Unlike LI & the Cape, we've been blessed with wonderful weather for the past week, which is forecasted to last for at least another week. Fishing should be great, right? Well not so fast. Seems that most of my striped friends have hit the Southern Migration route, and those few that have stayed need lower water conditions to concentrate them, adding to the difficulty of catching one. Last night was a classic example. The afternoon low tide, a -0.8' tide @ 16:41, presented a quandary for me. I knew I couldn't get off the dock until well after sunset, and the last 2 fishing trips in similar tidal conditions were total busts so I decided not to even consider fishing.
As the flood was gaining steam, I looked out the window to the river and saw small groups of fish breaking out on the flats, which at that point barely had enough water for a vane-driven Hobie pedal kayak to work with, but there was enough. I noticed my neighbor out there on his Hobie unhooking a very nice fish. Poseidon, you're one SOB!! After I watched him have another massive hit, I grabbed the boat keys figuring I might was well just drift up on the flats with the engine up.
When I got down to the dock all the surface action had stopped. Considering that there was no wind, and only 1.5' of water on the flats, a blind drift probably wasn't worth it. Of course the Siren's Call was echoing in my brain, and there was a lot of bait around my dock, which in previous years wasn't a bad place to fish on early flood, so the casting commenced while standing in my tied off boat.
Just as I was convincing myself that this was nothing more than a casting practice session, I saw a flash of white, a bass turning on it's side feeding withing 10' of the boat. CRAP, time to keep fishing. Since my popper was being ignored and it was getting dark, I fell back on my old LI faithful technique of a floating, jointed Redfin with a glacially slow retrieve. It took me a while to figure out how to present the lure with the strong current, but as soon as I felt confident with my presentation, there was a bass on my line and I shortly put a 23" fish on the deck. Flushed with excitement I kept at it, but found my floating, jointed Redfin sinking? Turned out in the tussle, the fish had loosened one of the joint eyes and the lure was taking on water. Since the bait around the dock had disappeared, I decided to call it an evening, ending things on a high note.
Almost time to see if this AM is the same...
As the flood was gaining steam, I looked out the window to the river and saw small groups of fish breaking out on the flats, which at that point barely had enough water for a vane-driven Hobie pedal kayak to work with, but there was enough. I noticed my neighbor out there on his Hobie unhooking a very nice fish. Poseidon, you're one SOB!! After I watched him have another massive hit, I grabbed the boat keys figuring I might was well just drift up on the flats with the engine up.
When I got down to the dock all the surface action had stopped. Considering that there was no wind, and only 1.5' of water on the flats, a blind drift probably wasn't worth it. Of course the Siren's Call was echoing in my brain, and there was a lot of bait around my dock, which in previous years wasn't a bad place to fish on early flood, so the casting commenced while standing in my tied off boat.
Just as I was convincing myself that this was nothing more than a casting practice session, I saw a flash of white, a bass turning on it's side feeding withing 10' of the boat. CRAP, time to keep fishing. Since my popper was being ignored and it was getting dark, I fell back on my old LI faithful technique of a floating, jointed Redfin with a glacially slow retrieve. It took me a while to figure out how to present the lure with the strong current, but as soon as I felt confident with my presentation, there was a bass on my line and I shortly put a 23" fish on the deck. Flushed with excitement I kept at it, but found my floating, jointed Redfin sinking? Turned out in the tussle, the fish had loosened one of the joint eyes and the lure was taking on water. Since the bait around the dock had disappeared, I decided to call it an evening, ending things on a high note.
Almost time to see if this AM is the same...
