Went to bed Wednesday night - planning to get up and launch from Sandy Point in the morning and try some PSCR trolling - then give the boat trailer a very through inspection. I'm siting on the fence whether to buy a new one ( $$$$ OUCH ) or put about 30% of that out for new parts. Tossed and turned all night and finally gave up on sleep at about 3:45 am. Crazy how excited I still get before a fishing trip.
Checked weather and saw 5-10 knots so changed plans and headed to Breezy Point instead. Had to stop for diesel near Rt. 4 - station I stop at a lot. While truck drank down the $4.00 a gallon fuel - I checked the trailer bearings. The night attendant sees the boat often and asked if I forgot the ice. I told him the fish need to be released - he shook his head. I did not even try to explain C/R fishing.
Got to Breezy Point about 5:30 and launched on a low tide. This was good luck - on high tide some times I need help convincing the big girl to get wet. Had to laugh as no one else was around. That will sure change in about 6 weeks. While engines warmed up and radar warmed up - I checked bilge and nav. lights. Headed out and noted 5 feet of water - dredger did a great job this year. Looked back at the still dark shore line.
Bay had a slight chop to it but not enough to worry about. Radar showed a clear path - only the markers were showing. Got to power plant and saw one other boat there. Flow is weak - due to one reactor down. Low flow made it easy to jig but also means few good fish are there. Played with 16 to 22 inchers for about an hour as 3 other boats arrived. Sun came up and I was getting the urge to head east and troll.
Swear I heard - Go deep but no one else was on the boat. Got a 13 incher that hit a 7 inch Bass assasin and heard laughing. Turned and saw the trolling lures grinning at me. Enough of the dinks so I racked the light rod and headed SSE to the channel edge. Got to 50 feet and saw a few Gannets sitting and a few flying. Put over the port planer board so I could watch the lines easily. Put 4 tandem rigs and one single off the board - mix of colors with a few blue / white to imitate Herring. I dropped a white umbrella back 200 feet from the boat. Worked east to west as incoming current carried the boat north. Water is clean and about 51*.
Worked near CP marker and got a hit off a tandem rig. Fish blasted a white Spankin' Striper with green glitter shad. Fish fought well and I let the mid 30 incher go in the water.
Trolled over the west edge and saw a lot of bait at 20 to 25 feet. Reeled in the unweighted umbrella and added 12 ozs to it to get it deeper. With only six rods - important to adjust rods to match where fish or bait is showing. The adjustment paid off quickly - as I heard the THUNK of a shallow running planer board rod.
Oh well , better lucky then good - the fish hit a chartreuse 2 oz Alien with blue / silver shad ( Marty's ). Looked about 34 inches.
Brought the umbrella back in and took weight off. It was cold to the touch. Worked back into the deep and noticed some bait tight to bottom in 70 feet. No idea what it is - looked small on my meter. Got back over west side edge and found more bait at 20 feet down. Circled it but no fish were around it. Bay was almost flat and I was down to a T shirt.
Current had carried me north to almost #78 marker. I planned to pull lines in once there and had a strike off the board again. Fish crushed a single Bloody Point ( All Tackle ) black head 3 oz spear point white sparkle with a blue / white shad.
The strike was awesome - rod buckled down after the #64 rubber band literally exploded. Oh yeah ,beast - I thought. Fish pulled but quickly swam towards the boat. It stayed near surface - bigger Rock tend to swim deep after being hooked. Sure enough - saw a feisty 30 incher that was camera shy. ( I hit on/off button instead of taking picture - oops ).
Racked that rod and slowly reeled in the other 5 - then steered to planer board to make it easy to retrieve. GPS showed just under 5 miles to ramp and ran back at 35 knots. I did not look at the GPH gauge but knew it would only be gulping gas for about 3 minutes or so. Got back and saw only one other trailer there so I took my time and gave my trailer a good look over. Seeing enough rust to nudge me towards a new trailer. Put boat on trailer and got in truck just as a dark cloud dumped drizzle. Shower lasted until I got to top of the hill - then sun came back out. Managed to beat traffic and home by 3:30.
Noted in my log book - it was one of those perfect days. Great weather , no troubles , calm seas , no crowds and a few big fish. Tough to top a day like that - especially mid March.
One of those days - Breezy Point - 3/15 w pics
................................Mark
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