TKAA 6th Annual Tournament supporting HOW/PHW

Best view in the house!

Well, it has been a busy week.  Took Wednesday through Friday off work.  Unfortunately, Wednesday was spent taking two exams, doing homework and chores around the house.  It was on for Thursday-Saturday.  I fished Lynnhaven inlet.  I spent my time Thursday looking for the reds, which I was unable to find.  I managed some small Specks and a 15" Flounder.

Baby Speck!

Friday was a better day.  I caught a small speck right off the bat.  I spent quite a bit of time looking for reds, and I finally found them.  I had a knot fail and lost a fish.  Saw the dreaded pigtail on the end of my line.  After working the area, I had my cork go down and this time I had a 20" red.  I had another fish about the same size hit a Redfish Magic spinnerbait with a Salt Water Assassin plastic.  Not what I wanted, but I was awaiting a shipment from Marsh Works.  Thankfully it came just in time for the tournament.  I can say that the quality, action and price cant be beat.  Sorry Strike King, but as the great Kenny Powers would say, "Your F@#%ing out!".  I finished up the morning wit this small flounder.  It was my first slam of the year!  I did have the satisfaction of helping set up for the tournament, that is why my day ended so early.  I sold tickets at the Capitan's meeting and met quite a few members doing that.  Good times!

Baby Flounda!

The 2010 tournament started at 3 am.  I made it to Lynnhaven at 3:45 and got set up.  Last year, I made it there at the same time and the parking lot was almost full.  This year was not the case.  Fishin time was 6:05 am and the first car showed up after 5:00 am.  I went out for specks, but in retrospect, I should have fished the light line of the Lesner Bridge for trout and stripers.  I scratched a few 16" Flounder (I thought one was bigger but i measured it wrong), and a bunch of small trout.  Marsh Works were the go to baits for the day.  I could not find a red to save my life.  I dont think that a red was caught there all day.

The dinner at the weigh in was great.  I was lucky enough to win quite a few items in the raffle.  My thanks goes out to the following sponsors:

Surf Rider Restaurant - $50 Gift Certificate

TiCa Kayak Rod

Penn Captiva Spinning Reel

Diawa Procyron Rod - Oceans East II

Diawa Cobalt Spinning Reel - Oceans East II

MTI Solaris F Spec PFD

MTI Calcutta PFD

Numerous Items in the Captain's bag.

I want to thank all of our sponsors, notably those I listed above.  Thanks goes out to Mark Lozier - TKAA President, Wayne Bradbry - Tournament Director, the club officers ant those that volunteered to make this event a success.  Cory Routh and Ruthless Fishing for all their work to get the vets out on the water.  PURE SWEETNESS!  Congrats to all of the winners.  I hope to join your ranks next year!

Thank you MTI for allowing me to do the right thing!

I am a member of TKAA (Tidewater Kayak Anglers Association).  For those of you that were unaware we had our annual tournament this past Saturday.  This is one of the largest (if not the largest) kayak charity tournaments on the east coast.  We support Heroes on the Water as well as Project Healing Waters with the proceeds that are collected from entries and raffles from donated items.   MTI graciously  donated a number of PFD's for our tournament, of which I won two.  As a safety conscious individual, I always wear protection!  With that being said, I was ecstatic with the PFD's and was looking to change things up.  One of the PFD's was donated to the upstart chapter of HOW.  I know that it will be put to great use by the wounded vets that the program supports.  The next PFD went to a vet who won the new ladies vest.  I gave him my other one and am sure that he will use it for years to come.  With that being said, thank you for giving me the opportunity to do the right thing through your donations.  I cant wait to replace mine with a new MTI PFD.  Even though I did not take any of your products home with me, they were definitely the most rewarding part of my day.  Keep up the great work.

Semper Fi,

William Ragulsky 

Spot Tail Special

Well after getting my ass handed to me on Saturday (some hook-ups, but could not seal the deal), I finally got into some fish!  With the weather making a long day in Lynnhaven Inlet like I had intended, I ran down to Rudee inlet.  The morning started out slow, but after looking at my surroundings, I decided to throw a mullet 4' under a Marsh Works Big Poppy.  I had a number of fish on, but only brought 3 to the boat.  On my way out I threw on a "Killa Squilla" on and immediately hooked up to make it four fish on the day.  More to come, as I will be fishing quite a bit this week in preparation for the TKAA Tournament.

I did some shopping this weekend and picked up a Humminbird 365i Sonar/GPS/Chartplotter, and picked up materials for my dual anchor trolley.  I will post up more pics of each as well as my feelings on both under the Kayak Rigging section in the near future.

Fall is here

Well, studying and work commitments really kept me out of the water this weekend.  I was able to make it out to Lynnhaven for a few hours this afternoon.  I hooked up on a few Speckled Trout and a Croaker.  The Trout all hit spoons, while the Croaker hit a jig and spinner.  Not much to report on other than that.  It was a wet and windy day.  Good practice and learned a lot today, that I can hopefully apply for the TKAA Tournament on the 25th.

Small Speck

Croaka!

So Fresh and So Clean

9-4-10
With Hurricane Earl threatening "blah, blah..." and the itch for some panfish, I decided to head out to the Northwest River for some dinner.  The Crappie and Perch didn't want to play on the microlites, but the bream were out in force.  Caught over 50, bringing home 12 of the fryer.  Also caught some small blue cats, which are a blast on microlites.

Good Eats!

9-5-10
With the TKAA tournament coming up in short order, I hit the salt.  To my surprise, the water was nice and clean, not to mention a drop in water temperature as well.  I got out to the ODU reef during low tide, and with some fresh mullet, proceeded to drift for some "Fattie Flatties".  My drift was North to South, which made fishing fairly difficult.  My first fish was a VA Citation Toadfish (at least it would have been given the state included it in the saltwater tournament).  Shaking off the stink from the toad, my next fish was "tap, tap, fish on, or is it..."  That is the fight of the ribbon fish, which got a piece of me.  My final fish at the reef was a nice keeper flattie.  If you don't know, flounder are notorious for their antics once in the yak.  Lets just say that it was a mutual release.  I finished up with a blue in the surf to call it a day.

9-6-10
Got an invite to fish with Mark, Kris and her son Daniel.  We hit Rudee inlet in search for some "Fall" fish.  Some specks were caught, with Kris catching one for our group.  I hit a small red, which I was hoping was a speck.  I tried fishing some structure, and had a nice trout hit.  It decided to wrap me around some pylons, and release itself (I hate that).  Im pretty sure I let out a hoot, and a holler on that fish.  Still working the same structure, I hit a "schollie" striper to call it a morning.  All fish in our group were caught on Marsh Works plastics!

"Puppy" Drum

"Schoolie" Striper

I had a prior commitment to take a friend to the ODU reef.  After calling from Rudee and hearing "Oh, the water's like glass", I departed the Oceanfront for Norfolk.  To my pleasure, I walk over the berm to find 2-4' seas.  The period on these waves was not 10-15 seconds, but more like 2-5 seconds.  Needless to say it was rough.  We paddle out and decide that going the mile and a half to the reef is not the best idea.  The day ended early and on kinda sour terms.  But hey there is always next week!

Dramamine please