Monday, June 24, 2013

June 2013

In all the years I have kept this blog, you can count on one hand, the number of posts in the month of June. It was usually windy, so trips to the shoal, were rare, given the 40 minute "commute" from Harbor Hills. Thats not to say that I rarely fished the point, but trips were less than this year. I would make all kinds of excuses to myself. It was too windy, fish were feeding on May Worms, unlucky timing of tides, you name it. Fishing has been just plain phenomenal since March. If conditions were right it has not been unusual to get five to ten big fat 22-26 inch fish. Since my commute is now only one minute, I now have the ability to make multiple trips to the point. Most nights I have fished for a half hour or so, ran in for dinner, and then went back out to catch the last hour of light. As a result, I have learned a lot about how to work the shoal. At least once a week, a new boat will show up to give the Shoal a try. I would watch with amusement as they dropped anchor nearby, but nowhere near "the spot". The spot was a rock pile about halfway between Thomas point park on land and the lighthouse. I  would literally anchor every night within a ten foot circle. What I have discovered since moving to Thomas Point road, is that in order to grow as a fisherman, you have to shake things up. What I slowly started to figure out is that there are hundreds of different rock piles that litter the Shoal, all of which hold fish during certain conditions. The challenge was to figure out "when and where". It was during the rare nights when the tide was ripping with no chop from the wind that my eyes began to open. It was on these nights that you could see clearly rips created by water moving across the rocks. So after living on the point for one month the number of waypoints on my GPS went from one to ten. It seems to me that the biggest factor as to which spot will be productive is the wind. I doubt seriously the fish respond to the wind, buy what it does effect is how your plug will present itself as it passes the rocks and this is primarily determined by how the boat can be positioned given wind conditions. It seems like the best position is one where you are casting with the wind to the front edge of the pile. The fish seem to position themselves in front of the pile and wait for baitfish to be pushed into them.

Even with my newfound insight, when June 1st rolled around, I started dusting off the golf clubs. To my utter amazement a good night on the first outing in June, I picked up seven nice fatties, all on Papa Dogg. This good luck continued all the way until tonight. I decided to post tonight because of the unique differences in the 3 fish landed. The first fish was fat but covered in sores. I do not usually see sick fish until the warmer months of July and August. The second fish was of the same class as the first, but was as perfect as a Striper gets. The third, of the same 6 year old class as the first 2, but appeared to me to be a female who had yet to drop her eggs. Just look at the pictures and Judge for yourself?
Fish One

Fish 2

Fish 3...Egg filled?

My new dog Fin's first fish. 

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