Post by mwardncsu on Jul 25, 2015 17:33:20 GMT -5
Weather: Partly cloudy, temps in the 60's rising to low 80's. No wind until late morning - sure wish there had been some - it got HOT!
Water: 83, visibility of 8'
Techniques: Jigging flukes - Zoom Super Flukes in White Ice & Pearl on 1/2 & 3/4 triangle jig heads, and 3/8 round jig head
I was planning to take my son and his friend out this morning to try and get on some schoolie action, but the friend did not want to get up and go, so I decided it was time to go check my on my stringer of fish in Bulls Run to make sure Gator had not taken all of them, so I ended up driving over and jumping on with my buddy Mark for some jigging action. We headed out around 6:45 looking for some schools to jig on and we were treated to a beautiful sunrise in the process
We looked around a while - stopping and jigging on a few scattered fish here and there. Moved over near some other boats and marked a few more as we got closer - then saw a pile of fish on the sonar from 30'-40' in about 45' of water - Mark hooked into one and while he was bringing his to the boat I hooked up. He quickly returned his which was around 20", but we kept the one I caught that came in right at 26"
Those fish disappeared and we spend the next hour or more looking around in various nearby spots. We'd see a lot of this and this.... but its just hard to get a bite on a jig with that few fish.
We made a late morning (9:30ish) move to some deep water where we were seeing fish scattered anywhere from 20' to 120'. Mark spotted some about 115' on the sonar and dropped his jig all the way down...
Well......
It gave him a bit of a hassle - peeled drag off right after the hit and we thought it was going into those trees at 125'. He was quickly losing line but was able to turn the fish, and about then a dead-stick line I had managed to get wrapped up in my jig that I had laid down when he hooked up, and then that got all wrapped around his line - we finally managed to clear it without cutting his line, to the amusement of others around us - and he got the fish to the boat.
Straight to the cooler with the 24" - surprised it was not bloated up in anyway from the assent. That was the deepest Mark had ever caught a striper.
It was classic summer-time fishing conditions going on in that area with upwards of 10 boats near-by - and so close you could have handed a cup of coffee from one boat to another. There was a boat trolling u-rigs that managed to connect with the planers of another boat and make a mess...... tight quarters fishing is fine if everyone is downlining or jigging, but you can't troll through the fleet too close..... with u-rigs or planers.....
We had a few more chances - moved to another area and marked some fish and had a few light bumps of the jig but could not get hooked up. We called it a morning close to 11am and went off to clean the fish - to be enjoyed tonight for dinner.
Today's lure of the day........ a classic Zoom Super Fluke in White Ice on a Swamp Monkey 1/2 and 3/4 jig-head, with swivel added
Also - just to be clear about catching that fish at 110'. We had every intention of keeping that one - had we not wanted to keep them he would NOT have targeted those fish at that depth - bringing them up from 50'+ and trying to return them - especially this time of year - is a death sentence and would not have been done... but that one will taste good tonight
Water: 83, visibility of 8'
Techniques: Jigging flukes - Zoom Super Flukes in White Ice & Pearl on 1/2 & 3/4 triangle jig heads, and 3/8 round jig head
I was planning to take my son and his friend out this morning to try and get on some schoolie action, but the friend did not want to get up and go, so I decided it was time to go check my on my stringer of fish in Bulls Run to make sure Gator had not taken all of them, so I ended up driving over and jumping on with my buddy Mark for some jigging action. We headed out around 6:45 looking for some schools to jig on and we were treated to a beautiful sunrise in the process
We looked around a while - stopping and jigging on a few scattered fish here and there. Moved over near some other boats and marked a few more as we got closer - then saw a pile of fish on the sonar from 30'-40' in about 45' of water - Mark hooked into one and while he was bringing his to the boat I hooked up. He quickly returned his which was around 20", but we kept the one I caught that came in right at 26"
Those fish disappeared and we spend the next hour or more looking around in various nearby spots. We'd see a lot of this and this.... but its just hard to get a bite on a jig with that few fish.
We made a late morning (9:30ish) move to some deep water where we were seeing fish scattered anywhere from 20' to 120'. Mark spotted some about 115' on the sonar and dropped his jig all the way down...
Well......
It gave him a bit of a hassle - peeled drag off right after the hit and we thought it was going into those trees at 125'. He was quickly losing line but was able to turn the fish, and about then a dead-stick line I had managed to get wrapped up in my jig that I had laid down when he hooked up, and then that got all wrapped around his line - we finally managed to clear it without cutting his line, to the amusement of others around us - and he got the fish to the boat.Straight to the cooler with the 24" - surprised it was not bloated up in anyway from the assent. That was the deepest Mark had ever caught a striper.
It was classic summer-time fishing conditions going on in that area with upwards of 10 boats near-by - and so close you could have handed a cup of coffee from one boat to another. There was a boat trolling u-rigs that managed to connect with the planers of another boat and make a mess...... tight quarters fishing is fine if everyone is downlining or jigging, but you can't troll through the fleet too close..... with u-rigs or planers.....
We had a few more chances - moved to another area and marked some fish and had a few light bumps of the jig but could not get hooked up. We called it a morning close to 11am and went off to clean the fish - to be enjoyed tonight for dinner.
Today's lure of the day........ a classic Zoom Super Fluke in White Ice on a Swamp Monkey 1/2 and 3/4 jig-head, with swivel added
Also - just to be clear about catching that fish at 110'. We had every intention of keeping that one - had we not wanted to keep them he would NOT have targeted those fish at that depth - bringing them up from 50'+ and trying to return them - especially this time of year - is a death sentence and would not have been done... but that one will taste good tonight
