Come on Virginia, Let's Step It Up!

I found this article on a great Chesapeake Bay website called ChesapeakeLiving.com about Maryland's Oyster management. I cannot say enough great things about Maryland's effort to restore the bay to ists former glory. It's time Virginia steps up and joins in the plan! Keep up the GREAT WORK MARYLAND!

http://www.chesapeakeliving.com/maryland-oysters-doubled-since-2010/

Photo Credit: Maryland DNR



HOW-TO: Duck Hunting Decoy Spreads

 

 

 

With Duck season fast approaching and alot of new hunters getting into the sport, I thought I would write a HOW-TO article on positioning of decoy spreads.. This is one of the key factors in duck hunting and if you ever have hunted with me, you know how exact I am in their placement.  I have put together some microsoft paint drawings to illustrate the different spreads I use. This is not the ONLY way you can place them for success so play with them and see what works best in your situation but it is what I have found to work the majority of the time.

 

A couple things to remember:

 

• Always leave a pocket (or two) for the birds to land

• Always pay attention to the layout of your decoys in relation to wind dierection as birds will land into the wind 99.9999% of the time.

• Start with less decoys in the early season and more as the season progresses. Also try and match the birds you are seeing in your area.

• Puddle ducks like calm, sheltered waters where diver ducks will burn up a spread in the highest winds without regard.

 

The Letter J 

 

The letter J is often spoke about in duck hunting because it naturally forms a pocket for incoming waterfowl to land comfortably. It can be adjusted for any wind direction other than straight in your face especially if hunting a long point. If using ducks and geese put the geese on the outeer edge and the ducks closer up towards shore. I find that geese are comfortable further from shore while puddle ducks tend to want to be inshore more.

 

 

The Hybrid W

Alot of people like to use a W as well as it creates 2 pockets. I like to step it up a bit and do a small J on one side of the blind out of geese, a gap in the middle with just a pair of ducks, and then a W off to the other side. This gives you multiple land zones for finicky ducks that want that "perfect" spot to plop down.For this the wind needs to be at your back or VERY slightly side to..

 

 

 

 Setting Sun

 

This setup is great for a point setup but will work elsewhere too. It is mainly used for diver hunts. Each leg will be a different species(Canvasbacks, Bluebills, Goldeneyes, Buffleheads) and then a knot of mixed decoys in the middle. Alot of species like to only decoy to birds of the same kind, you know "Birds of a feather flock together... NO B.S.) It may look funny but it works i will swear to that. The birds will fly down the line of decoys and attempt to set down next to the mix in the middle. 



 

 

 

 

Layout Blind Decoy Spread

The last illustration is stricly for diver and sea-duck hunting and for use with layout boats. It is deadly when applied and almost never fails to draw in the birds. Here too birds will follow the string of decoys to the wad in the middle and usually try to sit down.

 

 

None of these layouts are set in stone and all can be changed up to fit your scenario. Play with your spread and find out what the birds in your area want to see.

Chesapeake Bay Adventures Airboat Ride

Sunday I was able to finally get some time to slip down to Yorkhaven Marina and check out my friend's new business.... Chesapeake Bay Adventures. He does airboat tours in Poquoson and I was fortunate enough to get to go for a spin along with my good friend Buddy, his wife, and my other half and BOY WAS IT A BLAST! Here is a video!




The machine is a Diamondback brand boat with a 600 horsepower Supercharged LS6 motor. It has seating for 9 including the captain and a standing platform on top the blade cage that is the ideal perch for phenomal photography of wildlife and the surrounding marshland. We saw a huge assortment of birds, a few terrapins, and fish boiling in the flats. All around awesome experience that the ladies really enjoyed too. There is also a restaurant the on the premise  ofYorkhaven Marina called Owens which has some great home cooking and cold drinks to fill your belly after the ride so it makes a great little sunday excursion for the family.

Picture by Brian Lockwood

I highly recommend anyone that wants to do something special with their children or significant other takes a look at hiring Jamie Moore for a tour.He is licensed, insured, and a very safe captain. He charges 50.00 per person with a minimum of 4 passengers. This isnt your 30 minute ride up and back down the creek either. You get an hour to an hour and a half of airboat fun sliding around turns, breaktaking views of the wetlands, and all personally narated by Jamie, a native of Poquoson who is up on the history of the entire area. Give him a ring and tell him Blair sent you!

Contact Info:
Captain Jamie Moore
Chesapeake Bay Adventures
757-871-6402

Here are some of the photos I from our time out.

Matrix Jigheads and Swimbaits - Product Review

I was able to be lucky enough to demo some new soft plastic baits and jigheads from Matrix Shad/ Dockside Tackle. I have to say they really do perform very well and outfished the Saltwater Assassins I normally use.  Here are the colors I received to try out and share with some of my local tackle shop owners. Upon inspection the first thing i noticed was the attention to detail in the molds they use.  Each bait has raised gill plates which doesn't sound like a big deal but adds extra displacement and turbulence to your bait as it paddles through the water.

Due to our water currently being slightly stained, I chose to try out the "Pink Champagne" and the "Lemon Head" color patterns. Both Caught fish equally well but I tried to conserve the Lemon Heads because I know for a fact they will crush Stripers this fall under the lights. 

Dockside Bait and Tackle were also generous enough to send some of their custom jigheads along with their swimbaits. This in my opinion is one of their best products. At first glance I noticed a few key features that will really have me putting in an order the next time I order some jigheads.

 

• First off, A STOUT, SHARP, HOOK with a wider than average gap which allowed for more frequent solid hook ups. I am confident that you would break off before bending this hook on a big fish. Big plus + in my book
• Every one in the two packs I received were poured straight with the hook, eye and lead uniforn and true. This is important to create a straight swimming jig and prevent twisting/spinning on the retrieve.
• The bait holder truly locks the bait on even when being tail tugged by small pesky croaker saving from having to constantly change plastics.
• The reflect eye is nothing more than a sticker but does add some serious flash and a nice finishing touch on detail.

ALL and all I would recommend the Matrix Swimbaits and ESPECIALLY the jigheads to anyone looking to catch flounder, speckled trout, redfish, or stripers. They offer some great discount pricing if you buy in bulk and have all varieties of sizes to suite your need. Give them a look at : http://matrixshad.com/

IMPORTANT POST- Menhaden Fishery in Chesapeake Bay

If you take the time to read one of my blog posts, MAKE IT THIS ONE! I would like to explain what is happening to the Chesapeake Bay's most important fish before our very eyes with Omega Protein and their strong political backing. Omega has been charged/fined for dumping illegal oily bilge in the bay (last time to the tune of around 75 million dollars), are removing ton after ton of baitfish from the bay along with whatever else gets caught in their nets, and have been restricted from almost all US waters on the East Coast except VA due to supporting YOUR local elected officials with over $140,000 in campaign funds over a five year period.

They are literally sucking up every last Menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay. Why is this important to you?

A few facts:

• Menhaden are a valuable food source for a wide variety of fish including striped bass, bluefish, summer flounder, and weakfish; also for marine mammals and many sea birds including ospreys, pelicans, and loons.

• Menhaden feed massive amounts of plankton, filtering it from the water helping to prevent red tides/ algae blooms and improve water quality/clarity.

• 65% annual removal/harvest rate for adult menhaden from East Coast waters

• When comparing the current Atlantic menhaden population against historical levels, there is only 8% left of what used to roam the bay.

• According to the benchmark, menhaden are currently being overfished, and overfishing occurred in 32 of the last 54 years.

A guy I know who goes by Jet Ski Brian was out this past weekend and took these pictures of how the operation runs. First a plane flys around in circles over the bay looking for a school of menhaden. Once spotted he radios to the fleet waiting somewhat close by.

 

 

 

 

The ships move into the area where the fish  were spotted while the plane circles to keep an eye on the school. The mother ship then deploys 2 smaller vessels.  These two boats circle the entire school of fish (1000's) with a purse seine net.

 

 

Once the pull the net tight, the mothership pulls up and sticks a big vacuum in the water and sucks up every fish in their net, gamefish included, and load them into the boat. Then it's off to the next school.

 

 

 



 

The saddest part is that these fish are then ground up and used as chicken feed, cat food, and for fish oil pills. Think about that when you take that daily supplement of fish oil. If this bothers you as much as it does me, take the time to repost this somewhere, tell a friend, wirte a congressman, whatever you can do to spread the word and let's end this unneccesary waste of a KEY PIECE of our Chesapeake Bay Eco-system.

 

 

Photos provided by Brian Lockwood

Visit his Blog at http://jetskibrian.com/

Fourth of July Fishing Fun - Spadefish, Triggerfish, and Red Drum

Went out early yesterday morning to try and beat all the boat traffic that is always present on 4th of July.  Me and my friend Buddy met our girlfriends ,Ashley and Nancy, at the ramp and were on the water and heading to our destination by 6:30am. Upon arriving we were surprised to see we were the only boat at YSL. We dropped a bag of clam chum over the side and gave a little coaching on what kind of rigs to tie and how to fish them. While i was still cutting clams into bait strips i hear drag screaming and look up just in time to see my girlfriend's line snap from rubbing on one of the pilings. That insighted urgency in everyone to get a line down and almost immediately we were all hooking into nice 3 to 5 lb spadefish.

 After about an hour I decided to cut a piece of bait off of a live spot that Buddy was about to throw back and dropped it down on a ball jig. a couple minutes later it was fish on with a nice keeper red drum. This continued for a couple hours and then we decided to go sight fishing for cobia. We pulled lines up and slow boated across the bay to the eastern shore, made a tack and headed back to our port. One the way back we threw a few eels at the floating channel markers for the York River channel and i managed to hook up on a just under keeper cobia. I passed the rod down to Ashley and she did get the fish all the way to the boat only to lose it at the last second. Still produced a smile so mission accomplished. Then we sotted a few more swimming together but just as we headed their way the cloud cover picked up and shut the sight fishing down. Headed back in, treaded a couple dozen clams and went in to have fish grilled spadefish and clams casino. Great day on the water with everyone catching and some good food to finish off the evening. Not much more you can ask for.