Posted on April 12th, 2021
I was a little nervous leaving the house this morning heading to meet Dave Messick to film a new episode of Hooked on OC in Wachapreague, VA. See, the forecast for Wachapreague was for sunny skies, 68 degrees and NW winds at 5 – 10 mph, but I know from experience that the trees I saw swaying in my yard meant more like NNE at like 15-20. I left anyhow, met Dave and headed to meet John Niemiec, John Wittmyer from Crabs to Go and Captain Brian Behe of Buffalo Hunter Guide Service at the Wachapreague ramp where I hoped the forecast was going to pan out and not coincide with what I was seeing at home…..it did not. We arrived at the ramp and were greeted by overcast skies, 55 degrees and a N wind at 10-15…which quickly increased to 15+. To say I was a little pessimistic about our trip would be an understatement, but I was with good buddies who had made the trip and a Captain who knows the area well so we gave it a shot.
It was definitely a grind in the tough conditions, but we found some clean water and Captain Brian maneuvered the Buffalo Hunter perfectly in challenging conditions to put us over some nice fish. We had four total keepers of 17, 18, 18 and 20 1/2″ that all fell for Deadly Doubles. I had the first fish with the Deadly Double in chartreuse baited with a 5″ Gulp swimming mullet along with a throwback and “Deadly Dave” Messick even jumped from behind the camera to land the biggest fish of 20 1/2″ on John Wittmyer’s rod using the Deadly Double pink with a live minnow.
It was a great trip considering the very challenging conditions and a great time fishing with friends.
We saw Captain Rich Watts and his Team Bite Me on a couple of drifts while in Wachapreague and he mentioned having a couple of fish in the box as well. Little did I know that one of them was this stud 27″ fish that ate a bucktail baited with a Gulp shrimp.
