Thursday night I took the boat out at sunset off Moonstone Beach, looking for blues. Trolling a small swimmer along the beachfront, I marked a few fish, and then started noticing a few breaks as the sun got lower. I stopped the boat and started casting to the breaks, switching to a small jig and then a 7/8 oz popper, which finally got a hit.
When I got the fish to the boat, I found an unfamilair fish. At first I thought it was a juvenile bonito, but now don't think so. It was about 18-inches long, silvery, with forked tuna-like tail with the little bumps in front of the tail. It also had small needle teeth. It was more of a long and slender shape, versus the football shape of a bonito. The most prominent feature were several gold colored spots on its sides, about the size of a nickel. I didn't look for more markings, as I was busy trying to get the two sets of trebles unstuck, and it wasn't unitl after I released it that I realized I wasn't sure what it was.
Checked the Field Guide to Atlantic Fishes at home, and the closest thing I could find was a Spanish Mackeral, but that wasn't an exact match. Anybody seen anything like this before?
After this fish, the breaking fish got more numerous, and I think there were definitely bonito there base on the style of breaks -- pods moving along (didn't hook any more, which is typical for me of bonito too
)
Then shad-hell broke loose, with about two acres of shad flipping and jumping. Caught a dozen of them before heading in at dark.
Good Fishin
Bill
What Did I Catch?
Threaded Mode