Got back yesterday afternoon from 5 days of fishing. Had some great times with a solid bunch of surfcasters. Even got to finally meet Mr. Sandman and jaw with him for a few hours. Overall, the fishing was not spectacular, but we did find fish each day on a new island. The fish were keyed in on squid and sand eels, but they were somewhat selective as to what they would take. With the sandeels around, I figured red gills would be key. Only ended up taking one little rat on the teaser though. Thursday night was ok, with lots of mung and schoolies around. One of our group landed a nice 27#er. Friday night was our best night of the trip. My first 4 casts found 4 straight fish into the mid teens. Needlefish for the first fish, which I proceeded to snap off on the following cast.
Then my plug of the trip, a Tattoo squid darter
. They were going mad on this plug all night. I ended up with 4 fish at 20#'s, and a bunch more in the teens on the plug. Guys around me were taking fish on Super Strike and Gibbs darters, but the better fish came on the Tattoo. SO happy I had a few of these on hand! Saturday night found a lot more mung and more schoolies. I found some very good looking water to work over more next time out there, but I was a bit dissapointed overall as to what I found.
Here are some pictures of the trip. First is a shot of a bass of 20#'s that completely inhaled the Tatoo darter. Only the leader was sticking out its mouth.