Curse this wind!!! (Saturday 25 Oct 14)

[moc]

It was a good day on the water. We caught fish in 4 to 9 feet of water on average. 15 minutes from leaving the ramp, half of our group limited out on rocks and the rest limited out in 1 to 2 hours. We launched at 7:45am and by 10am everyone limited out on rocks. We just caught rocks from 16 to 21 inches all day. Multiple hookups were not uncommon. When we launched the water was 54 degrees, and by mid day and towards the evening the water hovered around 58 degrees. As mentioned before, no other species of fish were caught. Winds were light in the morning and then by early afternoon, everything went flat. I caught some fish with my 4 inch white Gulp that everyone uses. I used red jig heads from 1/16 to 1/2 ounce depending on how deep or shallow that I fished. Fishing was ok for me, but when I switched to a 6 inch paddle tail, then it was on. Even the little 16 inch rock wanted to devour my 6 inch paddle tail. So for me a bigger bait with a 1/4 ounce jig head produced a lot of fish.

[moc]

Ah I would be remised by mentioning that I missed meeting everyone at the Wawa at 5:00am. We had a brown out (brief interruption in power) that made all of the clocks flash, so my alarm did not go off. I knew that I should have taken my phone and it's charger into the bedroom last night. Despite everything, I arrived just 3 minutes before everyone else at the ramp...how is that for luck. A good time was had by all. That's for the pack of bait Cowpokey!

[Cowpokey]

Interesting start to the day, notice in the 6:30am picture there's a missing vehicle with a red Revo on top? Yep, MOC had power issues during the night and had a flashing alarm clock this morning. He made it to the launch with the rest of us though.

The wind prediction was wrong again...big surprise. We went to Hoopers Island to launch expecting it would provide protected water with the wind blowing out of the west. Well, when we got to the launch the wind was blowing hard out of the east...GRRRRR. Change of plans head to another launch that provides wind protection from the east. With this detour we got to the other launch at the same time MOC pulled in. Game on, just 30 minutes behind the intended launch schedule.

Six kayak fishermen launch at 7:45ish. Deleonjo, Daolai and Cowpokey (in that order) hook doubles within 15 minutes of being on the water. I think those were all legal fish too, I know mine both were. I'm limited out with an 18.5" and 20" rock before 8am, time to find some specs and blues. RockChaser (AKA Catfish Jim), MOC and Goody are in sight and getting away from the ramp; I'm already limited out. Within two hours of the launch all six kayaks have a limit of Rock on their stringers. Now it's really time to find other species. We troll the channel, we troll grass flats, every fish landed is a rock today; not one spec or blue on a line all day. Lots and lots of rock were caught by all, and we ended up coming home with limits of up to 21.5" fish.

Around 1pm the wind decided change directions and it got dead calm for over an hour, the water was just like glass and clear. We could see the bottom at 7-8' deep. While is was calm a few small schools started breaking the surface. I had some fish break right in front of me, so it was game on! I head for the nervous water and the school turns and goes right under me, I can see they are all keeper size rock and they are headed to my jigs. Bam, I'm hooked up with a double! Goody is right off my side and behind a little bit and all four of his rods go down with a quad. I land two more legal size at 18" and 19.75".

Jim and Dao had to depart a little early for other family obligations, parties and supper with loved ones and take their stringers of fish home.

I had some bad luck with gear today:

1) With the first two fish laying in the footwell I measure the smaller fish and put it on the stringer, I lean forward to grab the other one so I can measure it, and POP my Hawg Trough snaps in half at the 12" line.

2) I caught one legal size rock (nice 20+" fish) and my swivel snap popped open and the fish swam away with my jig.

3) I catch another legal size fish and that swivel snap was open when I landed it, but got it in the kayak. I unhook the line so it's out of the way to take the hook out and out of habit when it's free I toss the jig over the side...forgot it wasn't hooked to the line. Dang what a bonehead move.

Only took a few pictures today, I'll put them in another post since this turned into a mini novel.

[daolai]

Yes good times and stinks I had to leave early but better to fish and leave early then to not fish at all.. double the pain is when I hear cries of "breaking fish" as I headed to shore. Got home washed everything down put everything away and even cleaned the fish - showered now have a beer or two but ready for bed..

The hobie armada

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[Cowpokey]

Pictures as promised.

MOC


Goody


Deleonjo


Time to stretch


My fish get a brake from being taken for a walk

[camelbird]

Rollin deep! Nothing like a squad of yakers rollin through your town at 7 in the morning. Nice work on the fish, gents... and by the pics looked gorgeous out there

One thing missing...a paddler hehe

[J.A. Veil]

Great day guys. Judging from the photos it was a Hobie outing.

[Cowpokey]

One more thing. The water cooled off a lot over the last week. Last Friday water surface temp (Triton) was 67º, taking a dunk was not an issue. Today when we launched the water temp was 54º (IIRC: If I Remember Correctly) and walking in the water with bare legs was a bit of a shock; would NOT want to take a dunk with out protection....it would be survivable, sure, but dang sure not something I would want to do. By the time we finished up the surface temp was 59.4º on my FF, so landing with bare legs was fine.

[Cowpokey]

Rollin deep! Nothing like a squad of yakers rollin through your town at 7 in the morning. Nice work on the fish, gents... and by the pics looked gorgeous out there

One thing missing...a paddler hehe

You were missed.

Great day guys. Judging from the photos it was a Hobie outing.

All kayaks were Hobies today. John forgot he was on a Hobie at the start; I got to remind him he had peddles well after he could have been using them. LOL!!!

[sparky1423]

Congrats on a great day!! I want to see pics of the table fare

[Cowpokey]

Autopsy from today. One of the fish had small crab (size of a quarter [coin]) and a small squid (5-6") or maybe a cuttlefish. Something to think about when picking up baits. I've seen a lot of jellyfish even above the bay bridge, but didn't know squid came (this far) up the bay.

[Goody]

More pictures.



Mobile

[Cowpokey]

More pictures.



Mobile

That's one handsome devil in the first pic. LOL

[J. Rentch]

Where do you put in at Goodhands? Looking for someplace on Tuesday?

[Rockchaser]

I had a great time fishing with you guys. I haven't been able to get out much this year so I was happy to catch some Rocks. I didn't catch as many as most of the guys but I got my 2 for dinner and released several more. I hope to hit it again before the Rocks run South.

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