Cory Ruthless Routh has been telling me about the redfish fishery that exists in Lynnhaven in Virginia Beach for about three years. Every year we talk about me coming down and giving it a shot with him, but either weather fouls us up or something else comes up this, that or the other and it just never happened. Cory called last week and said the fishing had been strong, I asked what he was doing on Friday and Saturday and he said come on down. Dalton and I packed up our stuff Friday morning and headed down the Eastern Shore and across the CBBT.

Cory had a morning kayak charter trip and we planned on meeting him around 1pm when he wrapped up his morning session. Dalton and I landed at Lynnhaven boat ramp a little early, so we grabbed a sub at Crab Creek Sub Shop and by the time we were done Cory and his crew were back at the ramp wrapping things up. Cory said the action was slow in the early morning, but picked up towards the end of the morning with a few nice fish landed.

We loaded up the kayaks with our light tackle and fly gear and paddled about thirty minutes to forty five minutes against the current to our spot. Second cast Cory hooked up on a nice Red. First cast Dalton hooks up on a good one. I thought, jimmy christmas this is going to be like shooting fish in a barrel. I shot some pictures of Cory landing, tagging and releasing his fish. I turned around to take some pictures of Dalton’s fish, but he already landed and released it. We all starting casting again with high hopes of some fast and furious action….not so fast there cowboy, we keep casting and castling and nada. We fished this area for another 45 minutes or so and had nothing. We paddled to another spot and on my third cast I hooked a nice one that towed me around on the kayak for a few minutes. Landed him, got a few shots and started casting again. About ten casts later I hooked another nice one, got a good tow, snapped some shots, and released him. That was about it for the action the rest of the day because the tide just kept going out which did not make for good shallow water fishing.

We paddled back to the ramp and called it a day. Dalton and I headed back, showed and hit Chicks for a good seafood dinner and then called it a night. We decided that we would try to get out on the water Saturday morning early to try and catch the last part of incoming and then outgoing tide. Mark L from the TKKA kayak club, and who runs some charters for Cory, joined us Saturday morning as well. All four of us headed out around 6:15am hoping to find a load of redfish. We hit the spot where we had action the day before, nada, hit the other spot we had some action….Mark hooked up on a ray which pulled him around for a while. No reds to be found though. We paddled a ways to another flat and all spread out to cover the area and see if we could locate them, nada. We paddled a ways to another flat…nada. After a few hours of fishing we decided to call it given it seems they were just not going to bite and the tide was not going to turn again for another few hours.

We got back to the ramp around noon, packed up and headed home. Dalton and I hit Stingrays on the way home for lunch and loaded up on some more seafood. We stopped in to see Mason at Salisbury Fly Shop where Dalton got a heck of a deal on a spare spool for his J Ryall fly reel. We also ran in to a friend of mine who was visiting from the west coast, the fly fishing world is a small one that is for sure. After shooting some stuff for a while we jumped in the car and was home by 5:30pm-ish.

All and all it was a great trip. I used to do a lot more kayak fishing then I have lately, but it reminded me how much fun it is. Cory really knows the kayak gig well and worked hard to put us on the fish. Having a light tackle/fly fishing fishery for redfish as close as Virginia Beach is really cool and we will be back down to do it again soon!

Kayaks:
Native Manta Ray 14 ft
Native Ultimate 12ft
Native Ultimate 14ft
Heritage Redfish 14ft

Fishing Rod/Reel Combos:
Me: Shimano Calais Baitcaster on a GLoomis GLX 6′6″ rod with 20lb fireline
Dalton: Shimano Stadic 2500 on a Bass Pro Extreme 6′8″ with 10lb stren super braid
*Fly great really was not used since we did not find them schooled up.

Lures:
Redfish Magic rigged with a chartreuse 3/8oz Tidal Fish lure (caught both of my reds on this rig)
Redfish Magic rigged with a rootbeer Riptide plastic (Dalton caught his red on this rig)

Cory has a new book out on kayak fishing, I reviewed it before it was released and have to say I am pretty impressed with it. It covers about everything you need to know about kayak fishing, what you need, about different types of kayaks, and summary of destinations. Check it out or buy it below

Click here to read more and/or buy the book

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