Went to Jonas Green this morning at 0600 instead of Home Port. It was a beautiful morning with a light breeze, high tide and NO OTHER BOATS on the water. I slow trolled 1.5 MPH over to Weems and caught many small Croakers on a top and bottom rig baited with Fishbites. I tried Weems with spinners and bottom fishing but did not get any takers. I only went in up to the bridge.
I then jumped over to the East side and started drifting a Top Bottom rig with the outgoing tide. My drift was about .5 MPH and then I started hitting Perch in doubles left and right. Many were in the 10-11 inch range. Getting two 11 inch perch in the yak with an ultralight rod is really interesting. I was catching small croaker here as well. Every oyster bar I fished had perch and croaker. The secret however was that I had to be in 12 to 13 feet of water or they wouldn't bite. The air temp when I started was about 76 and the water temp read 80. ( I don't know how accurate that is as my transducer is duct sealed to the inside of the yak.
I took my little Vibe Skipjack on this trip as it was already in the truck from my aborted Home Port trip yesterday. One thing I noticed about this yak is that the hull is not nearly as efficient as my OC Trident. I was paddling and using my small 35 amp battery with the 24 pound thrust motor and I used up most of the battery and I was paddling a lot. In the Trident, even if I use the small battery I usually come home with 50 to 60 % battery life. Well I bough the vibe for skinny water in protected places so I can't complain much.
One thing I can complain about was a guy in a 22ft bow rider leaving the helm doing about 25 MPH to do something with his kids in the bow. ( who weren't wearing PFDs BTW) He was heading straight towards me while I was drifting near the deep water marker by Manressa. I yelled at the ass and he turned but never pulled the power off so I had to do some fancy turning to get into the wake. My paddle was stowed and I had a rod in my hand but luckily the prop effect from the left side mounted motor turns the yak pretty fast to the right when you switch it on high.
I knocked off at 1000 and headed for WAWA for breakfast. What a great day!
I then jumped over to the East side and started drifting a Top Bottom rig with the outgoing tide. My drift was about .5 MPH and then I started hitting Perch in doubles left and right. Many were in the 10-11 inch range. Getting two 11 inch perch in the yak with an ultralight rod is really interesting. I was catching small croaker here as well. Every oyster bar I fished had perch and croaker. The secret however was that I had to be in 12 to 13 feet of water or they wouldn't bite. The air temp when I started was about 76 and the water temp read 80. ( I don't know how accurate that is as my transducer is duct sealed to the inside of the yak.
I took my little Vibe Skipjack on this trip as it was already in the truck from my aborted Home Port trip yesterday. One thing I noticed about this yak is that the hull is not nearly as efficient as my OC Trident. I was paddling and using my small 35 amp battery with the 24 pound thrust motor and I used up most of the battery and I was paddling a lot. In the Trident, even if I use the small battery I usually come home with 50 to 60 % battery life. Well I bough the vibe for skinny water in protected places so I can't complain much.
One thing I can complain about was a guy in a 22ft bow rider leaving the helm doing about 25 MPH to do something with his kids in the bow. ( who weren't wearing PFDs BTW) He was heading straight towards me while I was drifting near the deep water marker by Manressa. I yelled at the ass and he turned but never pulled the power off so I had to do some fancy turning to get into the wake. My paddle was stowed and I had a rod in my hand but luckily the prop effect from the left side mounted motor turns the yak pretty fast to the right when you switch it on high.
I knocked off at 1000 and headed for WAWA for breakfast. What a great day!
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