Didn't have a charter so I decided to take a friend out for some fishing tonight. We left the dock around 5:00 pm with the tide just starting in. Headed out to the inlet.
Water was 70.5 degress and a bit green with a lot of weed. Wind had also picked up out of the southeast just enough to make it tougher fishing. Buddy was using spin rod and I was fly fishing. We spent two hours working the inlet and the beach front with one hit and one small blue that I got on a chartreuse bucktail deceiver.
With it getting a bit sloppy we headed back into the inlet passing up a bunch of small blues with birds over them. We were looking for bass. Worked the inside of the jetty for and hour and still no hits or signs of life.
Made one last move to the back bay to a rip line with the incoming tide. Had buddy put on a smack-it-jr. He missed two fish by trying to set the hook too soon. I grabbed a spin rod to show him how to do it and landed the first fish.
Finally he hooked up and landed one.
I tried to use the fly, but the wind and the tide were pushing in the same direction and after nearly hooking my self a couple of times I decided not to fight the wind comming off my side. I could position the boat any other way so I sat back an cast a popper.
We caught 5 bass in the last hour 18 to 25 1/2 inches and were able to salvage a tough night, before heading in.
Got a last minute call Saturday morning. A guy wanted a fly fishing trip this morning wanting to catch anything on the fly. Told him we could work the top of the outgoing midday and maybe get a few bluefish.
We left the dock at noon and headed to back by creeks to get away from the crowd in the inland water way, which was like zoo.
Water was 69 to 70 degrees and a little off color. Had him throwing a chartreuse deceiver and his wife a small silver blue plug. He had two hit's and misses at the first creek and his friend got a dink striper.
We moved to several other creeks and I even saw the first mini pod of half inch bait for the year. Only a few hundred little fish but a start.
We couldn't find or buy a hit from a bluefish. They are usually around and not all that hard to find but there were no signs of them anywhere.
We worked one last area where his wife picked up another small bass and he had two more hits and one missed striper that got off.
Even with afternoon, we should of been able to get some fish and there should of been some blues around. I do believe it is the lack of bait. Just not seeing them in the back bay this year. To make things worse the weather cast was off. It was suppose to be a light wind 4 to 9 mph. By mid afternoon it was blowing around 15 mph or better with white caps and making casting more difficult.
After getting back from my disappointing afternoon trip at 4:00pm. I had a short break before I had to head out of my evening trip.
Had two fly anglers from Pa. (Good Trout fishermen but who had never done any saltwater fly fishing.) We left the dock at 5:30pm and with the fishing so bad in the back I decided to go to the ocean. The wind was still blowing pretty good from the northwest to hugging the beach we could get away from most of the wind.
They cast the sinking lines really well for being there first time in the salt, but we could not buy a fish. We were fishing for weakies and they each got a few hits and misses but no fished boated. With the tide coming in we worked all around the inlet with still no fish.
With it starting to get dark and still no fish I decided to head into the back bay where we worked a nice incoming rip line. Finally with ten minutes left in our trip the dad got the first fish of the night.
About two minutes later the son got his first. The dad was using a chartreuse deceiver and the son a yellow deceiver with both fishing with intermediate line.
With the fishing being so poor all night, I told them I would give them more time since we now had a bite. We fished for another hour and picked up 10 more stripers which turned a really poor night into a really fun night.
Like I always say, You can never give up as things can change fast. I was glad I could provide them with a good first saltwater experience. They liked the power of the stripers and will be coming back again.
Had to go to Plan B tonight. We pushed tonights charter ahead as they were calling for showers around 7:00pm. I had a husband and wife with not a whole lot of fishing experience that wanted to do a plug or bait trip.
There was suppose to be a light north west breeze tonight. We left the dock at 4:00pm with the tide going out and found and good solid southeast wind blowing. It was windy enough to to put white caps on the back sound.
We tried 4 prime areas and worked them hard with plugs. They did very well casting and the best we could do it get on striper to come up and hit a plug right next to the boat and not hook up.
With the wind still blowing good I decided to go to plan B and do the bait thing. We set up where the wind would be not a problem and did the clam thing. We started getting hits right away and landed 4 sand sharks before getting the first throwback striper.
Right after we set up the wind down to nothing, but we were now set up to do the bait thing. We must of caught at least 35 sand sharks to get the 5 stripers that we had on the night.
Charters wife had the nicest fish of the night a and they had fun with the constant action.
Right around 8:00 pm when it was time to quit a bit of a drizzle started so we called it night.
Stripers never spit up anything, but the sharks had green crabs and mantis shrimp in them. Never did see any signs of bait the whole night.
Left the dock at 4:30pm with one person fly charter. Thought about swinging it till tomorrow morning as it was blowing over 20mph and gusting higher, but charter said he had to go tonight as he has other commitments and said let's give it a try.
We shot to the back bay up a creek to escape the wind. It was still very tough and it looked like rain or thunderstorms on the way. We got zero hits and the weather radio said there were no thunderstorms so we stuck with it.
Around 6:00 pm the wind died down to nothing and we mad a move to a couple of point rips. Here he finally hooked up with his first saltwater fish. A nice 22 inch striper.
We worked 3 different areas and came up with 6 bass to 22 1/2 inches and then decided to hit the ocean to see if we could find some small blues. Was a bit choppy outside from all the wind blowing all day, but we were able to find some blues, Catching about 15 before heading in.
Small baitfish and clousers worked all night using intermediate and sinking lines.
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