Redfish Rodeo
BIG RED DRUM GIVE KAYAK ANGLERS A WILD RIDE ON VIRGINIA’S EASTERN SHORE
From the beginning the plan sounded crazy: Drive to Virginia’s eastern shore, commando launch our kayaks at a marsh creek, paddle to the surf-covered shoals, anchor in the maw of breaking waves and fish for big red drum. We had no idea where we would launch. Where we would fish. Would the waves break us? Would the current sweep us into the ocean? No one we knew had ever targeted big reds from a kayak, so neither of us knew what to expect.
DRUM BEATEN: Whitley with the object of angling dreams. PHOTO: RIC BURNLEY
BY RIC BURNLEY T
he call of big drum drowned out the voice of reason and on a calm spring morning five
years ago, Kevin Whitley and I loaded our kay- aks into his pick-up truck and headed across the 17-mile-long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. When we got the first look at our destination
from high atop the bridge, Kevin and I both fell silent. Fisherman’s Island lay in front of us, Smith Island stretched to the north and—bridging the two islands—two miles of cloud-break surf marked the shoals. “That’s where we’re going,” I said. “Holy shit.” It must have been beginners luck. We found
the creek, paddled to the shoals, anchored in the slough and caught a couple of big reds before the rising tide carried us back to Kevin’s truck.
When word got out, kayak anglers surged to
the shoals looking for glory and big reds. But these waters are the ultimate testing ground and one angler after another got dumped, stranded, exhausted, lost or seasick. Even Wilderness Systems pro staff team leader Chad Hoover was humbled by the wild water when his kayak flipped in the surf while he was fighting a mon- ster. “I tried to be a hero and ended up a zero,” he admits. Local legend Whitley has since had some close
calls here, too. Adjusting equipment on his kayak last spring, he was caught by a rogue wave. “It happened so fast,” he recalls, “I looked up to see the wave and then I was in the water.”
www.kayakanglermag.com… 31
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64