10/7- The "Costanza" rule.....

Well, after yesterday's river trip hunting up big Redbass in that full moon incoming tide. I decided what ever I do today will be the opposite, just to see.....

So I attempted to do my version of the "George Costanza rule"; "If what ever you're doing is wrong. Then, the opposite must be right.

I didn't do anything wrong yesterday, but it just felt like it. Because the current in the river was kicking my butt!

Today, I had the Fuqua Family aboard. The wind was pretty stiff at probably a sustained 15 knots from the WSW. First, we tried float-rig fishing, along the jetties. And never had a sniff from a decent fish. And my shrimp were going comatose fast. They just are not living. Out of 10 dozen, I had maybe 4 dozen dead at 8:30am. So I decided to do my best attempt at "Occams Razor".....(for the non-history buffs out there.) That's another name for the K.I.S.S. system.

So we pulled out away from the jetties and set the anchor down right where I wanted to be after a second attempt, only after for the 200 time, catching someone else's 50' of anchor line tangled in an anchor that must have been sitting on the bottom for the last 25 years. It was now considered "structure". That's why I hate anchoring at the jetties any where near the tips.

So since I still had a bag full of live crabs. We started with them. Two rods, cracked Crab...and after a good while. Z-E-R-O Redbass or anything else. The boys needed action. So as I tended the crab rods, I pitched out a rod with one of the dead shrimp, I had.

What followed was: Black Margate, Mangrove Snapper, Keeper Redbass, Jumbo Redbass at 26 pounds, Bonnethead shark, Jack Crevalle, and possibly one Monster Shark.

Three rods went to dead shrimp instead of crab, because they were eating it up. All the while we were smack in the middle of, FALL MULLET RUN MADNESS. IN FULL SWING!!!!!!!

Mullet coming around the jetty were being smashed by literally thousands of Jacks. We had Jacks running down the side of the boat. Mullet were flying through the air. There was Sharks, no doubt big Spinner's too. I decided to take a rod and tie on my favorite top water Trout lure.

A Luhr Jensen "Jerkin Sam" that's about 4" long, and looks exactly like a mullet jumping accross the surface of the water. I handed the rod to Dad, Craig, and he jumped on my front bow deck and made long bombing casts towards the packs of water wolves killing the mullet schools.

Just a low profile reel, a Shimano Citica and a Ugly Stik Tiger Lite rod is all I had besides my real light weight float-rig rods. After a cast or two Craig had a pack of 20 pound Jacks following the lure. I told him, "People go all the way to Brazil, to cast top water lures at those Peacock Bass with that lure. And you have fish 10 times better here by the thousands!" As he slurped the lure across the water on the third cast, he was hooked up!

Absolute smoking run, burning and churning that small low pro reel. Then, the fish came loose....at inspection the fish literally snapped one third of the front treble hook off.

Next up, was another smoking run. Lure lost. Busted 30 pound super braid line. So I broke out a Rapala jointed lure I have never even caught a fish on previously. Upped the mono leader to 30 pound. A few casts and Craig was hooked up again on the bow deck. This time there was no stopping this fish (I'm thinking big, big shark) and before ya know it, Craig's yelling "it's not stopping, I'm getting spooled!!!!" So he busted the fish off, thank goodness. "That's $40 worth of braided line on that reel." I said in relief.

Okay, one Rapala lure left. A few casts and he's hooked up again. And to my disbelief the small Citica reel scores again on a bigger fish then it was ever made for. A Jack. A good 10 plus pounder at least. All the while this was going on Craig's wife was on a nice Redbass at the same time. Can you say, MAYHEM???

The next cast was another freight train attack that ate the lure right off. Lure gone! Ands now I'm out of lures.

So we're back to all dead shrimp on the bottom, when Craig casts off the side of the boat versus the stern. Rod doubles, his eldest son is on it. He fights it, tiers. Then, mom comes and takes over. And it turns out to be a 26 pound Redbass, again on the light Citica reel and Ugly Stik Tiger lite rod. Man, I'm seriously impressed with my tackle choices.

Breaking the record catch size of Doug Wurster a few weeks ago with a 24 pound Redbass on the same light weight rod and reel. I love it!

The incoming tide started to slow and we had a few bites here and there. And even the Mullet/Jack/Shark brawl was fading fast. Totally, freaked out about their day. That was only half of it for the Fuqua Family.

We went back to the dock, I cleaned up all their fish and they hit Singleton's Seafood Shack with my reccomendation with a big bag of fresh fillets. A great way to end a perfect day for folks staying in a hotel room.

I was at B&M Bait and Tackle later on, and bumped into Craig again and he said "My goodness, that blackened Fish was awesome, Dave!" He was getting more tackle for surf fishing this evening and tomorrow. That's dedication.

Everything we did today was basically the opposite of what I had previously planned. And the main thing was to stay out of that strong river current. I only anchored up to fish twice really. And the second spot is where we stayed. Again, not what usually happens.

So don't discount the "George Costanza Rule." It works!

9/6 - Pullin' something out....

Good to have the Brandt Family on board again. This was there fall trip. They've fished with me so many years that we have it down pat....Fall and Spring usually.

"BUT"...oh there's always one of those, huh?

Incoming, full moon tide, challenging to say the least. Smokin' current, yeah...to say the least. Since we bottom fished for Reds. Preferably big Bull Reds! Hell, it's October isn't it? Get Go Time.

We sat in the ripping tide in several locales for probably 3 hours without a sniff, nibble or even a glance at fresh live blue crabs (whole and cracked of course...) I moved around alot, trying my best to find "fishable" current, but in deeper water.

That didn't work. I told Bill, "Damn I almost wish I had my down-riggers still...I believe a ten pound down rigger ball on the bottom might do it."

To make a long story shorter. I finally threw my hands in the air and tried a spot that was shallower, along some serious structure, when the tide was high, but the current was still moving and slowing down. And had two of my crew members at the bow fishing straight down with dead shrimp, while I manned two crab baited heavier rods out the stern.

Finally, Bill reeled in a big fat Croaker about 14 inches. Holy Moly, Fish in the Boat! And that's when a stern rod went off. And Don reels in a perfect keeper Red at 26".

Then, not 5 minutes later, it was Don's mother's turn, because another crab baited rod bent double. Shirley was on the rod and handling it like she's done this before (she has!!) The drag rips and she's in for quite a battle.

She had plenty of coaching that was for sure, as the fight lasted a good while. But she did great and still had the strength to pull the 26 pounder up for a photo.

Then, it was Bill up next. And he scored what we were hoping was another keeper Redbass. And man, we thought it was......till I measured it. At 28 inches, Damn! But a nice fish indeed. So back it went ready for another day.

The tide slowed after a few more Croakers. And the fast action on the Reds quite as fast as it started. So we kept with the same program the rest of the day. Two people fishing shrimp up on the bow, while I manned the crab baited rods in the stern. We came back east and worked the Little Jetties and had big time Croaker action on the shrimp, releasing a bunch and boxing only the larger ones...again up to 14 inches. But no more Big Redbass.

So I hit a prime last year early October spot. ZIP....No Reds, no anything except a small Seabass. Last year, at this time the spot was Yellowmouth Trout and Reds galore! But this ain't last year. It seems much warmer, air and water temp. This seems like an endless summer we're in.

And they say 10/7 is going to be almost a record breaker at 93 degrees!!??

Did I mention by days end we sat through at least 6 different rain showers? Yep, they moved fast, but it was on and off with the rain jackets all day long. And comfortable till the sun finally came out around 11:30am. Prior it was really cloudy and quite nice. I love the cloud cover.

So we moved on and closer to the jetties. No Red bites on the crabs, and only bait stealers on the shrimp rods. And it was hours till the tide was low still and the current would slow. So after our last shift on the rain jackets, we packed it in to go clean our fish.

But we had action and came back with fish for a few dinner's.

And I always like seeing the Brandt's and having them aboard for day fishing.

Next up....May, the spring trip.

10/2 - I've seen different October's......

Had Don M. aboard again. This time with his Dad, Don M. Yeah "D & D fishing team".

Ran to the jetties first thing so I could dump my bait-well water and get fresh clean Ocean water in the tanks. Don't want anything to do with the river water right now. My bait was pretty happy, and so was I.

So while there, we float-rigged the jetty rocks for awhile. Man, was it basically, DEAD.

A couple Mangrove Snappers and a few Black Margates. And the Mangroves seem to be fading off a bit, where we were fishing. They surely are not like they were weeks ago. At the high water you could whack some super studs and many of them.










When they are 14-18 inches, boy do they make for some serious pan fried fillets. As good a eating as any fish out there. And a breeze to clean.....and ya know " I likes that!".

We moved around and still came up with not much. Saw a few "crowd pleaser" sized Tarpon rolling near our floats and live shrimp. And of course them finicky bastards weren't out to please us by no means. I hooked one last Tuesday while out goofing around...but that day was basically a wash with the west winds and comatose shrimp, because of the river's fresh water.

So myself and the two Don's headed down river and tried for a keeper size red in the river. Burning up some frozen crabs I had left. Don Sr. got one Red to the boat, a 28-1/2 incher. We lost another good bite, before all the crabs were gone.















I really was wanting a few Black Drum off the spot, since I've caught some real nice ones here before. But now with the crabs gone we moved on and tried a few Trout spots, but the tide wasn't right. It was screaming, when I needed a slow soft ebbing tide instead.

We ended up by the Navy base. Where on a falling tide has been EL TORO CENTRAL. Jacks, and I mean Jacks, pouring through willing to test your light tackle, my charter's skills, and while eating hooks and leaders like candy!

The two Don's went in the black when it came to getting all that bit, to the boat. And in between all the dang Ladyfish, one could stand. I actually tied on hooks and leaders and grab for the net most of the time. I did get a chance to take a few sets of pictures in of a few Jacks that made it to the boat.

I told Don Jr. here's where you can get long hard battle experience. Trout don't give this to you because Trout fishing/catching is more finesse fishing (which is why I love it). But Jacks won't cut you no slack. They expose what you still need to work on, when it comes to a fish that burns drag, bows rod's into horse shoe shapes and gives you some burn in the arms. Especially on my light Ugly Stik Striper rods. The guys were using. It was fun watching the rods bend, though.



















































































We saved a few small Ladyfish for cut bait, and then tried for a "keeper" sized Redbass. And again, after approx. five 4 oz. bank sinkers and 8 leaders we finally got one to the boat. The nasty bottom we were fishing, and lost fish via slam dunk bites and blistering drag runs, had my light bottom tackle ripped to shreds. But we got what we came for.

Bottom fishing means a lot of tackle just plain lost to the river", that's why I love float fishing. But each time we tried it, we did get our "Targeted species", which was a good thing. Size of the Reds, is just the problem right now. It's hard to find that under 27 incher, where I fish.

We sure hooked alot of fish today. And if they all made it to the boat, it would have been pretty impressive. But that's the way the wake splashes.
I'm usually impressed if half make it to the net. Which would be a good ratio. Remember, folks.....these ain't the same as Billy Big Mouth Bass. They pull so you have too, or they'll find the motor, the bottom of the boat, a rock, you name it. Then, all ya have is the distant memory of the fish that got away, instead of that nice tasty fillet. Which is always a reminder of that great catch.

Although it was kinda a funky day's fishing. We sure had fun!

"Our fish have bad attitudes."