mikesopals
07-06-2009, 09:34 PM
Headed out around 8 this am with my son and his girlfriend. We ran into a guy in the marina parking lot saying that there were bass all over the south side---so we wondered if we would still be able to catch the bite. Our original plan was to catch a few blues for the live well/bait, then run offshore to Jenny's Horn, for 2-3 hrs of sharking, and look for whales, and bft.......both of which were reported about 15 miles south of the point. The morning was perfect, with the water like glass and virtually no wind. Heading out, the north side was quiet, but the south side showed good promise with tons of birds.......even alot of shearwaters. After about 15 min, we figured out what was going on. It was a very large area, maybe 1-2 miles with bass spread out, all up on the surface slurping sandeels or chasing big spearing. Given the flat surface, you could really see individual fish.....not like a blitz at all. The spinning rods were not producing for my son, so I pulled out the 8 weight which had an "albie whore" on it..........immediate hook up on the second cast! It was a 25 inch fat bass. After getting 2 or 3 fish that were exactly the same size....25 to 27 inches, I switched the spinning rods over to the smallest deadly dicks that we had and then they started to get fish too. I think we caught about a dozen in 1-1.5 hrs, all bass with no blues in sight.
Decided to take advantage of the nice day, and head offshore as we had already purchased some chum and some frozen mackeral, just in case that the bluefish didnt cooperate. This part of the trip didnt work out, as we hit a wall of fog about 7 miles south of the point.....and reports of fog going out to 25 miles. So we turned around, and eventually ended up further west looking for birds. Found birds and big, big bass out in front of the "cottages". Same basic deal ,except these were big bass swimming in groups of 3-5 fish, chasing sandeels up on the surface. You needed to be patient and wait for the right shot but we hooked up 4 times, two almost spooled our spinning rods(rigged way too light with 12 lb test) and these eventually broke off on strong runs. I got one fish to the boat with the fly rod, 36-37 inches, and had a second bigger fish bust the leader when it dove under the boat at the last minute. The cool thing about the situation is that the water was only about 12-15 ft deep, and you could see all the way to the bottom....watching the bass follow the fly and chase the sand eels.
In the afternoon, I dropped my son off, and picked up my daughter and her roommate from college. We warmed up on some short fluke around outer shag, and did some casting practice for the ladies. Once again, the southside was alive..........now around 4pm, and I thought I had it down. This time, no bass, and all blues!! Fish from Turtle cove, all the way down to the radar station.........we probably got 6 or 7 blues(3-4 pounds) plus a really nice 24 inch fluke(caught on the bottom while drifting) . These fish were all on large spearing, about 4-5 inches. One surprise was that I caught a 16 inch fluke on a clouser about one mile out!
No sharks........but alot of fun, and plenty of fish for all.
Mike G
Decided to take advantage of the nice day, and head offshore as we had already purchased some chum and some frozen mackeral, just in case that the bluefish didnt cooperate. This part of the trip didnt work out, as we hit a wall of fog about 7 miles south of the point.....and reports of fog going out to 25 miles. So we turned around, and eventually ended up further west looking for birds. Found birds and big, big bass out in front of the "cottages". Same basic deal ,except these were big bass swimming in groups of 3-5 fish, chasing sandeels up on the surface. You needed to be patient and wait for the right shot but we hooked up 4 times, two almost spooled our spinning rods(rigged way too light with 12 lb test) and these eventually broke off on strong runs. I got one fish to the boat with the fly rod, 36-37 inches, and had a second bigger fish bust the leader when it dove under the boat at the last minute. The cool thing about the situation is that the water was only about 12-15 ft deep, and you could see all the way to the bottom....watching the bass follow the fly and chase the sand eels.
In the afternoon, I dropped my son off, and picked up my daughter and her roommate from college. We warmed up on some short fluke around outer shag, and did some casting practice for the ladies. Once again, the southside was alive..........now around 4pm, and I thought I had it down. This time, no bass, and all blues!! Fish from Turtle cove, all the way down to the radar station.........we probably got 6 or 7 blues(3-4 pounds) plus a really nice 24 inch fluke(caught on the bottom while drifting) . These fish were all on large spearing, about 4-5 inches. One surprise was that I caught a 16 inch fluke on a clouser about one mile out!
No sharks........but alot of fun, and plenty of fish for all.
Mike G