Solo paddle/fish in Lynnhaven Inlet,  August 28,  2004

I finally decided it was time to do a fishing trip by kayak instead of a paddling trip with some fishing thrown in as a sidebar.  I decided to go to the Lynnhaven Inlet area since this is where I have done the majority of my fishing in the past.  I've wade fished many parts of this area in search of speckled trout,  striped bass,  flounder and puppy drum. 

My decision to fish mostly instead of paddling was that I had devised a way to stabilize my skinny Greenland style kayak so I could fish without fear of flipping over.  In addition to that I had also fashioned a new seat for my boat.  So the combination of a lazy fishing day and a nice pad under my butt for comfort just sounded enticing.  

I did not bother with worrying about the tide since my window of opportunity for paddling was fixed.  It turned out to be high tide just a few hours prior to my launch so I was fishing the outgoing tide.  It was a little windy but I didn't worry about that since my trip was to be mostly fishing and very little paddling.  I managed to load the kayak deck up with a lot of gear.  I don't have a rod holder yet and will need a few more experimental trips before I decide where I might want to rig one up.

Here is a front shot showing my "stabilizers" installed on the kayak.  I think the proper term is sponsons.  I had sketched out several ideas for stabilizing the kayak about two to three weeks ago during our rainy summer.  I had all these crazy wood contraptions that utilized boat bumpers/fenders.  I decided to see what was available commercially and found a much easier solution to my problem.  There is a device available on the retail market that works just like what I have rigged up only the sponsons are inflatable and much larger.  Of course it was expensive,  $195 or thereabouts.  I knew I was not going to paying that amount of money to do this.

In this side view you can see where I used a simple boat bumper/fender and some rope and stainless steel spring clips to make my rig.  The two bumper/fenders are attached by  ropes to each other and then in turn to the stainless steel spring clips.  It is actually only two pieces of ropes running through each end.  The ropes between the fenders cradle the kayak and the spring clips attach to my perimeter ropes.  They cannot pull over the kayaks deck and cannot pull under the boat since the ropes are tight.

My new seat is simply an $8 patio chair with the legs and back cut off.  I lay a foam pad on it and it is very comfortable.  It does raise my center of gravity slightly thereby making the kayak a little more tippy.  I did not find that to be a problem since I am now used to paddling a skinny kayak.  I have not affixed the seat in the kayak yet as I want to finish all the work on the boat first.

I headed into the middle of the inlet where huge sandbars were being exposed during the outflow of the tide.

I fished most of the day within sight of the bridge and condos at the Lesner Bridge.  

I spent most of my fishing time at this slough of water.  There was a very large bar off to my right and about five feet from the marsh grasses was a deep channel.  I focused my fishing in this channel.  There were plenty of people who had paddled out to these sand bars and were exploring and fishing.  One guy had caught a few small flounder on some cut bait.  Argh!  I had forgotten to get minnows out of the minnow trap.  I was armed only with bucktails,  mirrolures and a few softtail grubs with lead heads.  While these are usually just the ticket in the fall season,  the summer is more of a live or cut bait scenario.  I casted and retrieved for quite some time before I had an idea.

I had some small hooks and bobbers in my tackle bag from my last freshwater fishing outing.  I decided that they would do since I had no bottom rigs.  This would be a first,  fishing in saltwater using a bobber and a hook.  You cannot see it here but against the marsh grasses there were large areas of exposed shells.  I do not think they were mussells.  They looked more like clams.  Definitely not oysters.  Anyway,  I reached in after getting up close and pulled several from the muddy banks.  I cracked them open with my knife and baited my hook with the meat found inside.  The meat was a sickly yellow and I am just hoping that they were not clams because that would be a clear indication of the decline of this area's water.

It seems that I had a rather good idea as I immediately caught fish using these "clams" as bait.  I caught and released four pigfish which are like small croaker or spot.  They were fun to catch but I did not want to try and make a meal from them.  It was the first time I can remember catching pigfish.  They grunted just as their name would indicate.  I did manage to catch a Northern Sea Robin also.  I have caught them before but not often.

I released this little guy and took a rest.

This is one of the areas that gets exposed during low tide.  I took a long break here exploring the marshes and scaring up minnows and other baitfish as I trudged through the little islands of water left here and there.  Mostly it was sandy but there was some of the sucking mud that threaten to keep my paddling shoes for their own.

As I said before this was in the middle of the Lynnhaven Inlet basin and the tide was ebbing.  I decided to paddle around the backside of this area and make a big clockwise circle to come back to my put in location of Crab Creek.  I spent much of my time poling along instead of paddling because of the water depth.  Also the tide had started to flow back in and I was paddling against the wind on the way back.  It was not much fun and I did little fishing.  I did experience a few unique things that I was not able to get pictures of.  The first was that I saw tons of sea turtles.  I never saw their bodies but they were popping their heads in and out of the water all day.  On the last leg of the paddle back I was able to get within 25 feet of a snowy egret just standing in the water.  I took a picture but it was horrible.  About that same time I was in the midst of a feeding flock of black winged seabirds.  They were smaller than gulls and four or five of them were circling and diving into the water for their meals.  They seemed oblivious to me and it was very funny to see splashes all around me as they dived in for supper.  I had spent the last part of the trip making that circle.  I fished a little bit on the backside of the marsh area but had taken my stabilizers off so it was not a lazy drift and fish.  The tide was really running and I kept paddling up to drop my line and then drifting and steering along as the wind/tide carried me.  I can fish from the kayak without the stabilizers but it is so much easier to use them when I am fishing.  They do OK when I am paddling although they do cause some extra drag.  They only cost $40 to make so it was money well spent.  I hope to do this same type of trip this fall to fish for speckled trout and stripers.  I will probably concentrate on specks as the stripers are usually associated with structure and the Lesner Bridge is not a good place to be in a kayak on a cold fall evening with all the shore fisherman using you as a target.  I may be ready by that time to venture out to the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel or the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.  Of course this will only be done with the right weather and I will not need to go out very far in order to reach good fishing areas.

See ya.