Saturday started out great. The weather was perfect and the crew was eager to fish. We cleared the Deale harbor breakwater around 8:00am and put the boards out and the lines in once we hit 30 feet of water. Overall the fish were hitting well. We ended up with our limit of 4 (all between 29 & 33") and 3 shorts. We also had one of the anglers choke on the largest of the day by tightening the drag down too hard and a head shake 50 ft from the boat left us razzing him all day. We were headed back to the barn by 11:00am. The fish hit chartruse tandum bucktails, chartruse umbrella, Tony 21 WWB, white tandum bucktails and white tandum with black shad. All fish were caught in 32-36 ft of water between 83 and the towers. Here is a shot of the fish once we got home.
Sunday was a late start. I waited for the better half (Lynda) to get home from church We drove to Deale and had a leisurely lunch at Happy Harbor. We cleared the breakwater around 2:30. The weather was great but the fish weren't cooperating nearly as well as yesterday. Since it was only the 2 of us, I left the boards at home and only put out 8 rods. We marked some bait but not as much as yesterday. At about 4:45 I decided it was time to start reeling the spread in to head to the barn. Half way through reeling the first rod in, the outside tandum chartruse bucktail went singing. I love that sound. I knew it was a good fish. Lynda did a great job bringing the fish in - even though we ended up with a bit of a tangle. Here's a shot of me holding the fish (Lynda doesn't like to touch them). 40.5" - back in the water and she swam away with force.
Nice pickup on the mess with the lines. I always use the big Tony on the WWB. Lynda was struggling with the big fish and I was able to clear couple of the lines. But based on her struggling and the progress I was making on clearing the 7 other rods, I decided I would rather untangle a mess than loose the fish or turn Lynda off fishing because I kept the boat in gear while she was struggling with the big one. It's a small price to pay. That was my first tangle over the weekend so I can't complain and I always had a Tony 21 and a large CA in the spread. Now if I had someone along to help clear the lines that would be a different story - but sometimes it's nice to go with just the wife...
Oh, about the tangle. The fish hit the smallest lure in the spread, a 2oz tandum chartruse bucktail. The fish got tangled with the Tony - it was the last rig that I cleared and it was on WWB. I had been in neutral for about 5 minutes by the time I got to clear that one and the damage was done.
I caught a nice one on the Tony the day before - I never troll in the bay without one.
Sometimes during the summer when you can't seem to catch on anything a small tony behind an umbrella will make them bite. This kind of defeats the convienence of pulling a spoon but once in a blue moon it is the only thing that will work and it works well. Not that I will admit to ever pulling the evil things (umbrellas).
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