. . . I got to get out early on Friday, met my buddy, geared up and headed out. The ocean was beautiful Friday night and we did ok with a few keeers and some bluefish.
Saturday we headed out for a big trip to a place we had never been before about 30 miles out from where we launch from. It was beautiful, no bass but I did put us on some small fluke. Fun to get them to hit our bluefish bellies and on light tackle.
The main event was drifting in 20-40 feet of water on Saturday. We had been drifting an area for a while but I was tired. I asked the Capt. what time he had to go home and he said in about 2 hours, and I wouldn't have minded if we went then, but he said we'd try one more drift so we did. I couldn't just do nothing despite being tired from running last night, getting next to no sleep then running again that day.
I rigged up the biggest black jointed Bomber-A on a 3-way, strange I know, but I had to do something as we had no bait of any kind and after watching another boat gaff a nice bass, I had to get my stuff down low. I rigged up about a 3 foot sinker on the drop and put the bomber on another barrel swivel attatched to floro, about 3 feet out and my mainline was 20 lb Ande IGFA to my ever so trusty Penn 6500 and my Slammer Medium 7 foot rod. Some can have all the fancy reels with 17 ball bearings and no slop and magnetic/ti/mag bails, but when it comes down to it, one needs the stiffness in a rod to sense when the weight is down on the bottom and the take of the fish which cannot happen with light tackle as the reel is just the means to hold the line, the rod has to do all the work. I sent it all down and immediately I was on. It surprised even me. I didn't even have to set the hook, I just lifted up and reeled a couple of times. The fish ran a good bunch of times and it and it took me a good 15 minutes to get the first one in. I had seen it sound once and wondered what it was, the swells were about 2-3 feet and the fish would disappear some 20-30 yards off the stern. The second sounding had me/us seeing large black fins, very much like a black tipped shark's fin so I had no idea what I had on and since I've done so much night fishing and have never had the chance to really see a fish/bass up on the surface at night just like I have never seen a bass jump like a bluefish, so I had no idea what I had on, for all I knew I had a big, 5+foot sand shark as the way it hung on the bottom and was so resistant to being hauled up and I knew it was not foul hooked or double hooked because all I had on was a single hook in the bomber.
After I got the first one in, I dropped down again and was promptly on another keeper, nowhere near as big as the first but still a keeper.
I dropped again, and was on the 3rd. This one was the largest of the day and it took me a good while to get her in. It could have been the area. It could have been the tide, it could have been the time of the year, but the fish were down there and made us all happy on Saturday. It was finally nice to get fish in the daytime and we do look forward to getting out and getting heavy once again in the near future. Enjoy guys!
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