Beginners - Let's talk about the T&W essentials

[DarkSkies]

A few reports:

Sat into Sun,
Fished LIS, lots of hours and pedalling.
Total 19 fish...
15 bass to 28", released.
3 giant porgies to 14".
1 bluefish.


Sun Pm...
Fished LIS, another area, first time fishing it.
Total 10 fish.
6 bass to 27".
4 porgies to 13".

Full report here...
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...d-fishing-2011




All on the Finchaser Tube and Worm.

[DarkSkies]

I'll start this by saying that I have tremendous respect for John Skinner. Haven't met him yet, but the quality of his writing and experience is so good that I learn something new every time I see one of his videos or how-to's.

Just have to report my experience with the Gulp and T&W.
Was fishing Sat night into Sun morning.

Got 15 bass on the T&W with sandworm, in the daytime.
I had 2 rods, one T&W I exclusively tipped with Gulp yellow grubs, They fit on there perfectly and the tail was enticing, at least to me it was.

Not one hit on that rig.
All the bass came on pieces of sandworms. I hardly ever use a whole sandworm, except at night.

I had one rod with braid, one with mono.
One tube was red, one was black.

Thinking that maybe the mono produced less than braid, and that black was not as productive as red (which was true, as I got no bass this time on black in the daytime), I switched the gulp from black tube to the red one, and back again, and switched the tubes from the braid to the mono, and back.

Neither Gulp presentation got any hits at all, even from porgies.










There may also be other factors at play....
1. The water in one area was murkier than usual, which may have given the red tube a distinct advantage.
2. It could be a braid vs mono thing, although I'm not convinced of that.
3. Maybe when John was demonstrating the Gulp effectiveness, it was earlier in the spring and the bass were more aggressive, more willing to hit different presentations.
4. He was kind of jigging his gulp a bit in his video. That extra movement may have been needed to get the fish to hit the gulp, I'm not sure either way.



As I said, I have tremendous respect for John Skinner. If someone wanted to learn how to be a better fisherman, all they would have to do is watch his videos and they would be halfway there.

However, I have to honestly report what happened, in my experience.
At this point, I am slightly disappointed.

I WANTED gulp to be the magic formula.
I only know one place where sandworms are cheap and big, and I have to cross the GWB to get them. If someone gave me a better alternative that consistently worked, I would be the biggest proponent of it.

But for now, all I can say is I will still be experimenting with Gulp as a substitute.


For me, I have a sandworm bias, because I have seen them out-produce all other baits, big bass that won't hit anything else, bass in cold water, porgies that are scattered and not stacked... (some have said that clams work as well as sandworms for porgies, but I've seen first hand that when you're by yourself, and not chumming, sandworms out-produce clams 5:1)


So this experimenting, and commentary will be continued,,,,,

I hope to have better results and reports for Gulp in the future, we'll see....

[DarkSkies]

48 hour trip to the Sound -
Got back last night, marathon trip, low budget. Slept in the car and lived like a nomad. Fished hard but it took time to learn the area. Fishing was honestly slow, but I still managed to eke out about a dozen fish. Nothing notable except for the 14" scupzillas I got in the morning yesterday. Otherwise, a total of 4 short bass and 9 porgies up to 14". All on the T&W.

Full report in the nomad fishing 2011 thread.

[DarkSkies]

Kayak marathon 8-12 LI Sound

The brief outline...
Went back to the place of current with a better plan to fish different areas at different parts of the tide.

The wind and weather made me re-evaluate my plan.
Some funny stories about that.
Fished hard all night in swells that were mostly 1', but at times up to 3' and causing me concern. Therefore, I stuck to shore even though I was in open water, and believe me, in the dark of night with those swells, it was big water. Even beached the yak for a 15 minute period as I re-evaluated how to deal with the raging current.

Went back out and fished hard, not much to show for it.

Total 2 big porgies on the T&W & one small bluefish on a NB Bottle darter I was trolling.
Not one indication of any bass, big or small.

Pretty disappointed in myself and at those results, I drove a long distance to another location to fish the flood tide, almost all of it. Met up with another yakker from KFS-NY, and we talked about the Nissy incident and safety issues. Good talks.

We were both out there fishin hard, but the weeds were all over and a problem for presentation. I managed 2 monster porgies right before sunset and one small bass on Finchaser's T&W with the circle hook. The circle hook was key here because the other guy, definitely an experienced angler and good yak fisherman, was having trouble with the porgies stealing his bait. Together with the weeds and warm water, he took his leave and said good-bye before the top of the tide.

I continued to fish that warm and weedy water, just looking for that one quality fish. Tried all sorts of different presentations to deal with the weeds, some worked.

Didn't want to leave without getting a nice fish, so kept at it.
Managed some more giant porgies, no small ones (but many small ones acting as a nuisance stealing the worm).

Finally got into some feeding bass 1 hour after the tide turned, into the ebb. They were turned on at that time, and I believed I could have got more if I didn't have to make it home in time for a trip with Pebbles.



Total for the entire trip:
9 porgies to 14", T&W
1 small bluefish, NB Darter
2 bass--- 28", and the one that made me smile, 37" and about 15#.
Both released.

The first time in a long time that I "left the fish biting".









Full report and pics in the nomad fishing thread.

[DarkSkies]

Yes it does work, but it requires more finesse, strategy, and the key to success here, similar to the real estate mantra, is.....

presentation, presentation, and presentation.....

To break that down for others to understand better. some things that have worked for me...

1. Braid only at night, you need to feel every extra 1/2 oz or oz that is on that line.

2. If it feels heavier, you need to reel in and re-position it immediately. Any weeds or substance on that hook other than the worm will kill your effectiveness and attraction.

3. Washed out worms. If you are not getting hit at least every 5 minutes in the area you're trolling, either the bait is washed out or the fish aren't there in numbers, and you should move elsewhere if you can. Now is the time to make that big move!

4. Fresh bait, and lots of it.....I have caught fish in the daytime on a worm that was dragging in the water for 10 or 15 minutes, but that was when they're stacked. If not, without fresh bait and fresh bloodk you are wasting your time and might as well be home.
In the daytime, I can get 3-4 uses out of one worm, as I only thread on a small piece to discourge the porgies, those bait-stealing bastids!
In the night, I am back to using 1 worm at a time, so it costs more to fish the night bite.


Fail to pay attention to these words, and you won't catch any Quality fish. In fact, you will swear to your friends that they just aren't there.
Think about it,.....a bass finds the T&W at night because of the underwater vibration detected by it's lateral lines.

How does it know it's food?? ...the blood from the worm, and the soft texture when they mouth it. Chintz out on that and you will score very few bass.

[porgy75]

wow it seems you are a fanatic about fishing when you are out there! Thanks for the info.

[DarkSkies]

Fished the RB Fri morning, last 2 hours of flood, first 2 of ebb.

Perfect conditions, water was like a lake.

2 short bass, 3 blues.
Bass on T&W.
Blues trolling small diving swimmer.

I know the area I was fishing, so I was confident I would catch a fish or 2.
The most disturbing thing to me was all the shoreline I trolled that was "dead water", with only small pockets of bait and snappers here and there.

Previously productive areas of structure were a vast wasteland of warm water and an all-encompassing algae bloom.

No action in shore area except for small hits on the T&W, nothing on different swimmers.

All the fish I got were concentrated in one area of structure, minimum of 15-20' of water. They were only there for the top of the tide. By 7:30am the action was completely done.

Pedalled back through green scum algae. It was prevalent through at least the top foot of the water column.

I felt like I was fishing in a toilet.





The waters of LI Sound have really spoiled me.
Also, I knew weakfish, kingfish, bass and other creatures were packed into JBay, and was wistfully looking over there across as I dealt with the scum-saturated water where I was.

(the bite in Jbay did slow down that day, but lucky Eli, the human fishfinder, fishing a live eel in deep water, hooked into a 6' dusky shark he fought for a 1/2 hour. Fantastic fight, bro, wish I was there with you guys.


Calm pre-dawn launch
Attachment 14068



The water was so calm you could see the mirror reflection of the T&W in the water.
Attachment 14066



Sunrise on the water

Attachment 14067



Bass aggressive on the Finchaser T&W. The bass action only lasted for 15 minutes.

Attachment 14065




This was the scum that was in the water along the shoreline. Hopefully the storms will break up some of this organic growth. It's nasty.

Attachment 14064

[fishinmission78]

By John Skinner, this guy is amazing.

[rockhopper]

He's also a good sport. I read on another site where they guys in the boat mugged him. You can hear him asking them to give him some space in the video. Then after asking the guys to take a pic of him with the bass, he ended up giving it to them. Must have really made their day, and it shows what a stand up guy John Skinner is. Great fish, I need to get a kayak!