May 21 2018 : Not many fishing posts, so here's one that's NOT full of fireworks and celebration.
It won't be long before I have to leave Deale
I have so many friends fishing down that way. Mark (Mlag) and Jason (Rockin Robin) often turn south from their slips and fish within a hair of Deale. Many of the Captains and mates I know from my Charter boat days share information. And even Rob (FishNut) puts his boat in Herrington North for the Trophy Season.
Time is getting short, so I invited Captain John (Patent Pending) and a mate (Ronnie) to try fishing off my Judge for a fun trip
Reports from Sunday were that the fish were right out front in 35-50 ft of water. We left the slip at 6:30 and had 19 lines with 6 inch baits soaking in less than an hour.
I really thought we would be done by 9:30 the latest
Although there is a 19 inch minimum, we decided to keep fish over 20 inches today.
The boat rods were on fire. We had a couple of "keepers" in the box and released far to many "shorts" (under 20). We had a dry spell, and it was looking like it was going to be a long day to catch just 6 fish
I found a "hot spot" in deeper water that showed less bait and fewer fish. Wouldn't you know, every time we circled back to that 50 ft spot a "nice" fish (25-27 inches) would hook up.
I still got to play "mate" when we hooked up an Alwives and it twisted the tandem up. Some of the shorts were "spinners" as well, and either broke off the leader or twisted crap up as well.
At least we are back into the part of the season when you can tell a good fish simply by the bend in the rod !!!
I had set a time frame to troll to 1pm. It looked like we were going to need the entire time. However, about 12:15 our final fish was landed
Maybe it was the tide, or some celestial manifestation; but we caught (and released) two more keepers as we were bringing in the lines.
We were further south than our starting point (83) and closer to CB; maybe that was the reason.
Back at the dock, we heard that the fish had moved further south to the area just north of the Radar Towers.
Captain John cleaned fish as I cleaned the boat. Ronnie took all the stuff to the cars, and soon enough, we were ready to head home with some nice filets.
I spoke to my slip holder and he said it would be no problem to stay another week after June 1st
I hope to get a few more trips out of Deale and let Lolo, Jeff, and Mako Mike find the fish up north before my return.
5th