V21 Enclosure
 

do any of you local guys to me know where you can get a new enclosure, or know somebody that makes them, mine is beat. or is there a company out there that makes a replacement for the wellcrafts? thanks in advance.

Ask around, look around for a good canvas shop...if you still have the frame, it might save some $$...my top and full enclosure was about $1800...back in 1999:beer:

ouch. well i still have the frame and the top is fine except for the plastic zippers are beat.

guess i'll start saving my pennies.

I'll look up his number but there is a guy in chesapeake who has good prices and not to expensive.

Still
Post his number on the site, I need to replace mine also. We have about 6 shops here, but they are either not worth a crap or way toooo expensive.

If people are upgrading let me know if you would be interested in selling your old enclosure. Not sure I have the coin for a new one but may be able to twist the admirals arm for a used one...

-Svence

i wish i was upgrading. mine is just falling apart and i don't want to freeze out there trying to get stripers come the end of the month and december

I need a new top too. My wifes relatives run a shop in Smithfield called A Stitch Above, on the main drag. Im probley going with him after the first of the year. Hes really good and has been doing it for a long time! Check him out, his name is Billy Smith.

Where abouts in Smithfield are you located ? My wife is from Rescue, down in front of the marina on the creek. Her grandmother turns 94 in a few days so we'll probley head down there then.

i was raised on titus cove landing, a dirt road off smithneck in carrollton about 5 minutes from rescue. when i want to take the wife and kids out i put in at jones creek launch and go past rescue everytime to the pagan river.

i currently live in wellington estates on the outskirts of smithfield. used to live on benns church blvd. on the isle of wight line at cherry grove.

as of now my retarded HOA (which i moved for my wife and kids), will not let me keep the boat at the house during the week, so i keep it at my dads place on longview drive because he has 6 acres of land.

thanks for the referral to the guy in smithfield, will have to look him up and give him a call.

Your not going to do any striper fishing in Jan & Fed.?

The guy I knew of retired and closed his shop. Sorry.

thought season ended the last day of december

Bay season ends in December but the Ocean fishing is open until I think March 1st or 31st. In mid Jan and early Feb the bigger striper move through and make for some really nice fishing. You need some heavier rods for trolling MoJo's and umbrella rigs. Last year we had some great trips and were throwing back 38" stripers and came hoome with our limit with all the stripers over 40". The only problem is the ramps at Va Beach get really crowded and on warm days you can almost walk across the boats. You can fish up and down the coast as long as you stay within 3 miles of the shore. There is also a line From Cap Henry to the Eastern Shor which you have to stay beyond to be in the ocean just out of the bay. If you have a map GPS it might be marked on your unit but when we get closer to the end of the year we can talk more about ocean fishing. Here is a good local fishing site were you can get and post fishing reports tidalfish.com and click on the Virginia link to the left. There is also good info for local fishing on that site. It really helps in the Ocean Season as people will post where they are finding the stripers as they move South through the area.

awesome, sounds like fun. guess we need to get together and knock some down.

I live in Northern Suffolk area near Sleepy Hole Golf Course. What part of Smithfield do you live.

wellington estates off battery park road

found A Stitch Above tonight when the wife and i went out for dinner, less than 5 minutes from my house. Never knew it was there, lol. gonna go up saturday and see if he is open and talk things over with him. thanks for the referral

Hey Evilgil, small world! I know right where you live, nice place! Do you know any Carters in rescue? My wifes uncles are Jerry, Ronnie and Billy Carter(deceased) whom have lived around you. We're planning on going there to see my wifes grandmother within the next few weeks, she turns 94 in Dec. My wifes grandparents on her mothers side were the Tennis's who use to own Tennis's seafood which is now Smithfield Station. We'll have to get together sometime.
:hi:

i knew billy carter when he was married to johnette (i think that how its spelled), and lived on the road i grew up on, 2 houses away. my mom still lives there. small world! hit me up on here when your getting close to making the trip.

Will do EV! Jo and Billy use to run Chuckamucks beside the bridge. Its changed hands now after the fire but they still have good food!

It was one of my buddies boat that caught fire while tied up to Chuckamucks that burned it down.

How is chuckamucks? I was gonna run over there this summer but never got around to it. Do they have a deck/bar outside? Nothing beats a cold beer on the dock. Are they open year round? I hit up Smithfield Station on Sat and that was nice but no outdoor seating which kinda bummed me out.

-Svence

they are open and do have a deck/bar outside.

Nice. I might head over there on Saturday, weather permitting. Any other good bars on the water I should know about? In FL we used to grab some beers and some food to go and beach the boat on the Intracoastal. Around here it has been harder to find some good spots to beach it. Only place so far, which is sweet but packed, is over in Poquoson. Where else can we beach?

-Svence

poquoson and i see a place over by the high rise bridge that is pretty social, but no bar or food. just beaches and people hanging out. i would probually head to poquoson because i know people over there to hang with.

Let me know about the enclosure for the boat, I need one too

evilgli...if your frame and canvas are still good, a shop can always replace just the zippers...

thats what i hoped for. my frame and canvas are still good. front curtain needs to be replaced, all the others are fine, all zippers are trash. and thats what i'm going to ask the guy at A Stitch Above saturday if he is open then. hope for the best, i know my wallet is thinking that way.

I know the feeling!!...:hi:good luck...if he says he can't do it, try another shop...that shouldn't be very difficult to do...

Evil
We have several canvas shops here that can fix what you have (zippers etc), I want new stuff. But I want to say that I think when I talked to a shop a couple of years ago about replacing zippers they said it was almost as much time because of having to unstitch and restitch new zippers. What they were getting at was the material for the rest of the job was less than 1/3 of the total cost.


Maybe he was feeding me a line.

Let me know what you find out.

enclosure
 

Mikes Marine Custom Canvas, (757)496-1090 (757)615-5611 C He is on West Great Neck Rd. Virginia Beach. Tell him Dave over on the Eastern Shore sent you. He has done a couple for me, top notch quality work thats affordable. Dave

thanks dave, will give him a call and check it out. went to A Stitch Above this morning to find they are only open monday-thursday, so i didn't get anywhere today. will call him this coming week and the guy you just recommended Dave. will keep you guys posted on what i find.

on a side note, went out fishing tonight at the hrbt around 6-9 and didn't even get a hit tonight. ran back to the jrb and found the wind had picked up to about 20 knots and tried trolling a little but the wind was not helping matters and still got notta. came home with a empty fish box. oh well, beats work and i had fun.

That sounds just like my night. We hit the HRBT for about an hour or two right around 8pm, the current was ripping, birds were working here and there but no hits. There were a ton of boats out there and I didn't see anyone hooking up. We then swung in to the West Norfolk Bridge and had a couple of hits but nothing back to the boat. Skunked night...sucks. Hope to see something more productive this week.

-Svence

Birds workin' at NIGHT?...COOL, COOL...didn't know they did that...:sun:

Around this area the birds work the light lines of the bridges.

If the fish are not hitting at the HRBT you guys need to head to the MMBT and try it there. The WNB is very hit ans miss and if you catch anything its more luck than anything. I'm guessing you left from Portsmouth City Park if you hit the WNB. You can also try casting into the lighted areas around some of the loading docks around that area. Chunking works great around the bend at the MMBT but you need a good amount of menhaden to attract the fish. The biggest problem this time of year is that there is still alot of small fish that the stripers feed on and its hard to get them to hit your baits. Thats why chunking works this time of year.

Evilgli

Like CSVENCER your better of hitting the MMBT rather then the JRB. The JRB does hold strippers but its usually not very productive. The best bet this time of year is towing down to Va. Beach and hitting the CBBT as the small stripers should be all over the place at night. We have had nights out there this time of year when we would catch a striper on almost every cast and would have contest to see who could not catch a striper. You can still get skunked but your odd's go way up at the CBBT.

As a follow up I see that people are starting to catch some bigger stripers eeling around the high rise of the CBBT and some citations were caught this past weekend. It should only get better in the next couple of weeks and provide some great fishing. I caught my biggest striper last year while eeling at the high rise and pulled in a 43" striper. Also people caught some nice striper chunking this weekend at the MMBT at the bend.

Still-

Sounds like eels and chunking are the big winners lately. I haven't heard anything about artificials lately. So I think I am off to get some menhaden if I go out this weekend. If I go out I will give you a call, we need to hook up, this is getting ridiculous!

-Svence

going to try after work tonight for a couple of hours or so. think i will try chunking at the mmbt and see how i do, considering this will be my first time doing this.

I wanted to go tonight but I have a meeting. Get plenty of menhaden and get a good slick running by chuncking them up and tossing them out. I like to toss them off the front of the boat so they sink down under the boat as they float back toward the bridge. I also like to have a bag of chopped up menhade sunk down beside the boat to cover more depth. Then try to cover several depths by using more weight to get some down and some higher up. I just use a a chunk of menhaden on a hook and different size weights. The bend in the bridge seems to produce best but don't feel limited to that area. Some others have had good luck over the tube in around 25' of water. We also try just riding down the bridge looking for stripers hitting the top around the pilings then we anchor up. Good luck if you get out. What ramp are you going to put out at tonight?