That's "Fishermans Factory Outlet" - it's the distributor for Penn, Abu Garcia, Spiderwire, Berkley, Sevenstand, tackle. And by signing up for their newsletter (like mine) you get special offers, on the already discounted name brand stuff.
And talk about reels.....OH THEY'RE, MY DOWN FALL! I like having lots of reels.
A nice Phlueger low profile reel that's HIGH SPEED, for $48 bucks. I may have to order a few, for spares.
Check it out, at http://www.ffo-tackle.com/ and if you enter H25%10 in the coupon code area at checkout, you'll save 25% right there.
(If you've had any trouble getting here on the Blog. It was "hacked". Someone decided to hack the address, which I quickly figured out. And fixed it. Sorry for any problems)
Finally......Now, on to today's trip.
Had Adam and Colby aboard today. Two young anglers. And Adam and his dad have fished with me before. Adam is a steady blog reader, too. So he knew what was up. His dad couldn't make it, so his buddy Colby filled the spot.
Oh how this day looked to be "iffy" at best. Over cast, dark, cloudy as all hell, windy, and still out on the water, quite chilly. Completely different than earlier in the week forecasts. But that ain't stoppin the Jettywolf. "Tell Adam to pack his woolies" were going, to catch us some DRUM! I told Adam's Dad on the phone last night.
Well, what does this mean?
Red sky in the morning
mariners take warning!
That's the first thing that confirmed a big "morning wind". So as Adam and Colby piled on the boat, we headed directly to the jetties.
We were in position and got bit right away. DOUBLE-HEADER!
We were doing just fine, but the cool wind blew and the big curreent came as the tide was pushed by the wind. We went from 3 oz. leads to 6 oz. leads for awhile. So the guys ate fried chicken wings, and I had a bag of chips. We swapped a ton of laughs today, also. Besides getting Adams head out of the cooler, as he and Colby too, just had to examine their fish time after time. Inbetween bites.
Adam caught a "sand bagger" Black Drum as we sat waiting for the current to slow while using those 6 oz. leads. Not really feeling the bottom at all. But while checking his bait, Adam caught a nice fryer size Drum that never even ran, after eating his bait.
We certainly didn't keep all the drum we caught. Letting go the very small and many of the larger ones. Keeping six, I think out of no less than twelve.
I have to remind people that these large keeper type Drum aren't easy to clean and take a long time to do so. Especially, if I have to clean these on the boats cutting board. Today we got a bit lucky, and got to use a real fillet table over at the local marina. But that certainly isn't the "norm". I can do some, but surely can't clean 12-15 of these fish. I don't think people want to pay that cleaning service price, after their trip.
Heck, Trout are one thing....these dudes are another.
Again, the Drum ranged from 10" to 26". All the fish are fun as hell to catch. Because they "sandbag" you. And the bite is so distinct. Not like a "Slam and Run" that so many people are used to with Redfish of this same size.
As the day went on it got beautiful out there. The wind calmed down and the skies cleared. It got warm and the sun actually was shining. We went from all out wintery conditions with some rain even to a completely different day, all in 6 hours. of "catching".
I'm actually feeling a bit wore out on the Drum right now. I'd like to get back to my Trout chasing actually. But with the live shrimp sort of comotomose from the cold spell we just had, it was just as easy to go catch some Drum, with nothing but some dead shrimp.
That's Fall and early Winter for ya'. Lot's to do. From Trout to Reds, Drum and Sheepshead. River, jetties, and creeks. There's fish everywhere, willing to bite. You just have to be where they are and that means working the tides.
Saturday is it...and then comes the winds again on Sunday.
The forecast for the week has already flip flopped twice since yesterday.This week is looking better.
Tuesday says "Light & Variable", the words I like to read.
Tuesday says "Light & Variable", the words I like to read.
