So, we agreed to not depart till 2:30pm, at low tide. And fish the clean-green-cooler flooding tide at the big Jetties.
We got into position, and after a brief "how-to" lesson about the float-rig. The guys picked it up right away.
Waiting for the flooding tide to make it's way down the jetty rocks, and before the real current even started, Dave gets a FLOAT down! The Red makes a few good runs, and into the boat is our "targeted fish".
Okay things are looking up and the tide isn't really even moving yet. But eventually the clean-green water heads our way. And I even start making a few drifts. Bait stealers are about the only thing I'm getting bit by.
Then comes something I have never seen before, this bad. Literal herds of Stingrays, like flocks of swimming birds start coming by, splitting around the boat. I'm talking 30, 40 at a time, wave after wave of them. They swim right into our lines and of course because I'm the only one with Polorized sun glasses on, I'm the only one seeing them. They snag into the lines on almost every single drift of the float. It became had to actually fish.
Plague like porportions of them are pour down the rocks with the flood tide. Every time the guys sent thier floats down the jetty rocks, the rays would come by and they'd have to straight line the rods and bust off the stingers. They aren't eating the shrimp, just getting snagged. And on the light float-rig rods and reels, they'd smoke off with a line dumping run.
But in between, no Redbass bites at all.....and believe me when I tell ya we stayed on the spot and feverishly worked the rocks. But I could just feel it. There was no mojo here. If I can't even hook-up, how was my guys supposed to. That's my measurement of a spot. After a few hours, nothing but the one Red and one Ring-tailed Porgie and a few rock blennies were caught.
The SE sea breeze was up, the water was flowing. It was cooler and actually quite nice. No boats hounding us. No boat traffic and no bites. So we headed over to the North Jetty. Set up on two different spots, and the micro-bluefish were eating every single live shrimp we put out.
Wow, I tried my best to pick the best part of the day. And we can't catch a break, only 8" Bluefish. Something is terribly wrong with this picture. Was it that the 5'8" incoming tide New Moon tide the problem? I guess so, because it had the water alive with creatures. Mullet schools swam by the boat too. So we headed back to the south jetty, and the water was so high that we didn't get any drifts down the rocks, but rather into the rocks, because the tide was so high the water was pouring through the rocks rather then along them.
We quickly went through 10 dozen live shrimp, and as the sun started to go down, we ran out of bait. My best educated guess, and best attempt at fishing the jetties for Reds with light tackle for maximum fun. Ended up being just that, an attempt.
But I'm not going to let it stop me. This week I'll fish the incoming morning tide, if I'm going. Because I still believe that the clean-green-cooler rising tide is our best bet.
