School of something by the bay bridge

[Darnell]

Just drove over the bay bridge and noticed the crowd of boats....looked like a LARGE school of something was out there....was anybody out there or heard of what the school was or what was biting?

[YakCapn]

I'm out here now and it's pretty slow! Launched from sandy point.

[KDT88]

Are people still live lining out there under the bridge? Thinking about going tomorrow for Father's Day!


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[JAR]

Was fishing by boat this morning and there was a School of menhaden out there, with a lot of smaller bait balls popping up everywhere. Get your bait to the bottom to catch the keepers.

[YakCapn]

Yes, I saw tons of bait fish throughout the morning all over the surface...lots of bait balls and tiny jumpers.

[Mbae]

i was out there today on a head boat. we limited out with 18 keepers in a few hours. caught a few around 31 and 32 inches. most of the fish being caught is by trolling. supposedly chumming has been slow.

[Cowpokey]

i was out there today on a head boat. we limited out with 18 keepers in a few hours. caught a few around 31 and 32 inches. most of the fish being caught is by trolling. supposedly chumming as been slow.

What was the magic trolling lure?

[Mbae]

What was the magic trolling lure?

surgical eels and tandem rigs were both working well!

[Cowpokey]

surgical eels and tandem rigs were both working well!

Do you know how deep they were running the lures? How deep was the water?

[Mbae]

Do you know how deep they were running the lures? How deep was the water?

we had 19 rods out so im sure they were at all sorts of depths... we were in about 40 feet of water

[Cowpokey]

we had 19 rods out so im sure they were at all sorts of depths... we were in about 40 feet of water

Ok, thanks.

[jmt1980]

There were bait fish everywhere under the bridge. I trolled from the bridge down past Podickory Point without success. I started in ~10' of water near the bridge and worked my way out where it drops to ~35' and didn't get a single bite. I tried bucktails with paddle tails, gulp in red and chartreuse, and a rapala shad DT16 and DT10 (in ~25' of water) with no success. On my way back in I threw the bucktail over a ~3' CNR and sacrificed it just to keep the stench of skunk off my yak.

If fish are being caught in 40' of water maybe I just didn't head out far enough. I'm hoping the croaker and blues move in soon... I might have to do some bass fishing the next week or two and take a break from the bridge.

[YakCapn]

I thought it was just me. I've only been fishing in the kayak like this for about a year now and I had never seen so many surface bait fish swimming around everywhere. I trolled right through and by so many bait balls and surface schools of bait fish and I never got a hit either. I've had other days where I never saw any bait fish like that, but I'd still hook up with stripers, but not today. Even when I stopped and bottom fished with bloodworm, I only caught a couple of spot and croaker. Seemed like fishing should have been so much better today than it was.

[daolai]

I agree conditions were perfect today.. the tide was change right around 9AM.. bait everywhere.. should have been better.. I too am going to refocus on croakers/wp until my striper skunk wears off

[JAR]

Try netting or snagging your bait and then live line it. Get it toward the bottom and watch your rod tip as the live bait gets very nervous. Good stuff. Fish I caught were mostly in 30' of water. Also caught some spot in 20', not many but there here and the perfect size for live lining.