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Sunday October 12

Fishing Report 
1K views 13 replies 13 participants last post by  brettwmd 
#1 ·
Ok, I’m relatively new at this so, please, laugh.

My son and I headed out from Sandy Point at about 11:00am on the massive 16.4” Bass Tracker, prepared to take on the ½ foot waves. We were in search of the elusive “Anyfish”.

We headed across the bay to Matapeake(sp?). I had only a faint idea of where I was going so I told the youngster to look for birds and explained why. It didn’t take long before he sighted some birds and we found a school of Blues feeding on the surface. We started casting our rods, pre-rigged with top lures at them and managed to haul a few in before the line broke on the first... then the next. Man this sucks – losing lures, and the ability to capitalize on the situation before the fish disappear.

So while I rigged up some more lines, I handed my son a rod with a deep diver crankbait attached and told him to toss it and reel it in fast. He did and we got another Blue. This was a big one so I got the net. Another rod out of commission while I spent the next 5 minutes un-snagging two treble hooks and a blue with a taste for netting from the net.

Got another on the line with a rather heavy jig head and 4” shad attached and guess what – line broke. Four avoidable mistakes and three fish swimming around in the bay with lures in their mouths!

The party moved on without us while I tried to unhook the net when I really just wanted to cut the damn thing.

The fish resurfaced a few hundred yards away and we were at it again. A few other boats joined in on the action and we all followed the fish towards the bridge until I decided it was time to restring the reels with something that would be able to hold a one pound blue! That was the end of the fish catching day!

All in all, it was a total blast and I had one happy young man for the day.

Lessons learned:

1) Don’t use 6 or 8lb test on the bay and if you do, make sure it’s less than 10 years old and use a net, even if it does have another lure and fish stuck in it.

2) Buy a bigger net, with a longer handle, strung with something other than cotton(?) and learn how to use it.

3) Bluefish will apparently go after anything so buy cheaper lures in case you forget lessons 1 or 2.

-Brett
 
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#3 ·
Great report - thanks for sharing! Those commies can wreak havoc on your gear, good to beef it up when you can. You may want to pinch down the barbs (or even cut one of the trebles off at the bend) to get them off a bit easier. Nothing like trying to unhook six barbed points out of a fish that won't stop chomping!
 
#7 ·
I'm betting 90% of the people reading this have done most of what you descibed :D. They might not admit to it but rest assured - everyone has made mistakes while learning to fish.

Congrats on landing some and I'm sure your son had a blast :clapping2:.
 
#8 ·
Sounds like you had a great day! Got into the fish and figured out some good fixes for next time. One of my favorite topwaters for blues is an inexpensive Tsunami popper about 4" long with the front hook removed completely and all the barbs except one on the back cut off. I have some rigged on a 6" steel leader and also use heavy mono leaders sometimes if there are rockfish in the mix. We generally don't try to net the smaller blues, just grab the leader right above the popper, and carefully but firmly grab the fish behind the gills. When we troll up the bigger blues we use a rubber mesh net. It doesn't snag the hooks. I also prefer my stingsilvers with only one barb...but in a frenzy you gotta go with them out of the box! I love this time of year...topwater, jigging, and trolling for blues (which we love to eat too.)

Won't be long until the better grade of stripers start moving...then we can bring out the big net again!
 
#11 ·
Mono or steel leaders

Great post Brett. Light tackle fishing is great fun. I second what wjzink says. It may be your line wasn't breaking as much as the blues were chopping them off. A nice striper will cut you line also with his gill plates when he head shakes. I have been using 40# mono leaders and they have often shown signs of being bit but I have only had two lost rigs. Tie on a good ball bearing swivel, then 30-36 inches of leader. As you change lures throughout the day the leader gets shorter, but it should be good down to about 18 inches. A good ball bearing swivel prevents a lot of twisting in your line.

Also, there is a good boat launch at Matapeake if you think the ride across will be too rough.

Keep hittin em!
 
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