charter or ho

[tubby]

I have never fished the Virginia Beach area and was thinking of trying to get down there. My 20 year old nephew is my main fishing buddy and I am trying to get a trip together. i have my own boat and fish the bay and off of OC in the summer. Does anyone know of a good charter down there or should I just pull my boat down and give it a go? Any advice would be helpful.

[Mike Avery]

The main problem an out of town small boat owner has is finding fishable days off the oceanfront. It's a crap shoot. Even if the forecast is ideal at the time you hitch your trailer, by the time you get here and ready to launch, the weatherman pulls the bait and switch on you and the weather is crappy. Yes you will get much greater satisfaction by doing it all yourself, your boat, your tackle, your gameplan. Nothing like finding feeding fish on your own. Hoing is also a crap shoot. I sometimes look for hos but will cancel too if the weather looks bad. I try to pick my days carefully as I'm getting too old to get tossed around for 2 fish. But if you want a reasonable assurance to be able to fish, minus a gale warning, then hook up a reputable charter with the bigger boats. They will usually still fish even in a small craft advisory but probably not a gale warning. There are many good ones out there.