Today’s fantastic fall weather found Mike, his wife Claudia, and friend Nick join me for a half day trip targeting mainly Sea Bass with the hope of adding a Striper to the overall catch.
With a very short window to bottom fish due to the strong New Moon tides we arrived on a favorite drop north of Plum about an hour before slack. Anchor goes down and as soon as we could hold bottom with the 12 oz. lead the fish began chewing. Plenty of sorting, as usual, but the keepers today were all very healthy 17-19” fish which made for some nice thick filets. For 90 minutes work the crew managed to box 13 beautiful keepers while throwing back three times as many shorts along with a handful of Scup.
The north fork Striper bite continues to be quite erratic and with a huge fleet of boats in the Gut the action was almost nonexistent on the afternoon ebb. However, with a concentrated effort, Claudia did manage to land the only Bass I saw for the entire 2 hours we spent working the area. Fortunately, it was just the right size at 29” so the crew achieved their goal of topping off the Sea Bass catch with a Striper for the grill!
Really anxious to get started on Blackfish and already the wind and weather forecasts look challenging for this week. I know the fish are there based on some of the by catch we saw today as well as reports from other friends. Can’t wait for the first window to jump on the Tog!!
