With the exception of listening to, and participating in George's excellent podcasts, I have little interest in listening to self-proclaimed "experts" ranting over the internet on topics of marginal to zero importance. However come late June, I love to Pod Cast, that is casting to pods of breaking bass chasing the little "Brits" in the harbor. It makes me feel patriotic especially on July 4, 
.
Well this morning was the first day of this summer ritual, as the pods showed up in the harbor. Managed to get a dozen fish to 25". The omen's were favorable in that this morning was the first one in over a week with zero wind and no fog. I sashayed down to the dock in the pre-dawn twilight and took my ritual three casts to see if there were any fish by the dock with no results. I then flipped on the GPS/Fish Finder and fired up the engine. As I turned aft to free the stern line I realized that the engine spook a bunch of fish 25 yds behind the boat. With the engine still running I flung a cast there and had a fish swirl at the popper. I took another cast and caught a 21" fish with the engine still running!! "OK time to get serious here!" so I turned off the engine and GPS/FF and took another dozen or so fruitless casts. I fired everything back up and got underway.
On the way down to the intended target, the scene of yesterday's successful trip, I made a few stops at likely places with only one moderately interested swirl to show for it. When I got to "the spot" I was greeted by inevitable bane of consecutive days of high winds, a smaller version of the Sargasso Sea, tons of seaweed floating about, making it unfishable. I figured I could check out some other areas when I noticed terns working over a spot I had been considering and managed a few fish, but nothing exciting.
However it was the PERFECT tide to hit one of my favorite spots so I ran upriver to it and anchored up. Well there wasn't ANYTHING there and after hitting it hard for 20 min I decided to go back down into the harbor. On the way down I drifted past another favorite spot and caught a nice, fat 25" fish. After that I noticed multiple small pods of bass busting the surface feeding on brit herring and the game was on, positioning the boat uptide from where I guessed the pods would be as I drifted down.
My "Stripey Sense" was good this AM, in that I was pretty consistent in boat positioning without spooking the fish. The only "non-standard" issue was lure choice. I've learned that when the bass are feasting on tiny herring my standard Creek Chub Striper Striper 2500 isn't always the best choice, so I switched over a Sebile Magic Swimmer and cranked like hell. The bass were much more receptive to that. The disadvantages of that lure are 2-fold, they are expensive and the hooks are tiny, freshwater wire ones so you have to fish with a very light drag, and even with that, I have to keep bending the hooks back into shape and/or replacing them. Sadly I've yet to find a replacement hook of better strength that doesn't negatively impact the lure's action, but this is a happy problem...
When it got close to quitting time I kept saying "Last Cast!" only to have a pod pop up within easy casting distance of the boat. This went on for so long I HAD to leave lest I lose the minimum amount of water to get my boat docked, so I left them biting, the bane of any fisherman. I wasn't too sad about quitting in that I'd been out for 2.5 hrs, a very long time for a Roccus fishing sortie, and caught a dozen nice, fat and fiesty fish. Still no Keepahs, but that will happen soon as I'm closing in on 300 fish for the season, the magic number that usually triggers a keeper.
This is how we Pod Cast along Maine's Midcoast!!
.Well this morning was the first day of this summer ritual, as the pods showed up in the harbor. Managed to get a dozen fish to 25". The omen's were favorable in that this morning was the first one in over a week with zero wind and no fog. I sashayed down to the dock in the pre-dawn twilight and took my ritual three casts to see if there were any fish by the dock with no results. I then flipped on the GPS/Fish Finder and fired up the engine. As I turned aft to free the stern line I realized that the engine spook a bunch of fish 25 yds behind the boat. With the engine still running I flung a cast there and had a fish swirl at the popper. I took another cast and caught a 21" fish with the engine still running!! "OK time to get serious here!" so I turned off the engine and GPS/FF and took another dozen or so fruitless casts. I fired everything back up and got underway.
On the way down to the intended target, the scene of yesterday's successful trip, I made a few stops at likely places with only one moderately interested swirl to show for it. When I got to "the spot" I was greeted by inevitable bane of consecutive days of high winds, a smaller version of the Sargasso Sea, tons of seaweed floating about, making it unfishable. I figured I could check out some other areas when I noticed terns working over a spot I had been considering and managed a few fish, but nothing exciting.
However it was the PERFECT tide to hit one of my favorite spots so I ran upriver to it and anchored up. Well there wasn't ANYTHING there and after hitting it hard for 20 min I decided to go back down into the harbor. On the way down I drifted past another favorite spot and caught a nice, fat 25" fish. After that I noticed multiple small pods of bass busting the surface feeding on brit herring and the game was on, positioning the boat uptide from where I guessed the pods would be as I drifted down.
My "Stripey Sense" was good this AM, in that I was pretty consistent in boat positioning without spooking the fish. The only "non-standard" issue was lure choice. I've learned that when the bass are feasting on tiny herring my standard Creek Chub Striper Striper 2500 isn't always the best choice, so I switched over a Sebile Magic Swimmer and cranked like hell. The bass were much more receptive to that. The disadvantages of that lure are 2-fold, they are expensive and the hooks are tiny, freshwater wire ones so you have to fish with a very light drag, and even with that, I have to keep bending the hooks back into shape and/or replacing them. Sadly I've yet to find a replacement hook of better strength that doesn't negatively impact the lure's action, but this is a happy problem...
When it got close to quitting time I kept saying "Last Cast!" only to have a pod pop up within easy casting distance of the boat. This went on for so long I HAD to leave lest I lose the minimum amount of water to get my boat docked, so I left them biting, the bane of any fisherman. I wasn't too sad about quitting in that I'd been out for 2.5 hrs, a very long time for a Roccus fishing sortie, and caught a dozen nice, fat and fiesty fish. Still no Keepahs, but that will happen soon as I'm closing in on 300 fish for the season, the magic number that usually triggers a keeper.
This is how we Pod Cast along Maine's Midcoast!!
,,, mojoe was on it word for word,,, great POD CAst ? ,,, 300 
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