Slow start, fast finish at PLO

[kevinfry]

Well Ictalurus Bill and I both had a change of plans Sunday and decided to hit Point Lookout around high tide Sunday. We got there around noon and searched for puppy drum and trout around the lake and jetty to little benefit...one small blue fish. But the weather was great, the company was good and we were getting plenty of exercise so I wasn't too upset at not catching.
We went out in to cornfeild, Bill marked no fish to my knowledge but we kept trolling, cast around the light house...still nothing. Fished the strong current, I think Bill caught a little blue, not much but at least we had the skunk off both boats. Strange thing was there was little bait evident, no birds working..which surprised us since when we drove in there had been birds diving on bait just off the causeway......we decided to work our way up the east side of the point.
By the time we got to the fishing pier, my arms were about to fall off. I took a rest, cut some strips from my blue fish. jigged a little, then, refreshed, went to catch up with Bill. We finished our uneventful paddle to the creek mouth and anticipated entering the creek and continuing our search for Puppy drum and trout....and then we saw it. Birds, finally.
After 4 hours of nothing but good weather, it was 3 hours of chasing breakers, catching a mix of schoolie rockfish and snapper blues. And we caught them on everything. Spoons, rapalas, jigs, rattle traps....in the end we decided we'd fish topwater exclusively. The schoolies were very happy to accommodate us. Sadly, this last group were smaller fish, but healthy and energetic.
Finally, we headed back to the beach. Happy. My most productive day of fishing all year. I lost the largest bluefish I had ever hooked. Bill got a good look at him when he jumped fully airborne near the boat. I Also kept one legal rock. The smoker will be full of smaller bluefish.
Thanks for a great trip BIll!!

[DOGFISH]

Thanks, sounds like fun.

[ictalurus]

Persistence paid off.

PLO was a good call, Kevin, and it ended up being my best day of catching this year. I got a pretty good look at Kevin's big blue when it jumped. It was in the 20-24" range, maybe bigger, and it was the biggest blue I've seen all year, even on the reports from the Tackle Box and Buzz's Marina. I definitely shared Kevin's pain when it got away. Here are some pics from the battle:





The first few schools that popped up definitely had bigger blues and stripers in them, but I couldn't hook up with them. At different times, I used a 1.25 or 1.5oz Stingsilver, a 3/4oz Needlefish jig, floating and sinking Rattletraps, and large and small Chugbugs. There were several times when both of us were casting into boiling fishing and not hooking up, which was weird. The blues never barfed up their dinner, so I couldn't figure out what they were eating. The bigger fish came from jigging the Stingsilver under my yak when the school was under me. Here's my biggest blue, which was around 16":



Kevin definitely had the magic touch with the small Rapala, so I'll have to add one to my arsenal.

In the marina lake area, I used a 3" chartreuse Gulp grub on a 1/4oz head and also a salt and pepper bass assassin with a chartreuse paddle tail. Neither of these were touched. I caught one smaller blue trolling a #14 Tony spoon. I also casted a 4" Storm shad in search of specks at the point, but nothing hit that, either.

Water temperature at the buoy was ~71* for most of the day, and the salinity was around 9, which is low for this time of the year. I had a blast with Kevin, and it ended up being a heckuva day spending about 7 hours in the saddle and covering over 9 miles.

Kevin paddling:

[ictalurus]

A few more pics





Kevin's stringer:

[OBX_RAT]

I thought I saw your truck last night Bill, about 7:30 pulled off the side of the road right by the causeway rocks. Looks like you had a good trip, It was slow fishing on the pier

[CB kayak 02]

Nice outing, always great to end on a GOOD note!!

[ictalurus]

Rick--Things shut off like a light switch at 7pm. It always amazes me when that happens. I think that was at slack tide. The ebb tide was really weak, which is why I think we didn't have much luck until later in the afternoon.

Matt--I was glad to end it on a good note, too. I didn't run into many breakers last year, so that made it even more enjoyable.

[OBX_RAT]

Yeah I caught 1 blue about 16 inches, was there the night before and cleaned house, 2 small rockfish, 2 blues, 4 flounder all small, and 14 trout, 2 were keepers but could not get them over the rail before the hook was spit out. All in all it was a fun night of catching.

[ronaultmtd]

With trout having such thin and fragile mouths, I don't try to lift them out of the water with the lures- same with flounder, lifting their head up out of the water causes them to go crazy- a net or fish grip is the way to go with these two-

[kevinfry]

20 trout??

RAT---What were you catching the trout on? What time of night?

[moc]

Thanks for the pics Bill. I have not been back to PLO since the last M&G.

[Slackdaddy]

Kevin,, so is that the new ride? how do you like it?/ and whats the wife gonna get ?

Nick

[kevinfry]

it's a tandem so I just move the seat add hers and away we go. Harder to fish with two though. Othewr than lack of storage, I am good with it. It's fast enough, carries a load, stable, tracks fine. It will work till I can get that malibu extreme i want

[kevinfry]

The crazy creek kayak seat I added makes all the difference.