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
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