Yesterday was forecasted to have virtually no wind in the Niantic area during the morning hours. No full moon to be concerned with one foot higher and the dangerously one foot lower with extra concerns for hidden rocks...full sun and the tide was scheduled to be high at noon. Thought this might be ideal and took advantage.
Launched out at sunrise and enjoyed glass like conditions as the sun was rising. Had a chance to finally see my small outboard perform at full throttle speeds and make good time as I crossed through Niantic bay towards Black Point..made the bend and headed into some shallow spots, twenty to twenty five feet...was using the rigs that I made..white bucktails on 30 lb fluro..with a dropper loop and a number three circular hook tipped with Berkly Gulp alive white swimming mullets.
I had a few hours to fish the incoming tide..made various drops at different points..robin fish were very active..even more so then the last trip...at times pulling up with one fish on the bucktail and the other on the looper hook.....finally had my first real "grab and run" strike and even with my new salt water rod and real it was a challenge to keep tension on the line at all times and guide the fish to the boat while maneuvering to retrieve the net with my other hand...finally saw color and what looked to be a very large dark door mat sized fluke...I got it into a cooler full of an ice slush and it was so powerful with its flopping and thrashing I thought it might knock itself lose and back into the water. Always learning new things on each trip..so if and when I go next, I'll have something to put it's lights out in a more appropriate manor.
Since I caught the fluke here, I thought it might be a good idea to anchor and chum a bit..I had a can of salmon that I froze in a ziplock back the night before and placed the solid fish in a zip lock bag with some holes and into a chum pot tied to the anchor...I also had a Berkly Alive chum bag and tied that up also..
I did drift a bit from where I caught the fluke so I had to make my best guess and try to get as close possible...The robin fish kept me very busy...they appear to all be much larger then from the last trip...I caught several fluke in the 13-17.5 range and release them. Right at high tide the bite turned completely off even with all that chum...
Pulled the anchor and traveled towards Sound View making random drops but came up with nothing.
Headed back towards Black Point...and stopped to make some additional drops before I arrived...caught another borderline fluke that was hooked pretty well in the throat but thankfully was able to remove the hook with little damage and released it.
It was now six pm, the tide was low and the winds seemed light, but everything turned very choppy and I did a lot of splashing through the waves as I headed back to the boat launch...the splashing was a little refreshing after being exposed to the direct sun all day...I wasn't excited about all the large swells that were developing however..seas were probably two feet by seven pm and was still making my way back slowly.
Enjoyable day..but I'm still exhausted even after a good nights rest. Looking forward to making a creative meal with my favorite fish. I kept two very large robin fish and it'll be fun to create something with them as well.
The fluke fishing is much better then it was last month, so I just thought I'd put it out for some of you salty peeps.
Launched out at sunrise and enjoyed glass like conditions as the sun was rising. Had a chance to finally see my small outboard perform at full throttle speeds and make good time as I crossed through Niantic bay towards Black Point..made the bend and headed into some shallow spots, twenty to twenty five feet...was using the rigs that I made..white bucktails on 30 lb fluro..with a dropper loop and a number three circular hook tipped with Berkly Gulp alive white swimming mullets.
I had a few hours to fish the incoming tide..made various drops at different points..robin fish were very active..even more so then the last trip...at times pulling up with one fish on the bucktail and the other on the looper hook.....finally had my first real "grab and run" strike and even with my new salt water rod and real it was a challenge to keep tension on the line at all times and guide the fish to the boat while maneuvering to retrieve the net with my other hand...finally saw color and what looked to be a very large dark door mat sized fluke...I got it into a cooler full of an ice slush and it was so powerful with its flopping and thrashing I thought it might knock itself lose and back into the water. Always learning new things on each trip..so if and when I go next, I'll have something to put it's lights out in a more appropriate manor.
Since I caught the fluke here, I thought it might be a good idea to anchor and chum a bit..I had a can of salmon that I froze in a ziplock back the night before and placed the solid fish in a zip lock bag with some holes and into a chum pot tied to the anchor...I also had a Berkly Alive chum bag and tied that up also..
I did drift a bit from where I caught the fluke so I had to make my best guess and try to get as close possible...The robin fish kept me very busy...they appear to all be much larger then from the last trip...I caught several fluke in the 13-17.5 range and release them. Right at high tide the bite turned completely off even with all that chum...
Pulled the anchor and traveled towards Sound View making random drops but came up with nothing.
Headed back towards Black Point...and stopped to make some additional drops before I arrived...caught another borderline fluke that was hooked pretty well in the throat but thankfully was able to remove the hook with little damage and released it.
It was now six pm, the tide was low and the winds seemed light, but everything turned very choppy and I did a lot of splashing through the waves as I headed back to the boat launch...the splashing was a little refreshing after being exposed to the direct sun all day...I wasn't excited about all the large swells that were developing however..seas were probably two feet by seven pm and was still making my way back slowly.
Enjoyable day..but I'm still exhausted even after a good nights rest. Looking forward to making a creative meal with my favorite fish. I kept two very large robin fish and it'll be fun to create something with them as well.
The fluke fishing is much better then it was last month, so I just thought I'd put it out for some of you salty peeps.
