Today I was determined to do 2 things:
1) Educate some people with circle hook brochures and catch-and-release doc,
and
2) Catch the first on my own fly.
I'm happy to say I did both and as rewarding as #1 was (this went VERY well actually - even ran into Popeye I believe, agagagagagaga) it was a great feeling to catch on my own creation! Schoolies, but hey, I didn't care! Had a keeper on it as well, but lost it due to slack line. Once he cleared the hook, he slapped the water with his tail just to let me know that I really missed out. BTW: these Orvis X-POINT (Owner makes them too) are really nice. They set very well and easily, but I believe they also come out just as easily (I crush my barbs and as tempting as it might be not to sometimes, after almost losing use of a finger due to a large barb I never will).
Great activity off the bar right at my feet, often caught while just letting the fly dangle of the ledge in the current only 15 feet away.
One guy walked back with a 30" kept-er from the jetty. Close to where all the boats were. I stayed until slack and then all the clam guys lit up with schoolies.
Popeye brought up some very fat shiny fish, mostly 26-27" on half-and-half rubber. While he was torturing one of them out came a VERY LARGE sand eel. I have really never seen one that big and fat, probably about 8" and 3/8" thick! Went to grab it and check it out, but it dug into the sand in the most amazing display of ... digging I guess. That's when I switched to my version of the Deep Sand Eel and did very well. Constant stream of taps and tugs all the way until slack. At one point I had the whole bar to myself and it was gorgeous out!
RE: #1
Every single person I approached was receptive to my shpiel about proper C&R and circle hooks (left the brochures on people's windshields, but the couple I gave out were great ice breakers once you convince people you're not selling anything). Total of about 20 people I approached, 19 were keepers
CAUTION: Venting ahead.
One guy was pissing me off and I don't anger easily. He would take every single friggin fish, carry it by the rod/hook and measure it way back up the beach at his little schoolie-torture-compound-from-hell. Then when it was certified that this was indeed an 18" fish, he would literally toss it about 10' in the air with a nice extra little effort to make sure it spins as well. SMACK it would hit in the 6" of water where they would land. It was odd, because sometimes he would release them semi-decent and other times he would fling them like that. WHATTUP WHIDDAT! Can't you just measure a place on your rod or just know that a fish is no where near a keeper? Ugh.
Watched one guy trying a fly rod for the first time ever (Christmas gift) and seemed quite hooked once he was onto his 12th fish. He was ecstatic.
Another gent caught the biggest fattest shad I've ever seen (sorry sir, I forgot your name) on a fly.
BTW: Almost parked in a spot covered in broken glass (still hoping it was someone who locked themselves out of their car during the night and not a break-in).
1) Educate some people with circle hook brochures and catch-and-release doc,
and
2) Catch the first on my own fly.
I'm happy to say I did both and as rewarding as #1 was (this went VERY well actually - even ran into Popeye I believe, agagagagagaga) it was a great feeling to catch on my own creation! Schoolies, but hey, I didn't care! Had a keeper on it as well, but lost it due to slack line. Once he cleared the hook, he slapped the water with his tail just to let me know that I really missed out. BTW: these Orvis X-POINT (Owner makes them too) are really nice. They set very well and easily, but I believe they also come out just as easily (I crush my barbs and as tempting as it might be not to sometimes, after almost losing use of a finger due to a large barb I never will).
Great activity off the bar right at my feet, often caught while just letting the fly dangle of the ledge in the current only 15 feet away.
One guy walked back with a 30" kept-er from the jetty. Close to where all the boats were. I stayed until slack and then all the clam guys lit up with schoolies.
Popeye brought up some very fat shiny fish, mostly 26-27" on half-and-half rubber. While he was torturing one of them out came a VERY LARGE sand eel. I have really never seen one that big and fat, probably about 8" and 3/8" thick! Went to grab it and check it out, but it dug into the sand in the most amazing display of ... digging I guess. That's when I switched to my version of the Deep Sand Eel and did very well. Constant stream of taps and tugs all the way until slack. At one point I had the whole bar to myself and it was gorgeous out!
RE: #1
Every single person I approached was receptive to my shpiel about proper C&R and circle hooks (left the brochures on people's windshields, but the couple I gave out were great ice breakers once you convince people you're not selling anything). Total of about 20 people I approached, 19 were keepers
CAUTION: Venting ahead.
One guy was pissing me off and I don't anger easily. He would take every single friggin fish, carry it by the rod/hook and measure it way back up the beach at his little schoolie-torture-compound-from-hell. Then when it was certified that this was indeed an 18" fish, he would literally toss it about 10' in the air with a nice extra little effort to make sure it spins as well. SMACK it would hit in the 6" of water where they would land. It was odd, because sometimes he would release them semi-decent and other times he would fling them like that. WHATTUP WHIDDAT! Can't you just measure a place on your rod or just know that a fish is no where near a keeper? Ugh.
Watched one guy trying a fly rod for the first time ever (Christmas gift) and seemed quite hooked once he was onto his 12th fish. He was ecstatic.
Another gent caught the biggest fattest shad I've ever seen (sorry sir, I forgot your name) on a fly.
BTW: Almost parked in a spot covered in broken glass (still hoping it was someone who locked themselves out of their car during the night and not a break-in).