Friday Night fishing

[Pat Smith]

Heading out to try my hand at night fishing. I plan on launching out of Ft. Armistead. I figure to do some trolling for perch and rock under the bridge until it gets real dark.. then anchor out a ways from the launch and try to get some cats...

Anyone interested in tagging along?

[Pat Smith]

SO I got all loaded up and something came up so I had to cancel.. but SATURDAY Night for sure..Who is with me???

[Shady]

How'd you do?

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[Pat Smith]

So I launched out of Ft Armistead at around 9 pm. That place always makes me a little nervous, no one has ever bothered me there.. but... well... nuf said.

I started by trolling around the normal places I get fish there.. basically near the first pylon under the bridge in a line towards the dock pylons that are submerged. I also trolled around the flats out from where they always catfish fish on the shore.

I marked TONS of bait fish right where they always are... I could even feel my lure bumping into them. It is very frustrating hearing fish slap the surface all around you but not getting any bites.

At one point I hooked into something BIG.. the thing felt like I got snagged, but it pulled back in a tugging motion. I got three or four cranks in towards the boat (it was pulling drag pretty good).. when I heard a splash and the line went slack. If it was a rock or a blue.. it was the largest I have ever hooked into. It was probably a ray, and the splash I heard was one of it's wings.. or it was a submarine sneaking into the inner harbor to spy on the aquarium.

I started with my old faithful, the jig head with paddle tail, that is what I hooked that ray (or submarine) on. When it got real dark I thought I would change sensory baits... I went with a rattle trap, and a deeper diving rattle hard bait. Still nothing. I also tried a flashy spoon type of thing.

The highlight of the night was when the harbor patrol stopped me. They asked for my license, which was no problem.. then we talked for a bit. They were nice guys.

after that I went to my catfish rigs..still got nothing but a lot of stink on my hands (I use the dough bait). I thought I would change sensory baits again and go with smell....

IN the end I got skunked, I don't recall getting skunked before in the bay.. so this might have been the first time. Fishing in a kayak at night was pretty cool. I can't lie it was a little scary at first. My FF was blinding me until I turned down the brightness. I could not see the waves so I had to just allow myself to roll with the kayak (which is probably what you are supposed to do anyways). After I got comfortable it really was a nice evening. THe moon came out but not enough to see by. ... the water laid down a bit. It was cool (after a 102 degree day) and quiet, and no one was around. I could hear the fish splashing all around me (clearly mocking me) Very relaxing. Just me, my kayak and a bunch of fish that were clearly not hungry.

I left at 2am a little unhappy with the lack of success but very happy with the experience overall.

[Shady]

Thanks for the report. Everything is feeding on the millions of peanut bunker. Match that or catch some for bait and you're going to catch.

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[Pat Smith]

DARN!!! I had a rattle trap that looked a lot like that, but lost it two weeks ago on a damned crab trap.