Jim Baugh's Coastal Angler Column Nov Issue In Stores Now!

Nov issue of Coastal Angler Magazine in stores now! This month we included our famous “Baugh Slaw” recipe that we featured at my JBBQ Restaurant. This is a perfect side to go with your holiday fixins great with fried turkey, rockfish and of course mac and cheese. Also we have some great tips for sure fire rockfish pullage. I hope everyone will plan on joining us of Thanksgiving for the JBOTV official start of rockfish season. Thanksgiving weekend has always been a good time to start pulling the tube at the tunnel and night casting the pilings. We will also base out of the awesome Virginia Beach Resort and Conference center for our fall rockfish trips and the good news is they still have that unreal Thanksgiving buffet! Yall book your stay now and make reservations for this fantastic Thanksgiving event, and bring your fishing rods! JB

 

 

 

 



On Location Update: Smith Mountain Lake and Franklin County

Smith Mountain Lake

Franklin County

WOW!!! There are so many new things to see and do in the greater Smith Mountain Lake area. Most of my time at Smith Mountain was about 15 to 20 years ago when Jim Baugh Outdoors was producing a fair amount of inland striped bass features. My kids spent a lot of time at the lake and we found it was also one of the best lakes for crappie fishing anywhere.

Smith Mountain Lake

JBO TV was filming in the area as a part of our 25th anniversary series to air later this spring. First up there was a big Oakley Bass tourney being held out of Bridgewater and boy did these anglers catch some Bass! Great event and turn out. There was also a festival being held at the New Moneta that had some darn good BBQ, some of the best!

Oakley Bass Tourney SML

Bridgewater

Moneta

Things have certainly changed over the years. The old campers paradise which was sort of an old fisherman’s hangout where you could go for a breakfast platter, buy oil for your boat, and also get a bucket of minnows to your liking. Now the place has been totally overhauled, or almost rebuilt as the new “Jakes”. One fantastic restaurant and bar complete with scenic outside Caribbean patio dining. The place is truly gorgeous, very well done and we can't wait for a return visit.

"Jakes" SML

On the cooking front we had the pleasure of working with the Landing Restaurant and interviewed owner chef “Bruno”. This chef is both artist and craftsman when it comes to cuisine. All homemade recipes with a strong flair for the original and delightful. This has become a very popular restaurant and has a beautiful view of the lake.

The Landing Restaurant, Bernards Landing.

Other stops during our filming included the home of Booker T Washington which will be featured in Jim Baugh Outdoors “Lure of the Shore” with Donna Bozza. Moving southward we filmed some art stores in Rocky Mount as well as Ferrum College.

Booker T. Washington

The Grainery in Rocky Mount

We based our trip out of Bernards Landing where we enjoyed bucolic views of the Lake. This is also an amenity rich place complete with workout room, sauna, steam, indoor and outdoor swimming pool and hot tubs. The Landing Restaurant is also on the premises. Now is a good time to book your summer vacation at Bernards Landing, the place is awesome. We will be back!

Bernards Landing

Once the show is finished post production, we will broadcast the show and also stream it online 24/7. This feature will be broadcast along with our feature on Talbot County Maryland. We are filming there later this month.

Stay tuned!!!

Below results from last weekends Oakley Tourney.

Godspeed,

Jim Baugh

 Overall Leaders- SML Oakley Tourney

Rank	Angler	Weight
1	LONNIE GIVENS	7.37
2	TOBY PETERS	6.46
3	ELLIOTT ROBERSON	6.45
4	BAILEY MILLER	6.11
5	GREGORY AARON SCOTT	5.91
6	BOBBY MCDANIEL	5.85
7	DENNIS HILL	5.79
8	TIM BOOTHE	5.65
9	RALPH HOLIFIELD JR	5.63
10	PHILLIP COX	5.60

Also....Just out and now available in Stores!

The latest article by Jim Baugh Outdoors very own host of the "Lure of the Shore" segment, Donna Bozza.

Check out Donna's Lifestyle Blog, "Coastin"

Rock Around The Clock!!

Rock Around The Clock

By

Jim Baugh

Yes, happy days are here again with another round of rockfish season!!!! It is sort of like Christmas day, but last for three months. Then comes New Years, the ocean season! Jim Baugh Outdoors is going to produce several stories this fall all promoting some old and new ways to catch these swimmers.

Rockfish Pizza with Sourdough Starter Crust

Best of all, I have some new recipes that you are going to want to serve up over the holidays like oyster stuffed rockfish. My fav is my new rockfish pizza with artichokes, a delight for sure that will make for some upcoming holiday cheer extra special.

In this column I am going to review some of the general ways that we have caught Rockfish for both fresh and salt water. First up works for both the saline and non saline h2o environments and that is trolling. 

Trolling

This may be my all time favorite way for catching rocks. Certainly this technique does not work all the time but I probably enjoy it the most. The reason is simply that the method of setting out the lines and having a nice day on the water is very enjoyable. There is always movement and when the fish are not biting it can make for a nice conversational social gather with angling mates. When you do come across a school of feeding brutes, having six rods ZIIINNNNNNGGGGGG is always a blast!! The trick is with trolling if you want to catch fish, you need to be where the fish are. Case in point during the ocean season you can troll the beach until the cows come home, but if the fish are schooling 10 miles out, all you will catch by the beach is maybe a nice fat tasty 10 pound clump of seaweed.

Before I go trolling local research is usually at hand. I try to get an idea of where the bait fish are, water temperature, and any reports of schooling fish. Listening to the radio and seeing which way the birds are flying is not a bad idea either. Lastly, always fish current. Great minds may never rest idle, but rockfish do if there is no current. Always fish the tide in saline waters. Always. 

Bump and Troll

A fun way to pick up a few rocks is to do what I call bump and troll. This is a successful method for always catching rocks however you do need a clean stretch of bridge with little to no boat traffic or else your heading for trouble. Position your vessel up current side about 30 yards and drift back your favorite chartreuse stretch far enough back to where it is just slapping the bridge pilings. Every time I pull off a fish doing this. Very important to remember that rocks aren’t on every piling across the span of the bridge. Trolling this way covers a lot of ground until you find the pilings they are holding.

Two very important tips if you are going to bump and troll.

1)      Do NOT do it by yourself. Have a captain at the helm the entire time. Have your crew at hand with the rod to be ready for a quick hook up

2)      PICK A SLOW DAY meaning very little boat traffic. If your out on a weekend and boats are lined up at the pilings, forget it. Simply is not worth the hassle.

I know a lot of you folks may think you lose a lot of lures fishing this way, but you really will not. If you keep the boat speed right and position the bait so it is just tapping the front of the pilings, you will not be loosing many lures at all.

Lastly like I always say, if your coming trolling with JB, pack a nice lunch because chances are you will be on the water for a while with plenty of time to dine.

Casting

Fly fisherman love it. Bass fisherman live for it. I, well, don’t do that much of it. Same reason I don’t play tennis. It’s not that I don’t look good in shorts or mind sporting colorful tennis ware.

The thing is I don’t have the arm for it. My elbows were made for power lifting, not casting a 1\2 ounce jig head. So casting all day is not appealing to me because it throws my arm out.. However pulling up to a piling on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and knocking down a few hook ups casting around the pilings is a blast!! Yes it is very productive, but again fish the tide.

If you like casting try the early morning or evening tide around the islands and pilings. The Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean are pretty big places and provides excellent opportunity for fly casters. Go have at it!!!!! Light weight angling on even a 10 pound rockfish is an absolute blast.

Pulling the Tube

I have written several columns in the past about this highly effective technique. For those that don’t know, pulling the tube does not mean you throw a rope overboard with an attached inner tube and sling your kids around behind your boat doing 60mph.

Pulling the tube means simply to fish the up current side of the underwater tube structure at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Depending on the current, you could be dragging a 16 or 20 ounce weight down to the rocks in order to keep the bait presentation where it should be.

This method always works for me, pretty much guaranteed. But it also works for everyone else and their brother, sister, friends, family, the hole darn shooing match and they are all there at the same time on the weekends doing the same thing. Throw in the charter boats, and you have one big mess. Do yourself a favor, just don’t do it. Fish elsewhere using other methods. If you hit the tunnels when no boats are around, go for it. You will find rocks in your boat pretty quickly.

I know anglers who hate this method for many reasons. Most complaints come from the “gee I don’t want to fish with all that weight on my line”. I can understand this. If you are having a slow day and nothing is happening with the fly rod, on the way in, stop by the tube for some pulling and have a wonderful rockfish dinner. Works every time. 

A Remote Freshwater Tactic

This may seem like an odd way to catch fish, but it works and we featuring this on our TV show over 10 years ago. Keep in mind that if your going to catch fish, you have to be where the fish are. The problem is you can always maneuver your boat to get where those big swimmers are.

We had this problem come up fishing at Smith Mountain Lake one summer where the rockfish (stripers) were schooling down by the dam. There is a log boom that of course stops any boat traffic from entering the so called danger area. Our captain pulled out his trust surf rod and then from beneath the floor, A REMOTE BAIT BOAT!!! I had never seen one at the time. This boat allows you to tie your bait to a release clip on the small boat. The release clip and the bait boat are all controlled via a remote control.

So here we go, bait attached and having a ball playing with our toy boat. That sucker was fast to!! Once we got the boat down by the dam we released the bait via our handy remote and within five minutes, FISH ON!!!! I must say the Smith Mountain Stripers do taste delicious!! What a fun day.

So as you can see, there are many ways to catch a rockfish. This should be a great season and I am looking forward to seeing all my rock fishing friends on the water this season. I will have a lot more updates and info as to where we will be filming and when in the next couple of weeks.

In the immortal words of Frank White the Southern Sportsman, "Do yourself a favor and take a kid fishing."

Tight Lines, good reads and good eats!

Jim Baugh

JBO TV

Author of HOOKED

Rules and Regs
http://www.mrc.virginia.gov/regulations/swrecfishingrules.shtm