Report - Trolling around BPL - 11/29

[swartj]

The crew today was Ira (long time fishing buddy), Seth his grandson and Rick Seth’s dad. We left the dock at around 8:00 to a very low tide. While we were motoring out I told them that any fish over 40” gets released. Both Seth and Rick looked at me like “Right that is not going to happen”. The plan was to come out of the West River go to 45’ and drop the lines and troll.

I decided to run only one board because this was Seth and Rick’s first time trolling for big rock. It simplified my life since I was going to be doing to be landing most of the fish and running the boat. The spread is below


Rod Rig Boat/Board Weight Bars
1 Lg. Umbrella – Chartreuse Boat None 16
2 Lg. Umbrella – Chartreuse Boat 24 oz 9
3 Lg. Umbrella – White Boat 16 oz 11
4 Sm. Umbrella – Chartreuse Boat 10 oz 14
5 Tandem 6/2 Chartreuse Chutes Board None 6
6 Daisy Chain – White Board None 6
7 Tandem – Storm Yellow Board None 6
8 Tandem 4/2 – White Chute Board None 6
9 Tandem Tony 21/6 oz White Chute Board None 21

Seth fished with me in the summer and we did some live lining. Rich had only fished on head boats. Even though Ira and I explained the planer board style of fishing they kept thinking the bouncing rods was a bite. If the board rods started bouncing while going through bait, they though we had a bite. I kept telling them the bite is not subtle you will know. Finally the first fish hit Rod 3 in about 55’ of water. Seth was up and got a 27” rock. His biggest fish yet. In the box it went.

The next fish came in about 60’ of water an hour later. This fish hit rod 8 and Rick was up. It rattled all the rods and started taking drag. I knew it was a good fish so I had Ira drive the boat while directed the back of the boat. This rod happens to be one of my lighter rods with a Penn 220 GTO on it. Rick was not making any headway so we slowed the boat to a crawl and he finally started getting some line. I finally got the fish in the boat and it was a fat 42” fish. Neither Seth, Rick nor Ira had seen a fish this big so there was quite a bit of excitement. We took a quick picture and back it went.

About an hour later a 22” fish hit Rod 2 and Ira made quick work of it. In the box it went.

It was about 2:00 and we started the LTH (Long Troll Home). We were in about 45’ of water when Rod 4 goes down. Seth was standing next to it so he took it. He worked it and worked and finally got it to the side of the boat. I netted it and over the gunwale came a 34” fish. When I asked him if he wanted to keep it his eyes got big and shook his head vigorously “Yes”.
That ended the day. The final tally was 4 fish and 2 other knockdowns. We worked water from 45’ to 110’ on the western side of the channel from half way between buoy 86 and BLP to buoy 84A. The water cooled a fair amount from last week. In the creek it was 43* and in front of the West River it was 45*. Farther out in the bay it was 49* - 50*. It seemed like most folks were picking at them like we were today. Any day you get a fish over 40” is a good day.

Talked to drichett and Lone Ranger today.

Back at it next weekend weather permitting.

[drichitt]

Nice fishing Jerry and congrats on releasing the 42". All of my upper 30" fish have had roe in them, so you can be sure that 42" had some. Sorry we never got an eyeball on one another, but your heads-up about where you caught your 42" was the bait that brought us further south. Thank you...Don

[B-Faithful]

Thanks for all the detail

[mlag]

Dang...I feel left out. Everyone was fishing but me Congrats Jerry Nice fish....................Mark

[BreezyDog]

You had better luck than I did. My friend Mark and I fished between 84 and 86 BPL and only got 1 20 incher... I was only out between 1 and 4:30...I'l try again later this week if the weather is decent.

Jeff

[B-Faithful]

Originally Posted by mlag

Dang...I feel left out. Everyone was fishing but me Congrats Jerry Nice fish....................Mark

I spoke to you.. you were hunting. I am not going to feel sorry for you