Only 6 more days till I'm gainfull employed again; I have to make hay...
Thunk/thump - I love the thunk as Tony described it of a big striper hitting an eel. I also love the thump sound one makes as it hits the deck of my boat. Biggest fish of the year to date, a ~38"/perhaps 18-20 pound fish taken at 4:30 AM in an outflow on a low falling tide. He's still swimming around Falmouth if someone else wants to try finding him :-).
After that I observed the obligatory dawn blitz of schoolies to 24", and watched the water turn brown for the 4th or 5th morning in a row. Right now I'm jaded on hauling 20 or 30 fish out of the rip, my hands are raw, my stripping muscles are sore, and I have caster's elbow so after a few fish I just sit and watch and enjoy the dawn show. I am amazed more each day at how many fish we have around here and how lucky we are.
After a morning in lovel downtown Boston with VC's I returned capewards having survived a SouthEast Expresswa round trip, ugh.
Anyways went out at 5 to my other hangout, Middle Ground off Tashmoo and cast at mid 20" bass in the rip with spinning and fly poppers. As happened esterday I had a 1 out of 20 hookup ratio, but who cares. Seeing 26" bass go airborne and knock a popper 2-3' in the air is worth the price of admission.
As the sun angle lessened I could see bass cruising the rip face in groups of 4-5 fish, bigger beneath smaller and periodically turning out of the rip to slam bait up on the flat part of the shoal.
Most strikes were on a popper just sitting on the surface, hanging at the rip face. I could see bass behind and beneath the lure, again looking like pupp dogs, till one would explode straight up in an almost vertical strike, turning awa as it recognized the lure was not food, and the force of its turn swatting the lure skywards. I had some really good looks at how fast and how much force a bass puts into reversing an upwards attack into a crash dive which makes that teltale boil we all know and love.
Ahh June, its not about catching fish, its about enjoying the beauty of life and being outdoors.