My Diary

Someone forgot to tell the fish.

06/13/04

I had been checking the forecast, finally the window of opportunity was opening.  The tides were in my favor for a quick drive below the high banks and the wind forecast was 10knts from the SE compared to the endless high winds we have had since March.

As I hit the end of the black top, the water was looking fishable. I was heading south, "my play ground is below the 30s". Sneaking below the weed line through the high banks, it did not take long before I was in "Gods Country" as Billy calls it.

The water, although very fishable was a bit on the milky side (Still should have been good for Reds and some Black tip action.) so I decided I would head to the Nick at the 51.

Working some of the weedless holes with lures, it sure felt good to have that sand between my toes and the sun in my face, little did I know that it would not be until the sun was on my back that I would have a fish in the box.

Rudy was on the beach and decided to tag along. Finding a nice hole just short of the Nick, I decided to slide some baits out using the new Slideaway. Jacob provided the bait, a healthy large Whiting caught on Fishbites. I used 4 ft of 80lb steel attached to 16/0 circle hook placed through the back of the Whiting and slide him on out. I had to walk to the edge of the first gut and then he was on his own. He made his way out nicely and was in a good spot to be picked up. Now we had quite a group of us fishing, but still few bites. Its then we consulted, "The reason we are not catching fish book". After an in depth talk with Ruddy we decided it was the fault of the moon and 4 day tide. It could have been that fishing has been so bad of late, the fish have forgot what they are supposed to do. 

From the reports I was getting  up and down the beach over the CB, no one was catching fish, which made me feel better. I say no fish, we did catch fish, strange fish.

Rudy had this Star Gazer on a worm and spoon rig.

  After carefully getting it off the hook, as they will give you a shock, we watched it do its disappearing trick, sucking down under the sand in seconds.

Pulling the Slideaway rig in we decided to do some drifting and looking. The whiting had been out over two hours and was still in perfect condition. This will be a great rig for baits you want to leave out overnight. After a few hours fishing and some Gaff tops of all things, we decided to head north. Still no one was catching fish, no bird action, so it did not look good. 

As we were going out we decided to fish the wreck at the 39. I slung a bit of mullet out and sat back not expecting much. The rod kicked over and the line went slack, taking my time walked over to the 10/6 and started tightening the line, removed the slack from the line and then he was starting to fight. It ended up being a nice little slot red of 22 inches. The reason he did not hit hard was the 90gram sinker on the pulley rig, he picked it up and swam off with it, no problem. It was not long after this that Bonnie's rod bent over. She ran to the rod and fought this healthy Jack for about 30 mins and 200 yds.

Bonnie wins the day with this Jack.

Well had a nice day on the beach and it is getting good quick. I think I will have to go back down this week to do some more R&D on the Slideaway. Tuesday is the day I think as Ruddy said, "according to his diary's all the big fish are caught two days after he has been fishing". Regards Nickaway

PINS report. Weed slight better south. Water cleaning, better deep south, below 50s. Mullet spotty.