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After hearing all the great bluefish reports recently, I decided to piggyback a short bluefish trip at CHSP onto a planned trip to Trap Pond. I arrived at CHSP on Tues morning about 8:00 to an empty parking lot. As I began loading my Slayer Propel 10 onto a two-week old C-Tug, the kickstand on the cart snapped. I hoped that would not be an omen for the rest of the trip.
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The water level was low at the beach -- I had to go some distance out before it deepened enough to use the Propel drive. I saw two fishing boats in the distance, but otherwise I had the water to myself. The waves were coming in from the NW and were big enough to push around my lightweight Slayer Propel 10. I pedaled around for 45 mins looking for signs of bait or fish while trolling 3 rods. Finally the rod with a 5" Storm shad went down. The initial shaking and pulling was not too strong, so I was not sure I had hooked a large blue. But within seconds, the fish realized something was wrong. Line pulled out against drag, and the kayak was turned and towed. After several powerful runs near the kayak, including twice when it yanked the rod down so fast it slammed against the hull, I boated a 30" fish. That was a thrill, but it was the smallest catch of the morning.
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I realized that three rods were too many to have out for fish that could easily swim 360 deg around the kayak. I wound in the rod with a Hopkins lure and trolled two rods with soft plastics. Over the next 90 minutes, I hooked another 7 fish, from 32" to 35". I do not have a GoPro camera or a still camera mounted on my kayak. It was difficult to lean back far enough to get an entire large fish in the photo. Here are a few photos to document the catch -- they are not nearly as impressive as the ones posted over last weekend.
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At some point a young guy in a skiff anchored up near where I was trolling. On my next pass through the area, both rods went down at once. I stuck the first rod in a flush mount rod holder and loosened the drag while I fought the second fish. After unhooking the fish and rerigging, I trolled back to the same spot and had a doubleheader again. The clueless boat fisherman did not seem to realize that I could not easily control where my kayak was going with the waves and two strong fish on. I managed to get tangled in one of his baited lines (which were not catching anything). While he untangled that mess, the second line (which had what appeared to be the largest blue of the day) wrapped around my Propel drive and broke off.
I caught fish on Storm shads, Calcutta baits, and paddletails on jigheads. My most unusual lure was actually a long scrap of plastic from the lure molding process. It is a sort of backbone that connects about 20 soft plastics in the mold. I slid an 11" long piece of the backbone onto a 3/4-oz jighead and trolled it. 5 mins later the bait was hit hard. I worked the fish for a minute or two before it came loose -- leaving behind only an inch of the plastic backbone.
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I decided that 8 large bluefish in less than 2 hours was enough fun for one morning. Plus by then, all three of my wire leaders were gone. It was an exciting experience. I send out special thanks to Sparky1423 for sharing information with me on where to park, launch, and look for the fish. Your advice proved to be on the money.
017.jpg
The water level was low at the beach -- I had to go some distance out before it deepened enough to use the Propel drive. I saw two fishing boats in the distance, but otherwise I had the water to myself. The waves were coming in from the NW and were big enough to push around my lightweight Slayer Propel 10. I pedaled around for 45 mins looking for signs of bait or fish while trolling 3 rods. Finally the rod with a 5" Storm shad went down. The initial shaking and pulling was not too strong, so I was not sure I had hooked a large blue. But within seconds, the fish realized something was wrong. Line pulled out against drag, and the kayak was turned and towed. After several powerful runs near the kayak, including twice when it yanked the rod down so fast it slammed against the hull, I boated a 30" fish. That was a thrill, but it was the smallest catch of the morning.
004a.jpg
I realized that three rods were too many to have out for fish that could easily swim 360 deg around the kayak. I wound in the rod with a Hopkins lure and trolled two rods with soft plastics. Over the next 90 minutes, I hooked another 7 fish, from 32" to 35". I do not have a GoPro camera or a still camera mounted on my kayak. It was difficult to lean back far enough to get an entire large fish in the photo. Here are a few photos to document the catch -- they are not nearly as impressive as the ones posted over last weekend.
002.jpg 006.jpg 007a.jpg
At some point a young guy in a skiff anchored up near where I was trolling. On my next pass through the area, both rods went down at once. I stuck the first rod in a flush mount rod holder and loosened the drag while I fought the second fish. After unhooking the fish and rerigging, I trolled back to the same spot and had a doubleheader again. The clueless boat fisherman did not seem to realize that I could not easily control where my kayak was going with the waves and two strong fish on. I managed to get tangled in one of his baited lines (which were not catching anything). While he untangled that mess, the second line (which had what appeared to be the largest blue of the day) wrapped around my Propel drive and broke off.
I caught fish on Storm shads, Calcutta baits, and paddletails on jigheads. My most unusual lure was actually a long scrap of plastic from the lure molding process. It is a sort of backbone that connects about 20 soft plastics in the mold. I slid an 11" long piece of the backbone onto a 3/4-oz jighead and trolled it. 5 mins later the bait was hit hard. I worked the fish for a minute or two before it came loose -- leaving behind only an inch of the plastic backbone.
008.jpg
I decided that 8 large bluefish in less than 2 hours was enough fun for one morning. Plus by then, all three of my wire leaders were gone. It was an exciting experience. I send out special thanks to Sparky1423 for sharing information with me on where to park, launch, and look for the fish. Your advice proved to be on the money.
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