Late Thurs 5/28 - chunking Podickery Point
Sorry it's late - burning candle at each end.
Left Sandy Point at 7 am with fellow TFer REM1224 ( Ralph ). We had fresh Menhaden from Anglers - plus LTJ and 5 trolling rods to cover all bases. Only downside - needed to be home about 2:00 - vacation plans for OC long weekend. Did not give us a lot of time to explore so went all in on Podickery. Based somewhat on info - also knew it would be calmer north of bridge since wind was from south.
Found outgoing current bucking south breeze - not best for chunking. New fish finder is nice but still trying to learn what the marks , blips mean. Found some archs in 33 feet so drifted and tried LTJ over them. They were widely scattered - not best odds when LTJ.
Gave this about 25 minutes - then decided to see how bad it would be at anchor. Feared wind would push stern into current - no good if chunking. To our surprise - boat sat at nice angle to current. By turning engines hard over - these acted as rudder and stern was with current. Bonus - breeze was blowing on us to cool us.
We set out 4 rods with fish finder slides with 1 to 2 ozs. Cut 3/4 inch steaks from the baitfish and set them back very slowly so 3 foot leader did not tangle. Once the weight hit bottom - pulled off 4-5 feet and set reel to baitrunner. No other boats around except one trolling deeper.
Took about 20 minutes for first hit. Measured it twice but at 21 1/2 with tail lightly pinched - it was keeper. Put fresh bait on all lines - using a head on one of them. Had a hit but no hook up - then minute later , rod with head got hit. Let this one run a touch - 99.9% it would be keeper taking a big chunk. Sure enough - nice 30 incher.
Current was slowing and once slack came - we took rods in and explored area with side scan. Found a few interesting " things " on bottom. One looks like a canoe - can not wait to dive it next week to find out what it is. Ralph was big help with putting GPS marks on the things spotted.
With current starting in - this made anchoring much easier. We looked along the 25 to 35 edge and saw some blips so dropped anchor and put over fresh bait. We got 5-6 from each fish. The lines went straight back so we decided to try casting 1 oz leadheads with 7 inch Bass Assassians - white or pearl color. We cast towards bow it avoid chunk rods.
Had hit off chunk but no hook up. Got a tap on LTJ - so knew fish were around. Few cast later - tap turned into hook up and 23 incher went into box. It was about 12:30 - really needed to be heading in. Nice weather , good current , fish around and space for one to finish limit - yeah , I was going to be late.
We had few more taps but missed hook ups - I'll guess under 20 inchers. One reason we used 7 inch lures - idea was to not hook short Rock.
Next tap was converted into solid hook up - 28-29 incher went into box. We cleaned up boat as engines warmed - then pulled anchor. It came up easily - some times in this area it snags and I have to go diving to free it. Half expected it since I was running late.
Got back to ramp and Ralph took his two fish. Got home and cleaned boat and fish - then myself and headed out. Had to laugh crossing bridge 90 minutes after leaving Sandy Point. Wife was understanding me being late - comes with marrying a fisherman.
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