Saltheart
01-03-2001, 12:08 PM
It was back about 1988 or 1989. We were fishing in the late fall at Fresh Pond Rock in Charlestown. My friend Chris had a 4 wheeler and we generally patrolled the beach from Central Beach to the Charlestown Breachway and we also would go over to Misquamicut and drive up and down chasing the schools in the day time. At night though , we would be at Fresh Pond Rock for the tide surge and for the outgoing. We caught hundreds of fish by day on poppers and teasers. In those days the bunker were still pretty big and they would commonly be chased from east to west and often became coralled up at Fresh Pond Rock.
At night I liked to fish rigged eels RI style (no squid). When that wasn't working , I used a plug to drag a teaser out there. My favorite was (and I guess still is) the simple black hackle over white bucktail teaser that Dave Hammock at Murats taught me to tie. I used a 4/0 Mustad hook. Day or night , I liked to use Atom poppers as the casting weight. They cast well and the weight was perfect for the rod I used then.
There are many ways to work a popper by day and there are many ways to use it at night , even if its just a casting weight. What I would do at night was to use a rythmic retrieve. Very slow so the popper would sink a little between pumps. Essentially I was letting the popper go about 8 inches below the surface and then I would pump the rod slowly to break the surface and cause some gurgling. Not a splashy retrieve like in the day time.
The funniest thing was all the advice I got from people about how you shouldn't use poppers at night. In 1988-1989 , I was at the top of my fishing game. I was lucky enough to be able to go 4 days a week. I'd be down there catching fish all week then on Saturday I'd have to listen to the weekend warriors advice about how this popper/teaser rig just wouldn't catch fish after sundown. I was just glad the 30 fish a week i got at night this way didn't know that rig wasn't suppose to work! :)
Blues were thick in those days (big ones too , that fall I caught a 23 pound bluefish , my biggest ever) and I lost a lot of poppers to them since I was rigged for stripers with an Ande leader , not wire. I would buy my atom Poppers at the factory in South Attleboro as seconds. A little chip and that popper was a second that they would sell for about $2.50 to $3.00. I bought a dozen at a time. You were only supposed to get a dozen or so a season but the ladies were nice and I bought the stripersunlimited sweatshirts to support Bob Pond and the conservation cause so I guess they let me get a few dozen extra each year. I still have plenty from stocking up in those days. My favorite was the 2 1/4 OZ size in blue /white and orange/ yellow.
Anyway , one night we were at the rock and I was scoring one fish after another. The fish were about 34 inches long or just under 20 pounds. In those days a keeper was 36 inches and since Chris had 4 mouths to feed , we kept all the legal fish for food. I believe I had 5 fish on the teaser when I hooked up to something a little bigger.
The fish ran a little out , then it ran left with the current. I used an 11.5 foot Lami Steelhead rod in those days and could usually reach over the rocks and follow the fish to the open beach just to the side of the rocks. This fish though turned again and ran in at me. i figured it was spent and started reeling it in. suddenly , about 25 yards out , it parked its fat butt behind a rock. It had its entire length behind the rock with the line going around the right side of the rock. The intriguing part was that the upper 6 inches of it body and its entire dorsal fin was above the water and I could see it clearly.
It was a nice fish. About 45 inches long and over 30 pounds I'm sure. Its complete dorsal fin was visible and half its huge tail could be clearly seen. It was sheer torture looking at it but not being able to get it! I pulled and it didn't bidge. It wasn't even working to pull against me. It was wedged in behind the rock and was just sitting there. Next thing i know , at least 20 minutes has gone by with me keeping the line tight and it just sitting there behind the rock.
There was nothing I could do. The fish wasn't far out nor was it in deep water but the waves were pounding in.No way I could get to it to grab it. I waited and for a minute I had a brainstorm thinking that I could wait out the fish until the tide dropped!! :). As the time went by , I could see more of the fish but I could also see clearly that the line was over the rock and rubbing with each wave and with each pull I gave it.
Finally i decided that the line would not last another hour or more to wait for the tide to drop. finally , with a thought just like you would have when yu place a bet at the casino , I decided to give the fish some slack to see if it would come out from behind the rock. I dropped the rod tip to loosen the line a little , nothing happened. I then pulled some line off the spool and let it go completely slack. The big fish made a big splash and out it darted from behind the rock. I cranked the reel to tighten up but no luck , the line never tightened up and back came my plug and teaser. It had spit the hook as soon as the line went slack. A sad ending. :(
I've never had quite the same experience again. I've had fish go behind a rock for short time then out again or the line breaks right away , etc. this is the only time I ever had a fish on where I actually was praying for the tide to drop so I could land the fish. Even though it happened over ten years ago , I always look at that rock when I go to that spot and think what I could have done to keep that fish away from that rock in the first place. I also still wonder if the line would have held up if I had indeed just waited for the tide to drop and strand the fish. I still wonder.....
At night I liked to fish rigged eels RI style (no squid). When that wasn't working , I used a plug to drag a teaser out there. My favorite was (and I guess still is) the simple black hackle over white bucktail teaser that Dave Hammock at Murats taught me to tie. I used a 4/0 Mustad hook. Day or night , I liked to use Atom poppers as the casting weight. They cast well and the weight was perfect for the rod I used then.
There are many ways to work a popper by day and there are many ways to use it at night , even if its just a casting weight. What I would do at night was to use a rythmic retrieve. Very slow so the popper would sink a little between pumps. Essentially I was letting the popper go about 8 inches below the surface and then I would pump the rod slowly to break the surface and cause some gurgling. Not a splashy retrieve like in the day time.
The funniest thing was all the advice I got from people about how you shouldn't use poppers at night. In 1988-1989 , I was at the top of my fishing game. I was lucky enough to be able to go 4 days a week. I'd be down there catching fish all week then on Saturday I'd have to listen to the weekend warriors advice about how this popper/teaser rig just wouldn't catch fish after sundown. I was just glad the 30 fish a week i got at night this way didn't know that rig wasn't suppose to work! :)
Blues were thick in those days (big ones too , that fall I caught a 23 pound bluefish , my biggest ever) and I lost a lot of poppers to them since I was rigged for stripers with an Ande leader , not wire. I would buy my atom Poppers at the factory in South Attleboro as seconds. A little chip and that popper was a second that they would sell for about $2.50 to $3.00. I bought a dozen at a time. You were only supposed to get a dozen or so a season but the ladies were nice and I bought the stripersunlimited sweatshirts to support Bob Pond and the conservation cause so I guess they let me get a few dozen extra each year. I still have plenty from stocking up in those days. My favorite was the 2 1/4 OZ size in blue /white and orange/ yellow.
Anyway , one night we were at the rock and I was scoring one fish after another. The fish were about 34 inches long or just under 20 pounds. In those days a keeper was 36 inches and since Chris had 4 mouths to feed , we kept all the legal fish for food. I believe I had 5 fish on the teaser when I hooked up to something a little bigger.
The fish ran a little out , then it ran left with the current. I used an 11.5 foot Lami Steelhead rod in those days and could usually reach over the rocks and follow the fish to the open beach just to the side of the rocks. This fish though turned again and ran in at me. i figured it was spent and started reeling it in. suddenly , about 25 yards out , it parked its fat butt behind a rock. It had its entire length behind the rock with the line going around the right side of the rock. The intriguing part was that the upper 6 inches of it body and its entire dorsal fin was above the water and I could see it clearly.
It was a nice fish. About 45 inches long and over 30 pounds I'm sure. Its complete dorsal fin was visible and half its huge tail could be clearly seen. It was sheer torture looking at it but not being able to get it! I pulled and it didn't bidge. It wasn't even working to pull against me. It was wedged in behind the rock and was just sitting there. Next thing i know , at least 20 minutes has gone by with me keeping the line tight and it just sitting there behind the rock.
There was nothing I could do. The fish wasn't far out nor was it in deep water but the waves were pounding in.No way I could get to it to grab it. I waited and for a minute I had a brainstorm thinking that I could wait out the fish until the tide dropped!! :). As the time went by , I could see more of the fish but I could also see clearly that the line was over the rock and rubbing with each wave and with each pull I gave it.
Finally i decided that the line would not last another hour or more to wait for the tide to drop. finally , with a thought just like you would have when yu place a bet at the casino , I decided to give the fish some slack to see if it would come out from behind the rock. I dropped the rod tip to loosen the line a little , nothing happened. I then pulled some line off the spool and let it go completely slack. The big fish made a big splash and out it darted from behind the rock. I cranked the reel to tighten up but no luck , the line never tightened up and back came my plug and teaser. It had spit the hook as soon as the line went slack. A sad ending. :(
I've never had quite the same experience again. I've had fish go behind a rock for short time then out again or the line breaks right away , etc. this is the only time I ever had a fish on where I actually was praying for the tide to drop so I could land the fish. Even though it happened over ten years ago , I always look at that rock when I go to that spot and think what I could have done to keep that fish away from that rock in the first place. I also still wonder if the line would have held up if I had indeed just waited for the tide to drop and strand the fish. I still wonder.....