LTJ Midbay Limit 10/21
 

Crew today was my brother-in-law Chris (Tfer ‘Shaky Rod’) and Marty (5th Tuition). Left Sandy Point ramp around 1:30. We headed south hoping the get front row seats at the Sunset Bird Show and had a few areas we wanted to check out. There was nowhere near as much bait along the western side as I had seen just a few days ago, but I didn’t really want to venture too far away from the protection of the western shore. The wind was howling out of the WNW as promised and the small craft advisory that was posted seemed about right. We found enough bait in an area to justify throwing over a 6 rod trolling spread (forgive me Jamie, old habits are hard to break) as we waited until the end of day feeding frenzy. First hit didn’t take long as a white umbrella with twin 6” Calcutta shads (16oz back 75’) got slammed. Chris made quick time with the reeling and the skunk was off the boat with a nice fat 25” rock in the box. I had marked the spot and we circled back and picked up another fish; this time it hit a 17 Tony back 120’ with 4oz. It was a nice 21” fish but not quite what I was after so we released it. The remainder of the time spent trolling was pretty slow as we picked up another small fish and had a knockdown on one of the other stormbrellas. We could see the birds were finally starting to get active so we pulled in all of the trolling rods and packed them away. It was show time!

Chris has never jigged before so I had a rod set-up for him to use with a 2oz gold sting silver and a dropper fly rigged about 18” above the sting silver. Marty was quick on the draw to jig up the first fish as I was showing Chris how to work his lure….feel the bottom, snap the rod up about 2 feet and follow the lure down without allowing any slack. It took him a few times but after only a few minutes he jigged up his first fish and it went in da box. I worked a Manns Hardnose on a 3/4oz jig off of the back and Marty had great success vertically jigging a 2oz pearl L’il Bunker lure. We both had a steady pick as we were quickly icing our limit. Chris was getting the hang of jigging and was amazed at how he could feel the various fish tapping at his lure. All of a sudden he yells that he has another and we see the rod is bent way over. I was thinking he had caught something on the bottom. There was definitely something tugging, so we knew it wasn’t the bottom. He had to work the fish toward the back of the boat and eventually to the other side. Marty was quick to help Chris and as the fish breaks the surface Marty says, “ he has two fish”. I had forgotten about the dropper fly. Each fish was about 23”; not bad for a first-timer. With our limit done we continued to C&R until the FF was blank. The sun was now well below the horizon and all of the bird activity was suddenly done and so were we. We enjoyed a nice ride back to the ramp as the wind had laid down considerably. Today was my first day putting to use everything that I had learned from all of my trips with Jamie (Jumbo1) and it was a great feeling. Thank you Jamie. It was great having Marty along to help with managing the trolling spread and helping Chris….Thanks Marty.

Nice going Don! Like you said, I guess old habits are tough to break. At least you were able to combine both art forms.

I saw the wind forecast and wondered who would be out fishing. Figured it was a pilot house boater.:D

Nice work Don. Not only are you a multifaceted angler but can do it all well :)

Don; thanks for the trip and for posting on CBA:D. I had planned a trip yesterday, but it got cancelled because of the wind. Don was kind enough to let me hop on his boat.
Whenever I get a ride on someone elses boat I always come home with a couple of additional pointers. On the trolling side, I wanted to see Don's spreader bars in action, and as far as LTJ, I can always use some instruction.
It was difficult to see all the crabpots in one of my favorite areas, and I thank Don for having the guts to slide into shallower water as we searched for fish:eek:.. With the wind and the tide controling the boat and the lines, he did an great job weaving through the obstacle course.
It was nice meeting and fishing with Chris. He can sure help filling a limit catching two at a time:).
You gotta love those 25 Maycrafts and 27 Judges that give you the extra couple of feet (and pilot house) to make fishing a day like yesterday enjoyable.
Thanks again Don.
5th (Marty)

I've been having luck with 1 oz and 1.5 oz white and chartreuse bucktails with a chartreuse twister tail added. 21 to 26 inch fish.

Agreed....I run 1 to 6oz BTs with twister tails, in tandem, under Tony 15 & 17s.

Don,

Nice report! How deep were you when you tied into them while LTJ? Were you near any drop offs?

Don

We were in 11 feet of water when we were jigging. Right now you want to look for concentrations of bait around the mouth of rivers. This process will work its way south as the bait comes down out of the rivers. Just when you think it is all over the big fish arrive.....Don