Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I left straight from work on Thursday at 4:30 and was on the water at Rudee Inlet in Virginia Beach by 9pm. I was the only one there and as it turned out I would have the place to myself all night.

I started in the back near the Navy docks and worked the shoreline with plastics and a mirrolure.  I fished the entire rocky shoreline and thie lights at the docks with nothing to show for it. Seemed like there was alot more grass there than the last time I visited.

Made my way to the islands and fished the points and western sides thoroughly with the same results. Things were starting slow.

So I high tailed it to Lake Wesley/Rich Man's cove out front to see what was going on. There was a sizeable striper popping under the first light at the cove entrance, but I got the mother of all wind knots on my first cast and drifted right under the light while untangling it, which scared away the big'un. Man I'm good.

I fished all the way to the back of the cove and there were schoolie stripers popping under most of the lights, but I stuck to the dark for the most part, looking for other fish.

After roughly 3 hours with no bites,  I went to catch some schoolies. Hit a couple of lights and tangled with a few in the 18-22" range.



I worked my way back towards the launch and fished some more lights on the way. I was able to coax a couple topwater strikes but my only hookups came on the jig. I fished around the back one last time and there was no sign of trout, blues, flounder, or reds anywhere. Pulled out around 3am with not much to show for it. First time I've ever fished Rudee at night without bagging at least one Speck. Maybe next time.

I jumped in the truck and headed over the CBBT for the next round.

I made a quick stop at the Kiptopeke pier to see what was going on. I passed one guy that was leaving but other than that the place was empty. There were a ton of silversides under the lights, and a few shad eating them. I fished for about 20 minutes, and had some tiny seabass tugging on my jigs but that was it. The wind was picking up something fierce, and my eyes were getting heavy so I went back to the truck for some shuteye.

I think I slept for about an hour, and then was on my way up the shore. Did a little bit of sight seeing but no stops for fishing.



I've seen self-service produce stands before but never one for minnows. I thought that was cool.

Made a quick run through Wachapreague and there were several boats going out for flounder. I'm not sure they fish for much else in Wachapreague. Neat little town.



From there I headed up the shore, through Ocean City, and on to Delaware.

I don't remember for sure, but I think my first stop was at the L/R canal for some flounder, and I caught nothing there. I had made my mind up to do a little surf fishing on Saturday, so I



went to pick up some bait. After finding out that the local tackle shops didn't sell herring, I figured I'd have to catch my own. I went to the spillway in Milton and fished for some herring with a sabiki rig. It was my first time there and I had a good time, even though I didn't catch much. I thought catching herring would be like shad fishing, where they bite anything you throw at them, but it was a little tougher. I left with 4 herring after about 90 minutes of fishing.



I'm sure I did some more fishing that afternoon, but I couldn't even tell you where. I was dog tired and needed sleep, so I booked a hotel and slept for a few hours.

I woke up at 9:30 pm and dragged, and I mean dragged myself out of bed. The wind was howling and it was raining...striper weather. I picked up some coffee and headed to Indian River Inlet, telling myself all the way there that fishing was more important than sleep. There were a couple of cars in the lot but I had most of the inlet to myself. I tossed swim shads off the points but never connected with anything. Water was fast and incoming, and the weather was downright crappy. I don't think I fished for more than an hour or so before packing it in.

Woke up around 7am Saturday morning and headed for Herring point. That spot seems to have the easiest walk-in access, and the small jetties always make me think there are fish nearby. It was windy as he11, and that combined with my meager surfcasting skills meant I was basically fishing the wash .  I soaked herring chunks for a couple of hours and never had a bite, so it was a typical surf fishing experience for me. This trip was not going well so far.

I stripped up some herring and went into Lewes to fish a couple of good early season flounder spots. While walking to the water at my first stop I found this. Surely this meant good luck.



Pffft...good luck my arse. I didn't catch squat at that spot, so I headed into the marsh.

I stuck a herring strip on a bucktail and threw it into a current break, and finally, got a bite. And missed. *&$!

Threw back to the same spot and hooked my first flounder of 2011. He was onlya throwback, but by rule, I gotta take a pic of the year's first flattie. He was even kind enough to spit up the herring strip he stole from my bucktail on the previous cast.



5 or 6 more casts in that spot produced 3 more flounder, one of which was a 20" keeper. At least I had something for the cooler. I fished until the tide stopped, and headed to IRI for



a quick shot at some tog.

Well I spent the first couple hours of the incoming soaking green crabs and shrimp from the rocks, but never hooked up. I did see a couple of keepers landed but overall it looked pretty slow. The ridiculous wind made holding bottom and feeling for bites a difficult task.

I set my alarm for 2am so I could get up to fish the outgoing tide for another shot at IRI stripers. The weather was great that night (or morning, whatever), but for whatever reason I was the only person at the entire inlet. Maybe everyone else knew something I didn't.

I started on the North side, hitting all my favorite spots, and then over to the South side. It was kinda nice having the entire inlet to myself, even though I wasn't catching. I threw swim shads and bombers everywhere I could think, but had absolutely no luck on anything. No signs of life anywhere, which was hard to understand. I finished up with one last trip to the North side, but still found nothing at all.  I had really been looking forward to the pull of an inlet striper, haven't felt that in a while. Packed it in around sunrise and went to do some more flounder fishing in the marsh.

I went to Lewes and stayed there for most of the day. Threw bucktails tipped with herring and shiners, but it was slow. I caught 2 flatties and lost one before leaving for home at 5. No more keepers. I did catch a beautiful sunburn though, and my 2011 farmer tan is coming along nicely.

Not a very good trip fish-wise, but fun anyway. Sorry for dragging you though every waking moment of it

Last edited by Bryan (Apr-26-11 9:21AM)