Started the morning at 05:15, the earliest I could get off my dock with the extreme low tide. Crawled to my favorite early incoming "Money" spot and on the 3rd drift, I had the boat lined up perfectly, and threw a perfect cast into the perfect spot, with the perfect amount of low light...
What happened? Well a fish went straight for my lure and violently smashed it, and, as expected, there was no hookup. I was so disgusted I was ready to fire up the engine and go home, but I can only get off my dock in such low water conditions, getting tied up needed another 30 min of tide. Figured, WTF, if the fish were going to have their way with me, I might as well grin and bear it, and bear it I did. For the next 30 min I subjected myself of all sorts of piscatorial abuse including V-wake follows and tepid swirls, but the final insult was when a fish flew out behind a rock, making a large V-wake and bee line to my plug, only to get in the popper's wake and slowly disappear...
That was the last straw and I headed back to the barn BUT....
There were occasional breaks up on the flats upriver from the dock, couldn't hurt to try that, right??? Well it was more V-wakes and an occasional tepid swirl for the next 30 min. Made some nice drifts over normally lucrative spots, with nothing but heartache. Decided to switch my attention to the other shore of the drift I was on and the abuse was back in its full glory, as one cast yielded 3 violent strikes, but no hookup!!
I was furious and started telling the fish how I really felt about them. The fish immediately responded as the next cast actually had a quick hookup, probably purposeful just to really piss me off, like I could actually be more upset than I was.
A smart man would have admitted defeat and given up, but when it comes to Striped Bass, no one ever said I was a smart man... Somehow, I decided that more abuse was appropriate so I elected to make another drift. Then the miracle happened, I actually caught a 25" fish, skunk averted!!! Up popped the angel on the right soldier, "OK, you've caught a fish, GO HOME!" while the Devil quickly materialized on my left shoulder, suggesting, "This might be the start of a decent bite."
Well for once the Devil making me do it was the correct response as I plugged up another 3 fish, including one slot fish, in 20 min, when the bite truly died, Disaster Avoided, although I'm sure there's a bunch of stripers sitting at a bar recounting how they drove me nuts today...
What happened? Well a fish went straight for my lure and violently smashed it, and, as expected, there was no hookup. I was so disgusted I was ready to fire up the engine and go home, but I can only get off my dock in such low water conditions, getting tied up needed another 30 min of tide. Figured, WTF, if the fish were going to have their way with me, I might as well grin and bear it, and bear it I did. For the next 30 min I subjected myself of all sorts of piscatorial abuse including V-wake follows and tepid swirls, but the final insult was when a fish flew out behind a rock, making a large V-wake and bee line to my plug, only to get in the popper's wake and slowly disappear...
That was the last straw and I headed back to the barn BUT....
There were occasional breaks up on the flats upriver from the dock, couldn't hurt to try that, right??? Well it was more V-wakes and an occasional tepid swirl for the next 30 min. Made some nice drifts over normally lucrative spots, with nothing but heartache. Decided to switch my attention to the other shore of the drift I was on and the abuse was back in its full glory, as one cast yielded 3 violent strikes, but no hookup!!
I was furious and started telling the fish how I really felt about them. The fish immediately responded as the next cast actually had a quick hookup, probably purposeful just to really piss me off, like I could actually be more upset than I was.
A smart man would have admitted defeat and given up, but when it comes to Striped Bass, no one ever said I was a smart man... Somehow, I decided that more abuse was appropriate so I elected to make another drift. Then the miracle happened, I actually caught a 25" fish, skunk averted!!! Up popped the angel on the right soldier, "OK, you've caught a fish, GO HOME!" while the Devil quickly materialized on my left shoulder, suggesting, "This might be the start of a decent bite."
Well for once the Devil making me do it was the correct response as I plugged up another 3 fish, including one slot fish, in 20 min, when the bite truly died, Disaster Avoided, although I'm sure there's a bunch of stripers sitting at a bar recounting how they drove me nuts today...
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