# Ruddee Inlet Seabass Trip 3-3-07



## French (Jun 18, 2005)

Joined up with Huntsman, Fishbait, and AtlantaKing for my first time on the high seas Saturday in an effort to fill some coolers with Black Sea Bass. The ride out in the Rudee Angler was not pleasant. There were pungent diesel fumes in the cabin, mixed with a 3 1/2 ride on 5-7ft seas that resulted in me getting to taste my Brown Sugar Pop Tarts a second time. Now I know what they taste like heated a bit!

We arrived on the first segment of structure and Huntsman immediately hooked up. After a few minutes, I hooked up and landed my biggest seabass of the day (12 hours later it weighed 5lbs 4oz). Soon after, that spot became swamped with spiney dogfish, which was a pattern for the rest of the day. Several stops and several thousand dogfish later, we finally got back into seabass without as many dogfish around. AtlantaKing landed a monster seabass that ended up weighing 6lbs, and I caught a couple of odd fish; a bright pink and yellow snapper that the mate ID'ed as a "yellowtail bass", and about a 4 1/2 foot long moray eel. We returned to dock around 7:40PM and finished the day off with about 6lbs of pot roast and steak at the Golden Corral. Totals for our party of 4: 18 keeper seabass, probably 100 doggies, 1 eel, and 1 yellowtail bass, 4 sore backs, and 1 new friend...his name is "RAAAAAAAAALLLLLLPPPHHH"

http://vbsf.ipbhost.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=1235


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## Talapia (Apr 27, 2003)

French said:


> Joined up with Huntsman, Fishbait, and AtlantaKing for my first time on the high seas Saturday in an effort to fill some coolers with Black Sea Bass. The ride out in the Rudee Angler was not pleasant. There were pungent diesel fumes in the cabin, mixed with a 3 1/2 ride on 5-7ft seas that resulted in me getting to taste my Brown Sugar Pop Tarts a second time. Now I know what they taste like heated a bit!
> 
> We arrived on the first segment of structure and Huntsman immediately hooked up. After a few minutes, I hooked up and landed my biggest seabass of the day (12 hours later it weighed 5lbs 4oz). Soon after, that spot became swamped with spiney dogfish, which was a pattern for the rest of the day. Several stops and several thousand dogfish later, we finally got back into seabass without as many dogfish around. AtlantaKing landed a monster seabass that ended up weighing 6lbs, and I caught a couple of odd fish; a bright pink and yellow snapper that the mate ID'ed as a "yellowtail bass", and about a 4 1/2 foot long moray eel. We returned to dock around 7:40PM and finished the day off with about 6lbs of pot roast and steak at the Golden Corral. Totals for our party of 4: 18 keeper seabass, probably 100 doggies, 1 eel, and 1 yellowtail bass, 4 sore backs, and 1 new friend...his name is "RAAAAAAAAALLLLLLPPPHHH"
> 
> http://vbsf.ipbhost.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=1235


18 seabass for 4 people! Man that is a 
rough trip. You definitely need to get
on the Jil Carrie!


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## fishbait (Nov 11, 2005)

Wow, my back and arms were sore after that! I've never seen so many doggies caught in my life. It was great fun fishing with you guys. Thanks AK for setting this trip up and inviting me. 

On a side note, here are some product reviews of items I brought on this trip:

1. BPS brand PVC bib. I picked it up during their sale this past week. It turned out to be comfortable, very durable and kept all water out. PVC bibs do not keep you very warm so I should have worn more underneath. 
2. BPS raincoat. I picked up a cheap raincoat for about $9 near the entrance. It was not good. It leaked and the pocket was torn by the end of the day. Total waste of money.
3. BPS GS series muskie stick. You can get it for $20 on sale from BPS. Worked great. I modified it by adding a Fuji door knob style rubber butt cap and protecting the cork with truck bed spray in liner. It was mated to a Tekota 500. The combo was lightweight and sensitive with plenty of backbone.
4. AK belt special. 1.5 inch wide luggage strap wrapped around the waist with ends connected by a carbiner. Cost: free. Held AKs tools and rag without failure. Was not holding his pants up so I'm not sure if this was a legit test. 

I'll post up some pics tonight.


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## French (Jun 18, 2005)

fishbait said:


> 4. AK belt special. 1.5 inch wide luggage strap wrapped around the waist with ends connected by a carbiner. Cost: free. Held AKs tools and rag without failure. Was not holding his pants up so I'm not sure if this was a legit test.


hahahahaha!

It was a pleasure to fish with you guys as well. I am not too sore, but my stomach still has not settled and my legs are still a bit wobbly. At least there are drummies not too far away!


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## AtlantaKing (Jul 7, 2002)

It was very very slow. I didn't catch my first keeper until after 1pm. Nobody caught a limit on the whole boat, and it was a full boat on this trip. The dogfish was out in force and pestered us on every stop. 

Talapia, I'm sure the Jil Carrie does a good job, but with conditions like Saturday, I don't know if they could have done much better. The winds coupled with waves and the current made it hard to fish, and with the full moon (I presume), the seabass were sluggish. The doggies were beating the BSB to the hooks. 

As far as my belt goes...that's because I left my other one at home and I needed a belt to hold my tools and my towel. All I had on hand was the strap to my bag... :redface: And for your information, I had a belt holding up my pants


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## TunaFish (Aug 16, 2001)

*Nice job,*

You guys are still troopers.


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## Talapia (Apr 27, 2003)

AtlantaKing said:


> It was very very slow. I didn't catch my first keeper until after 1pm. Nobody caught a limit on the whole boat, and it was a full boat on this trip. The dogfish was out in force and pestered us on every stop.
> 
> Talapia, I'm sure the Jil Carrie does a good job, but with conditions like Saturday, I don't know if they could have done much better. The winds coupled with waves and the current made it hard to fish, and with the full moon (I presume), the seabass were sluggish. The doggies were beating the BSB to the hooks.
> 
> As far as my belt goes...that's because I left my other one at home and I needed a belt to hold my tools and my towel. All I had on hand was the strap to my bag... :redface: And for your information, I had a belt holding up my pants


The dogs have been bad. Way to tough
it out though!


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## hengstthomas (Mar 11, 2006)

Any tiles?


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## AtlantaKing (Jul 7, 2002)

Nope. No blues or tog, either. Overall, this trip was very slow with no limits to be had. Optimistically, I'd peg the overall total to be under 200 BSB. And that's for 50 fares  I think the P&S crew did better than most; I saw some people walking off the boat caryring only one or two fish in their hands.


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## hengstthomas (Mar 11, 2006)

I read on another site the ride was rough and most were sick...This is a report I found on another forum:

Took a Deep Drop fishing trip out of LynnHaven Inlet in Virginia Beach w/ Ninja_Fish and some Tidalfish guys. We had deposits from 13 guys but only 7 showed up for the trip. Two of the 6 no shows were Salfishers. Cancellations were do to the predicted weather. Weather turned out to be a little bumpy but fine, with winds kicking up 15 to 20 mph. Several of us got seasick including me who hasn't been seasick and horked in 25 years. Altogether we caught 125+ sea bass and 9 blueline tilefish. We battled more spiny dogfish than I want to think about. We had one VA Citation seabass of 5 1/2 lbs among us. Many 4 lb and 3 lb sea bass were also caught. I caught 16 nice keeper seabass and two blueline tiles. They were the 1st tiles I ever caught. Boy are those tilefish delicious eating. Also caught a large conger eel about 3" in dia. and 4 ft. long. We fished in 200 ft. to 330ft. deep water. A whole lot of cranking! We used between 16 oz. ans 28oz to hold bottom.


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## fishbait (Nov 11, 2005)

Correction. There was at least one tile fish that came over the rail at the front of the boat.


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## catman (May 28, 2001)

After reading reports out of Lynnhaven and Rudee the Morning Star seems like the best deal. What I like about Monty is that he'll stay put or hug the coast if the weather looks bad. Just seems he's a lot more considerate of his customers. But that's just MHO.


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## AtlantaKing (Jul 7, 2002)

Catman, I am going to have to respectfully disagree with that assessment. I've fished with Capt Monty, and he goes where the fish are. Luckily for the Morning Star fishing out of Ocean City, MD, the fish are in fairly close so he has the option to hug the coast. However, the Virginia Beach winter offshore seabass fishery is just that: winter and offshore. If Monty were to hug the coast on one of the winter offshore trips, his fares would come home with a limit of skunk. It's just the nature of the game that winter offshore seabassing is tough, but when the boats do sail, the average sizes of the fish are way better. The captains that sail out of Rudee are no less considerate of their customers; it's just that the conditions they contend with are a lot harsher.


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## catman (May 28, 2001)

Wow, I knew that would get a reponse from someone. I never said Monty doesn't go after the fish. What I am saying is that he will call the ball the morning of the trip if he feels weather conditions warrant it. I've never seen him go out just to try to catch a narrow window in the weather. He won't do it. That's why I say he's considerate of his customers. I've never been beat around on the Morning Star the way I've been beat around on certain boats out of Lynnhaven and Rudee. This is just my personal experience, nothing more - nothing less.


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## hengstthomas (Mar 11, 2006)

AtlantaKing said:


> Catman, I am going to have to respectfully disagree with that assessment. I've fished with Capt Monty, and he goes where the fish are. Luckily for the Morning Star fishing out of Ocean City, MD, the fish are in fairly close so he has the option to hug the coast. However, the Virginia Beach winter offshore seabass fishery is just that: winter and offshore. If Monty were to hug the coast on one of the winter offshore trips, his fares would come home with a limit of skunk. It's just the nature of the game that winter offshore seabassing is tough, but when the boats do sail, the average sizes of the fish are way better. The captains that sail out of Rudee are no less considerate of their customers; it's just that the conditions they contend with are a lot harsher.


Well said AK !


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## AtlantaKing (Jul 7, 2002)

The Captains (those that I fish with frequently anyway  ) that sail out of Rudee, Long Pointe, IRI, or any other port on the eastern seaboard are no less considerate. I think some of the confusion stems from French's first post mentioning the 5-7 foot seas. While it seems like it's rough, remember that this is 45 nm offshore and we're in a 90' boat. The captain, in this case, did not go out to hit a small window of opportunity; rather, the whole day was nice in the way of sea conditions. They were checking the weather forecasts for Saturday, and didn't make their decision until Friday afternoon, and it was even calmer heading out Saturday morning. 5-7' seas is normal for this fishery (this was actually a fairly calm day); if the captain was heading out in 12-15' seas with 25-35 kt winds, then it would be excessive. Also, my earlier statement about the wind and waves making it hard to fish states just that: wind and waves make it harder to fish than if it's calm and gentle. But, the sea is unpredictable. Getting beat up on a winter offshore run is just part of the game, and IMHO, does not reflect on the ability of a captain. Again, this is not a knock on Capt. Monty; he does a damn fine job and I will continue to fish with him. I'm just making the assessment that the seabass trip this past weekend was pretty good with the exception of all the doggies.


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## French (Jun 18, 2005)

5-7ft was alot for me... because I am a newbie and I had some sand in my vagina.

Damn Poptarts!


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## TunaFish (Aug 16, 2001)

*Ooohhh, tempting*



French said:


> 5-7ft was alot for me... because I am a newbie and I had some sand in my vagina.
> 
> Damn Poptarts!


Frenchie, I'm glad I like you, or else I'll use your line for my Sig!!!


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## SeaSalt (Apr 29, 2002)

fishbait said:


> 3. BPS GS series muskie stick. You can get it for $20 on sale from BPS. Worked great. I modified it by adding a Fuji door knob style rubber butt cap and protecting the cork with truck bed spray in liner. It was mated to a Tekota 500. The combo was lightweight and sensitive with plenty of backbone.


Nice review on the lepstick. I've also got one and is thinking about matching it with a budget reel like Okuma.


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## SeaSalt (Apr 29, 2002)

Possible dancing partner with lepstick.

Okuma Convector


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## fishbait (Nov 11, 2005)

*One last product review*

I also tried out one other new item. The Daiwa Saltiga Dendoh Boat Braid in 80 lb test. It's very colorful. It changes color every ten meters and also has markers every meter. It was nice to know exactly how deep my bait was and how much further I needed to reel in each fish. The line is very thin relative to mono and equivalent braids. I had no breakoffs or knot failures. AK actually tied up my knots using a combination of a bimini twist with a modified albright. I highly recommend this line.


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