The word had gotten out that speckled trout had invaded the salty waters of Rudee Inlet at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. When I used to live in Virginia Beach, that place was always one of my favorite places to fish.

But with more people that wanted to fish than available boat space, I decided to haul the bass boat up and splash her at Owls Creek Municipal Boat Ramp so a couple more people could go.

She's quite suited to fishing any inland waters, and Rudee and Lynnaven are no exception. You just have to make sure she gets a good, soapy bath and engine flushing once taken out of saltwater.

So there I was, in the bass boat, in Rudee Inlet, about as happy as any angler could be.

That is, until after about an hour had passed with no fish. Some four hours prior to high tide, and the water was already at about full pool. Brutal northeastern winds were pushing the ocean into the small inlet. That, in turn, was dirtying up the water - not a good thing when fishing for trout or puppy drum.

Conversations on the water with several who had been fishing for hours turned up the same story. Small fish here or there, but no action to speak of. Anglers were casting, trolling, even bottom-bouncing with cut bait all with the same result.

NO FISH.

Oh well, that's fishing. And at least I was back in one of my old haunts giving it the old college try.

And learning that the freshwater bass boat really does float on saltwater.

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