Weekend Fishing Report (full of pics)
I was able to get down to the coast with my dad for 2 days of fishing. We were hopeful even though there was little to no tide action. Got on the water before sunrise on Saturday and headed for the marsh.
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The original plan was to fish for redfish and after (hopefully) nabbing a few we could look for trout. This decision was largely based on the conditions. We got to our first stop, a cut east of the conservation camp, and saw a few reds and a couple gar but couldn't get anything to bite. I did get throwback speck. It was frustrating b/c we saw a few reds. A charter guy came in the same cut as us and caught 1 small red along a bank we had already trolled. We were looking for a new red spot and saw some birds working a cut around the corner from us. It was in the vicinity of point chavet. We get over to the birds and they were working the bank. It was bull reds! Me and my dad both hooked up with monsters! I fought mine for about 5 minutes and then he tricked me. He acted like he was done and I was getting him in. At about 10 feet from the boat he immediately made a hard run directly under the boat and broke me off. As I cursed myself, I grabbed the net and went to assist pops. After about another 5 minutes of fight with his, it broke him off as well. We both looked at each other with high levels of frustration. Was a very cool bit of action but neither of us could cash in. By the time we were both broke off, the school had disappeared. Oh well. Went to another stop or 2 looking for reds and couldn't make anything happen. So decided to fish for trout. First stop was a platform and it didn't produce a bite.
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Second stop was Brush Island. That's where we found them. Nothing outstanding but landed 14 trout. They wanted carolina rigged live shrimp. Also caught 1 on double rigged swim baits but they preferred the shrimp and it wasn't close. The interesting thing is that all the specks were nice trout. Nothing huge but nothing under 15ish inches. Didn't have a single throwback trout at Brush.
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We stopped at some birds working and it was a mixture of spanish mackeral and bluefish. Only boated 1 spanish, had 2 get off, and the biggest bluefish I've ever caught. The bluefish was released but I kept the spanish. The only other fish that went in the box that day was a puppy drum.
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After cleaning the fish and the boat we grabbed some dinner at Steve's in the Long Beach Harbor. It's outstanding if you're down there. This picture is the red snapper cat island.
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Day 2 we headed out before sunrise again. Today decided to chase an early trout bite since we had more luck with them the previous day.
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We went back to Brush Island first thing since it was our best stop the day before. Caught a flounder early and then absolutely nothing. Saw no bait. Didn't get a bite. Also saw 2 other boats and they didn't catch a fish either. We decided to run further south to Martin Island. More nothing. Saw a couple charters down there and didn't see any of them land a fish either. Moved around to a few other spots in that area and nothing. It was weird. There was no bait anywhere and the birds were looking all day and they couldn't find anything either. Never saw a slick either. Water was just dead. Didn't see anyone catch a fish and that includes a couple charter guys. Decided to head in at noon with only the flounder to show. Saw a group of birds working some bait (first we had seen all day) in open water between Brush and the conservation camp. We trolled up to it and cast to it. Immediately both me and my dad's reels are having line peeled off. It ended up being spanish mackeral with a few bull reds under them. Added 1 more bull red and 2 more spanish mackeral to the box. They didn't really care for my swim bait. I bet I could have caught more of them with a different bait. That little bit of excitement made day 2.
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All in all, not great fishing this weekend. You win some, you lose some. I did end up having a great time though. Anytime you can get away and put some fish in the box is a success in my book.
