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I had originally meant to spend my day at the first Meet & Greet of the year up at BPS. After reviewing Windfinder, I realized that the days I would be free to fish next week would be blowing too hard for me to be out in open water chasing Rockfish. Today would be the last low wind day in the next 8, so I opted to go fishing instead.
I set out with the intent of warming up on some pickerel before heading out to chase the marks on my fish finder that have been haunting the last couple of trips. It was a good plan I was looking forward to cracking the code of turning marks on a screen into fish in my boat.
The water temperature was a cool 39 degrees and there was a fine mist falling as I ambled over to one of my favorite pickerel spots and began casting. I started throwing a watermelon / chartreuse Z-Man at traditional structure, hoping to get my day off to a toothy start.
After about 10 minutes of fruitless flailing, I stopped and reasoned that, since the water was quite chilly, maybe the fish were deeper, waiting for the day to ripen and their prey to get active. I started casting to open water, about 5' deep and slowed my retrieve to barely a crawl. On the third cast, I noticed a large brown shadow slowly following my bait right to the boat. I figured that, like so many times before, the fish would spook and head for it's favorite hole as soon as it realized where it was. When it didn't, I plopped the paddletail back in the water, right in front of it's face, only to have the fish explode on the bait and race for cover.
It was quit an adrenaline rush! Being only inches from the hull, there was't much room for a fight. Having lost countless nice pickerel right at the boat, I have started to carry a net. It paid off as I was able to scoop up the 22+" guy after he frantically swam in a dozen circles right next to the kayak. He was still pretty green and was clearly unhappy with his new perspective on the world.
It was a great way to start the day (for me, at least, not so much for him). Shortly after, I persuaded a fat 19'er to join me in the misty morning air.
Aesiegal joined on the water and after our own mini M&G, we continued to fish for picks before heading out to open water in search of stripers. During that time, I managed another 5 fish, 17' - 22", all caught in open water, 4'-5' deep.
Despite the solid action, I could not shake the thought of rockfish from my mind so I left the fish biting and went in search of the marks that I was seeing in my sleep. Sure enough, they were right where I had left them, 2 days prior, in 35 feet of water.
Try as I might, however, I could not convince any into a bite. We tried trolling and jigging, all to no avail. I actually ended up snagging a 19'er with a sting silver that I had been casting out and jigging back. To me, that was worse than a total skunk. The fish were thick enough 35' below that I retrieve a jig through them and hook one in the back, but they still had lockjaw.......
Anyway, in the wrestling match of Bass vs Pickerel, there was a definite winner. Some might say to was clearly the pickerel. I would argue that it was me. I had a blast!!
DSCN3767.jpgDSCN3768.jpgDSCN3769.jpgDSCN3772.jpgDSCN3776.jpg
I set out with the intent of warming up on some pickerel before heading out to chase the marks on my fish finder that have been haunting the last couple of trips. It was a good plan I was looking forward to cracking the code of turning marks on a screen into fish in my boat.
The water temperature was a cool 39 degrees and there was a fine mist falling as I ambled over to one of my favorite pickerel spots and began casting. I started throwing a watermelon / chartreuse Z-Man at traditional structure, hoping to get my day off to a toothy start.
After about 10 minutes of fruitless flailing, I stopped and reasoned that, since the water was quite chilly, maybe the fish were deeper, waiting for the day to ripen and their prey to get active. I started casting to open water, about 5' deep and slowed my retrieve to barely a crawl. On the third cast, I noticed a large brown shadow slowly following my bait right to the boat. I figured that, like so many times before, the fish would spook and head for it's favorite hole as soon as it realized where it was. When it didn't, I plopped the paddletail back in the water, right in front of it's face, only to have the fish explode on the bait and race for cover.
It was quit an adrenaline rush! Being only inches from the hull, there was't much room for a fight. Having lost countless nice pickerel right at the boat, I have started to carry a net. It paid off as I was able to scoop up the 22+" guy after he frantically swam in a dozen circles right next to the kayak. He was still pretty green and was clearly unhappy with his new perspective on the world.
It was a great way to start the day (for me, at least, not so much for him). Shortly after, I persuaded a fat 19'er to join me in the misty morning air.
Aesiegal joined on the water and after our own mini M&G, we continued to fish for picks before heading out to open water in search of stripers. During that time, I managed another 5 fish, 17' - 22", all caught in open water, 4'-5' deep.
Despite the solid action, I could not shake the thought of rockfish from my mind so I left the fish biting and went in search of the marks that I was seeing in my sleep. Sure enough, they were right where I had left them, 2 days prior, in 35 feet of water.
Try as I might, however, I could not convince any into a bite. We tried trolling and jigging, all to no avail. I actually ended up snagging a 19'er with a sting silver that I had been casting out and jigging back. To me, that was worse than a total skunk. The fish were thick enough 35' below that I retrieve a jig through them and hook one in the back, but they still had lockjaw.......
Anyway, in the wrestling match of Bass vs Pickerel, there was a definite winner. Some might say to was clearly the pickerel. I would argue that it was me. I had a blast!!
DSCN3767.jpgDSCN3768.jpgDSCN3769.jpgDSCN3772.jpgDSCN3776.jpg
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