Holiday Mondays are the best. I was hoping to be offshore looking for tuna, but my buddy didn't have the day off and the pickins were slow out there so decided not to take a sick day.
We decided to just do a bay trip and look for our first legal halibut of the year.
On the ride to the bay, I was wishy washy on what the Plan was going to be. Seems easy (fish for halibut) but I've been going to the same spots and fishing the same way for very limited results the past 6 months. I generally avoid Shelter Island, but just as we were going to head down to Pepper Park, I veered to go to SI instead. Needed to change something up!
Lot's more little boats launching than I thought there would be, but not bad at all. We got a 1/2 scoop of some beat up GIANT sardines. Bait was in poor shape and they were all at least 9" long! Good for big halibut I guess if they could survive.
Went to the inlet to see terns diving and frothing Calico color fish slamming bait. We drifted along the jetty, Channel, and everywhere in between for a dozen raked baits and some downright cut in half! ...but no fish.
I finally picked up a spotty to get the skunk off the boat...
Now I was just trying to formulate a new plan, but as the morning went on we were feeling less confident. We decided to change our target species and look for corvina.
We hunted all of the usual haunts and saw plenty of people trying to do the same. I got a few more bass and Steve was pretty much over it by now, especially when I get the first butt of the day.
Not a legal, but not a flap jack either...
Steve finally hooks up and is fighting a bass on the swimbait, but still seems pretty over it since the fishing has been so slow. I then hook up with a real screamer and have to walk around the boat and across him as this fish was seriously trying it's best to get away! I finally get it to the net and it was a legit shortfin! Not like some of the little pickles I've been catching.
Then I'm on again and this is a better model! No fish on the surface, but the fish finder is lit up with them! I ask Steve to take a picture and he said "With my current attitude, I don't want to" (or along those lines). He was really over this now...
After a quick release and I'm on again! It's like someone turned on the switch and all the fish started feeding at once! This one threw the hook though. Then Squatch gets hit by lightning and this is where his frown turned upside down!
We boated 9 and lost 8 over the next 45 minutes.
The small one of the morning was still a nice model!
Steve's slug of the morning...
My slug of the morning...
We had a few doubles on also which is something we haven't seen corvina fishing since the early days when the EDC were showing how it was done.
Then just like that, the flurry was over and the tide runners were done. I still metered them, but they went back into lock jaw mode.
It's funny how it started as the worst bay trip we've had in a long time to one of the best in just a second! One thing Squatch and I always agreed on, is it's better to have it happen at the end of a trip because that high you get will last the rest of the day!
Pulled the boat out and back at the barn scrubbing the boat. It was a fine day Mr. Sasquatch, I'm so stoked it turned out like it did or I'd probably not hit the bay again until this next upcoming winter. LOL
