Goodbye Irene

Last night I made it out to the shoal despite some really ugly looking water in front of our house. I was pleasantly surprised when the water was mirror like and actually fairly clean. After 4 nights without power and a long stay at a local hotel, I was thrilled to be back on the water. I had arrived a little before 7 and it was not long before the first blowup that missed. Ten minutes later I had another blowup that missed. After missing too many to count the night before the hurricane, I was getting really frustrated. Dabs called and said he would be out in ten minutes. In the meantime, I finally picked up a nice 22. When Dabs arrived all hell broke loose. He was picking up a nice fish on virtually every cast. I picked up 3 more 22 inch class fish, before pulling anchor and moving over to where he was fishing. As fate would have it, the bite instantly stopped and after 10 minutes or so, I headed in.

Tonight I arrived at the point around 6:30 to a packed house. Dabs and a buddy of his where anchored and Wild Bill was circling the wagons with a slow troll. Things were quiet until the sun set and I finally picked up a 22. One of Dabs boys picked up a 20 and that was all she wrote. Great sunset, but a slow night. I love this time of year.

Mother Nature Sucks

The only girl I have ever know named Irene was a rather annoying girl from high school who always looked like she needed a shave. So, with hurricane Irene threatening to shut down fishing for a least a week, I was intent on making my last night a good one. As I strolled down the pier at 7 pm, it looked like mother nature had it in for me. The western sky looked dark, but the almost complete lack of wind gave me hope. I have been fishing the South River every day for 12 years now and can say without a doubt that the last week of August is my favorite. The weather has always been perfect and marks the start of fall topwater bite So I decided to make a run for it. It was great to see the sun burst through the clouds just as I arrived at the shoal. There was a very strong outgoing tide, but the water was like glass. I anchored up around 7:30. I worked everything in my arsenal with only a few dinks to show for my effort. Just as the sun set the water about 200 yards from me exploded with feeding Stripers. Just as quickly as the appeared they went down as some yahoo out of fishing creek nearly clipped my anchor line on his way to the lighthouse. It took another 5 minutes before they resurfaced in basically the same spot. I quickly pulled anchor and moved uptide of the pod. My first cast was met with a huge blowup that was on then quickly off. The next 4 casts were exactly like the first. Finally on my fifth cast I brought to the side of the boat what appeared to be a 24 class fish, but as I grabbed the leader and attempted to swing her onboard the hook popped out. The next cast was surreal. I made a short cast and as the plug hit the water multiple fish slammed at once with no clear winner. This battle continued for several more rounds before I finally hooked up. As as started to reel, the line snapped as my 20 lb flourocarbon leader was shredded by the other fish banging up against it. I cannot remember ever breaking a leader while Striper fishing. It reminded me of tarpon fishing. The next cast resulted in another massive battle for the plug that resulted in a hookup that threw the plug past my head and into the pilot house where it snagged my sweatshirt hanging on the seat. Ok..now I am pissed. I want at least one picture tonight. I stayed on the fish for the next 15 to 20 minutes with every cast resulting in multiple blowups. I just could not get one to stay on the hook. Oh well, it was a perfect night. Too bad the rest of the week will suck.

Earth Quake

I have not posted much lately. It is not due to lack of fish, but as a result of dropping my camera on cracking the lens. The last two weeks have been very good. I have had the pleasure of introducing topwater fishing to several newbies with great success. My youngest daughter Grace and her boyfriend each boated several too close to call on Stillwater's . A good friend of hers, Carter and his buddy joined me last weds and we picked up 5 or 6 in the 20-24 range.

Tonight I left the dock at 6.45 to bright blue skies and a nice breeze. The air temp was in the high 70's and the tide was dead low. It was not until the sun set that the action began. The first fish hit on my last twitch at the boat and immediately went air borne. He literally came within inches of my nose and gave me a bigger scare than the 5.8 earthquake that shook my glass enclosed office at 1.45 this afternoon. I picked up 5 more keepers in the next 15 minutes. I also picked up a nice 4 pound bluefish that nearly spooled my med-lite St. Croix....the bluefish was actually caught on Sunday off of Cape Cod when my college buddies and I came upon Bluefish Blitz. I had read about them, but had never experienced one in person. All I can say is WOW. Every cast of our plugs was met with a massive slam of 4-6 pounders. We had a nice fish fry saturday night and I discovered that if you soak the meat in milk and then coat with old bay, they are actually quite good. The topwater season is in full swing now and my camera is back on board, so hopefully the blog will be a little more active.

Go away blues

Last night was one of the nicest "topwater" nights of the year. I got a late start and did not get out the the shoal until a little before 8. There was a very strong incoming tide, but unlike the last week or so very little breeze stirring things up. The surface clearly showed where the rock piles where, so I anchored 20 yards off and worked the break. On my first several casts, I picked up little snapper blues on the small Chugbug. Every time I tried the twisty it came back tailless. The night before my friend Anthony had pulled up alongside and we talked about the state of fishing. He had been doing well on the eastern shore both trolling and LTJ with fish up into the 30's. When I mentioned the Blues problem, he gave me a few BA's with a new plastic that stretches so much that the blues can't rip them. As I worked this new plastic along the break-line, I had a nice hit a few feet from the boat. As I set the hook, the fish jumped straight up in the air like a largemouth bass and actually cleared the top of my engine. Very cool. It turned out to be a nice 24 that made my week. Thanks Anthony.