[sundrop]

Decided with all the good reports coming from the coast I would venture back down to Seaview for some pier fishing.
Arrived at 3:30 pm to catch the afternoon low tide around 4:40.
Water looked pretty good and many talked of how great the Spanish run had been that morning with non stop action from around 9:30-11 am but had slowed after that because the Blues had invaded! I mean HATTERAS Blues! King fishermen were slamming blues over 12lbs repeatedly and I watched one man carry one off over and over all afternoon. He said he had caught at least 8 and others were catching as well but when the big blues show up the Spanish disappear. Small blues were hitting GOTCHAS and Diamond jigs and were steady but not thick. As the tide began to come in the Va. Mullet came too with nice ones being caught on most of the pier primarily on the right side but many taken on the left as well.
I pitched a gold headed w/gold hooks Gotcha plug and caught a few blues then settled in with 2 rods and 2 hook bottom rigs, fresh shrimp and 3oz pyramid sinkers and started catching mullet. Hits were sporadic, with occasional bites to both rods simultaneously until 8pm and then I got busy enough chasing bites that I put one rod away! Bites were good until high tide and even then 4-5 fish an hour along with 6 sharks one of which was 40" long and had to be raised with my piernet. Smallest was 15". I caught one that was at least 4 ft long and fought it to the pier 3 times!! knowing it would break of any minute because it was on a 2 hook rig with #2 gold hooks. On the third time to the pier I was trying to keep its head up while a guy got my piernet but it caught a rush of water from a wave and dug in and straightened both hooks.( no surprise) I believe all were sandsharks, but I'm not up on shark IDs. Caught several skates. I started to run out of shrimp around 10:30 and pier shop was closed so I cut up a small mullet and found that bites weren't as frequent but the size of the mullet was much better!!!!!
Left at 5:30 AM ( I wanted to stay for the morning Spanish but I was just too tiered and had a 2 hr drive home. And the wind had whipped the water up pretty good overnight with worse to come.)
Final count on Va Mullet was 57 keepers ( which I gave away to others on the pier on my way out 10 per person) 4 small ones cut up for bait and at least 25+ throwbacks and 5 cut in half on retrieve before dark (blues did it).
Windy night, but a quiet relaxing way to come home exhausted..LOL!! Slept real well today so now I guess I will be up late catching up on todays posts!!
Let me add that I am very happy with my Shimano Sahara 4000 rear drag.. The big shark smoked it several times and I think he may have damaged the drag ( drag washers I think ) but considering I bought the reel used, have used it 2 yrs myself and it has seen it's share of Stripers/Reds/Blues/Sharks/Trout/Bass and don't forget Skates/Rays!! and I have it spooled with 30lb PowerPro which exceeds the drag capacity anyway, it has well earned any money I have to spend to fix it! I have it on a 7 ft ML Penn Pursuit rod and it is my fav setup. I also carried my SILSTAR live liner and Striper rod i picked up cheap at the Raleigh Boatshow and it handled 2 smaller sharks and several Skates well but the rod has a super light tip and trembles in the wind all the time so it makes it harder to detect a bite. The Live liner/Baitrunner feature was nice when fishing multiple reels because i could flip the switch and it would spool out at an adjustable rate if it hooked up while I was busy with the other rod. The a quick flip of the switch and it was locked into my preset drag for fighting the fish.....