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I had last Friday off from work and was eagerly anticipating a run down to the ESVA to drum fish. But as Friday got closer, the wind forecast got worse and worse. By the time Thursday night rolled around it was clear that drum fishing was not going to happen. So it was time for Plan "B", as in Bluefish.
There have been reports for a couple weeks now of snappers and mid-20" fish in the OC inlet area while a few bigger fish were also being reported, but not a ton. I had a hunch that there might be some bigger ones away from the inlet though, and based on past experiences, I knew they liked the flats. So I decided to try a little further away from where most of the reports had people catching blues. I launched a couple hours before sunrise to fish for stripers under some of the light shadows before heading onto the bluefish search. But to my surprise all the stripers were gone and had been replaced by 16" - 22" blues. They were everywhere in the shadows and kept me very busy until first light. But smaller blues weren't what I was after.
Once night gave way to morning, I switched over to the heavier gear and started aggressively working 6" poppers across the flats as I drifted with the breeze. Pretty soon I found what I was looking for - big, ravenous, mouths of teeth that wanted nothing better to do then to try and destroy my popper. With the aerial displays and tail walks they put on each time I hooked one, I had totally forgotten that they were " Plan B" for the day. 25" - 37" blues slamming topwater is pretty hard to beat.
Eventually, the breeze picked up to the point where it was time to seek more sheltered waters. So I headed west and hit the bay to prospect for specks. I couldn't fish all the spots I wanted too, but I covered some good areas of early growth grass beds. It wasn't a great bite, and there wasn't much for size, but I did pickup my first 3 specks of the year to 15". A lot of dink stripers rounded out the fishing for the day.
Come Saturday evening I just had to get back out to look for blues. So I made a quick, last minute run out the last hour of light to sling topwater again. I didn't do quite as well as the day before, but still coaxed 3 to commit and lost another 2 mid-fight. After sunset, I checked out the shadow edges again and it was filthy with blues 20" and under. You could of caught a limit in less than 15 minutes probably had you wanted to. Feisty little things too. I had several unexpectedly jump right into my lap long before I was thinking of trying to land them. That mouth of teeth dropping in your lap unexpectedly will get you sliding back in your seat quick! I pulled one 24" striper from the middle of all the snappers before calling it a night.
IMG_0970.jpgIMG_0973.jpgIMG_0975.jpgDSCF1782.jpgDSCF1779.jpgDSCF1732.jpg
There have been reports for a couple weeks now of snappers and mid-20" fish in the OC inlet area while a few bigger fish were also being reported, but not a ton. I had a hunch that there might be some bigger ones away from the inlet though, and based on past experiences, I knew they liked the flats. So I decided to try a little further away from where most of the reports had people catching blues. I launched a couple hours before sunrise to fish for stripers under some of the light shadows before heading onto the bluefish search. But to my surprise all the stripers were gone and had been replaced by 16" - 22" blues. They were everywhere in the shadows and kept me very busy until first light. But smaller blues weren't what I was after.
Once night gave way to morning, I switched over to the heavier gear and started aggressively working 6" poppers across the flats as I drifted with the breeze. Pretty soon I found what I was looking for - big, ravenous, mouths of teeth that wanted nothing better to do then to try and destroy my popper. With the aerial displays and tail walks they put on each time I hooked one, I had totally forgotten that they were " Plan B" for the day. 25" - 37" blues slamming topwater is pretty hard to beat.
Eventually, the breeze picked up to the point where it was time to seek more sheltered waters. So I headed west and hit the bay to prospect for specks. I couldn't fish all the spots I wanted too, but I covered some good areas of early growth grass beds. It wasn't a great bite, and there wasn't much for size, but I did pickup my first 3 specks of the year to 15". A lot of dink stripers rounded out the fishing for the day.
Come Saturday evening I just had to get back out to look for blues. So I made a quick, last minute run out the last hour of light to sling topwater again. I didn't do quite as well as the day before, but still coaxed 3 to commit and lost another 2 mid-fight. After sunset, I checked out the shadow edges again and it was filthy with blues 20" and under. You could of caught a limit in less than 15 minutes probably had you wanted to. Feisty little things too. I had several unexpectedly jump right into my lap long before I was thinking of trying to land them. That mouth of teeth dropping in your lap unexpectedly will get you sliding back in your seat quick! I pulled one 24" striper from the middle of all the snappers before calling it a night.
IMG_0970.jpgIMG_0973.jpgIMG_0975.jpgDSCF1782.jpgDSCF1779.jpgDSCF1732.jpg
I think that's what I see anyway.
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