schoolie monster
07-08-2003, 12:40 PM
My daughter joined me for the second week in a row and I remembered the camera. Things went a little more according to plan this week. The plan was to find some schoolies up top early, then grab some herring and try for some larger fish.
We found some fish and birds in Dorch Bay very early. Brit was casting a wildeye, I was throwing a ledgerunner and I had a couple bumps, but the fish were fast moving and spread out a bit.
I threw a popper/teaser combo and was on... I handed the rod to Brit and she battled a doubleheader of schoolies. She was excited to catch two fish at once. I took the next hook up and while my daughter's double header were 20" fish, mine where only maybe 16"... I then got a solid mid-20" schoolie on the teaser, while Brit was determined to get one by herself. The school had kinda broken up though. There were only a couple other boats around and if alone, I could have caught a bunch, but I was trying to get her into position to get a cast into a melee of fish. It was fun though as she enjoyed seeing the breaking fish and birds diving.
We headed back towards the launch to try and jig up some herring. Brit had as much fun with this as anything. She manned the net and livewell and I grabbed a bunch of small herring. She jigged up a couple herself. Problem was that she wanted to play with the poor things. I'm rigging up for livelining and I hear her humming the Jaws theme... I look around to see her terrorizing them with a plastic great white shark.
I headed out to a couple of the islands and threw a herring off the back while I worked the rocks with ledgerunners. We had a couple runs, but no hook ups. Then we had a good run, I engaged the reel and handed the rod to Brit. She was hooked up and battled the fish in... it was a keeper and she wanted me to keep it and cook it that night. She had fought a legal fish for a couple minutes in Nantucket last year, but this one was pretty much solo... all I did was engage the reel and pull it out of the holder.
The tide started moving and I hooked a decent fish on a jerkbait, but off it came. Then I broke one off in the rocks... I hadn't checked my leader. I suck. I then saw several fish in a 20 yard stretch of shoreline. The second one was the biggest fish I've ever seen in the water. By that I mean one not caught. The fish was thick and was pushing 30lbs.
I had another good run on the herring, but no hook up. Then we caught a seagull as the herring got too shallow. That was nice.
I bribed Brit with a stop for ice cream to give me a half hour of fishing solo to work my favorite spot out there, but I didn't get another hit. In trying so hard to make sure my dad and my kid are getting fish my last 4 trips out, my own concentration has been terrible and I've lost a bunch of good fish on jerkbaits.
But another high quality trip out for me. I'm having a blast this summer... here is Brit's double header.
We found some fish and birds in Dorch Bay very early. Brit was casting a wildeye, I was throwing a ledgerunner and I had a couple bumps, but the fish were fast moving and spread out a bit.
I threw a popper/teaser combo and was on... I handed the rod to Brit and she battled a doubleheader of schoolies. She was excited to catch two fish at once. I took the next hook up and while my daughter's double header were 20" fish, mine where only maybe 16"... I then got a solid mid-20" schoolie on the teaser, while Brit was determined to get one by herself. The school had kinda broken up though. There were only a couple other boats around and if alone, I could have caught a bunch, but I was trying to get her into position to get a cast into a melee of fish. It was fun though as she enjoyed seeing the breaking fish and birds diving.
We headed back towards the launch to try and jig up some herring. Brit had as much fun with this as anything. She manned the net and livewell and I grabbed a bunch of small herring. She jigged up a couple herself. Problem was that she wanted to play with the poor things. I'm rigging up for livelining and I hear her humming the Jaws theme... I look around to see her terrorizing them with a plastic great white shark.
I headed out to a couple of the islands and threw a herring off the back while I worked the rocks with ledgerunners. We had a couple runs, but no hook ups. Then we had a good run, I engaged the reel and handed the rod to Brit. She was hooked up and battled the fish in... it was a keeper and she wanted me to keep it and cook it that night. She had fought a legal fish for a couple minutes in Nantucket last year, but this one was pretty much solo... all I did was engage the reel and pull it out of the holder.
The tide started moving and I hooked a decent fish on a jerkbait, but off it came. Then I broke one off in the rocks... I hadn't checked my leader. I suck. I then saw several fish in a 20 yard stretch of shoreline. The second one was the biggest fish I've ever seen in the water. By that I mean one not caught. The fish was thick and was pushing 30lbs.
I had another good run on the herring, but no hook up. Then we caught a seagull as the herring got too shallow. That was nice.
I bribed Brit with a stop for ice cream to give me a half hour of fishing solo to work my favorite spot out there, but I didn't get another hit. In trying so hard to make sure my dad and my kid are getting fish my last 4 trips out, my own concentration has been terrible and I've lost a bunch of good fish on jerkbaits.
But another high quality trip out for me. I'm having a blast this summer... here is Brit's double header.