My apologies to those who follow these reports. June and July are very busy months down here, and I’ll try to catch up. Hopefully, some of those May tips got you through a lot of the steamy season.
It’s been redfish, redfish, redfish lately for me. We’re seeing some good numbers this year and are still sight-fishing for them in a few areas. Cool days and nights (by August in Virginia standards) have allowed puppy drum and even over-slot fish to come up shallow. Add the still cooler water and clarity of an incoming tide, and you have a winning combination. It certainly doesn’t hurt that we have bunker inside starting to outgrow the term “peanut,” gudgeons aplenty, blue and fiddler crabs, and tons of mullet for the reds to gorge on; very soon, the silversides that are usually present will be shocking in number. While keying in on creek mouths is always a good idea, the abundance of baitfish getting moved in and out usually makes a time investment in these areas payout. In low-light conditions, topwater lures over oyster beds and middle-depth flats (2-4 feet) are also getting a lot of action. Just be patient, and don’t try to set a hook before you feel the weight of the fish. They are not exactly masters of taking something off the surface. August and September also provide the best dock light fishing of the year. Imitations of the silversides mentioned earlier are your best bet. Clousers with similar coloring and flash will work well, and several other patterns, like deceivers and midnight minnows, are fantastic, too. When we see pleasant daytime highs in the mid-80s, some shallow traveling lanes show tailing fish. August 19th is the full moon, so if you want to look for tails in the grass, the evenings around that date are your best bet. Bull reds will be available in the ocean and the bay throughout the month, and a good cold front may bring more back down the bay before they start to head south sometime in September. The lower Eastern Shore has had some bulls roaming sporadically in the shallows, but the clarity makes them challenging to see in time unless the water is smooth enough to pick up on their impressive wakes.
When you reach the lower end of the outgoing tide, Spanish Mackerel make their presence known with acrobatics outside most of our inlets and river mouths. If there’s a clear line between the clean and dirty water out in the bay or ocean, you’ll likely see long, silver popcorn shooting out of the water on the warmest days. They’ll tend to eat anything small, shiny, and moving fast, so spin anglers can toss Clark spoons, Gotcha plugs, and even jigs with flashy soft plastics, while fly anglers will want to use flashy baitfish patterns of different weights to see what the mackerel’s preference is. If you’re out on the bay and see blitzing Spanish on the move, try to get in front of the fish and cut them off as quietly as possible. You can’t retrieve a lure or fly too fast for these silver rockets, so two-handed stripping for fly anglers is recommended.
The trout are in the higher salinity areas now, which means they aren’t a primary target for most anglers, but if you have a nice drop-off from grass flats out in the bay, where the salinity is higher, they’re still hanging around and are catchable. I’ve found that matching the bottom or vegetation is the best bet for color choices.
Rockfish are available up our larger rivers, and there are a few spots in the marsh where they can be found, but with water temperatures where they currently are, I’m not open to targeting them. Virginia, especially in the lower reaches of the bay, continues to see concerning population issues. While August was never a great time to find Striped Bass, they will pop up occasionally. If you find them willing to play, do the right thing ethically and move on. The mortality rate skyrockets with our current water temperatures, and we, as anglers, are responsible for protecting the resource.
The flounder bite inside Lynnhaven has been good, particularly when there is good water movement around sunrise. The channel restoration going on in the main stem of the river has apparently created some new cuts where flatties are stacking up, but the nearby docks, points, and oysters are all still producing. It's tough to beat Gulp! lures on a small bucktail.
Get out there and enjoy this water. Before you know it, the fish will start their annual trips to wherever they spend the winter, and we’ll miss all of this activity (aside from the mosquitos, greenheads, and no-see-ums). Drink water and wear sunscreen!
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