Elsa's rain had my river darker than my dark roast coffee this AM, which usually suggests staying in bed is the proper idea, but NOOOOO, someone was up and had to fish. Got off the dock just before 05:00 and headed down to the harbor, figuring Poseidon was blessing me with this magnificent dawn.
Things immediately turned for the worst as the water was full of weeds at all my normal late ebb sppots, another No Chit Sherlock Moment, but ignored by yours truly. Then I saw some birds working an area that was relatively free of weeds, but during the 10 minutes I spent casting there I didn't raise a single fish, nor actually see a bass breaking under the birds.
OK, time for a change, and I headed to the harbor entrance's ledges. Drifted out and tossed my popper into the rip right along the west ledge and BAM, savage swirl, but no hit. Tossed it out again with same result of a swirl w/o a hit and a third cast also had interest, but no fish.
My blood was boiling now and I cursed the day I decided to fish for stripers, but of course, I motored back uptide and drifted again, NOTHING. Did it a third time with the same lack of results.
Now it was decision time, do I pack it in and suck up a skunking, or change things up? I opted for a change of tactics and went to grab a white, 7" Fin-S, but much to my dismay, I didn't have any onboard that were rigged. Hmmmm, what do I have? Oh look here's a rigged 10" Big Occhi Eel that one of my colleagues graciously gave me last year. I had never tried it, but figured it was as good a time as any to cast it.
Repositioned the boat and tossed it into the "Hot Zone" and BAM, immediate savage strike, but no hookup. Threw it out again and BAM, a hookup and landed a feisty 19" fish. Motored back up, tossed it into the hot zone and BAM, onto a larger fish, but not a particularly inspired fighter which surprised me by being 25" long, but not very fat.
Immediately quoted Shakespeare, "Once more unto the breach, dear friends..." as I positioned the boat for another drift and on the last cast I could reach the hot zone, BAM, and a hookup on a fish that had me thinking it was a possible slot fish. When I finally dodged all the lobster buoys I was faced with, I landed, and released, a very fat 25" fish. Tide was just about dead low now, so I moved to a point 100 yds from the harbor entrance and was rewarded by another 19" fish.
Then I got the very stupid idea to my beachfront ledges. Elsa's 10' swells rendered the very best unfishable, but gave me a new level of respect for those of you that fish the ledges. I went to a secondary set of ledges and caught nothing, but the fear of smashing my boat made me retreat back to the harbor to fish some of my incoming tide spots.
Got back inside and the weed situation was still atrocious so I called it quits and headed home. Being a bit flexible allowed me to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and kept my 30 trip skunkless streak intact...
Things immediately turned for the worst as the water was full of weeds at all my normal late ebb sppots, another No Chit Sherlock Moment, but ignored by yours truly. Then I saw some birds working an area that was relatively free of weeds, but during the 10 minutes I spent casting there I didn't raise a single fish, nor actually see a bass breaking under the birds.
OK, time for a change, and I headed to the harbor entrance's ledges. Drifted out and tossed my popper into the rip right along the west ledge and BAM, savage swirl, but no hit. Tossed it out again with same result of a swirl w/o a hit and a third cast also had interest, but no fish.
My blood was boiling now and I cursed the day I decided to fish for stripers, but of course, I motored back uptide and drifted again, NOTHING. Did it a third time with the same lack of results.
Now it was decision time, do I pack it in and suck up a skunking, or change things up? I opted for a change of tactics and went to grab a white, 7" Fin-S, but much to my dismay, I didn't have any onboard that were rigged. Hmmmm, what do I have? Oh look here's a rigged 10" Big Occhi Eel that one of my colleagues graciously gave me last year. I had never tried it, but figured it was as good a time as any to cast it.
Repositioned the boat and tossed it into the "Hot Zone" and BAM, immediate savage strike, but no hookup. Threw it out again and BAM, a hookup and landed a feisty 19" fish. Motored back up, tossed it into the hot zone and BAM, onto a larger fish, but not a particularly inspired fighter which surprised me by being 25" long, but not very fat.
Immediately quoted Shakespeare, "Once more unto the breach, dear friends..." as I positioned the boat for another drift and on the last cast I could reach the hot zone, BAM, and a hookup on a fish that had me thinking it was a possible slot fish. When I finally dodged all the lobster buoys I was faced with, I landed, and released, a very fat 25" fish. Tide was just about dead low now, so I moved to a point 100 yds from the harbor entrance and was rewarded by another 19" fish.
Then I got the very stupid idea to my beachfront ledges. Elsa's 10' swells rendered the very best unfishable, but gave me a new level of respect for those of you that fish the ledges. I went to a secondary set of ledges and caught nothing, but the fear of smashing my boat made me retreat back to the harbor to fish some of my incoming tide spots.
Got back inside and the weed situation was still atrocious so I called it quits and headed home. Being a bit flexible allowed me to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and kept my 30 trip skunkless streak intact...
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