Following the Night Tides......Do You have What it Takes?

[robmedina]

4. The Scent of Salt Air...it has a definite scent....a Freshness.....the breeze that breathes life into you, as you are tired, and don't want to push on any further....it is the Breath that refreshes.....and wakes you up...when you are getting drowsy and all of a sudden you are brought back into reality as a nice fish hits your line, makes it's first run... or smashes your plug...and almost jolts your arm out of its socket.....

5. The Smell of the Sea.........
There is no smell like that of the sea....ask any Sailor, Merchant Mariner......Capt who is on the water a lot.....or Fisherman who spends many nights a year out there.......some of us may take it for granted....but the smell, the scent....has a subliminal attraction for a lot of us.....and there are many who could not bear to live too far away from it....for too long...

You got that right. It has ruined me from freshwater lakes and rivers. On vacation we went down to Jim Thorpe and I watched the white water rafting company launch and went down to the bank after they left. The Lehigh river was terribly smelly. I figured up that far in the mountains the water would be more pure, but nope. Made me miss the ocean all that much more!

[rockhopper]

Lets talk about the smells amen. Hope you have a section on rotten bunker and how you left it unfrozen on the back porch and how your girlfriend told you never to do that again! Because I did that!

[DarkSkies]

^^ Rockhopper, been there done that, no shame in admitting.....
I once had maggots hatched in a hole in the back of my Suburban because some chum spilled back in a door panel when I was driving around and the chum bucket toppled over.




***********
The Smell of Sweat...........and the Stench of Old Sweat...



Sweat, depending on it's age, can symbolize many things...
hard work....
physical workout...
sex.....
pure determination to get a job done......

When we see it at the point of creation, it can be sexy, fresh, new......
like when you're at the gym, and the hottie 2 machines away is doing a workout...covered with sweat, and you're trying not to drool.....(I know Pebbles reads these posts..... ..).there could be another whole section on how to "not" notice beautiful women on the street when you are walking hand in hand with your sweetheart....good thing to remember if y9u want to stay in the relationship you're in....

But fresh sweat can be sexy...
We see it in the gym...
Hot babes with glistening bodies.....
We see it on TV....
We see it on the beach......and TV commercials......

That's because.....
It's fresh....glistening,,,,and hasn't had the time to develop into something that has a smell,,,,just yet.....

[robmedina]

Sweat, depending on it's age, can symbolize many things...
hard work....
physical workout...
sex.....
pure determination to get a job done......

When we see it at the point of creation, it can be sexy, fresh, new......
like when you're at the gym, and the hottie 2 machines away is doing a workout...covered with sweat, and you're trying not to drool.....(I know Pebbles reads these posts..... ..).there could be another whole section on how to "not" notice beautiful women on the street when you are walking hand in hand with your sweetheart....good thing to remember if y9u want to stay in the relationship you're in....

But fresh sweat can be sexy...
We see it in the gym...
We see it on TV....
We see it on the beach......and TV commercials......

That's because.....
It's fresh....glistening,,,,and hasn't had the time to develop into something that has a smell,,,,just yet.....

You got issues Bro!

[DarkSkies]

So while fresh sweat can be healthy....sexy...fun.........

We now come to the stench....of old sweat......
You know what I'm talking about....the stench that smells like a bag of onions that you left in your truck for a week....
The stench of old sweat....or overnight sweat, 2 day old sweat....enough to make you gag.....

When the bite is good, and you are out fishin for 2 days at a time.....bathing can become a secondary priority.....
And the stench of stale sweat....can surround you like a cloud of putrid death....

[dogfish]

When the bite is good, and you are out fishin for 2 days at a time.....bathing can become a secondary priority.....
And the stench of stale sweat....can surround you like a cloud of putrid death....

Bathing can be secondary? Gee I'm waiting to see how you will top that. If I ever come down that way to fish with ya I'm bringing a clothespin.

[nitestrikes]

We now come to the stench....of old sweat......
You know what I'm talking about....the stench that smells like a bag of onions that you left in your truck for a week....
The stench of old sweat....or overnight sweat, 2 day old sweat....enough to make you gag.....

When the bite is good, and you are out fishin for 2 days at a time.....bathing can become a secondary priority.....
And the stench of stale sweat....can surround you like a cloud of putrid death....

Go to montauk on the last day of a 3 day bite. hitting the bathrooms you have to walk pretty close to the next person walking in or out of the entrance. Have smelled some really rank fishermen out there. The smells can get pretty bad.

[DarkSkies]

Bathing can be secondary? Gee I'm waiting to see how you will top that. If I ever come down that way to fish with ya I'm bringing a clothespin.

What can I say dogfish? ...the fish wait for no one....and the way things have been lately they are there for a while, and then gone...tough to find a pattern in many cases.....I'm clean and neat for work, but on the weekends those become secondary to finding and staying on the fish, and trying to find fish where others are not.....

You got issues Bro!

Rob, we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of all the issues I have......
I told you people this would be a no holds barred, candid thread......

There are lots more sticky issues that will be explored in this thread......
* Dealing with foul smells...
* The bite is hot and you have to take a crap, what do you do, where do you go?
* Accidentally crapping your pants or waders from drinking too many energy drinks at one time....
* Accidents and spills, falling on a jetty or inlet rocks, smashing your head or knees, getting bloody, wrapping up with a bandana, and going back to fishing....hooking yourself, ripping it out, to get back to the bite quickly.....

* P***ing into the wind or (for anyone over 45) taking a leak during a bite, where you don't really care if you p*** on yourself a little bit, because it's a good bite....and then hours later, after repeating several times,,,,you realize you smell like a bum in the Bowery....


I know I'm not the only one who has ever experienced the above.....
On another website I helped to start, there is a thread called "The New Browns" all about a friend who was fshing at Browns at Montauk...drank too much coffee....and really had some rumblings which later translated to an epic explosion......I'll leave the rest of the story up to your imaginations......
The one thing I can say, is all through my fishing obsessions., that I'm extremely lucky to have a woman like Pebbles, who still puts up with me....
Before I spend time with her, I'm pretty diligent about cleaning up and scrubbing so I smell and look presentable, but even so, I'm lucky to have her in my life......

Go to montauk on the last day of a 3 day bite. hitting the bathrooms you have to walk pretty close to the next person walking in or out of the entrance. Have smelled some really rank fishermen out there. The smells can get pretty bad.

Yep, someone who gets it, and has been there......
I've been there too, nitestrikes....after fishing for 2-3 nights at a time,.....some prety foul smells start to surround us...and I've walked past some guys entering that Montauk bathroom that have the stench of swamp A** folllowing them like a cloud....sort of a cross between the stench of a back bay at exteme low tide....and the stench of dead things rotting on the beach....with the less offensive stench of old fishy smells mixed in....

[DarkSkies]

I told you people that this thread would be honest, it would be real.....
I know some of ya's have been in the same position as nitestrikes.....
This thread will be unlike anything you have ever read on the internet before....and it's all true.....
So it's the last warning, that if some of ya's have sensitive stomachs, turn back now.....

[jigfreak]

There are lots more sticky issues that will be explored in this thread......
* Accidentally crapping your pants or waders from drinking too many energy drinks at one time....

That would be a tad sticky and not in a good way. If I were you I would always make sure a stiff breeze is blowing when you are fishing near someone.

[albiealert]

^^ Yep DS sometimes the level of detail you go into is above and beyond. Enjoy the threads anyway, keep em coming.

[DarkSkies]

...the fish wait for no one....

I try to hammer this theme through, whenever I run across someone who isn't catching.....
Also want to point out that no matter how much you plan, or try to figure fish out......the behavior the next night could be something completely against the norm. When you find that, you have to adapt, and roll with it.

I talk all the time about how bunker come in with the flood tide, leave with the ebb....
Last night that pattern didn't hold, and they were there by the thousands, on a part of a tide they should not have been, and not where the prevailing winds should have put them........

I caught fish because of the bunker....easy fishing
And when they left they took all the fish in the area with them......

Nonetheless, when the tide changed, the fish came back, now feeding on the abundant shrimp...harder fishing....high activity....but a lot harder to tease these fish into hitting artificials.

My fishing was eventually ended by the building E wind.....(curses to that wind pattern)....
Overall, a fair night of catching., but a great night of activity.........














Something I typed yesterday to help someone out....thought it fit here for the fishing I was doing......

**Low tide Strategies.....

Generally speaking.....without giving up too much in terms of specific spots....

1. My low tide areas that produce best, are areas that tend to concentrate the fish in a particular area......This is where low tide can be an asset...

2. Sometimes the window is small because you will have to do some wading to get to them...this is true for back bay or inlet spots where there may be some deeper areas/sloughs, out there....and wading is the way to get to them.

3. Be especially careful on sandbars, at night, and during moon tides....if you do get into fish you have to have the discipline to leave them feeding, because you getting back safely is the priority.....people die every year because they lose sight of this in pursuit of bigger fish.....some sad stories surface every year....so be careful.

4. Always have a plan B in case you have trouble getting back...know your limitations....If you really start to explore in detail as you begin to see the opportunities (often fish will be holding just on the other side of a sand bar, and it is pure adrenaline on the nights when you manage to find them)

5. As you learn more and are willing to expand your skill set,,,,you really should invest in a wetsuit....much safer.....at the very least a good wading belt...remember no fish is worth your life.....


Hope this helps, good luck....

[DarkSkies]

I have to give up some for Monty.......he is like the surf fishermen's version of the Borg....will cast a 1000 times until he gets a fish....
It doesn't matter if they are there or not....his philosophy is that even if there is only 1 stray fish that night....we wants to succeed by catching it.......

My experience is a little different....I have become so jaded by the good bites I have been fortunate enough to find at night...that if I'm out there on the right time and tide,,,,I can usually tell within 15 minutes whether it will be a good night or not....and lately have had enough sense to call it a night, when I'm fishing by myself....because I know I can always come out in a day or so when things might be a little better.......

**If I have a sense that the fish (should) be there because of a particular food source, I'll try much harder...

I usually push for the marathons, if fishin with someone else.....because it then becomes all about them getting a fish....
My trip with Monty the other night was one of those marathons....
He can only get out one night a week to fish.....
He makes use of every minute of that precious time....

And is as hard-core a surfcaster as I've ever run into.....
Even though his trips are fueled by energy drinks....
He really doesn't know then meaning of the word "QUIT!".......