Got to Man Up

[Slayer]

Hey Marty,

It's the full moon doing this. It sends them into the spawning rivers. I remember last year it did this exact same thing in early Apr...wide open bite and then literally in one afternoon the place shut down before the full moon that night.

I'm just glad that this 1st group is spawning earlier this year. Gives them a chance to make a getaway before season opens. But don't worry, there are more on the way!

[garlien]

Marty good point on the bait...I have not been south that much but north of the bridge has been almost a no mans land for bait fish...o2 levels are good, water temps are good....I dont get the lack of bait....

[morsax]

The fish were further south yesterday. We ran from SP until we found any bait at all and then finally put out the spread. Within minutes, had a 43" to the boat and it stayed pretty hot all day. We ended up with 20 to the boat, 2 good knockdowns and one lost. (Really, not an April 1 report). The hot bait of the day was a Warren's daisy chain in white. Most of the others came on white chutes fished high up off the boards. 1 on a chrome 19 tony way back.

The lesson that I have been learning over the last couple of seasons is that I don't put the spread out until I find decent marks. It took us close to 2 hours of big S turns to find anything worthwhile--but once we started fishing, it was totally worth it. We ended the day with some great gannet actions and a late flurry of fish and then a 25 mile run back to SP. Ran into B-faithful and crew there--nice to see you guys!

Hans

[wino]

Maybe it's the thousands of big cows the North Carolina boys slaughtered this winter.

[B-Faithful]

It was a tougher day out there. These fish come in waves and follow the bait. There was little bait to be found. It was still a great day to be on the water fishing. I am glad we got out.

Sounds like Hans was winner for the day! Nice work fellas!

[morsax]

I imagine that means tomorrow I will be buying big cans of tomato juice to get the smell off the boat.

I will be out of Breezy if anyone is around.

Hans

[Bug Guy]

Just to add to Morsax's report - it was a great day and for me (still learning), a great learning day. The long ride was cold (why would I wear shorts?), but worth it and like Hans said, we didn't put anything out until we marked something. We also worked a single area pretty hard, but did have a late day shift to a new area. In fact, the late flurry happened because we we went back over a spot we had picked one up where we didn't see bait. Literally about 10 minutes later we marked bait, fish, and eventually had gannets diving around us. I'm pretty stoked to have had that type of day...one to remember even with just 6 rods out.

Nice to meet you Greg, and that sure is a sweet boat you got there.

Tight lines everyone, I'll be working on the house and yard this weekend most likely.

Cheers,

Bob