Surprisingly uncrowded today at the Canal. Could be lack of herring or people
sleeping in. Anyway, there were plenty of herring in the run this morning, but
people said that there were hardly any around yesterday. In any case, it's likely
to be a moot point, because the herring count is over quota already and there
are strong rumors that they are shutting down the Canal run either tomorrow or
Monday for the season.
As for the fishing, it was quite good for a few. Two guys on either side of me
caught multiple keepers to 36 inches. I managed my usual 27 inch fish and a bunch
of other shorts plus one bluefish and some half-eaten herring cutoffs that were
undoubtedly blues. Lots of curses from the assembled re: bluefish in the canal,
as you can imagine.
Checked out Poppy Spit in late afternoon (to my surprise, there was an open parking
space at Wading Place Rd), mostly because I'd only been there
once before and wanted to recheck the lay of the land at low tide. Now that I know
what I'm dealing with, I'll return at some wee morning hour and fish the holes/channels.
I did throw a few casts into the boat channel and bucktailed a schoolie and also
a good sized fluke on a black fly (!).
As for blues, I didn't find them at either the east of Poppy Inn locale or Poppy
Spit, but the tide really wasn't ideal. A couple of locals I talked to said that
it's been slower for blues from shore for the past couple of days.
-bd