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Oh, What A Beautiful Morning!
Up at (what is that phrase) O'Dark-Thirty and on the road at 4:15, arriving at PI at 5:15 (SSully wasn't kidding, nice slalom course in Newburyport).
Was windy when I got there, so fished the old fashioned way with a green/white bucktail jig. Dead. Nothing. Nada. Bubkis. Sure was nice out though!
Over the course of the next 2 hours, worked my way up to the south Jetty, not a thing.
For yucks, switch to a Yozuri plug I had handy that I bought down in Jersey and caught lots of Weaks on. Crossed over the front of the jetty and fished the ocean side. TONS of oak leaves decomposing in the water - along with brown seaweed. Kept casting and got stuck on a really heavy mass of ... moving seaweed. Wait a second.... SEAWEED DOESN'T MOVE!!! ;-)
Pull in a nice PHAT mid twenty-something! STRONG! I lost my grip on his lip in the shallows and before I could help him back out he was swimming literally in the sand back into the water. Fish was heavy!
So I stayed there looking for more vibrant seaweed. Cast again, slow retrieve, BAM! Rod doubles over - I got something big on, line is peeling off so I tighten drag to avoid losing it off my barbless single treble. Starts taking off down the beach away from the jetty and I have to race walk to keep up while reeling cuz he's running INTO THE BEACH! I reel with each wave to avoid undo torture and there it is at my feet... first keeper (by last years limits yet)!
Hook was barely in too, caught on the outside of the corner of the jaw. Probably swiped the side of the plug. Easy out and I got to release it and notice some line wrapped around my foot and it's not the same as my green line. Someone gut hooked this one recently - bright shiny swivel still on the line and hook WAY down, couldn't even see it. So i clipped the line as far down his throat as I could and released it and it swam away like a bullet. Wondering if I did the right thing though, but I keep hearing about how they can often survive gut hooking. Hope I helped.
After that I lost 1 medium size close to the beach and one MONSTER that I didn't get to see (in my haste to help that other fish, I laid my Shimano in the sand and the anti-reverse stopped working so when I was taken by surprised by the surge of this brute, the reel just started going backwards when I let go to get a better grip on the rod. RATS!)
Fished all the way back to the sandbar which was now totally exposed with several guys doing business.
Met up with my bud who began the "Where the HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!" shpiel since he just caught his 54th schoolie on a series of clousers.
"Sorry, I was busy." ;-)
Oh, What A Beautiful Morning!
Up at (what is that phrase) O'Dark-Thirty and on the road at 4:15, arriving at PI at 5:15 (SSully wasn't kidding, nice slalom course in Newburyport).
Was windy when I got there, so fished the old fashioned way with a green/white bucktail jig. Dead. Nothing. Nada. Bubkis. Sure was nice out though!
Over the course of the next 2 hours, worked my way up to the south Jetty, not a thing.
For yucks, switch to a Yozuri plug I had handy that I bought down in Jersey and caught lots of Weaks on. Crossed over the front of the jetty and fished the ocean side. TONS of oak leaves decomposing in the water - along with brown seaweed. Kept casting and got stuck on a really heavy mass of ... moving seaweed. Wait a second.... SEAWEED DOESN'T MOVE!!! ;-)
Pull in a nice PHAT mid twenty-something! STRONG! I lost my grip on his lip in the shallows and before I could help him back out he was swimming literally in the sand back into the water. Fish was heavy!
So I stayed there looking for more vibrant seaweed. Cast again, slow retrieve, BAM! Rod doubles over - I got something big on, line is peeling off so I tighten drag to avoid losing it off my barbless single treble. Starts taking off down the beach away from the jetty and I have to race walk to keep up while reeling cuz he's running INTO THE BEACH! I reel with each wave to avoid undo torture and there it is at my feet... first keeper (by last years limits yet)!
Hook was barely in too, caught on the outside of the corner of the jaw. Probably swiped the side of the plug. Easy out and I got to release it and notice some line wrapped around my foot and it's not the same as my green line. Someone gut hooked this one recently - bright shiny swivel still on the line and hook WAY down, couldn't even see it. So i clipped the line as far down his throat as I could and released it and it swam away like a bullet. Wondering if I did the right thing though, but I keep hearing about how they can often survive gut hooking. Hope I helped.
After that I lost 1 medium size close to the beach and one MONSTER that I didn't get to see (in my haste to help that other fish, I laid my Shimano in the sand and the anti-reverse stopped working so when I was taken by surprised by the surge of this brute, the reel just started going backwards when I let go to get a better grip on the rod. RATS!)
Fished all the way back to the sandbar which was now totally exposed with several guys doing business.
Met up with my bud who began the "Where the HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!" shpiel since he just caught his 54th schoolie on a series of clousers.
"Sorry, I was busy." ;-)