Author Archives: Martin Freed and Ruta Vaskys

Cobia: A Freight Train With Fins

Cobia fishing from the Eastern Shore of the lower Chesapeake Bay in Virginia can be exciting and loads of fun. They pull with such force that you probably have never experienced anything like it. We anchored in about 20 feet of water, and after rigging up for smaller fish, we dropped down to see what can be found. It didn’t take long. Within five minutes, Vaskys had a powerful hit and the cobia came flying out of the water before it was gone.

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Beating The Drum To Sunset

The season was a bit young for drum, mid-May. However, in the occasional year, we had taken a few of these behemoths even in early May. But it was a pretty night, so we decided to give it a go. It didn’t take long before the ratchet on Ruta’s reel screamed with that wonderful urgency that is music to an angler’s ears.

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Spring Floundering On The Eastern Shore Of Virginia

If a few warm days can be strung together in March or even late February, flounder fishing can start on the seaside of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. This is the earliest place in the Mid-Atlantic that fishing-starved anglers can wet a line and have a relatively good chance of finding a flatfish hanging onto the other end.

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Mid-Winter Perch Action On Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore

The ice was just starting to melt on the ramp as we slipped our boat into the water in downtown Salisbury, Md. It was early February and a cold spell had prevented any fishing activity for about two weeks. The prediction was for temperatures in the mid-50s by late afternoon. It was just the kind of day that ought to stimulate a bite!

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Winter Striper Fishing Off Virginia

It was late December and we finally had a break in the weather. A nor’easter (a strong storm) had been blowing for almost a week. We were heading out to troll for late season striped bass that pass through our area in Virginia. Almost all the stripers in this run are over the 28-inch minimum size and some are 40-pound to 50-pound bruisers!

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The Red Gems Of New Mexico: Hiking Near Engle

The dust from the desert road was a bit subdued because it had rained quite heavily the previous evening. We were on the final leg of the journey to one of our favorite hiking/carnelian collecting locations near Engle, N.M. Carnelian is a bright orange to red translucent agate gemstone that is used in jewelry and other decorative items. It has been collected in this area for over a hundred years.

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Winter Striper Fishing Off Virginia

It was late December and we finally had a break in the weather. A nor’easter (a strong storm) had been blowing for almost a week. We were heading out to troll for late season striped bass that pass through our area in Virginia. Almost all the stripers in this run are over the 28-inch minimum size and some are 40-pound to 50-pound bruisers!

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