The "Sand Box" at Chincoteague.
So many special memories made there over the years.
Was a very hard goodbye.
As a personal favorite vacation spot for many years, people knew I knew my way around. My love for the area dated all the way back to a high school biology class trip to Wallops Island. We had a permanent camper with a nice deck, fish cleaning station and shed, eye shot to the marina. It was old as the hills but it had everything we needed and it was ours. The campground had private fishing piers. My daughter loved crabbing on those piers and we all caught some awesome fish on them too. We only shared the campground pool with frogs at night, which was great to cool off after a long day on the water or beach. Ramp was so close I would wash down the trailer right there at the camper after every dunk. And easily wash the whole rig and motor flush after every trip. You know me, of course I was obsessive about the salt. Really didn't get any better or more convenient.
For years I had charter requests for Chincoteague and finally made it happen. I had some truly wonderful seasons working down on Chincoteague bay. It always still felt like my special vacation spot, just one I started sharing with you guys. Man we caught so many great fish on our trips! I lived down there the months of April and ran full-time flounder, which kept me quite busy. Then ran 2 shark weeks every July. My daughter spent one of those as my first mate, was so special. We caught sandbars, duskys, scalloped hammerheads and of course our share of rays...cownose and southerns. It didn't end there though. That's the beauty of salt water, we got into trout, blue fish, cobia and more. As I said, so many great fish!
It was a tough call to make but I decided that 2020 would be the last one. There were expensive licenses/permits needed to run for hire as an out of state/non-resident Captain that needed to be bought well in advance every season. However, we had no assurance of when we'd be able to use them, as timeframe for travel onto the island being opened up to non-residents was still unknown. On top of that, at the same time, our old campground full of memories was sold to a big fancy developer and all residents got the boot. Our camper along with many others, was "one with the earth" we shall say, and not fit to be moved. So it was a total heart breaking loss. The signs were all there. It was just easier to let it all go and focus on home waters again for hire. Covid/logistics may have put an end to it, but wonderful memories were made for all. Memories I cherish.
Thank you to all of you that fished with me in beautiful Chincoteague. Thank you Captain Steves Bait and Tackle, for always taking such good care of my clients and I. So many great memories! I hope you can enjoy this album of some of our catches.