trip report

[derf]

ok , a trip report
left lanc pa thurs nite , spending the nite at my mom's and dropping the kitties off to be spoiled for 2 weeks .
fri am hit the road , just late enough to catch the last bit of rush hour traffic around annapolis md . cruised across the bay bridge stopped at the wawa in cambridge for gas and breakfast . decided to hit kool ice for some bait and back on the road .
switched drivers at the va line reststop . deb usually drives this section to the cbbt , i hate that section !! it has been showering all the way down but all hell breaks loose just before the cbbt . get to the rest area / toll bothes and there is a backup ?? we are starting to pull off into the rest area when one of the bridge personal walks over and announces that the bridge has been closed due to high winds .
we thought we were ahead of this but .... so pull in the rest area and park and wait it out it is 12:15 ........23 hours later they open the bridge to 'high profile' vehicles ....
on the road again , pull into frank and fran's sometime that afternoon , get bait and head for the beach ... but 44 is washing in ... u-turn , change plans , go get pizza for dinner and decide to pull in a campground to gat some needed sleep (fri nite in the rest area was just dozing , everytime we heard something we had to look and see if they had opened the bridge).
we decided to drop the camper , still blowing from the noreaster and high tides from the full moon . took the truck and cruised the beaches at low , not much beach showing to drive at high tide , so we decided to leave the camper in the campground .threw some tackle and rods in the truck and went fishing .
wednesday loaded the camper , hit the beach and the brain shifted into 'island time' (don't know what day it is , don't care , the only thing that matters is when is high and low and what time does the moon rise .
fish, eat , sleep , catch up with people we haven't seen in a year was the order of the day for the next few ..btw nothing but small blues skates and 1 slot puppy .

sunday comes around and we have to start thinking about re-stocking the camper with food, water,ice and bait for the trip to cape lookout . ferry to ocracoke then 6 pm ferry to cedar island , there was a campground right at the ferry landing and since we had an 11 am reservation for the ferry to calo we spent the nite there . pack'em on the ferry ond head over .



chuck met us on the island and gave us a quick orientation . to the beach and fishin' btw brain is on 'island time' again .
set up just down from chuck and jimmie . next thig i know deb has a metal rod in here hands chasing biltzing blues up the beach . we stayed on them for @ 1.5 hours with just enough time inbetween passing pods to change lures or rods or both ..
tide coming in so pulled up to the dune line fished untill ?? and hit the bed .
up around day break coffee , fishin' then back to the cabins to see what the plan is for the day .
chuck wants to head south so we tag along to get the lay of the land .
sweet beach !!

fixed some reels and fished ....changed locations and fished our way back up the beach .
sos , fish , eat, sleep . spent the nite at the dune line somewhere north of the light house and before the cabins .
ok it's wed ... head back to the cabin , the crew was heading south , we headed north to the inlet . wow all i can say is if we saw this spot on monday , we wouldn't have left .. ocean on the one side , inlet , and nice cut on the sound side ...swam a lot of plugs there just to see what and how they swam
got a nice yearling at dusk ...
headed south cause we had an 8am reservation for the ferry , somewhere on the beach near the cabins we made camp .

yup , sos , except didn't put a line in the water this am . caught the ferry off , did a little sight seeing and headed for cedar island .
note , no matter what time of the year it is make reservation for the cedar island ferry !! we almost didn't make it on ..
the one thing i will never get used to is it is only 76 miles from calo to hatteras , but it takes the better part of a day to get there ??
back on hatteras ... yup restock and hit the beach
fri am windy and nasty fished all morning couldn't give a bait away ..
said the heck with it packed it in , gave our bait to chuck and jimmy , cleaned up and headed home ....

as far as a comparision between portsmouth and calo ...pretty much the same . more cabins on calo = more people . not that there was when we were there . all the cabins there have been re-built from the hurricane . more mile of beach on calo than on portsmouth .
imho it's a coin toss , we will have to make more re-con missions to have a preference .

all in all a great trip !!

even with the delay at the bridge , not a lot of big fish , and the fridge not working....
saw some old friends , made some new ones , caught some fish , saw new places to go back to , went to places we have been before

[Mr. Dad]

Overall sounds like a great time derf......excellent pics too

[Large John]

Island time......I like that, nice report and pics there derf....wish we coulda fished with ya but between the weather and bad timing it didnt happen. Next time.

Might just make it to the fling this year so maybe then.

[derf]

more pics here ... http://www.stripersonline.com/fish_p...ry.php?cat=567

[mericanwit]

Derf
Awesome....

[Steve Coleman]

Sounds like fun. Who needs to catch #$% fish anyway. What a great trip.

Of course, (it probably goes without saying) Deb was doing all the catchin'?

I like the "island time" thingee, I think I've been there the past 20 yrs.



Tequila,
Steve

[derf]

Of course, (it probably goes without saying) Deb was doing all the catchin'?

actually , it was my turn steve ... ya know every dog has his day
soo, i'm probally done for awhile ...
the count :
deb:
blues ; don't know how many
1 great shark hookup and run
derf:
1 slot puppy (pictured)
1 yearling c&r
blues ..don't know wasn't counting catching bait
we both had a couple of rays & skates ...
a lot of cut lines on the retrieve..... i'm assuming they were cut by blues , so don't know what was hooked . lost more tackle this trip than we have in years combined .......

but ya know striper season is coming around and i'm sure deb will be putting more fish on the beach than me ; as usual
see ya soon
btw , how is the soccer thing doing ?
derf

[OBXSalt]

Looks beautiful. It's nice to see a beach without a ton of yuppy SUVs littering it. I haven't been down there in about 12 years or so, still looks the same. Thank your favorite diety for that!

[cefireman2154]

hey man u were the same time i was and the fishing report was same for us, did u stop and ask 2 guys on four wheelers if they knew where the fish cleaning was at south end? that was us, just curious because the pics of your truck looked liked the one that stopped

[derf]

nope , didn't ask where the cleaning station was .....
3 days there wasn't enough time ................
didn't get to check it out as much as we would have liked to ...
next time it is a full week there
sorry we didn't get to meet up with you
derf

[crashq]

Sorry to hear the fishing wasn't as good as your previous trips. Sometimes that is the way it wworks out on short trips. It sounds like you had fun anyway. BTW, nice rig!

That inlet water sure looked nice, did you guys give that a try?

[derf]

That inlet water sure looked nice, did you guys give that a try?

if we would have hit that mon , we wouldn't have left it .....
we were talking to someone else who was fishing there that nite ; said he had been hitting drum there in a very short window of time every nite for 2 weeks ; pups and flounder on the sound side ....real nice water to fish
i'm assuming you took a private boat over to the 'island'??
derf

[crashq]

Yes, we did use a private boat. It makes for a lot of work moving stuff, but gives us a little added flexibility if the fishing isn't good in one area. We also don't have to contend with blocking the beach at high tide for the truck guys over there. (I noticed a lot of houseboats behind north Davis this year; that might be another future option.)

We used to rent the cabins on Portsmouth Island, but switched to camping after the hurricane in 2001(?) and haven't gone back.

[derf]

I noticed a lot of houseboats behind north Davis this year; that might be another future option.

saw the adds for them some place ... that would be way kool

[rockhoppingmike]

Nice pics i miss that place!