Chesapeake Bay Fishing Reports

Fishing report for item #254.

Fishing Report:   Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report - The TAC and Cobb's Marina Flounder Tournament


This past weekend, Saturday July 23, 2005 the Tidewater Anglers Club and Cobb's Marina held a flounder tournament in the Chesapeake Bay. There was an award for the heaviest single flounder and awards for the highest combined weight for six flounder. There was a total of 38 boats entered in the tournament.

My brother Jeff and myself (Joe) entered our boat, the Fintalk in the tourney and we fished most of the day at or near the High Rise Bridge. We left the dock out of Lynnhaven around 6:30 to search for some live spot. We definitely wanted spot but they were scarce this day so we ended up catching small croaker instead. After we caught a few dozen pinhead croaker we headed out to the bridge tunnel as fast as we could so we could catch the end of the outgoing tide, otherwise we would have had to fish all day on what we thought would be a hard running incoming tide. As it turned out the wind picked up a bit from the NE, the opposite way the tide was running which made for some great drifts along the bridge-tunnel. These usually make for some excellent flounder drifts but not so much today. The flounder didn't seem to be interested in our small live croakers but the toadfish sure were, if this was a toadfish tourney we would have headed for the scales by 10 am with six of the biggest toadfish you'd ever seen.


That's when Jeff and I made the decision to switch baits so I took a dead croaker, one of the bigger ones and filet'd him out into some nice long strips. I threw one of those croaker strips on a buck tail and started to bump the boat around the pylons and it wasn't 2 minutes and we had our first 4 pound flounder in the net. 10 minutes later we had another 4 pound flounder in the boat on those croaker strips and we thought we were on our way. We were looking for that big boy that would win the "Calcutta" pool ($700.00) but it just didn't come. In fact the rest of the day we spent catching nothing bigger than 18" and although we had our six fish there wasn't near enough weight to enter in the tournament with what the other anglers at the dock had already eighed.



COBB's MARINA:

When we arrived at Cobbs Marina the first person I ran into was Nancy Cobb. She immediately offered us drinks and Bar-B-Q in the tent they had set up down by the docks where they were weighing in fish. I wanted to check out the fish and see what the leaders had weighed so far but I fished hard all day and I was hungry so I gave in and headed to the food tent - I let my brother Jeff go to the scales.




Nancy Cobb behind the counter at Cobb's Marina in Norfolk VA. - Cobb's Marina has been a mainstay for boaters and anglers in Little Creek Inlet on the southern shore of the Chesapeake Bay for many years. Thanks go to Nancy Cobb and Cobb's Marina, along with the TAC (Tidewater Angler's Club) for sponsoring this years flounder tournament. Click here for Cobb's Marina Info



BIGGEST FLOUNDER: - 8 lbs 3 oz



Here is the angler of the day. This is Billy Baughan, of Va Beach, who scored big with this 8 lb 3 oz doormat. This fish was big enough to win Billy the **Calcutta which was worth about $700.00. Billy caught this fish early in the morning on a minnow with a strip of squid on a fluke rig that he made himself. In fact he has a wide variety of rigs and tackle that he makes himself which you can see pictured below. Fishing on the "Seaslammer" Billy and crew were fishing the rocks at the third island of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in about 25' of water when he caught his winning fish.



The crew of the "Seaslammer". Pictured here from left to right is John Patrick, Billy Baughan, Chris Mustard, and Joe Mustard. These guys are long time friends and have been fishing together for many years. Chris Mustard, the netter of this fish mentioned that this was Billy's first citation flounder. Well Billy you sure picked a fine time to score your first citation flatfish - Way to go and congrats on your winning flounder!



This picture doesn't due the tackle justice as it was very difficult to get a close up on the docks. But this is tackle made by Billy Baughan, also known as "Seaslammer Tackle". Billy makes these lures and a nice variety of other rigs and tackle. I saw the tackle up close and I can attest to the quality, Billy makes a nice product and has proven it successful as this is the tackle that caught his winning fish. For Information on Seaslammer Tackle email Billy Baughan


BIGGEST 6 FLOUNDER: - Total Weight 30.06 lbs.



These happy anglers are your tournament winners with a total weight for 6 flounder of 30.06 lbs. Maybe you are asking yourself why aren't they holding their fish up. They are holding something better, their winnings for the day. Each scored a clean crisp hundred dollar bill for doing what they love to do, spend time on the water with good friends catching fish. Pictured is Mike Firestone, David Oswald a.k.a."Chopper Dave", and Bill Susewind a.k.a. "Shotgun Willy".


**Calcutta - A pool won for the biggest fish. Todays Calcutta was $10.00 per angler to be elidgible to win the pool. The pool was about $700.00 for this tourney.

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