FishWach Report – Wachapreague, Virginia

Flounder are still biting, churned up water slowed it down a bit, but this weekend the weather is beautiful and the wind is light. Several guests with 4 keepers each, “Nothers” brought in 3 keepers. Local hotspots: Green & Drawing Channels, Bullshead & Bradfords Channel produce keeper flounder. Hot baits were green, or white, gulp swimming shad coupled with a minnow. May is a great time for Black Drum fishing. Several large groups here this weekend, having a great time tailgating. Cap’t Zeds new bulkhead is almost finished and looks fantastic, new gas tanks are faster than ever. Everyone’s enjoying Wachapreague’s new look.

Flounder have been spotty the last few days. The winds have kicked up and the water is cloudy. Today the winds are calmer and we should get back to our normal catch rates.

Black drum, red drum and stripers have been are in the surf. Blacks up to 70 lbs, reds up to 35″ and stripers up to 40″ have been caught in the past week. Peeler crab and sea clams on a fish finder rig are doing the trick.

Trout on the bay side out of Onancock Creek or Pungoteague Creek have been plentiful. Fish from 16″ up to 27″ were caught over the weekend on bucktails with grubs, live minnows and spoons

This 9 inch Mantis shrimp was in a flounder catch Thursday. This thing looks prehistoric with a hard shell pointy plate over it’s tail end and head.The pincher’s are like flickers that can crack a clam wide open.

Wachapreague is so natural , you never know what you will see next.

Mantis shrimp or stomatopods are marine crustaceans, the members of the order Stomatopoda. They are neither shrimp nor mantids, but receive their name purely from the physical resemblance to both the terrestrial praying mantis and the shrimp. They may reach 30 centimetres (12 in) in length, although exceptional cases of up to 38 cm (15 in) have been recorded.^[2] The carapace of mantis shrimp covers only the rear part of the head and the first four segments of the thorax. Mantis shrimp appear in a variety of colours, from shades of browns to bright neon colours. Although they are common animals and among the most important predators in many shallow, tropical and sub-tropical marine habitats they are poorly understood as many species spend most of their life tucked away in burrows and holes.^[3]

Called “sea locusts” by ancient Assyrians, “prawn killers” in Australia and now sometimes referred to as “thumb splitters” – because of the animal’s ability to inflict painful gashes if handled incautiously^[4] – mantis shrimp sport powerful claws that they use to attack and kill prey by spearing, stunning or dismemberment. Although it happens rarely, some larger species of mantis shrimp are capable of breaking through aquarium glass with a single strike from this weapon.^[5]

Rich Watts on Friday 4/6/12 fighting the wind pays off. This one is 23″ and he had 2 other 22″ ers.

Scroll down to see Wed. catch

Water temp is about 56 degrees. Today, 3 boats reported limiting out on flounder, largest one was 24″ The catch to keeper ratio is fantastic, seems like they’re hardly throwing any back.

Cap’t Jimmy Conrad from Conrad’s Seafood & Crabs had two good days on the water – 7 flounder yesterday and 9 today, the largest was 21″. Joe from the General Store had 10 yesterday

Two MD crabbers both limited out yesterday (Thursday) with four guys on each boat. Dave on the “NotHers” had 6 fish, 2 keepers. Weaterh is great

First flounder of the season, caught today…..20″

Great news! 16 1/2″ with 4 fish per person