Great Sunset

Managed to get out for a quick trip just before dark. I decided to go for the "gold" and not mess around with several flocks of birds I ran across. I cruised to the same spot I found the 30" school, but no luck...they weren't around. I did catch a bunch of 18-20" fish, but not the kind of pullage I was looking for tonight. The best thing about the night was the great sunset.

JACKPOT: 30 " Fish Tonight

Well, after a lousy morning of nothing but dinks I had to give it a go again tonight. I was disappointed at first to find nothing but dinks again. I almost called it a night, but thought about trying something different. Oh yea, sweet revenge!!! There really wasn't much bird activity other than two birds that would circle around and occasionally "flutter" their wings. That was enough to convince me to investigate further. I waited to see what would develop, but nothing ever really did.... at least that is what most people would have thought. But after a few casts, I had a sweet 30" fish that ate my popper and took me waaay into my backing. It was a bit too windy for my floating line, so I switched to a sinking line with a bunker pattern. JACKPOT...30"ers started coming over the gunnel one after the other. Wow, what a way to end a day that started so bad. They were in about 20' of water and feasting on bunker...as I've said before...bigger bait equals bigger fish!!!

Plenty of Wind and Fish

Couldn't decide if 20 Knots was worth the beating I knew I would take or not. After dealing with too many boats lately, I took my chances. It didn't take long to find birds and fish, they were working pretty hard tonight. The trick was finding a better grade of fish. Funny thing was they were super picky tonight. I have two flies which are my go to choices, one for peanut bunker and the other for anchovies/silversides. I still had my peanut bunker pattern on from my last trip and they didn't want any parts of it...at all. As soon as I switched, it was fish on and on and.... It wasn't a matter of catching fish, but taking the time to search for bigger ones. It was tough to get my fly down deeper with the wind, so I decided to chase birds. I watched the pods (many of them) busting bait until I thought I found some better size fish. I wasn't always right, but I did find some really nice fish and managed to stay with them for about an hour or so. With only a few other boats out in the general vicinity, I was able to fish alone for most of the night. They really were all over tonight from the channel edges all the way to the shore line.

Don't be in a Hurry

I was determined not to fish by any other boats tonight and that's exactly what I did. It was slow going until I realized my game plan was wrong. It always pays to stop every once in awhile to just look around. It was one of those nights that you could see for miles, determine if there was any bait around and check out some new rip currents. If I hadn't stopped, I would have never realized that I was surrounded by massive pods of "rain bait". Not ideal (Peanut Bunker would have been better), but I didn't have much time so I just waited to see what might develop. I couldn't have written the script any better. In about 10 minutes the fish started attacking the bait balls and I had fish all around my boat. I could tell I had a bait ball using my boat as cover because I could see the fish smacking my hull from all sides. I managed a few 20"ers, but most were around 15". I thought for sure I would be able to find some bigger fish, but I couldn't get my fly down deep enough before a smaller fish bit it. Oh well, at least I had them all to myself. It's funny how people see a bunch of boats and go racing toward them like they are missing something. I spoke to a friend that said he was having a tough bite and was fishing around the "fleet". Knowing that, I found it interesting how many boats (I watched them through my binoculars) went racing off to join the action or lack thereof. I'm as guilty as anyone for falling for that trap, but I'm slowly realizing it's a lot more fun to find your own fish...especially ones that are biting!!!

Maybe Windy is Better

I finally convinced my son to come along to go fishing tonight. After having some really good days, I knew my luck had to run out. Well, it didn't in a way and it certainly did in another. After my captain navigated to the fishing grounds, the plans were simple. Get into breaking fish and have him catch anything that moved. Talk about a zoo...so many boats on the fish it was insane. A local "guide..I say that loosely", as usual, continued to plow right into the middle of the fish, others had their motors running, some had music blaring and still other people just cut right in front of you. So, I did find some fish but it only took a nano-second before someone pushed them down. I guess having 15 knots isn't so bad because at least it keeps people off of the water. We did managed some dinks, but I was very disappointed he didn't get into the fish I've had the last several weeks.

Storm Chasing

I was on the fence about going out tonight because of the forecast. They were calling for "smoke" on the water..now that's some serious wind (gusts as hight as 60 knots). As the storms started to pass, I made a decision to chase them across the bay. At first there were only dinks around and it looked like all the boats were bunched together trying to dodge the storms. Eventually I found an opening on the radar so I went for it. Bingo...I landed an a serious flock of birds/fish right away. But they were all in the 12-15"class, so I quickly moved on. It wasn't "on fire" by any means, but I did find a nice pod of fish holding on a ledge so I made repeated drifts over them for about 45 minutes. As a result, I managed to land about a dozen or so nice fish in the low to mid-20" range. Not quite the size of last week but not bad either (especially for the summer). They were stacked up in 25' of water and feeding on Peanut Bunker. The pics didn't come out so good tonight.

Hunting Fish

Tonight I had a trip planed with some friends who I owed a trip to from last year. Wow, the pressure was on to catch fish. I don't know how professional guides can do it everyday under pressure. Overall, it was the toughest night of fishing I had in two weeks, but we did find some big boys!!!! We had to do some serious searching to find fish that stayed put for more than a second. My buddy said this is like hunting for fish and he was spot on. But, when we did...Oh boy...it was non-stop action. We lost some of the biggest fish of the night. I don't know but they had to be close to 40". The key tonight was paying close attention to the conditions...bait, wind and boats. The wind definitely had a negative effect on the fish tonight, pushing the bait apart. I could see (in the distance) boats that looked all grouped together and we stayed clear of them. I'm a believer that if you can find fish by yourself the odds go up that they might be big ones. These boys were some of the biggest of the week!!!!

Fatty

It looked ominous with black clouds and misty rain, but I didn't see anything noteworthy on the radar so I ventured out tonight. At first the wind laid down and I thought it was going to be great, but then the wind picked up and never let up. There were pods of breaking fish almost everywhere I looked, but after studying them splashing around the surface (and catching a few 20"ers) I realized they were not the big ones I was after. I guess I'm getting greedy after finding upper 20-30" fish recently. It wasn't quite as good as last night and the fish were a bit smaller...mostly low to mid 20"ers...but great fishing by my standards. Yep, I fooled them with a Crease Fly again tonight. They pushed bait (anchovies)up against a steep drop off (closer to shore then you would think) and didn't let them go!!!! These fish were "fat" from gorging themselves all night on bait...and I mean FAT!!!

Big Fish Topwater Bite

I finally had a night with no wind and it made for some spectacular sights. At first the current wasn't moving much so it was slow other than a few pods of snapper blues. As the current started so did the action. At first I could only find small fish, so I decided to check a spot that held some good fish a few weeks ago. No boats, no birds....just BIG fish and my fly rod!!! I had a steady pick at them for an hour or so and they were ALL quality fish. Without a doubt big bait = big fish...tonight proved that theory (they were on 5-7" bunker, in 20' of water). It was amazing watching them chase/hit bait into the air all night long. They were in the upper 20" range and a few might have pushed 30". Finding these big fish is not easy but well worth the effort when you do, especially when you can watch them smash top water flies.

Ambush Points

Headed out into 25 knots against my best judgement, but I figured it would eventually die off (it did a bit). It was a great night other than the wind. At first most fish I caught were in the mid-upper teens, but then things quickly changed. Once I found the nicer fish (most were 25-28"), I stayed with them for the entire night. I had two fish that had to be close to 30" but I lost one at the boat and the other was covered with sores so I didn't get any pics. I was reviewing my plotter (recent waypoints that have held good fish) and it became clear that the bigger fish seemed to be at "ambush points". Not every mark, but logical places where the bay "bottle necked" into a smaller area were the baitfish could be pushed or up against drop offs. Tonight was no different, but the bigger fish were in water only 15' deep. I saw a few other boats chasing birds (and dinks), but no one came close to me tonight simply because there were only a few birds around.

I didn't want to keep the fish out of the water too long tonight so I tried to get as much of this fish in the frame as I could...it's tough when they were 25+"!!!