avandaalen
08-24-2000, 04:18 PM
Spent a long weekend in Southampton, and got very lucky with the good beach weather. Three mornings I got out for 4 hours of fishing. Saturday morning, after Friday's deluge, the wind was dead before daybreak, and so I thought I'd fish from my kayak on the ocean side. It was a gorgeous sunrise, with many fish surfacing. Terns were everywhere, scooping baitfish, most of which appeared to be peanut bunker. Using an intermediate sinking line, and a chartreuse clouser with mylar flash, I had several strikes, with two hook-ups, both small blues. The wind picked up, out of the north, and by 8:00 a.m. the action was off.
Monday, I headed out to Scallop Pond on the Peconic side for some more kayakfishing and birdwatching with my son. We hooked up with a few snappers, where normally this time of year the warm water holds few fish. The rain this year has really kept water temps way down, which seems to have kept action good close to shore.
On Tuesday, I headed out again on the ocean side. Wind had steadily been out of the north since Saturday, and there was much less bait in the water. Another beautiful sunrise, the water was orange and slate. I rigged the shooting head to see if getting below the bait would produce more hook-ups. Again I tied the chartreuse clouser on. This time, I had far fewer strikes, catching only one rat-blue. However, I had a ball paddling after some fast moving, porpoising fish, which I'm pretty sure were either bonito or albies. Unfortunately, while they appeared often, they didn't stay in any one place long enough to get more than one or two casts into them. Also, I fear I wasn't optimally rigged and would have been better off with an intermeidate sinking line and an epoxy fly.
I don't know when I'll be back out that way again, but I guess the albie season is here for all those lucky enough to get into them. Tight lines to all!
Monday, I headed out to Scallop Pond on the Peconic side for some more kayakfishing and birdwatching with my son. We hooked up with a few snappers, where normally this time of year the warm water holds few fish. The rain this year has really kept water temps way down, which seems to have kept action good close to shore.
On Tuesday, I headed out again on the ocean side. Wind had steadily been out of the north since Saturday, and there was much less bait in the water. Another beautiful sunrise, the water was orange and slate. I rigged the shooting head to see if getting below the bait would produce more hook-ups. Again I tied the chartreuse clouser on. This time, I had far fewer strikes, catching only one rat-blue. However, I had a ball paddling after some fast moving, porpoising fish, which I'm pretty sure were either bonito or albies. Unfortunately, while they appeared often, they didn't stay in any one place long enough to get more than one or two casts into them. Also, I fear I wasn't optimally rigged and would have been better off with an intermeidate sinking line and an epoxy fly.
I don't know when I'll be back out that way again, but I guess the albie season is here for all those lucky enough to get into them. Tight lines to all!