to lip her and that is when I see what I have in front of me. The mouth on this girl was the biggest I had seen in my entire fishing career. I can see the jig is barely pinned in the corner of her mouth. As I reach for her, she jumps and throws the jig right back in my face - heartbreak!! And Bob just looked at me and said wow that was a monster. Well the next hour saw me miss three more hooksets. By now I'm getting more that a little frustrated, so I switch tactics and start working the 7" Finicky Tickler on a texas rig and start getting some nice fish. A few more casts, and a couple more nice ones decide to join the party...... As the day is winding down to a close, I was working the same area where I lost the big girl earlier and decided to try a different approach - a dead sticked Finicky Tickler. After about 30 seconds of no movement, I felt a solid thump and my line starts swimming opposite of my hull. I asn't missing the hookset this time - I reel down and give a sharp snap of the rod away from the fish and the hook buries true! The fight is on now and she is not happy to have the hook buried in her. I fought her for what seemed like an eternity with several drag peeling runs and turns of the Pro Angler hull for an adrenaline pumping sleigh ride. She has her mouth snapped close and refuses to open wide for me, so I just cradle her and lift her into the footwell. After a few moments to get the hook out and a quick refresh in the water to keep her active and respirated - a quick weight registers 4lbs even on the scale. A great way to end the three days on the water if you ask me.

Managed to get on the water for a change last week for a bit. I loaded up with Medium gear rigged for smallmouth and spent the day on the James River. While the big brown footballs escaped me, I managed four species on the day: 2 little smallmouth, 1 largemouth, 2 gar (lost one over 40" right at the side of the kayak but boated a 22" - first one ever), and landed my personal best channel cat at 29 1/4".....3/4" shy of a VA freshwater release citation. All in all, a great day on the water. Here's the beastly cat.

The goal of the night was to get some time on the water after a long overdue hiatus. Between Mother Nature, family obligations, travel baseball and work I have barely had time to sleep. Well, I sacrificed sleep for a change recently and vowed to get out on the water regardless of weather conditions. As luck would have it, it was raining, but I went anyway dang it! So glad I did. I met up with my fellow TKAA buddy Wayne, and we agreed to fish the Hampton side of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. We launched shortly before 6pm into steady 15mph winds out of the NNW. I located a whole mess of baitfish on my Elite-4x DSI but couldn't locate any big fish. We moved about all over and finally setup shop in a couple of drop offs and started working our PTL Curly Tailed Grubs dipped in Hog Tonic. Neither of us had any luck, so I decided to try a different tactic of slow drifting the grub with a raising and lowering motion followed by a subtle twitch. It was on the second set of movements and the final twitch that I had my first fish of the evening - a spunky 13.25" Grey Trout that was measured, photographed and released. It hammered the Blue Hue PTL grub dipped in Hog Tonic. This fish was significant, because it was also the first fish landed on my new custom casting rod. I quickly setup for another drift but found no more takers. When that drop dried up with no signs of activity, I decided to hit the bridge and work the light line instead. The key to this area is current and eddy lines near structure. I ended up fishing from piling to piling looking for any signs of activity. After a few minutes of searching, I stumbled across something I had never seen before - a trout blitz on juvenile ribbonfish. It was very cool to watch, but I was there to catch some fish. I left that activity and honed in on some aggressive action a few pilings down and hooked up almost immediately with another fish. As I was reeling it in, it spit the grub only to have it inhaled by a zealous follower - a smallish 11" grey that lived to fight another day. I saw many more fish, but few of quality size that invoked any action on my part. That is until I saw a larger grey shadow hanging a bit lower than the others, so I made a short precision cast and dropped the grub practically right on its nose. It slammed the grub and bent the rod over immediately. While fighting this fish, I was getting slammed hard into the pilings from the NNW winds that had picked up to about 20mph and started white capping the waves. I was positioned incorrectly on the windward side of the piling in order to target this fish as stealthy as possible, but it also placed me in a very unfavorable position for actually fighting and landing the fish. It ended up costing me as the beastly speckled trout came unbuttoned as I was reaching for it. Easily 20"+ and would have been my largest trout this year. I quickly forgot about it and moved on. For the next 30 minutes, I couldn't find any fish - not even any baitfish. I kept looking and found some activity a little further down. When I saw the surface strikes, I knew it was a striper. I fired off a cast with a pearl PTL grub this time and was rewarded immediately with a strong surge in the rod as the grub was inhaled. I leveraged the Bull Bay Rod and the striper just had no chance. I easily maneuvered him away from the structure and guided him right to the side of my Pro Angler. A quick lip grip and a nice 21" striper was on the board. After a quick picture and measurement, I released the striper to live and fight another day. I saw some more activity in the same spot, so I fired off another cast and was rewarded with another hard strike followed by a short fight and I landed my fourth fish of the evening - a nice 19" striper. After that, I checked the time and knew I had to head in if I was going to get any semblance of sleep before our family's gathering to pick apples the next morning. I made it home, unloaded all my gear, drove to the in laws house and shared some time with family. I had to head home later in the day to take care of our dogs, but I managed to make it through the rest of the day and promptly fell asleep on the couch after I got home. It was a long and grueling 48 hours, but it was well worth it. Get out and satisfy that urge! Tight lines and be safe!