And yet another installment in the Adventure of Bassyius Maximus and friends.
I had gone out with my buddy,
Here is the motor and some rods coming out of the hole.
this past Friday night again, we were hoping for a repeat of last weeks fishing frenzy. Here he is with a lowly sand shark. The fish that feels very much like a bass does on the take, first run and on the reel in. It seems like every shark I've taken on an eel has been corner hooked in the mouth, which suggests to me that they eat them head first. No matter,here is the pic of the endangered sand shark.
Sunset Friday. We had expected this Friday night to be like last Friday. We round the corner to the "hole" and right away, in and among the lobster traps, the fish are a risin'. We cast and right away I get a take on a plastic swimmer while Fisher-X gets taken on his popper all night. Bluefish, who cares right? Perhaps it is the pics of the fish at night that look so intriguing, the fish silhouetted against the ink of the water.
So that is our Friday night. Just some bluefish, some shark and some bass in the most unlikliest of places, the mouth of the inlet that I leave out of. At 12am, and with not a boat in sight and all the boaters in the inlet fast asleep, I could anchor right in the mouth of the channel and not worry about a thing. After reading all sorts of reports and seeing someone mention the mouths of the saltwater ponds as being worth a try at night during this time of the year, I figure, it is late, getting cool, the water is as calm as can be, might as well give it a shot. The eels are all ready, can't hurt, right?
First one out of the water was a 21" schoolie, but we had faith that at least there were bass in the water. Next one Fisher X got a fair 33 incher.
In my experience, and during this time of the year, I think any bass in near-shore water at night is a good one. Here is the only other one we landed Friday night.
Now with Friday night over and Saturday on the way. We headed out for Bonito, the elusive mini-tuna.
After looking inshore and trolling our usual spots and getting bluefish, we headed to a new honey spot and boy did we find them. First pass and we were on. Trolling a Rebel Fas-Trac at between 6-7mph. We had no hesitation in trollling using our 7ft Boca M/H rods spooled up with either 16lb Ande or 15 lb Trilene big game/green with the lures Palomar'ed straight to the line, no leader no nothing. The other lure we had that got good results were any of the Rebel Fastracs, the Yo Zuri's, just about any of these things work, it is just a matter of finding where the fish are and getting on/through them. While the first fish was being reeled in, I got a hit on retrieving the 2nd lure out, the Fast-trac being retrieved as fast as I could reel in, and the fish hit hard and took line faster than anything in the water. and promptly, a cast plastic swimmer was hit, a tripleheader of BONITO! We were psyched.
Suffice it to say, we had Bones all around. We went out again Sunday and banged some more. They sure are fun on lite tackle. All the talk about them running towards the boat are all true. They can turn tail and run like no other once they see the boat. Being sure the line is new or fairly new, make sure the knots are seated well and the drags on your reels are nice and smooth, and once on, hang on, these things are fun and fast. The bellies were all full of silversides and sand eels, they were unbelievabley gorged to the point of their stomachs distending out, however with what must be a super-fast metabolism coupled with them having to swim fast all day all night, they need to eat, and we fed them a steady stream of plastic swimmers and shiny metals to keep them satisfied. Overall, an incredible weekend of fishing. Mainly because in all my time I've only gotten maybe 10 bonito, then in one day we met or broke that number, then the next day we almost exceeded or equaled it. Enjoy!