By Aaron Ball
One of the great allures of fishing, to me, is the pursuit of the next one; the next fish, the next body of water, the next sunrise, the next adventure.
So, when fellow W2 Pro Team member Brian Green messaged me earlier this spring for a walk-on opportunity to chase spadefish on the Chesapeake Bay, of course my answer was yes. Now, I knew next to nothing about a spadefish, but I figured they had to be like most other fish in the ocean. That they would probably taste excellent and rip some drag.
As our June date approached my anticipation was rising. The week of our trip my social media feed began filling with people catching impressive hauls of spades. The day before our trip of my friends had posted a picture with an eight- and 10-pound spadefish and reported catching 40+ fish. So, when my head hit the pillow that night, I had dreams of us pulling spadefish over the rail left and right and smiles and high fives for all aboard.
We boarded the Havoc Charters boat that morning as the sun just started to announce its presence to the Chesapeake Bay. As we motored out to the Atlantic Ocean, I could not help but wonder how many people before me had watched the sunrise over the same ocean eagerly anticipating what lay in store for the day.
Off in the distance the Chesapeake Light Tower slowly crept closer and closer. What also was creeping into view was the boats, a lot of boats. As we pulled up to the tower, we counted no less than 30 boats working the tower and the immediate area around the tower and the boats kept coming.
The rigs we deployed were fairly simple. A small hook tipped with clams and a small weight. You dropped the bait down just below where you could see and wait for the bite. We waited for the bite, and waited, and waited some more. There were no bites, and we only saw a handful of fish caught in the hour or two we stayed there.
Eventually, Captain Brandon told us we were going to check out a few wrecks in the area to see if we could find some of our target species. I hung out and chatted with him while we did this, and it was very cool to see how my experiences with freshwater fishing were very similar to what he was doing.
He had his Simrad electronics set up with a mapping chip and we would run side imagining over the high percentage areas that the mappings chips made obvious. Humps and wrecks were easy to find and the side imagining made it so you didn’t have to even make a cast if there were no fish on the spots. That was the case here, there were no fish on the areas we looked at, so we now had a decision to make.
Capt. Brandon told us we could go back to the tower and play bumper boats for the rest of the day, or we could switch gears and go look for cobia and red drum and while doing that we could troll for mackerel. Me and Brian’s ears perked up at the opportunity to catch some big drum and we took that option.
We worked our way back to within eyesight of the beach and we started deploying some planers with spoons attached. It wasn’t long before the rods started going off and Spanish mackerel were flying over the side of the boat. Brian’s stepson Brekken was the first one to pull one onto the boat and it was his first saltwater catch to boot!
After we had a fair amount of Spanish in the boat, the mate and Brian climbed on top of the boat to look for cobia and drum. Meanwhile we continued to troll for macks and picked up fish fairly steadily.
A short while later Brian spotted one of those brown cruise missiles floating right below the surface and it was game on! We had a front row seat as Brian pitched the bucktail to the cobia and watched it react to the bait for what seemed like an eternity but was only a few seconds in reality before it ate the bait, and the fight was on!
Our host skillfully got the rod down from Brian on top of the boat and handed the rod off to Brekken for his first real fight with a Chesapeake Bay bully. The fish came fast to the boat, and I thought the fight would be over as quickly as it began but then the fish decided Brekken was going to have to earn this one.
That darn cobia blistered drag off the reel several times and Brekken would gain the line back just to lose it all again in the blink of an eye. Eventually he wore the fish down and I slipped the net under the fish and Brekken had his first lemonfish in the boat. Cobia season had not opened yet for Virginia, so after a few quick photos and fist bumps back into the bay she went.
Me and Hutch decided that we wanted in on the fun also, so we climbed our way to the top of the boat to try our luck. Now standing on top of the boat in the bay going 5/6 mph was an adventure, but we did eventually spot a pair of cobia, and both pitched at them. Both of us got some action on our lures but neither of us were able to connect. However, just that action alone was amazing! Shortly after that it was time to call it a day and head in.
While it was not the day I had dreamed about beforehand, it turned into a really memorable day on the bay. Also, anybody looking to experience a day on the water a walk-on trip is a great opportunity to get onto the water at a reasonable cost. I know from experience it can be difficult to get enough people together to throw in for a full day charter.
Many fishing charters lists some opportunities on their websites and their Facebook pages occasionally, and I can’t say enough good things about Captain Brandon and his mate. They turned what could have been a bust of a day into a really fun day. As always you can reach me @PsuAaron on IG.
Editor’s Note: Virginia cobia season began June 15 and runs through September. Recreational regulations are as follows: 40-inch, total length, minimum size limit; 1-fish daily possession limit or 2-fish-daily vessel limit, whichever is more restrictive; only one fish per vessel per day may be greater than 50 inches in total length. Gaffing is prohibited.
