(click images for a bigger view)
I got up early again to go fishing on Sunday at 3:30 am... then I turned off the alarm, fell back to sleep and woke up with a start way after first light at 4:30. I raced out of the house and got on the water by 5:00. The gulls and terns were up and making a racket on the haze-obscured horizon, and being a windless morning, I had an entourage of biting no-see-ums all the way out to the just visible bar
(breaking through the surface as the tide passed the halfway point). Once they had all bitten me and I had killed them all, I had my peace.
My plan was to work the outside edge of the bar as the outging tide washed the acres of uprooted sand eels out into the wash. However, I found it extremely quiet for the vast amount of bait in the water. It may have been the lack of wind and the flat calm sea, or maybe the stripers were all full from a full night of gape-mouth feeding. Quiet yes, but the bite was still on. I found a school of somewhat hungry bass and took a few between 18 and 24 inches.
I found out quickly though, that the weather report had changed since the night before... or the 30% chance of a thunder showers that I had played the odds against, had
beaten the odds and there was a BIG ONE rolling in from the South West. I figured I better hunker down... or do something to make my profile a little lower. There was no way I was going to make it back 3/4 of a mile over sand before the storm hit, so I pulled up on the sand bar to wait it out; ready to jump under my canoe if I had to.
(I don't even know if that's safe or more attractive to lightning, to be under a dome of fiberglass with an aluminum strip down the sides.)
The storm built and built and built, and rumbled a few times, and it came right up to my heels. Then it went away, leaving just fog and a little bit of a breeze. It also cleared the flats of all the other fishermen out there. I had the place to myself except I only caught one more small fish. As the wind came up, and as more fish ignored my offerings, I called it a day and headed in. Still, it was a great day. I got some cool photos, caught a few fish, and saw some new things.
I got up early again to go fishing on Sunday at 3:30 am... then I turned off the alarm, fell back to sleep and woke up with a start way after first light at 4:30. I raced out of the house and got on the water by 5:00. The gulls and terns were up and making a racket on the haze-obscured horizon, and being a windless morning, I had an entourage of biting no-see-ums all the way out to the just visible bar (breaking through the surface as the tide passed the halfway point). Once they had all bitten me and I had killed them all, I had my peace.
My plan was to work the outside edge of the bar as the outging tide washed the acres of uprooted sand eels out into the wash. However, I found it extremely quiet for the vast amount of bait in the water. It may have been the lack of wind and the flat calm sea, or maybe the stripers were all full from a full night of gape-mouth feeding. Quiet yes, but the bite was still on. I found a school of somewhat hungry bass and took a few between 18 and 24 inches.
I found out quickly though, that the weather report had changed since the night before... or the 30% chance of a thunder showers that I had played the odds against, had beaten the odds and there was a BIG ONE rolling in from the South West. I figured I better hunker down... or do something to make my profile a little lower. There was no way I was going to make it back 3/4 of a mile over sand before the storm hit, so I pulled up on the sand bar to wait it out; ready to jump under my canoe if I had to. (I don't even know if that's safe or more attractive to lightning, to be under a dome of fiberglass with an aluminum strip down the sides.)
The storm built and built and built, and rumbled a few times, and it came right up to my heels. Then it went away, leaving just fog and a little bit of a breeze. It also cleared the flats of all the other fishermen out there. I had the place to myself except I only caught one more small fish. As the wind came up, and as more fish ignored my offerings, I called it a day and headed in. Still, it was a great day. I got some cool photos, caught a few fish, and saw some new things.
No comments:
Post a Comment