| Skipped the Nyati trip to take some time and fish the beach
I have called home on so many trips for a pre-sharkathon run. Headed down
solo on Sat and ran into Henry and ShawnQ in the highbanks. Finally made
it down in the 30's and stopped to get some baits out before sunset. Bait
was nowhere as plentiful as was just a few days earlier. Get rigged up with
a grander Blackfin and Bonita and get them deployed and sit back for the
sunset.
Couldn't sleep all night and laid in the bed of the truck looking
at the abundant stars shining bright above. Stars of the shooting variety
had skid into the atmosphere. Still not being able to sleep I get the camera
and take a long-exposure of the night-time setup.
We troll for another hour or two and things clear up. Shortly
after we get hooked up on the first solid fish of the trip. Ashton hops in
the hot seat and goes to battle.
On the drive down I get a feeling to check out some small structure
I have fixed in the GPS from a long time ago. I get out there and the water
while murking up, the structure is still clear enough to see in the water.
Hoping to hang some Snook, I bring some Watermelon Shad I was able to nab
in the castnet and chum the critters. The first fish I pull off with a spoon
was a nice Mac or two. Shortly after I switch to throwing the shad out and
land a Red Snapper off this piece... roughly just 150yds from shore.
After releasing the Snapper I get bit off a couple times and then finally
land a Bluefish.
I then pull in an interesting fish... an unofficial State Record
Hairy Blenny, not knowing at the time and released it.
After the Blenny I nail my first Lane Snapper from a kayak... in approximately
12' of water
Soon after I get a Speck on this same structure.
After spending a couple hours fishing the EC Classified structure,
I decide to head south in hopes to find some bait. While not finding any
anchovies, I set up camp in the 50's and get rigged for the evening deployment.
With the wind picking up, I get bait out just before sunset.. a nice buffet
of Bonita and killer baits in close as well.
I waited and waited and waited and got cut off on two of the
large rigs during the middle of the night. Come sunrise I wake up and reel
in the remaining rods full of weed and sea grass and other junk stuck to
the line. Fortunately I am able to locate one of my big cut-off baits and
go out and get it back before a shark hits it. I shake the weed off one of
the lines to have a couple small Triggers fall out.
With the beach being very slow for the weekend, I decide it
is time to take it back the yakkkkk.... I head to mansfield. I meet up with
my old pier fishing buddy James who is fixing to leave and somehow manage
to convince him to kayak out to some structure about a mile out with myself.
We get there on the calm seas and clear water and find tons of baitfish and
spades hanging below. I jump in for a closer look.
After catching about a half dozen Spadefish and shooting 2-3 large ones,
I end up keeping 3 to fillet up.
After playing around for a couple hours hooking into Kings and
catching Spades and small Snapper, the sun burst down upon us and we decide
to troll back in. About midway back to the beach we see birds going bonkers
and find an Anchovie baitball being tore up by Macs, Sharks, and other tasty
treats.
After getting cutoff on the Macs a couple times I decide to put out a shark
fish and almost instantly within the orb of the chaos get hooked up.
After a 15min battle we finally get the Blacktip under control.
Ringing in at about 5-1/2' I cut the leader and the shark swims off back
toward the bait ball.
I get back onto the bait ball and James and I hammer into a
few fish. I decided to rig up another leader and put another shark bait out.
Once again within a couple minutes I am again being dragged around on a sleigh
ride but quickly get the fish to the boat.
It decides to take a few more runs but get her up. This time slightly larger
being estimated 5'6"-5'8".
Another quick pic and she is released and swims off.
The baitball had been split by a couple sharks and predators
of all shapes and sizes quickly devour the entire bait ball. I put one last
shark bait out on the same leader, this time having tied a small 8/0 circle
hook to the mono. Not long and get slammed again.
A stuborn fish we finally get her in after dragging us closer
to the rocks and into shore. After about a 20-25min fight, we get her in
and get a quick pic before cutting the mono at the hook. Being the largest
shark of the day she pushed close to 6'.
Headed back in and packed up to see an insane amount of anchovies
being contained right up on the beach... birds mainly feeding on activity.
Overall it was an interesting trip with rather slow beach conditions
made for in the yak. Thanks to James for helping out with the sharks and
hope to see everyone at Sharkathon.
Good fishing
- Oz |
