The Sylvan Beach Fishing Club suffered a full day of + 25kts NW on Tuesday--suffered by looking at the solid whitecaps from the house just W of the Lesner Bridge, that is. Never left the yard.

More of the same early today, but the caps started dying down by noon-ish and by 1pm NOAA was reporting 16 gusting 19 at the first. Having put all of the curtains up at Taylor's earlier, we were ready to roll, and we did. We cleared the LC jetties by 2:30.

We ran downwind to the first SBC and found a few birds half- to quarter-a$$ working but no love from the rock. The water continued to lay dow to no worse than 4' chop so after a few passes at the SBC we ran to the First to jig the tube. Right off the bat we picked up a couple or three but the wind was working hard against the tide and staying in the strike zone was tough. After a short while we ran on out to the Third.

We arrived after a 15 minute pounding to see a bunch of birds working hard on the Bay side of the south end. Bill was throwing topwaters and hooked up first cast. Wes and Steve quickly followed suit and starting hooking up rock. Nothing to be wild about, but 20-26" and fat. That bite slowed as we saw birds working the Bay side of the tube end, so we ran up there.

We caught a couple in the pocket the the wind and tide were giving us a nice drift right along the Bay side of the spine so with just a little gear and steering I held that line. As soon as we were casting distance from the Rogue Rock, Bill plopped a Top Dog beside it and it was on. We ended up with about 45 minutes of hot action on 20-26" fish by drifting past the Rogue and it got to the point where all sorts of gear was tossed around the cockpit, several rods were broken off or backlashed, and we were fussing at each other in order to get lures back in the water while the bite was still on. You know the deal--about as good as it gets for a short while. The bite had turned on within minutes of sunset and it was over within the hour.

We ran back in under dark skies on a still-lumpy Bay and tied up at Taylor's by 6:30. We've had a lot of better days, but lots's worse. It was cold and a little rough, but worth the ride.

Foy
Sylvan Beach Fishing Club