I’ve just spent an extra long, extra fun weekend at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT). Connecting the Delmarva Peninsula with Norfolk and Virginia Beach, the CBBT is 23 miles of high-current structure that is prime habitat for striped bass. Rich Jenkins and I trailered my Judge 27 center console Thunder Road down Rt 13 to Cape Charles late last Friday.  My son Daniel and my brother-in-law Mitch flew into Norfolk to meet us. We had a great time and found some fine fishing.

In Decembers past I’ve stayed at hotels in the Kiptopeke area but this time I decided to look into renting a vacation home for our four night stay.  After calling and emailing several places, I settled on a house in historic Cape Charles called “Southern Comfort on the Bay.”  A recently remodeled Victorian with three bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, game room, washer and dryer and a driveway large enough to park my boat in, it was the perfect base for our five days of fishing.  It’s very nice to come off the water and have a roomy place to kick back, dry our clothes, watch football, play cards, and enjoy good food and drink. Better still was the price.  I’ve paid more for a single hotel room. Read More!

I’ve never fished for black drum and wanted to see it done so felt very fortunate that my friend Tim from Baltimore invited me along on a trip he had planned with one of my regular fishing partners Bill. Bill also invited his friend Ken. They went down Friday but I had to work so I planned to catch up with them for the Saturday part of their trip. I’d hoped to get an early start driving down the Eastern Shore but got another call and ended up fishing Friday in the Eastern Bay. After a couple of hours of a terrific striper bite, I pulled Crockett’s Reel out of the water at Shipping Creek at 5:30 PM and parked her back in my driveway. By 9:00 PM my butt was parked on a barstool at Kelly’s Pub in Cape Charles. Kelly’s just might be the best bar in the Mid-Atlantic. Read More!