Nice haul! Big fish on light tackle is about as good as it gets, IMO. I dove the rocks Saturday on the incoming and saw three keeper size bass... but didn't get a shot at any of them. Viz was only about 3' so... Brought my gear to work today to try again this afternoon. Water looked clean on the way in, so I'm hoping to NOT get skunked.
Yesterday in the driving rain... I wanted to get her back in the water as quickly as possible, so I didn't measure. But I estimate at LEAST 40" and 25+ lbs. We limited out on the boat. What a day... jumbos and keepers only.
Look at that tail!. Is that a flutter spoon getting unhooked from it's mouth? I got one schoolie last week and the rest of the week have been big bruising bluefish. It's been great. I've even increased the retrieve speed to target them. Went back to heavier gear in case the big bass leaving the rivers swing by and the racer blues have put on some weight. Man are they hitting and running hard. Mostly I'm an early bird and a inlet creature but thought I'd switch it up. Their are fish in the bay so scoped out the local docks at dusk. Not for me. Dock crowds can be weird creatures. Old school skelly. My town marina at dusk was quite the show. Went back to my haunts at dusk and although the night shift is a different vibe I knew the score. 1st day found the rip line and started casting on it with tins and got enough fish on the beach to call it way before sunset. Returned on Friday and with the new moon approaching found a rip across a bar that heavy buck tails were having trouble with. One guy switched to a SP and was tight followed by another guy. You could see the end of the bar where they were coming in and attacking right before shallow water. Both guys hooked up and had to walk to calmer water so I threw a plug and got hit in the same spot. Saw the thing come out of the depths to smack the plug. Good fight with the drag singing. I had an 8lb blue on the beach and being it was Friday, it was for dinner. Fish cakes again was the call. The bad thing is my reel knob broke off the arm of my reel. it's replacable but kind of a drag. I had a re issue of the Penn 706z on the bench for a while now but never used it. It's big, slow, old tech, and it's bailess which I've never tried. Spooled it up and tried it this morning after a surf. Casted a tin into an area where dirty water and clean were mixing together to find a school of small blues right away and yanked 3 out in quick succesion. Bailess seems pretty easy so far. Couple of more casts and another bruiser hit the shorty near my feet. It was very green and mean. What a fight it put up. Didn't keep it as it's Monday. I'm still eating the last fish so all were released. Going to stick with the 706 for a bit and try to get the hang of it. tight lines! bring those 40" fish my way please.
That's a Maja bunker spoon in chartreuse. We were trolling a white one and a green one, and a third rod with a white Mojo. After getting several fish on the green spoon only, we switched all three rods to green and all three rods caught fish. I'm really not into boat fishing, and especially don't like trolling. But having the trip of a lifetime (which it was for me) made it all good, despite the snotty weather. And I do mean snotty... A buddy of mine, Marine Corps Vet, is friends with this 82-year-old salt that lives a block or two away from us. Even at his age he still loves to fish and is still in good physical shape, so he and his old timer friend have me and my buddy on board to do the heavy lifting. We all came back to the dock soaking wet and exhausted... but with big ole smiles on all of our faces! We hope to do it all over again next Saturday.
Whenever I start thinking" Maybe it's time to get a boat", I get over it fairly quickly now. plenty to do from shore. Kayak Maybe. The action with bluefish has continued in a mix of sizes. Get into a school of shorties one minute and a few minutes later you can find yourself in a brawl with a gorilla. This morning I hit a fast moving rip with a 2oz bucktail to get to the bottom. Found this bruiser at dawn. 33" and gotta be 12lbs This old school 706z is a heck of a reel. It has great drag. Still feeling it out. When I get small one that doesn't pull I mess with it. When I get a big and the drag is screaming I'm messing with it. Thats a sure fire way to lose fish. Need to find that sweet spot.
Got into it with the blues again this morning. The sun was warm the water was clean. No waders needed. Found the tide ripping out of the bay so chucked a 2 oz bucktail for sink and a little hold. Got hit right away on the drop and pulled in a just too small striper out. Then it was nothing but the blues after and lots of them. Biggest north of 10lbs and the smallest maybe 2. Whatever the size the fish were using the rip so the fights were long and a walk was usually necessary. Then walk back to the end of the line and start again. It was good crew. A dozen folks, all regulars sharing the stoke, working together. They were still catching when I left which was hard to do. Lots of laughs were had. Kept a small guy for the table. Still in the cooler. Either fish sandwiches or ceviche. Dude took a pic of me fighting one with my lunch on the bottom right on the sand. There were three or four sharks on the sand too. Three without heads! The one that still had a head was loaded with teeth. Multiple opinions confirmed what I was thinking. Little Threshers. Yikes!
