Two on Saturday
 

Talk about a change in weather – at 10 pm Friday , there was a small craft warning up on NOAA but CBOFS showed less then 10 all day. Figured we’d give it a try and hope CBOFS was correct. Got up at 5:00 am and NOAA had dropped small craft warning. Got to Sandy Point at 6:15 am and met fellow TFers NoleAnimal ( Scott ) , Big E ( Evans ) and Blue Lou ( Lou ). While engines warmed up – crew racked the six rigged rods and put the two spares in holders. Only about 6-7 trailers there as sun came up. Headed out and found smooth seas – running SSE to channel edge near # 87 marker. Put the boards over and three lines off each. Swung into an east / west trolling / search pattern and got into the donuts. Trolled about 45 minutes and then got a solid hit. Scott took first fish – it gave him a nice fight.


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He soon had the nice fish next to boat and it was landed by hand. Quick photo and the 39 incher was set loose – tail slap at surface threw water on us.



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Fish hit a 2 oz chartreuse Spankin’ Striper with green shad – part of 6/2 tandem about 70 feet off board.
We trolled around some bait and snagged a few of the big Menhadden. Had to check lure often for scales on the hook points. Good news – never had any trash or jelly fish. The bait fish were measured just for fun but are about 12 inches long.



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CBOFS was correct as it was calm almost all day.



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Had a DNR officer come by and check the boat decal and count the rods. New officer I have not seen before – great seeing them out there checking.
Slack current came and we knew it was unlikely to get any bites. Once current started again – we got another hit. Evans reeled in a nice one about 35 inches. It hit a 2 oz white Alien with a clear / aqua colored shad from Marty’s. This is a new color for me – really looks good in the clear water.





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Fished until about 2:00 and pulled lines as a gentle breeze picked up. Ran back to Sandy Point and saw 3-4 police cars on east bound bridge. Going past jetty – could see an accident on the bridge.

Nice work!! Weatherman got me Saturday. Thought we would wait til tide and wind were supposed to be coming together from the South and missed a beautiful morning. Oh well, glad you got a few. I have a pile of the Spankin Stripers to pull but couldn't bring myself to crushing the barbs. I even bought 2 of his 32ouncers for the braided boat rods!!! ( Hope nothing hits them or I'll need the windless to get them in! :D )

Jeff - Don't worry about mashing the barbs. I use my barbless lures during the regular season - often without a stinger. IMHO - I do not think I miss or lose any Rock due to barbless. A lot of guys are b*tching about knock downs and misses and putting blame on no barb. You miss a few fish trolling no matter what - heck I've had them crush Stretchs ( old style with three trebles ) and not get hooked.

I'm also thinking a lot of the " misses " right now are due to big baitfish getting hooked and coming off or baitfish scales on hook point. We are finding scales often right now. You would not think it could stop the point from going into a Rock's jaw but it sure can.

I think that as long as you keep tension on the line (the boat will do that), that you should have no problem with losses due to barbless hooks. The lack of stinger may even give the shad a little better action (my my comment, I think that I heard it from you Skip).

Until I read the caption, I though that the large menhaden was a bluefish!