In most cases, I prefer to plan my trips so that they involve leaving the United States, but having returned from the United Kingdom less than two months prior, I felt like it was too soon to go abroad again. I had a few days on my own and so I decided to plan a trip of just a few days closer to home.

The main activity I set my sights on for this trip was shark fishing.  I had a taste of this in Namibia, but wanted a deeper experience.  I reserved a room at the Anchor Inn in Chincoteague, and booked a shark fishing experience with Captain Pete’s Fish Tales off Fishing Booker.  I am not generally a big fan of hanging out on beaches, but it looked like there were some biking trails through a nature preserve on neighboring Assateague Island, so I planned to take my bicycle and explore the nature preserve for a day.  I planned a 2nd fishing experience off Fishing Booker for the 3rd day, and thought that would like be enough beach time for me.

Somewhere along the way someone mentioned to me the wild ponies that are one of the main draws.  The myth is that these ponies were survivors of Spanish shipwrecks that escaped to the island and flourished there. I wouldn’t say I was necessarily excited about them, but made a mental note I should try to see them.  

By the time my departure date in early August rolled around, Tropical Storm/Hurricane Debby was due to be make land fall in Florida and Georgia and the effect on the Virginia coast was not clear.  I considered cancelling the trip as I did not want to drive to the coast and not be able to do what I planned. Because the hotel, fishing trip, and petsitter were already paid for and non-refundable, I watched weather forecasts for several days leading up to my departure, and while the predictions were not good, they seemed to be improving as the date approached, and so I stayed the course. In the end, I was glad I did.

My hotel room had not been cleaned before I arrived somewhere around 5 pm, and so the hotel staff had to go through at least 2 rooms before they found one that was clean.  I ended up staying in the adjoining Marina Bay Hotel and Suites, which was owned by the same company. Obviously, this was slightly aggravating, but the hotel staff were very nice, and the room I was put into was also nice, so basically no harm no foul.  I had fish and chips for dinner at Captain Zack’s, confirmed that the fishing tour was still on for the next day, and settled in for the night.

Chincoteague is pretty small, so finding the harbor and dock was easy. 

My captain’s name was Chris, and we set off just before 8 am.  We navigated to Tom’s Cove, where I caught bait fish while Chris baited hooks and set the lines out for the sharks.  The weather turned out to be quite good for the morning.  

It didn’t take long before we were getting action.  The first shark was a 4 foot dusky shark, followed by a 5 foot blacktip.  Over the next 4 hours with Chris’s help I caught a total of 9 sharks. I think about half of these were blacktips, half were dusky sharks, and one was a spinner shark. Chris cut the hook in half for each shark so that it would work out of the shark’s mouth easily with minimal harm, and each shark was set free.

Reeling in fish that size is hard work, and my arms were sore the rest of the day and a little bit the next.  Those 9 sharks are the 9 biggest fish I have caught, thought by number 6 or 7, I was starting to hope the next one would be just a little bigger. I found the dusky sharks a bit dull to fight because they just feel like a dead weight on the end of your line. The blacktips give a better show, as they tended to make hard runs and skim the top of the water. The spinner shark gave a small acrobatic display, leaping out of the water, and was the most exciting to reel in.

The weather did not hold for long, and by the afternoon the rain was starting.  It kept up off and on the rest of the afternoon and over the next two days of the trip.  It resulted in cancellation of the second fishing experience I had booked. With the first being such a high point, I was not that upset by it.  The rain was rarely heavy, and didn’t have much other effect on what I did.  

Over the next couple days, I tried the local food, explored the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge by foot, and by boat with the help of Assateague Tours. This establishment has apparently won awards for the best ice cream parlor in the nation, according to one of my tour guides. I don’t know if I agree with that, but no doubt it was very good.

Food in Chincoteague was mostly typical beach town fare. I ate at the Blackfin, and a Mexican themed food truck, as well as a Vietnamese restaurant. There was no reason to complain about any of them, but neither did I find anything exceptional.

I signed up for a tour around the island early that evening, which included opportunities to see the ponies.  However, no ponies were seen.  The Assateague Lighthouse is worthwhile for fans of lighthouses.

Chincoteague and Assateague are good for bird watching. This is a great egret. There are a lot of them on Assateague Island.

The guide from Assataeague Tours said the white pelican seen here is rare. A little reading afterwards indicated they are not endangered, but Virginia is outside their normal range,.

The white bird on the right side of this shot is an ibis, whose less attractive relative I had seen in Australia. The others are various types of seagulls, and willets. We also saw a pair of bald eagles but I was not able to get a good shot of them.

On the afternoon of the third day, we did see the fames ponies from a considerable distance. There were only two visible. The entire herd is around 150 according to our guide.

The next morning I started the long drive home. I enjoyed Chincoteague and would definitely come again, though I don’t see myself losing my preference for international over domestic travel.