My goodness, is whacky weather the name of the game around here or what? I know office bound, parking lot walkers probably have no clue of what I'm talking about, (sorry) but people like me, who can't stand to be inside and live and die daily on what the weather's like, pay attention to it. Especially us,
"coastal folk".
December of 2009 will certainly be remembered when it comes time for me to look back next year into 2009's Tide Planner/Log book book. From warm to frigid, big wind to all out artic blasts. I believe I've seen it all in the last 31 days.
-IT ALL HAS AN EFFECT ON THE FISHING.
I had Long V. and Dan aboard the
Jettywolf, today. I knew we might have a rain issue. Which turned out to not an issue at all. A little mist of the wet stuff was all we encountered. And it was WARM!!! And it was SLICK calm, too.
Almost unbelieveable!
But, and as I always say
...."there's always a B-U-T."
And the B-U-T turned out to be the T-I-D-E!!!!
A full moon, with a falling tide that was strong. So we departed at 10am, so to let that tide turn and get going on it's way down. Although when we departed the dock, the water was still quite high as it usually is when I'm trying to home in on the best 6 hours of a possible 8 hours left of daylight that we had at our disposal.
Yakker buddy DOA Rob and fellow Trout Tracker has been finding his Trout in the creeks, of course. While I haven't been finding any at all east of the boat ramp. I headed to a creek. The tide was still way too high. The water was still up in the grass, so we waited and fished till the water was ankle deep on the Heron that stood between the two marsh grass islands that I use as a marker. And all we came up with was two 14 inch Trout. But of course the Pinfish were ravenous, as they always are. That's why I really hate creek fishin'. We were float-rig fishing of course, and every once in awhile. I made a cast, putting a shrimp on the bottom. And of course as I reeled it in, I had a SCHOOL of pinners follow the shrimp to the boat! If Pinfish were worth a hoot, and had a dollar amount on their little heads, I of course wouldn't be bothered by them, because there wouldn't be any left.
So we moved on. We fished the area which Steve P. caught a 32 inch Redfish on Tueday. A submerged oysterbed in 25 feet of water. The current had slowed on this spot, and I have always done real well, dropping the float stopper knot to 22 feet and drifting the area in the slow current. Yeah, I know that's pretty damn deep to fish the float rig. But we've caught big Reds, yellowmouth, Specks, and Sheepshead doing so before. Well, not today. Long and Dan, never lost a bait.
Well, this was getting
"par for the course". Since my calibrated temp gauge on my Raymarine C-120, has been reading surface temps below 60 degrees. The fishing in the river has just been plain ole tough as hell.
-and now we're supposed to get more freezing temp mornings this week? That's not gonna be good for anyone.
So, we went to one spot where I've found fish this week. We didn't bother fishing the float-rigs, but rather just bottom fished, with 2 ounce weights. The current was blasting here. But this spot was the end of the line.
And as the current faded, came my "winter bite", fish....
Yellowmouths.
In July....I've had nice 4-5 pound Black Drum, Redfish, Specks, Croakers, Spots, and Sheepshead, on this exact same spot. But now in December, it's Yellowmouth and Sheepshead pretty much, exclusively.
Long started to get bit, and then I started to get bit, then Dan started to get bit by small Yellowmouths. Then as we sat there in the warm, windless afternoon, with some in and out sun. The tide finally slackened, and then came larger yellowmouths. Then a few Sheepshead. Then a 18" Speckled Trout. Long told his wife he was coming home with fish. Since the last few
offshore trips he's been on he came home with an empty cooler
(even in Hawaii....) We started to fill the fish box, and releasing the small fish.
The weather was obviously,
the CALM before the storm! It was super nice. Warm, no wind and I was back into shorts and a sweatshirt, the way it should be this time of year. The tide turned, and the boat swung around, and it was time for the guys to head back to O.P. So we headed back to clean a limit of Yellowmouths, the Sheepshead and a Speck.
I'm not looking forward to more 30 degree mornings, I thought this would be a really warm winter when back on Halloween it was 92 degrees.
60 degree water temperature, in the river is the tipping point.
I hope to have Long and Dan aboard again. They were fun to have aboard and really good sports. And Dan had what seemed to be a good interest in the local fishing we have to offer.
But to see it all, you have to go more than one time a year. I told both of the guys that the first two weeks of December, when no one is interested in going (because it's "between" holidays) is when I was finding limits and limits of big Trout with Sheepshead and Reds thrown in, on the float-rig a 1/2 mile from the boat ramp every day.
That's why I do these daily reports. Because when I say,
"its go-time" I mean,
RIGHT NOW. On this tide, this week, and with this weather.
Remember, we're on Momma Natures schedule.
I recommend that all my customer's
bookmark this blog, and if they're interested in the local fishing calendar, check it frequently.
