surfers who fish.

Well I'll bite
What's the LBCrew fluke fillet method?

 

have to shoot a fish 1st....
Sounds like a good method. I can picture it getting real close to the bone that way.

 

The good fishing continues on the island!

Been wanting to site fish the flats. Went Friday afternoon and a couple of heads i trust said bail and hit the ocean. Sand eels and fleas were bringing the bass in with the incoming. So change of plans and I'm walking the shore break with my 7 ft. The water was so clear you could see fish roaming through the troughs but hard to get a bite on any artificial. Putting a egg float on and digging up some fleas had results for schoolies. Walked quite a ways and found a cut in thr bar with ospreys circling way out. Put on a deadly dick with a bucktailed hook and fired out. Just a couple of casts and I'm tight. Little rod 4000 combo with 15lb braid was tested and landed a nice 30 inch blue. It was Friday so home it would go for weekend ceviche. Buried the fish to keep it cool, switched to a top water and got another 1st cast! Top water hits just ignite me.Threw it back and cast again. Mid retrieve I see ,almost in slow motion, a shadow, then a boil the the mouth and the explosion! I'm tight and it's a bass. Thought 1st schoolie then maybe could be a slot. Then I see it and it's a good fish. Heck of a fight and I landed me a 15lb bass! So stoked I had it bled before I realized I was about 3 miles from my car in full sun. It was a heck of a drag back. I kept going into the water to cool the fish off. 2 lifeguards on a run ran back to get the truck to give me a ride but I made it back before they got to me. Bummer.

 

This story is of my Tuesday beach adventure.
Tried a repeat of Friday in the morning but the beach was dirty. I found a box that was taped up and thought I found some loot. Cut it open and find a dead cat! Gross. Got a blue and bailed as the tide just rushed out. Took a ride looking for something better and found an old haunt with some good looking surf. So I decided this was going ro be a me day. It's in the surfing thread.

When the tide filled in and swamped the surf out I got. Ate a Newton and 4 skittles and fished the incoming. The water was a little stained in front but as I rounded a corner I spooked some blues and cast out a pencil popper that got smashed. An absolute eruption on the water from this guy I'm saying 35" and at least 12lb.

I let it go. Walked back out, drank the rest of my water and ate the last Newton and skittles. Got home and cleaned out the fridge. Couple of aleves and a high life and bed. 15 hours in the sun and I was roasted.

Yesterday was my daughter's class trip. 1/2 day party boat fluke trip of course I was a chaperone. Pretty snotty with heavy breeze before a big storm. Still it was good captain and mates put us into some fish. Using a broom stick of a rod with an 8 oz sinker is not ideal but very smart. Gets it right to the bottom less tangles. Not the greatest set up for fluking 10 ft of water. Pulled this guy out. 23 inches. I touched it once. Mate netted, unhooked cleaned it, and handed me the bag.

No beach today. Work on the brain and im fried anyway. Ate the fluke tonight. My wife called it paisan style. Light breadcrumbs on a grill pan served with a warm salad of farro zucchini, peppers and eggplant. Delish.

 

Those are two nice fish!
There have been fish in close to shore. I've seen the bait soakers have success on clams, bunker and sand fleas for bass and blues. Saw about a 50 incher get pulled out mid morning. Crazy. I've been walking the shore looking for soft structure points and casting when I site a fish in the shallows. Mixed bag of blues and bass but have not seen a fluke caught from shore yet. Took a blue home for weekend ceviche after a surf on Sat. Catching a surf and a fish to take home is a fine time.


Was on the beach at 1st light and after a little hike found a cut that was filling in with the tide with some birds working. Didn't know the depth so I fired a 1/2 oz bucktail without any trailer, just to see if it felt right, and got hit half way back! Dragged a 30" bass out before 5:30. We'll be feeding the neighborhood tonight.

 

looks like you're doing more than thinking. so many questions. where is that? how deep? what's that structure?

 

The good fishing on the shore front continues. Took another blue home for weekend ceviche and got a fluke also. Tried for a weakfish to get a week long grand slam but no dice.

I did score besides surfing and catching some fish to take home. I said previously that the shore line was littered from a storm and it looked like the marshes just threw up all kinds of junk ( including a dead cat). I'm always beachcombing. Picking up some trash and finding treasures. This week alone found 2 super strike plugs, a needlefish and a little neck popper, a salt pro minnow, a brand new bucktail w/ rubber shad and a wood pencil popper. All with angler clips and swivels attached. I put it to about $75 in gear found. Just put about 5 bucks into them in hooks and rings and they are into the bag!

 

Big Fish on the shore front still!
Last week I put some of the found tackle to the test. Got a schoolie on the little salt pro I found. Fished off the end of a rock wall in the inlet. Water was gin clear. Saw sharks and such cruising the rocks looking for snacks. This little guy come up out of some rocks to sniff the plug. Came up fast and its wake twitched the plug a bit and it smashed it right at my feet. Very cool.


Took a very early morning walk with big plugs and rod. Not really my thing but I thought I'd go find a trophy. There are so many mole crabs I feel catching a fish while matching the hatch would be like hitting the lottery. My presentation would be one in a million. Maybe I could entice a fish to hit something different. If they are chewing bunker chunks they should hit a bunker like plug. Got to a good patch of beach and threw the found wood pencil popper. A big 10 lb blue found it 1st cast and we got into it. Was going to fry it but It was a very oily bugger. Really had to trim for the ceviche. Still enough for the neighborhood to enjoy at cocktail hr. The off cuts went to the dog. She has been eating a lot of fish.

Back at it again this morning still thinking about a big bass. Found this one just after 1st light using a found little neck popper. Cast parallel to the beach and popped through a trough in front of a bar and wham. The sandy colored stripes I think are from eating crabs which it was full of. It's about 30 inch and 10 lbs. Bass this size still roaming the shoreline in July is wild to me. Last spring I couldn't find a keeper after May.


I'm glad it's not too big. Saw a 2 man team get a nice sized bass on Saturday and after showing it to all the looky lous just dropped it in the hot sand. Then they weighed and measured. Then they took too many pics while holding it by the gills. Then back on the sand while viewing the pics. Then let it go "safely". I don't need a stinking trophy. I'll stick to fishing for the table. Heard we are eating this one tomorrow. Happy 4th!

 

The water has been hot around here. There still fish around. Blues for me mostly. Some short fluke here and there.
Took a walk this morning with a smaller set up to see what I could get into. Hopefully spanish mackerel.Found little fluke with a paddle tail. Little Birds working everywhere on tiny bait. Finally found some action on shore and fired a little bucktail connected to an egg float by a leader. Had this egg forever but never gave it much time. Just reeled slow and let the water provide the action via the float. And it's on! Little cocktail blue for lunch. Love the 1st time tackle works.
So I got one on the beach and now I got to see if I can do it again. I get hit but miss. Look back and my fish is gone! Just gone!
Well now I wanted a fish sandwich so I found the birds, fired and hooked up again. Kept that one. Fried up. Old Bay.
So good.

 

The summer fishing has gone full swing. Sharks and rays from the beach is a thing now. Fluke and sea robin also. Not my thing. Sharking doesn't get it for me. and the fluke i get are small.

I've been walking the shore line with a medium set up. Just poking around to see what I can get. Small fluke, haven't got a robin yet. Looking for small birds on small bait. firing tins and epoxy jigs at them and getting cocktails. Kids love it. I reel back fast hoping for spanish and bonito. So far no dice.

the outer reefs are holding 10lb fluke. Might need to get on a boat.

 

I've been fishing here and there since my last post. Cocktail blues were the fish for me for the rest of July. My son and I got a bunch and took some home for a beer batter deep fry. Not the healthiest but tasted great. running down the shore chasing a bait ball and burying fish along the way so they stay cool and unseagulled. It was a trip and one took fish took a piece of my casting finger off!

Was up north for a couple of weeks into Canada and back down through Vermont. spent some time at a fish camp with a rented boat on Champlain and got some small mouth. It would take years to figure out that "lake". It's tremendous.

Been back to beach fishing. There are bait pods just out of reach getting ripped up by everything including very big things. I've gone into full fluke mode. it's easy fishing that can be done anytime of day. Slimmed down my bag of tricks to tins and a few bucktails with just a couple of plugs just in case. Using light set ups. My go to is sort of like a Carolina rig. I take a hook off a small ava jig tie on a 1 ft leader to a dressed hook. Put a big curly tail grub on the hook (until I get a robin then I use robin). Cast out and get the tin on the bottom then drag it real slow ( only use on sand bottoms or prepare to lose gear). I'm a three pull and real in the slack guy but everything is slow and keep the line tight. If on a pull there is any weight on it, just let it sit to the count of ten. That is hard to do especially if the fish is tapping. I miss a lot. It seems a hard hook set does not work. I've been trying the bait running thing on my reel and letting the fish hook itself. Just switched to circle hooks to avoid belly hooking. I've got a few onto the beach just reeling in slow and the fish was never hooked. Just had food in it's mouth.
I've got a bunch of fish but mostly shorts. Once into the fish there is action on every cast. Within a week I've had two just keepers. They were filleted using something close to the LBCrew method and there was very little waste. Broiled oreganata style and served with linguini and clams. The clams were caught in my bay by a local who gave them to my neighbor. He made a vat of the sauce and delivered to the rest of his neighbors. All the herbs and such were right out of his back yard. A real treat.

I'm going to keep up the fluke game for a while and hone my skill. But now I have a bunch of robin and fluke racks for the crab traps and the blow fish are in too. Time to go hang with the warf rats.