Lateral Line Ambassador Cory Routh has been working hard over the last year to produce his first book titled “Kayak Fishing” that will be released in August.

Readers will get a quick, clear understanding of the essential information needed to get started in the growing sport of kayak fishing. Cory Routh covers everything needed to know for safe, fun and successful kayak fishing, including:

• Choosing the right kayak for fishing
• Selecting PFDs and paddles
• Kayak safety and self-rescues
• Basic and advanced kayak rigging
• Transporting your kayak
• Choosing the right fishing gear
• Stealth and presentation
• Fighting and landing fish
• Freshwater fishing
• Saltwater fishing
• Fly-fishing techniques
• Kayak fishing instructors and guide listing

PODCAST
Listen to a Podcast with Cory from the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival where I talk to him about his new book, his guide service and kayak fishing in and around his home waters of Virginia Beach.

 

 Kayak Fishing by Cory Routh [8:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I had known that there were over ten different unique populations of striped bass around the United States and even that striped bass along the eastern Atlantic coast migrated all the way down to Florida. However, I never knew we actaully had a striped bass population along the gulf coast. I was reading the newest edition of Eddies today and sure enough not only are there striped bass along the gulf coast, there is a huge restoration effort happening. Pretty cool, read more below.

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The genetically unique Gulf Coaststrain of striped bass was once common to rivers pouring into the Gulf of Mexico. By the 1960’s, its population had declined significantly due to poor water quality and loss of habitat from a wave of dam construction. The last known population of native striped bass survived in low numbers in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river system in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Twenty-five years ago, these states and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formed a powerful partnership to restore Gulf striped bass in the ACF. Some remarkable achievements have been made. We know more about its life history and its genetic integrity is safeguarded. The partners evaluate each year the stocking success and food availability; a young-of-year index estimates year-class strength; creel surveys evaluate recreational fishing; and telemetry studies have revealed the waters that provide essential temperatures the fish need. And now many of those coolwater habitats have been protected or rehabilitated. Recreational fishing in these places is carefully managed. Through the partnership, Radium Springs on the Flint River was purchased for habitat protection. Dead Lake Dam on the Chipola River was removed, and the operations at other dams have improved. Biologists have evaluated fish passage problems throughout the basin. Seven state and six federal hatcheries cooperatively stock more than one million Gulf striped bass a year. New recreational fisheries have been created, and anglers have set exciting new records. This work has been a catalyst for striped bass restoration throughout the Gulf region. Today, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi are helping this remarkable 25-yearold partnership ensure the success of this unique and important fish across much of its historic range.

Virginia NEW STRIPED BASS RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR THE REMAINDER OF 2008

The new striped bass regulations have been set. They are for the 2008 fall striped bass season inside Chesapeake Bay’s Virginia waters.

The CHESAPEAKE BAY regulations will remain the way they have been until December 21, 2008.
From now until December 21,2008 you are allowed to keep two (2) striped bass per person with a minimum length of 18 inches. No fish may be kept between 28 and 34 inches long. One (1) of your two fish may be 34 inches or longer.

That changes on December 21, 2008. From December 21, 2008 until the bay season ends December 31, 2008 you can only keep one fish per person. It can be on either side of the no-take slot limit.

The Atlantic Ocean Fishery Regulations are UNCHANGED. The regulations are two (2)  striped bass per person with a minimum of 28 inches.

Thank goodness.  The Chesapeake Bay’s biggest problem is clean water. I have been a strong advocate of reduced harvest limits for all user groups as result of declining fish populations. The biggest culprit for these declining fish populations over time, beyond over fishing, is the lack of clean water. Congrats to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for taking a hard stance and taking action

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from Will Baker, Chesapeake Bay Foundation President

Dear Brandon,

For the better part of the last day and a half, I have been talking with reporters. And, just this morning, we formally announced our “notice of intent” to sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to force the federal agency to keep its promises to reduce pollution and clean up the Bay. Such a notice is required 60 days before actual litigation is filed.

We are taking this extreme step because not once, not twice, but three times, the EPA has signed agreements to reduce pollution in the Bay. The latest, the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement signed by the states and feds in June of 2000, would have cut nitrogen and phosphorus pollution enough to remove the Bay and tributary rivers from the federal Impaired Waters List. Eight years later, EPA admits they will miss this goal, and they are discussing moving the deadline back another twelve years!

We’ve had it with these delays. So we are going to federal court. We are targeting EPA as the lead federal agency responsible for upholding the Clean Water Act. And, we are not going it alone. Watermen, recreational anglers, and former elected officials have joined in this action.

Here is a link www.cbf.org/c2k to a lot more information about this action. We are going to need your support. Please sign the petition, send the EPA Administrator an e-mail, and sign up for our rally on November 20th in Washington, DC.

Thank you,

I read the below article in the Jersey Coast Anglers Association October Newsletter and thought it was interesting. Are yellow fin now going to disappear? Will pictures like the one here be a thing of the past?  Does our Atlantic Tuna Management need a total overhaul? You decide.

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Highly Migratory Species Report   by John T. Koegler
Missing Yellowfin Tuna

After a good early season, which lasted until Early August, the Yellowfin tuna totally vanished. There were many explanations offered but that did not make up for this key offshore species. The slack was taken up by the strong showing of bluefin tuna along the 30 fathom line.

This fishery lasted over 4 weeks with a few weekends the area resembled a Wal-Mart parking lot. Then for no good reason dirty green water moved into the prime fishing area and the bluefin moved inshore to the 20 fathom line.

The white marlin fishing has been very good. The Mid-Atlantic $500,000 tournament recorded 388 white marlin caught with almost all being released alive. The big surprise was the tiny number of tuna registered in the tournament. Only 13 were weighed in for the lowest total in the last 20 years for this tournament.

In September NMFS changed their rules for bluefin tuna and now permitted General Category boats to land up to 3 giant bluefin tuna per day. The reason is for the fourth year in a row the huge New England giant bluefin tuna fishery has vanished. A few giants were landed early in the season but the main body of fish failed to show.

Many New England fishermen had believed lack of key forage species like herring had encouraged the giants to keep going and end up in Canadian waters where they had another good giant season. But commercial herring landings were reduced! So far it does not appear to have worked despite a major change in herring catch rules.

Small bluefin tuna showed up in good quantity in their old fishing grounds like the Mudhole and Chicken Canyons along the 20 fathom line. A few skippers were delighted but the absurd NMFS limit of 1 school tuna and 1 large school per boat trip reduced the number of boats willing to spend the huge fuel dollars to fish to a tiny number. At the same time on the other side of the Atlantic, the ICCAT bluefin tuna management farce continues. The EU closed the giant Fishery 2 weeks early because they estimated the full giant bluefin quota had been caught and sold. Nations like France and Spain ignored the rules and part of their fleet continued to fish for bluefin.

There is no internal force within any European country to enforce ICCAT rules. So again after 32 years, the US and Canada are the only countries with regulations. In the US the toughest regulations apply to the huge recreational fleet while the commercial fleet is given most of the US quota. Meanwhile, our ICCAT representatives reduced our 2008 quota by hundreds of tons of bluefin once again with the absurd expectation that the European countries would impose the tougher ICCAT regulations and lower their quotas as proposed by their scientific arm.

No one should be surprised that the Europeans refused to impose the 2008 lower quota. Naturally, the US imposes their reduction for about the 10th time while the Europeans refused to accept their lower ICCAT quota for the 10th time. Why the US delegation to ICCAT expects quota acceptance by the Europeans after 32 years of a total refusal are an unreasonable expectation!

An unusual bluefin spawning success in 1995 and 1997 increased the number of US bluefin tuna population greatly. Now these 2 year classes are sexually mature. Now the number of school fish is exploding! Will US recreational fishermen ever be permitted to catch a few bluefin their conservation permitted to expand? This will happen the same as the Feds lower our taxes.

One good item in the offshore area is the ban on longline fishing in the Florida strait which has permitted the Mahi-mahi population to sharply increase in numbers. Offshore anglers are enjoying their best Mahi fishing in the last 20 years. It will likely be short lived since NMFS in an absurd ruling has created a new version of longline fishing named buoy fishing. In buoy fishing the longline is attached to a buoy with a specified number of hooks and then tied to the boat fishing. This is not supposed to be longline fishing but the reduction in the number of small swordfish and other pelagic fish is evident. So much for expecting NMFS regulations to ever benefit anglers for long.

It is expected that the hurricane glances that have brushed the east coast will churn up the ocean enough that yellowfin tuna will return to end the season on a positive note. As everyone has noticed yellowfin fishing reduces slightly each year. It is a mere shadow of what anglers caught 20 year ago. Naturally, the problem is the huge number of purse seine boats fishing off the coast of Africa on the spawning yellowfin and bigeye tuna each year. Eight years ago their countries agreed in writing that they would reduce their landings. Naturally, after 8 years their landings keep increasing and the US ICCAT group does nothing, not even complain when it is evident that they are not reducing their landings and saving the US east coast fishery. Can anglers ever expect NMFS to get ICCAT to work? Clearly, ICCAT is a worthless organization.

After thirty-two years of expecting the European countries to follow their agreed to ICCAT rules seems absurd. Why do the US ICCAT reps expect the 33rd year to be different?

Go offshore fishing now! There are fish to be caught before the stripers arrive and the weather turns cold despite global warming.

This article is located here in JCAA’s Oct 2008 Newsletter.

I received the below report from fellow fishing friend Julie Ball from some fishing she did last week before the winds blew into the Chesapeake, sounds like some good fishing. Congrats to her on achieving 150 Virginia Citations, that is a heck of an accomplishment!

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My parents came into town from Florida for my birthday this week. This was bad timing for fishing, with not much of a break in the weather. We moved my birthday gathering from Tuesday to Monday evening, since Tuesday looked like the most fishable day of the week. Capt Skip Feller, captain of the Rudee Angler and supervisor of the Rudee Inlet Head boat fleet, kept hinting that he wanted to go fishing. Skip hadn’t fished on a “small” boat in years, and was itching to go. So, when the forecast was still W 10-15, we planned to point the bow east off Virginia Beach in our 31-footer and go as far as we could. Tuesday morning, the wind was from the SW at 15 to 18, but was supposed to drop to W at 10 after 7am. That didn’t happen. But, my parents were going fishing!

We left from the Virginia Beach Fishing Center around 8am, and made our way to the Chesapkeake Light Tower in 3 to 4 foot seas. The Backlash was there trolling for kings, and told us on the radio that he was going in early due to the weather. We looked around at the 3 to 4 footers, and decided to stay at the Light Tower and try to drop on a few wrecks. We put Skip to work, and he expertly maneuvered the boat over the wreck while we fished. After about an hour, the seas dropped to about 2 to 3 feet, and Robin gave Skip a break so he could fish. We hauled up several dozen nice keeper seabass to about 3 pounds.

At about noon, we noticed the seas had dropped to 1 to 2 feet, so we decided to see if we could make it to the Triangle wrecks, and we did. Again, the seas were 3 to 4 feet. My parents did great! Robin held the boat while we all fished again. We caught seabass to almost 5 pounds. After awhile, I noticed marks above the wreck that looked like bluefish. A few minutes later, Skip pulled up a CRUSHED seabass head. Ah-ha, they’re here! Let’s see how big they are. I broke out my Braid Slammer jigs on 50lb Power Pro line. A few minutes later, Skip was pulling up a seabass on the jig, and he shouted, “There he is!” A bluefish had taken his seabass and was hooked up. When it surfaced, I knew he was big enough! It was a stud! The next one hit the same way; he grabbed my seabass on the way up. It was another citation fish, although not as big as Skip’s. The seas had calmed to 1 to 2 feet again, and we headed back in at about 4pm with a cooler full of seabass and bluefish. I have a tough crew! And Skip caught fish for a change instead of taking others to catch them!

Back at the dock, Skip’s bluefish tipped the scale at a whopping 19lbs, 15oz which should be the new State Leading bluefish! Way to go Skip! I was also a happy camper, since I was able to obtain my goal for the year. My citation bluefish gave me my 150th Citation for the State of Virginia, giving me the 1st ever 6th Level Master Angler honors! I’m done!
Not bad for a crappy weather day of fishing!! Julie

Beginning in 2003 Stripers Forever has done an annual survey of their members’ fishing success for the season as well as soliciting their opinions on desired regulatory changes for striped bass. This survey is an important part of their work since it shows fishery managers how the public perceives the trends in the quality of this important fishery along the east coast.
It’s easy to fill out the survey:
1. Go to their website www.stripersforever.org and click on Fishing and Opinion Survey under Recent News on the right side of the home page.
2. From there just double click the attached fishing survey Word document, save it to your computer desktop and fill it out.
3. Then attach your completed survey to an e-mail back to them at stripers@whatifnet.com.

Although blustery weather is not allowing much opportunity for fishing on the open water, not many anglers are complaining since sheltered water is providing impressive speckled trout action. Plenty of fish averaging to three pounds are keeping casters busy. The most consistent speck action is happening in Rudee Inlet, Little Creek, Lynnhaven River, Back River, the Eastern Shore shallows, the Poquoson flats, and the Elizabeth River. Todd at Bayside Bait and Tackle reports that anglers are lining the beach in front of the old Duck Inn near the Lesner Bridge and leaving with buckets full of keeper specks, just like the “old days.” The best lures are chartreuse or red and white Mirrolures. Smoke-colored grubs and Gulp grubs are also producing.

Spot reports are scarce, with the great bite of the last few weeks dwindling to almost nil within the lower Bay inlets. Croaker catches are also slowing, but a few big heardheads are still providing some action in Lynnhaven Inlet, Rudee Inlet, and near the lower Bay Bridge Tunnels. Puppy drum are still generating a stir in the backwater areas, where hopeful die-hard spot anglers are scoring with nice pups in the 5 to 12-pound range in both Lynnhaven and Rudee Inlets. Surf anglers are also experiencing good puppy drum encounters on cut bait from Fort Story to Sandbridge.

Although this season’s king mackerel run was a good one, the recent string of blows has dropped water temperatures into the upper 60’s, which may have cut the run short. The same goes for cobia. Dave Trax, skipper of the Oblivion and a local king expert, maintains that 67 degrees is the cut-off for Virginia king mackerel action. The king bite out of Carolina is fantastic lately though, with several boats reporting limits of kings each day. Big red drum are still a possibility along the ocean front, along the Eastern Shore shoals, and near the 3rd island of the CBBT. The bull red action off the Little Island Fishing Pier and the surf line slowed up this week.

Striped bass are becoming more active, but not much bigger…yet. But, since the water temperatures are finally beginning to drop, bigger fish should begin moving in soon. Chunking and live baiting is still your best bet for a larger class of fish. Casters are scoring with schoolie-sized rockfish between 20 to 22-inches along the Monitor Merrimack, the James River Bridge, the HRBT, and the CBBT, especially during night time hours. Wire liners are also boating fish ranging from 24 to 26-inches from the tubes of the CBBT this week. Lots of bluefish to around 5-pounds and small gray tout are rounding out most catches.

Flounder are scarce with the muddy water right now. Drifting strip baits along the Baltimore Channel, near buoy 36A, along Cape Henry, and the small boat channel are good places to try when the wind breaks. Working bait and jigs around the CBBT structure can also prove effective for big flatties. These fish are fat in preparation for their migration offshore.

The inshore and bay tautog bite is beginning to draw more interest as reports of keeper fish up to 8-pounds are trickling in. Several keepers were boated from around the artificial islands of the CBBT this week on blue crab. Wreck action is also taking off nicely with ample numbers of respectable seabass in the 3 to 5-pound range becoming active on both inshore and offshore wrecks, with trigger fish still available in the same areas. Chopper bluefish are circling offshore structures. Captain Skip Feller of Virginia Beach landed the new State Leading bluefish when the chopper took his seabass while wreck fishing with Dr. Julie Ball and crew. His fish tipped the scale at 19-pounds, 15-ounces. Also look for a possible bluefin tuna sighting to surface soon in these same areas.

Offshore, it has been difficult to get out due to weather. When boats could make it to the deep, wahoo were providing some action, along with a few bill fish and bailer dolphin. This line-up can change considerably since the good water has moved out. Once overnight trips resume, more swordfish are a good possibility.
Dr. Julie Ball
IGFA Representative

Virginia’s Eastern Shore Fishing Report
Chincoteague – According to Donna at Captain Bob’s, fishing has been slow out of Chincoteague. Windy conditions kept fishing at a minimum over the past few weeks. On the good nights, a few large striped bass were caught under the Queen’s Sound Bridge.

Wachapreague -At Captain Zed’s, anglers were looking for flounder, but found very few keepers. From the dock at Wachapreague, bluefish, spot, and croaker were landed. Offshore, there was little action. One citation black sea bass (5 pounds, 2 ounces) was reported from the wrecks.

Virginia’s Middle Bay Fishing Report
by Jerry Thrash From Patriot Charters and Queens Creek Outfitters
Jerry writes: “This was a speckled trout week.  We weighed three citation-sized fish and recorded one release citation through Saturday, one of the weight citations was not validated because the fisherman was using a NC license.   Water temps were about 70 degrees until the winds came.  2-3 days of the NE blow should finish the spot. There are still a lot of Blue fish in the creeks and rivers and along the bars in the bay. Keeper grey trout continue to be caught in the Piankatank with best numbers coming at the edge of dark. There are also a lot of small red drum in the shallows, especially in grassy areas and in areas with hard bottom. Flounder catches have improved in the Buoy 36A and 38 areas.  One of our employees had 2 keeper flounder near the Coleman Bridge Friday night along with a limit of grey trout, six speckled trout and two puppy drum. Mobjack Bay is producing good numbers of speckled trout and the Piankatank is becoming more productive as well. Striper anglers fishing for school-sized fish are better off fishing at first light and just before dark and sticking to the shallows and/or structure with small jigs and soft plastics or live bait.    Schooling activity won’t start until the water temps fall below 60 degrees.

CITATIONS:
SPECKLED TROUT
26″, 6 lbs, 8 oz caught  10/14 by Jim Ruliffson of Hudgins in the Piankatank on a jig and an artificial minnow.
24.5″, 5 lbs, 4 oz caught  10/18 by Craig Balderson of Aylett in the Mobjack on a Mirrolure.
Release, 26.25″, caught and released on 10/18 in the Ware River by Keith Nuttall of Gloucester on a Mirrolure.
CROAKER, 20.75″, 3 lbs, 8 oz, caught 10/15 at Cape Charles on squid by E.W. Inge of Moon.”