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Oops, should have been today, 8/12. Us old guys not good with dates.
SMOG met at PLO with a fashionably late 8 AM launch to catch the rising tide (floats all boats they say). There was a slight SW wind, maybe 7 MPH. Let me tell you, there’s a whole lot of fetch when SW and an incoming tide goes directly into it creating very sloppy conditions. I foolishly headed down to the lighthouse and sandbar, picking a few stripers up along the way but bobbing around in some 2-3’ waves working against the current. As I headed back in I saw breaking fish along the riprap and that started a fantastic morning of chasing breaking fish until we got tired and left them. While most ranged in the 10-12” range there were 18’s scattered in the mix and the occasional keeper. Fortunately for us the wind abated so that we could follow the schools.
We could see Spanish Mackerel leaping ahead of some of the schools but hard as we pedaled we couldn’t catch up to them. At one point there was a school of stripers a couple hundred yards long down near the swimming beach and lighthouse. I also picked a 14” speck up at the sandbar as well.
In addition to the game fish we wanted there were some we didn’t want. Needlefish were around in the thousands. I actually caught them 4 different ways today, one I hope to never duplicate. I caught them on topwater, on a jig head with Gulp, snagged on a jig head, and lastly I was bottom fishing for flounder when one decided where the line entered the water was good to eat so he bit the line and wrapped itself around it so I had a needlefish suspended on my line no where near a hook.
Ron had similar success. Gary wisely stayed near the inlet early and got a Cutlass Fish before having to leave. It was so much fun having breaking schools of fish again.
SMOG met at PLO with a fashionably late 8 AM launch to catch the rising tide (floats all boats they say). There was a slight SW wind, maybe 7 MPH. Let me tell you, there’s a whole lot of fetch when SW and an incoming tide goes directly into it creating very sloppy conditions. I foolishly headed down to the lighthouse and sandbar, picking a few stripers up along the way but bobbing around in some 2-3’ waves working against the current. As I headed back in I saw breaking fish along the riprap and that started a fantastic morning of chasing breaking fish until we got tired and left them. While most ranged in the 10-12” range there were 18’s scattered in the mix and the occasional keeper. Fortunately for us the wind abated so that we could follow the schools.
We could see Spanish Mackerel leaping ahead of some of the schools but hard as we pedaled we couldn’t catch up to them. At one point there was a school of stripers a couple hundred yards long down near the swimming beach and lighthouse. I also picked a 14” speck up at the sandbar as well.
In addition to the game fish we wanted there were some we didn’t want. Needlefish were around in the thousands. I actually caught them 4 different ways today, one I hope to never duplicate. I caught them on topwater, on a jig head with Gulp, snagged on a jig head, and lastly I was bottom fishing for flounder when one decided where the line entered the water was good to eat so he bit the line and wrapped itself around it so I had a needlefish suspended on my line no where near a hook.
Ron had similar success. Gary wisely stayed near the inlet early and got a Cutlass Fish before having to leave. It was so much fun having breaking schools of fish again.
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