Newbie Fishing at Buckroe Pier?

[Mohgreen]

We actually did quite well. We ended up going on Friday night instead of Saturday morning. I'd gotten my son set up w/ a bottom rig and some of the Fishbite Bloodworm lure, and he dropped his line over the side while I was working on the 2nd rod. I hadn't even gotten the 2nd rig on when he's shouting he had a fish. He was wrong of course..



He had 2 fish

We had about 45 min of (to me) fairly intense fishing. Lots of nibbles, and he must have pulled in 8 or 9 Mullet and Croaker. I don't know whats considered a "good" size for keeping either, but we released everthing aside from two Mullet he wanted to take home to examine. Right before we left, a third rod I'd had in the water got a hit, and we caught a 12" or so Mullet? I thought people said it was a Mullet, but a friend of mine looked at the pic and said its a Croaker. We ended up giving that one to another family to take home since it was so large.


Saturday afternoon, we headed out to the pier at Fort Monroe, the fishing was pretty slow, and we were there for about 2 hrs. People there said it'd been very slow, even the crabbing was bad. we did get to see some Dolphins though. I got a few nibbles, but my son didn't catch anything. I hooked a couple of Very small Croaker, and Somehow I managed to hook a Flounder just behind the eye and actually got in on the dock. How it didn't come off or rip through the skin I have no idea. But measuring it on the cleaning table there, it was 17-1/2" long.


All in all, very successful weekend :) We'll probably be heading out again this weekend.

[Mohgreen]

Actually I have follow up question on fishing. While at the pier at Fort Monroe I managed to snap the child-size rod we had when I was trying to get the rig free from a snag. The two adult size rods we had did ok with the Croaker and Mullet we were pulling in on Friday night, but I had trouble reeling in the Flounder.

Is there something I should look for for a weight allowance or something on Rods? I wanted to get another nice smaller rod for my son, as well as upgrade to a heavier rod & reel for me.

[Feeshon]

Most tackle shops can tell you - but look at the rod and it should say what tackle it is fit for ( medium, heavy, etc. ) im my opinion, a 6 - 7 ' medium action spinning rod with 10 pound test mono is good for most everything in the bay you can catch. If you are targetting bigger fish or fishing deeper water put some braided line on there and it's thin diameter lets it cut through the water better than mono. You will see that there are typically opinions to support most fishing rods / outfits you could possibly buy on this forum. Take the guy up on getting in a boat with another experienced fisherman and you will be catching monsters in no time. Nice job on the flounder,good luck and it is great to see the smiles.

[Skipjack/VA]

10 lb test wont let you lift a fish onto a pier in my opinion. Uset 25 lb or 30 lb. Just my 02 cent.

[South Paw]

Go back to Wilcox. They got a great assortment of rods and they'll give you the best help. I bought some 3 and 4 ft. rods there for kids. Anything longer and you are asking for trouble. I think they were made by Shakespeare. A Penn 9M reel paired with that is a great set up for young anglers.

Good luck

[Dutch]

Mohgreen,

Glad you all did well.....Nice flounder too! As I said....I'm happy to take you and your boy out anytime to give you a taste of boat fishing and share what I know.... and I have all the tackle so need need to bring anything but yourselves. Looks like it will have to wait until the end of June, or sometime in July as I just got snagged for a long business trip.

drop me a note on the board here if you are interested.