A week of spectacular fishing....
It's mostly over now, at least for the bigger fish that some of us have seen and landed....some small schoolies left, and you have to work for them, not worth the effort for 90% of the guys out there....
I regret I couldn't be completely honest....a few guys I know are still fishing, hitting it hard, and with the warmer weather and specific internet reports a lot of guys came out of the woodwork...as has been said, it looked like a May afternoon during the Spring bunker blitzes on Fri....and while 95% of those guys who came there because of the internet reports didn't catch anything....a few of us were putting in the time and catching steadily.....and I was asked to put off posting for a while until the weather got colder...:HappyWave:
Total for the past week...48 bass, it was a lot of fun, had a blast....:drool: :wheeeee: :cool: :fishing:
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2-4 Sat PM
Fished in the dark. The yakkers had done well that day. Didn't want to be part of the resulting internet fishing crowd so I procrastinated getting down there. Fishing was still good, fished for an hour...managed 6 bass to 26" on rubber.
Then the NE pattern kicked in with the tide change, making the swells constant and up to 5' high, unfishable...
For the log:
6 bass to 26", rubber
Wind NW, light seas, built to NE and heavy seas, the NE killed the bite
Temps, Air - 50-42
Water, 44
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Sunday fishing...2nd time was the charm....
2-5 Sun AM
I slept in the car for a chance to fish the sunrise...fished 5:30-7am.. for 1 1/2 hours...most of the water was unfishable with the big swells and higher tides...still gave it a shot..made 3 stops...at first place I had a few "lookie-Lou's" just watching me as I blind casted looking to find a stray fish or 2... I know the second I hooked up they would have been out of their trucks and rushing the beach.
No success at all in that rough water. :skunk:
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2-5 Sun PM
Came back for the PM bite...
A better trip, some good action. The big swells were still there so I had to use a different strategy than I usually do. Fish were there but it took 15 minutes to find them at first stop. Once I did, managed 6 fish in the first half hour, that was sweet. And yes, I was howling at the moon! :viking:
Action slowed down after that, fished for a total of 3 hours, managed 16 bass on rubber.
Attachment 14843
For the log and the new guys:
16 bass to 27", rubber
Wind W, strong, steady 15+
Temps, Air 38-38
Temps, Water- 44-45, the NE did the trick of bumping up the water temp and fish were on the feed.
I gave it a shot with plugs, a few bumps, but the rubber was the key to provoking them.
They're primarily feeding on sandeels now, with small herring, squid, and tinker macks part of their diet as well.
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Catching Fish on a Full Moon.... 2-6 Mon PM
2-6 Mon PM
" Dark, I can't catch fish on a full moon, the moon is too bright!"
Lots of guys out giving it a shot for the PM bite....unfortunately 95% of them didn't have any action as the fish weren't feeding at that time. A few friends and I came out later on...
Again, at the first stop I made it took about 15 minutes to find the fish...once I did they were pretty aggressive, it was just a matter of presenting correctly. Rubber again outfished plugs, although I got my biggest fish of the night on a plug.
A friend came out to join me. He had been somewhere else where no fish were caught. You have to remember that these fish are not everywhere, there are little pockets of them and you have to hunt for them...the locations, and feeding times, change from night to night, so that's what makes it so exciting to me...anyone coming out to fish for "just an hour" would not be able to see these things, and they usually give up..
My friend, with my instruction, fished rubber. It was tough for us as the wind was still SE...not really that great, and we had to fish into the wind, a little uncomfortable...once he got into the groove he started catching...I told him I wouldn't fish until he landed at least one, so the pressure was on...I can be a little intense at times. I knew he wanted me off his case, but the only way for him to do that was to get a fish....
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And he did, I think he managed about 4 or 5 total, and dropped quite a few more. He also lost one keeper sized fish because he wasn't ready for it...after that his adrenalin level pumped up and he definitely became more animated!
The best action was for an hour when he got there...after that it slowly diminished...he managed 4 or 5 to 27"...just for frame of reference, some people are dismissing this as a "schoolie bite"...for the most part, the bigger fish have left, that's true, but his 27" fish was about 9#. fat as a carp....
I'll take those "schoolie" fish any day of the week!
I managed 11 fish to 29 1/2". If I concentrated solely on my fishing I would easily have had over 20 fish, but I wanted to make sure he got into the groove first. He's a good friend, has invited me on his boat many times, and we just never seem to be able to fish together. He was ecstatic when we left, and I could tell he really needed these fish to put a little enthusiasm back into his life. :thumbsup: I was glad to help him out in that regard. Although I usually prefer to fish alone, we both had a blast fishin together..
(One that I kept....this was one of the skinnier ones for its size....)
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Fat belly........
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Striped bass aka Saltwater Carp....:)
Attachment 14848
For the log and the new guys:
11 bass to 29 1/2", rubber and swimmers
Released one keeper, 28 1/2", kept the 29 1/2"
Wind - SE at first, not that great, 10mph, eventually shifting to W, which made it more comfortable.
Swell - there is stilll a big swell out there, the SE did not help it either...and you really had to pay attention to the swell to consistently present the right way to get the fish...
Temp- Air - 52-47
Temp - Water - 44, fish will feed aggressively at this temp and above as long as there is food around.,
2-9 and 2-9, tough conditions....
2-8- Wed
Fishing a Noreast pattern
Got down to the beach and it was getting ugly. The wind wasn't that bad, but the NE swells had started, duration every 2 secs, wave height 3', not good conditions. Despite that, wanted to give it a shot anyway.
I went through all my best producers with no results. Finally started catching fish on a herring profile swimmer, deep diver, crawled extremely slow near the bottom. The water with the NE blow seemed to be warming up a bit, but still around 43.
Managed 3 bass to 27" on that swimmer, had to work for each fish. Fish were caught 45 mins apart, no rhyme or reason.
Total fishing time 3 hours.
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2-9 Thu
Got to the beach at optimal time, good white water and clear conditions. Only problem was the S wind, which eventually turned W. I hate S and don't usually do well at night in that wind. Fished 2 hours, hour before and after the top of the tide, threw all my most productive artificials. One missed fish at the first location, that was it. At 43 degrees the fish are almost comatose unless you can find a pod that is chasing bait...and that action eluded me although I fished 2 locations. :skunk: