12/15 - Float-rig fishing with DOA Rob.
(Tide runners, Reds, Drum, and more....with Capt Dave Sipler's Sport fishing, 26 Blacklab center console plate alloy fishing machine.)
Had buddy D.O.A. Rob out with me today for a bit of R&D - "research & development", because after this weekends blow, and the ocean being all stirred up. I wanted to go see what the scoop was.
And Rob is in a on-line tournament and needed a larger Trout to enter. The tournament is an open tournament, and he can fish bait, lures, and on any boat. I told him that I've been catching some seriously large Speckled Trout before the blow, and he maybe able to get a whopper, out on the BIG water. So we went to kill two birds with one stone, and left around 8am, today.
It was over-cast, with no wind. Hence, the droopy flag over at the bar pilots building adjacent the boat ramp parking lot. But the water was soupy, dirty, and had loads of left over slop & chop in it.
On the first spot, on my first shrimp I had what ended up being the largest Trout of the day, at 21 inches.
We got into a bit of everything, from Trout, Redbass, Sheepshead, Black Drum, and a few Yellowmouth Trout, through out the day.
And explored many areas, and had to wait for a few to calm down. Because a few were really nasty, as the tide flooded.
No where was it absolutely gang-busters, at first.
Some spots were a fish here and a fish there.
And Rob went literally hours and didn't even catch a Speckled trout at all, even though he float fished all day along with me. With only a few casts of his trusty DOA shrimp. But he hung Drum, Reds that handed him his butt, and Sheepshead, at first.
But as the tide slowed, we ended up getting on the fish pretty damn good. Wow, that weekend wind must have been wicked. I wouldn't know, I stayed home. And recommended to one caller, that it wasn't the kind of weekend at the jetties for a small child, let alone adults. Let's try it next Sunday, I urged.
K.O.D. - (Kiss O' Death) is what I assumed it might have been like....incoming full moon tide and NE winds at 20 knots??? You tell me, because I don't want to fish in that, anywhere. I don't usually do well in that situation.
But today, it all worked out for Rob and I.
And we ended up with great action on some spots, and others were just dead, especially when it came too really big Trout. All were nice fish, but not GATORS. Which Rob needed. And we caught at least 30. And kept only the best ones.
There is no doubt about it. The fish were still there...just scattered. You would be too in that soup sandwich.
The falling tide bite was dead. We tried 3-4 spots and had zero. Which was not really surprising. These full moon tides are bazarro world as far as I'm concerned. But we ended up wackin more Trout after an extensive search during the ebb, in a spot where the tide was actually slow.
I love this time of year, so much. I could fish like this every day. Too bad we have seasons....
I suppose there's no place that is perpetually no bait stealer's, and just loads of Trout and Redbass. Or is there....??
