Halle-F#$king-luhah!! Finally on the board...

Roccus7

Roccus7

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Playing with C&R Cod gets old while waiting for my Striped Nemesis to start biting. Prior to this AM I've been out bass fishing 10 times starting on May 15 with nothing to show. On the 17th I got excited by seeing a follow, but after that until yesterday, I didn't see anything at all, driving me close to taking up golf.

This AM was picture perfect, no wind, glassine water and a nice sun. I slowly made my way up to the spot using my GPS-saved low water track and I dropped the hook on an early flood in 2' of water. There was so little flow that for the entire time my anchor chain, not the anchor, was holding the boat.

Started casting and about 7 minutes in I saw a follow, but there was no contact. A few casts later, I got distracted by a bunch of terns over bait in less than 1 ft of water. I strained trying to see if there were fish there, but nothing showed and at that depth, even if they were standing still you'd see their backs out of the water. As my popper got close to the boat I saw a swirl away from the plug and a cloud of mud as a fish turned away, CRAP!!! A few casts later, just as my Radio complained that it hadn't received an updated GPS fix, I always turn off the sounder and GPS when I'm fishing in the river, I had a fish start to follow my plug.

OK, battle stations first stop it-Nothing. Start it again, fish still there but nothing!! UGGGGHHH!!! In desperation I went full Joe Cocker on it and big swirl, but no hit, but - WTF, I'm on!! He must have sucked in the plug, nothing that resembled a hit there!!!

A few minutes later I slipped the net under a 29" Tuesday night Stripah dinner that weighed 10 lbs on the Boga. Fished for a while longer, with only 2 other followers, but no hits or any significant swirls, even when channeling Mr. Cocker...

Bottom line, the detestable stench of Skunk has been removed, thank you Baby Poseidon!!!
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Roccus7 said:
Playing with C&R Cod gets old while waiting for my Striped Nemesis to start biting. Prior to this AM I've been out bass fishing 10 times starting on May 15 with nothing to show. On the 17th I got excited by seeing a follow, but after that until yesterday, I didn't see anything at all, driving me close to taking up golf.

This AM was picture perfect, no wind, glassine water and a nice sun. I slowly made my way up to the spot using my GPS-saved low water track and I dropped the hook on an early flood in 2' of water. There was so little flow that for the entire time my anchor chain, not the anchor, was holding the boat.

Started casting and about 7 minutes in I saw a follow, but there was no contact. A few casts later, I got distracted by a bunch of terns over bait in less than 1 ft of water. I strained trying to see if there were fish there, but nothing showed and at that depth, even if they were standing still you'd see their backs out of the water. As my popper got close to the boat I saw a swirl away from the plug and a cloud of mud as a fish turned away, CRAP!!! A few casts later, just as my Radio complained that it hadn't received an updated GPS fix, I always turn off the sounder and GPS when I'm fishing in the river, I had a fish start to follow my plug.

OK, battle stations first stop it-Nothing. Start it again, fish still there but nothing!! UGGGGHHH!!! In desperation I went full Joe Cocker on it and big swirl, but no hit, but - WTF, I'm on!! He must have sucked in the plug, nothing that resembled a hit there!!!

A few minutes later I slipped the net under a 29" Tuesday night Stripah dinner that weighed 10 lbs on the Boga. Fished for a while longer, with only 2 other followers, but no hits or any significant swirls, even when channeling Mr. Cocker...

Bottom line, the detestable stench of Skunk has been removed, thank you Baby Poseidon!!!
View attachment 116154
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Nice healthy fish. Enjoy.
 
On a streak, but my mind ain't right!!

Flush with pride over yesterday's triumph, I spent time last night figuring out my move for today. Hmmm, if I leave my dock at 05:00 I can get out to the spot and fish it throughout the ebb and the start of the flood!!

Yeah on paper that works, but it assumed that there would be some fish there for the ebb. Bottom line it was the correct tactical decision as the only short-lived action was at the very start of the flood, something I couldn't have done without getting out there before low tide.

And "action" needs context in that it meant I saw scattered bass chasing some alewives, nothing in water deep enough for me to be in for a brief moment at the start of the flood. HOWEVER, the AM was a success as my one cast that saw any piscatorial interest ended with a 29", 11 lb striper coming from nowhere to swirl around my popper twice before crashing it. Was nice to actually get a solid hit, followed by a good, sustained battle with 2 long runs, some things that yesterday's fish was missing. Since I have bass in the fridge, today's lady got a full-pardon...

OK, now I sleep in the morning...
 
Roccus7 said:
On a streak, but my mind ain't right!!

Flush with pride over yesterday's triumph, I spent time last night figuring out my move for today. Hmmm, if I leave my dock at 05:00 I can get out to the spot and fish it throughout the ebb and the start of the flood!!

Yeah on paper that works, but it assumed that there would be some fish there for the ebb. Bottom line it was the correct tactical decision as the only short-lived action was at the very start of the flood, something I couldn't have done without getting out there before low tide.

And "action" needs context in that it meant I saw scattered bass chasing some alewives, nothing in water deep enough for me to be in for a brief moment at the start of the flood. HOWEVER, the AM was a success as my one cast that saw any piscatorial interest ended with a 29", 11 lb striper coming from nowhere to swirl around my popper twice before crashing it. Was nice to actually get a solid hit, followed by a good, sustained battle with 2 long runs, some things that yesterday's fish was missing. Since I have bass in the fridge, today's lady got a full-pardon...

OK, now I sleep in the morning...
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That is one really husky 29" fish. I took a local tournament 2 years ago with a fat 31" and it came in at a bit over 11lbs.
 
We don’t seem to get many swimming heads up here, probably because they’ve feasting on alewives as the travel up the coast.

Which reminds me, SQUATOLA this morning. Why?? Absolutely no signs of alewives, unlike past 2 mornings where I saw pods of alewives, feeding ospreys, and bass chasing breakfast. NONE of that today..,
 
Roccus Fishing Rule #1: The day that I say I know everything there is to know about fishing, is the day that I've officially stopped fishing, because it's an absurd concept.

Today was another "Learning Day" about a lure I've been using for 60 years, the Creek Chub Striper Strike. The first easy concept of fishing that lure was when a Striped Bass swirls around the lure, but doesn't make contact, you STOP the retrieve and hold on because there will be a hit well over 75% of the time. With bluefish you just keep popping without a stop. On LI it was tough to learn the differences between bass and blues, but up here, I've yet to see a blue, so the reflex is good enough without any analysis.

However for my entire life, if a bass was following my popper, I just keep popping. Well that's been happening a lot lately, and I may go full Joe Cocker on the plug, I never stop it's forward motion. HOWEVER the learning process began when I was using an X-Rap surface the other day and I realized I don't have a very extensive data base for that lure since I rarely use it. The fish were following that with no hits and I was at wits' end. My brother loves that lure and said, "If you have a follower, jerk it hard while NOT REELING!!"

OK, filed that one hint and pulled it out this morning. Over the last 3 days I've had more followers than Jennifer Lopez has on Twitter while fishing the CC my normal way. To say I haven't been screaming on the top of my lungs at the fish following, but not hitting my plug, would be gross understatement. This morning the follows were few and after the second follow, with no action, I said to myself, "WTF, try Bro's X-Rap suggestion, it can't cause you to catch less fish than you're catching.

Soon after the thought i watched a V-wake race to my CC, and start following. One quick yank and a stop produced the strike of a nice 28", 10 lb slot fish that went back to make more babies next spring I hope.
 
OVERBORED said:
Not the best marketing strategy 😔
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When one considers the "normal" For Hire strategy of extreme hyperbole, this is truly refreshing. I've noticed LI Party Boats giving pseudonyms to sand sharks and sea robins, to make them sound enticing when the fishing for more desirable species sucks.

This particular operation used to have a "guaranteed striper catch" policy, giving full refunds for a skunking. His brutal honesty is reflection of his integrity, a Maine trait, and absolving him giving up on that policy.

For context, this boat, like me, fishes a tidal river, so there's far more than just fishing. A trip along the river he fishes provides a great family boat ride with oyster farms, seals, eagles, otters, ducks, harbor porpoises and other wild life, along with some beautiful scenery, and decent mackerel fishing so he's probably doing a decent business taking families out. He just wants prospective clients not to expect any stripers.
 
Well miracles never cease, praise Poseidon! We had some severe offshore winds for 3 days and it turns out that they blew the warmer surface water offshore, which was replaced by colder, deep water, and seems to have brought in some of the offshore stripers!!

It was unbeknownst to me as I reluctantly got onboard the boat around 07:30, anticipating another trip out for cod C&R, my latest fishing target. As soon as I got ready to shove up, a stiff breeze picked up which meant drifts at warp 7, something I didn't want any part of, so time for Plan B. What the heck, why not hit one of my local bass spots for another in a long line of skunkings??

As I motored the 1/4 nmi to my intended target, I looked down at my water temp reading and saw 55F, WTH?? It was 10 degrees higher than that just last week!!! Another thing I could blame for the anticipated shitful fishing I was in for.

As I approached my spot I had to rub my eyes, yeah, there were gulls feeding like every day for the past 6 weeks, BUT WTF????? I just saw a bass chasing bait!! Oh, there's another!!! There were a couple small pods working around the flats just up river from my intended spot. I tried sneaking up on them only to spook them along, so I drifted down to the spot, which was at a choke point at the end of the flats, powered by the ebbing tide and dropped the hook to ambush them when the water on the flats forced them off.

And then my frustration started, fish following and turning away from my popper. OK, try a spook, well that was worse, back to the popper. Suddenly they were swirling around the plug, but still no contact with it. Oh God, why did I ever start fishing for these striped devil fish!!! I was being very vocal with my disgust with the situation and I'm sure my neighbor heard me screaming.

Well it gets worse, suddenly a fish actually mounted a savage stripe at my popper with no hookup and now I'm just spitting bullets!! Keep fishing, there are fish around and you may finally defy the odds and catch one.

And then it happens, plug gets CRASHED by a large, probably over striper which just takes off on a screaming run down tide and doesn't slow down until she's gone a good 70 yards. OK, she's slowing it, time to start working her back to the boat. OH MY FUCKING GOOD!! THE HOOK JUST PULLED OUT!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! WHY ME???????

OK, get back in the game STUPID, start working that popper back to the boat. OK, so I start and after 3 pops, BANG!! I'm hooked up for a second time on the same cast.

To say I nursed the fish to the boat would be gross understatement, and soon, I was greeted with this 30" dinner fish. Interestingly, she had sea lice on her, so she must have just come out of the ocean into the river...

Damn, now I have to subject myself to further abuse tomorrow...

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