grubthrower
05-25-2006, 04:39 PM
Had an interesting last couple of evenings. Tuesday after work all I wanted to do was NOT watch tv, and I felt too lazy to put the jonboat in. So I ambled on down to the water with four beers and a book... plus rods and bait, of course.
Didn't really expect to do any good because I haven't in this creek up till now -- croaks are a little late. But as the sun went down, a school did pass by. Caught ten, biggest 15.25, none under 13. The 15 was the first of 'em, and I've never been so happy to catch a croaker in my life. It's the first "real" fish I've caught on this creek since buying my new house here -- to me, white perch are bait, and that's all I've been catching so far.
So I was happy, and of course that put me right back down there last evening. Had some bloodworms in addition to squid this time, so at first I was just feeding expensive bait to those danged WP. Then rockfish -- really nice ones, not 18's -- started busting the surface an easy cast out. I couldn't get bloodworms to 'em -- the WP were directly under them in droves and bit before the rock did. OK, fine, cut bait time. Meanwhile a biggun hit a perch that hit a bloodworm and broke me off. Then one broke off with cut bait, then they were gone.
Why all this breaking off? Because of the gear i had. The hooks on my surf rod were way too small; I had just changed to size 1 circles for perch/croaker, on purpose. The other rod was my smallmouth bass rod, because I love catching croakers on bass gear. That's a 2000 series Shimano spooled with 2/10 Spiderwire Stealth. Way undergunned.
Never again will I hit that water without a soft jerkbait on 20 lb line (I prefer Zoom Super Flukes to BA's, but that's just me).
Well, as the sun started to set I settled down to wait on the croaker, and sure enough, they did appear. Nothing noteworthy but I got some. Just before dark, again something big and strong hit that smallmouth rod. This one I landed, after perhaps 20 minutes of doing everything I could to turn the fish first this way then that and keep from getting spooled. It was a cownose ray, and a huge one... I've caught a bunch of them over the years, but this one was by far my biggest. On that dinky, fast-tip bass rod (6' Ugly Stik Lite Pro) it was something, and y'all know even an average cownose pulls pretty hard.
I woulda thought that creek too brackish for rays. Anyway, brought home my croakers and chalked everything up as an interesting experience and a lesson re-learned: always have a rig ready to cast to breaking fish. Sheesh. Thought I learned that many years ago. In my defense I can only say, until this week all of the hours I've spent on the creek were hours before the fish got here, and the night before finally some croaks, so I just wasn't expecting anything.
The fish are here now. And the good Lord said, "Let there be summer."
Didn't really expect to do any good because I haven't in this creek up till now -- croaks are a little late. But as the sun went down, a school did pass by. Caught ten, biggest 15.25, none under 13. The 15 was the first of 'em, and I've never been so happy to catch a croaker in my life. It's the first "real" fish I've caught on this creek since buying my new house here -- to me, white perch are bait, and that's all I've been catching so far.
So I was happy, and of course that put me right back down there last evening. Had some bloodworms in addition to squid this time, so at first I was just feeding expensive bait to those danged WP. Then rockfish -- really nice ones, not 18's -- started busting the surface an easy cast out. I couldn't get bloodworms to 'em -- the WP were directly under them in droves and bit before the rock did. OK, fine, cut bait time. Meanwhile a biggun hit a perch that hit a bloodworm and broke me off. Then one broke off with cut bait, then they were gone.
Why all this breaking off? Because of the gear i had. The hooks on my surf rod were way too small; I had just changed to size 1 circles for perch/croaker, on purpose. The other rod was my smallmouth bass rod, because I love catching croakers on bass gear. That's a 2000 series Shimano spooled with 2/10 Spiderwire Stealth. Way undergunned.
Never again will I hit that water without a soft jerkbait on 20 lb line (I prefer Zoom Super Flukes to BA's, but that's just me).
Well, as the sun started to set I settled down to wait on the croaker, and sure enough, they did appear. Nothing noteworthy but I got some. Just before dark, again something big and strong hit that smallmouth rod. This one I landed, after perhaps 20 minutes of doing everything I could to turn the fish first this way then that and keep from getting spooled. It was a cownose ray, and a huge one... I've caught a bunch of them over the years, but this one was by far my biggest. On that dinky, fast-tip bass rod (6' Ugly Stik Lite Pro) it was something, and y'all know even an average cownose pulls pretty hard.
I woulda thought that creek too brackish for rays. Anyway, brought home my croakers and chalked everything up as an interesting experience and a lesson re-learned: always have a rig ready to cast to breaking fish. Sheesh. Thought I learned that many years ago. In my defense I can only say, until this week all of the hours I've spent on the creek were hours before the fish got here, and the night before finally some croaks, so I just wasn't expecting anything.
The fish are here now. And the good Lord said, "Let there be summer."