VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - The Hampton Roads weather roller-coaster continues, but when the mild days come---it's time to hit the water and see what's biting.
I recently did that via a kayak thanks to Mark Lozier of First Landing Kayak Fishing. We headed out to Rudee Inlet in Virginia Beach for our latest segment of Keeping It Reel!
Mark is using an artificial bait he's had success with in the past, "These are Z Man.... it's a minnow... 3-inch minnow, mimics a lot of the bait in here. It's called a red-fish toad with a trout eye jig head."
"I kinda just keep it a steady crawl if you will, not too fast, it's still cold so the fish don't chase anything down. You can't see it but if you look at my line, I'm even bumping the bottom, like I can feel the oysters shell that are down below. That's kinda where the fish are going to be rooting around where all the bait-fish are. This time of year because it's still cold, the fish on a sunny day like this are going to be a little shallower, where that sun is gonna warm them up."
We spent part of our time right behind the Virginia Aquarium, looking for speckled trout, puppy drum, striper---anything
that would bite.
Mark did hook a couple of speckled during the time I was with him and earlier before I arrived he also reeled in a striper and puppy drum, not keepers---but still made for a great day on the water.
Mark says it's unusual to be this time of year to catching speckled and some of the other fish he's been hooking, but we've had some unusual weather recently.
Also while we were scouting around we realized we had to share the water with these pelicans who were looking for fish as well.
I think they had better luck than I did---but that's why they call it fishing and not catching.
...and that's just, Keeping it REEL!
Click here for information on how to schedule a kayaking fishing tour with Mark.
Click here for additional information on the artificial bait Mark was using and other options.
