Solo trip 8/15/07

[BTH284]

What a pretty day on the water yesterday. Took a solo try at it and was rewarded with some awesome sights and a nice 40 knot run on the way out. Tried to get a crew to go so I could head to the stream for some wahoo and sails but no takers. Opted to chase sails again. Heard on the radio that the MHC fleet may have a had a slower day than usual out there. I am sure that some probably got into the fish. I do enjoy listening to the Capt's talk to one another. So much to be learned from this chatter.

Got to my mark 18 miles out 13 fathom haad the whole area to myself, 5 lines in at 730 and I deployed the strip dredge. Found the "exact" spot I was looking for... about a 75 acre area of 82.8 water surround by 84 degree water. Never seen that much life in the ocean in one spot in all my life. Giant rays chasing bait. Flip flop mahi tearing the glass minnows up. The entire area was alive! The lil peanuts kept me on my toes as they would pile in and strip me down and exhausted alot of my bait quickly. Got away from there and found some nice gaffers on the edge of mix. Put two 15 pound bulls in the box.

Finally found what I was looking for a lil while later.....the sails. They were there alright at least 4 of them, above a 20 foot ledge absolutely wearing the 5"-6" sardines out all by themselves off to the side of the rest of the action. I raised two of the them. One destroyed my dredge as I found out when I got back to the house. I could see him up in it slashing but he would not pile on my bait above and behind it. A few minutes later, up came saildog #2 on the left short bait. Weird thing was he would not eat! He was not lit up, sail was down. Only his pecs had color. I tried to feed him with no clicker and full freespool. Only to have him fade off when I did this. Once I put the reel back in gear he would come up again and only follow the bait. This went on for the next hour but to no avail. Any ideas on what to do here fellas would be gladly appreciated.

I kept pounding the ledge area over and over until 1pm. The SW wind kicked up a bit but still managed 30 knots on the ride in with the swell. With two meat fish in the box and 0 for 2 on the sails, I decided to head in. Marked some good sized bait ball 20 feet down on the sea bouy chain but no takers there either. Back at home by 7pm boat cleaned up and tackle put away by 8 pm and slept like a champ with some good dreams a stress free day on the water.

Now time to re rig for the big drum.

[hunt4fish]

Nice report Brian,sounds like a great day on the water.Those solo trips are good for the soul. I'll be down there this wknd.I'll pick up on the sails where you left off!!

[Glenn W]

Nice job Bryan. When they get their heads in the strip dredge and get really pissed off it is a chore to get em to switch off to a bait above them. My theory is they ussually don't even see the hook bait when their head is in all that mess. Impossible for one to do alone but crank up the dredge a little and put your rod down in water as far as you can to get the bait down to him. remember, he can't see behind him and isn't focusing on what is above him.
As far as a puppy that wants to play and not eat--- welcome to Saildog fishing. If he follows and follows, he is obviosly interested--- you just have to piss him off somehow. If you dare, pull it away from him a couple times and he will eventually get so mad he inhales the bait--- or at least that's the theory

[O-SEA-D]

Great report Bryan

Sounds like a great day on the water all alone with nobody to bother ya.

Pretty work on you fishing dude.

[gradywhite273]

Outstanding Brian, what a great read and day. Congrats.

[FINRAZOR RODS]

Thanks for the report Brian. Could you enlighten me a little...

During these dog days out of MHC, when you are running "nearer" shore like you did, are you looking for that 82 degree water from sat shots?? How about how it relates to structure? or current. I'm more in my element running deeper to find the fish, haven't fished inside with much success when doing a solo or a family trip to peck at dolphin. Thanks a ton.

[BTH284]

Finrazor: ( I write this here a a little timid as I could have just been lucky lately)

I am fairly new to this inshore sail game. But from what I can tell and what I am learning that works for me while applying info from others, I have found the fish tight to the bait above struture (ledges, rocks, live bottom) The bait will be stacked up on these. When you find them pull away from the marked bottom and let the bait rise up to the surface when the predators feed. You can troll in the vicinty while you are waiting. Be patient here and the fish will give themselves away. When this happens, I will take a hard look at the bait ball. Once in a while you can see the sail of the fish just out of the top of the water sometimes and even a bill in the school. When I see the bills or the tips of the sails I know I am on the money. Sometimes you will see them tearing the bait up actually pushing water ahead of them as was the case yesterday. If you get to close to the bait with boat you will will drive them down. I try to work the edges of the schools over my marks really trying hard not to push them down.

When I only see the bait on the machine, I turn tight circles on top of it and try like hell to avoid the "grass is always greener syndrome" and stay in the area of the food. I really think that dredge helps here rising and falling in and out of a turn and helps to simulate a smaller ball of bait that is broken off the big school which the fish take as easy pickings.

The temps I am finding on the SST shots. I have been looking at them at least 2x times day (during the week when I have access to a computer) since the spring trying to pick out any changes, trends etc both in the stream and lately inshore. I am still very green to this as well.

I am looking for anything different than the surrounding water. Tues late I noticed an 82 degree pocket inside a huge area of 84 degree water. You could actually see the boundary of this area on top of the water yesterday. I then put together what I know to be in that area and started from there. The few sails that I have been fortunate enough to find this season and I do mean few have all come in the 80-82 degree water inshore less than 20 miles out.

As far as current, I am still learning on this one. All I do until I learn a better way is when I get to a spot, I put the boat in neutral and see on my GPS which way I am drifting and how fast. This will tell me how much or how little throttle I need to give when running back and fourth over a mark. Also, Glenn W taught me something to try and learn better know at a given RPM how fast your boat moves. Yesterday I would pick up 1 to 1 1/2 knots when I was trolling in a SE direction even though the wind was SW all day. So I knew I had to back off the throttle when I headed 1/4 to it downsea.

I am still learning this game, but I am highly addicted to the inshore sails now. If any of this is way off par to some of the more knowledgable folks out there. Please chime in as I am always looking to get better even if changing things up.

Hope this helps.

[HOLWACHAGOT]

Love the solo fishing story! Great job on the fishing and the report. Wish I was inexperienced like you... way to use your ears and apply what you learned. Your learning curve is steepening quick if you are as inexperienced as you claim. Hats off.

HOLWACHAGOT

[brandon558]

Pretty work Brian..thanks for sharing.

You are indeed addicted to the nearshore sails..and ur doing a fine job! Thanks for the write up and info.

Brandon

[gottaflylee]

Finrazor: ( I write this here a a little timid as I could have just been lucky lately)

I am fairly new to this inshore sail game. But from what I can tell and what I am learning that works for me while applying info from others, I have found the fish tight to the bait above struture (ledges, rocks, live bottom) The bait will be stacked up on these. When you find them pull away from the marked bottom and let the bait rise up to the surface when the predators feed. You can troll in the vicinty while you are waiting. Be patient here and the fish will give themselves away. When this happens, I will take a hard look at the bait ball. Once in a while you can see the sail of the fish just out of the top of the water sometimes and even a bill in the school. When I see the bills or the tips of the sails I know I am on the money. Sometimes you will see them tearing the bait up actually pushing water ahead of them as was the case yesterday. If you get to close to the bait with boat you will will drive them down. I try to work the edges of the schools over my marks really trying hard not to push them down.

When I only see the bait on the machine, I turn tight circles on top of it and try like hell to avoid the "grass is always greener syndrome" and stay in the area of the food. I really think that dredge helps here rising and falling in and out of a turn and helps to simulate a smaller ball of bait that is broken off the big school which the fish take as easy pickings.

The temps I am finding on the SST shots. I have been looking at them at least 2x times day (during the week when I have access to a computer) since the spring trying to pick out any changes, trends etc both in the stream and lately inshore. I am still very green to this as well.

I am looking for anything different than the surrounding water. Tues late I noticed an 82 degree pocket inside a huge area of 84 degree water. You could actually see the boundary of this area on top of the water yesterday. I then put together what I know to be in that area and started from there. The few sails that I have been fortunate enough to find this season and I do mean few have all come in the 80-82 degree water inshore less than 20 miles out.

As far as current, I am still learning on this one. All I do until I learn a better way is when I get to a spot, I put the boat in neutral and see on my GPS which way I am drifting and how fast. This will tell me how much or how little throttle I need to give when running back and fourth over a mark. Also, Glenn W taught me something to try and learn better know at a given RPM how fast your boat moves. Yesterday I would pick up 1 to 1 1/2 knots when I was trolling in a SE direction even though the wind was SW all day. So I knew I had to back off the throttle when I headed 1/4 to it downsea.

I am still learning this game, but I am highly addicted to the inshore sails now. If any of this is way off par to some of the more knowledgable folks out there. Please chime in as I am always looking to get better even if changing things up.

Hope this helps.

He, He ...another one bites the dust...

1,I think the red I highlited with what you are doing is key
2, Stay in the area of food.
3, When they don't want to eat...take it from them...sometimes this works and they pile on it...some times they just don't want to eat!
4, Remove the dredge and replace it with a squid teaser ( use the small squids, 4" pink is my color of choice) and place a necked "splitbill" ballyhoo with a hook in it .

I know this won't work for a lot of you guys, and were not talking about Florida, just NC, but this works for our area and Brian is not that far from me. Hope this helps!