Was having a good day until I picked up a call from work that slipped in through spotty coverage. Had to hike out and call the day short.
Full moon next week. Going to try to land on some red ear beds in the big lake. Caught a mess 2 years ago that were about small/mid crappie sized, so hope we can repeat.
Got skunked. Nothing but baitstealers. This weather pattern with the front hanging around fucked us I think.
Welp took a half day yesterday to get groceries for trip, put 180 gallons of fuel in the boat, clean the boat, get all the equipment and tackle on the boat, put 400 pounds of ice in the boat. Woke up at 3AM. Wind is blowing its ass off. 4AM made the decision to postpone the trip from 430 launch to 6AM launch. Already drank my coffee. Guess I'm about to watch The Diplomat or some bullshit. We don't think it's going to be possible to run to the shelf any more. Absolutely taking it in the teeth at 15-20mph wind probably 2.5-3 foot seas for 80-90 straight miles and 3hrs. Instead, going to run towards some snapper spots about 50 miles closer and call it a snapper and cobia day. If the wind dies down on the way out then we'll make a run to the shelf. Windfinder was absolutely wrong on their forecast. Ventusky was much closer to reality.
My friends were hungover from a concert last night, and to be honest, even if they weren’t , it was legit rough. It died down a bit as the day wore on. No one wanted to run to the shelf except maybe me. Went to our snapper spots 55 miles out. Had to work for them, probably took 2.5 hrs. Got our limit of 8 snapper. These were the nicest ones I’ve caught out there. DMR biologist was taking data back at the ramp and weighed them. Smallest was 13# biggest was over 20#. They were maybe 15# on average. He said they were by far the best he saw all day.
I was out at Ship before the sun rose this morning and I got my ass hammered crossing the Sound. It was only blowing 10-12 on land but picked up big time about 5 miles out. You made the right call - and looks like you still had a great day. Nice haul! I never fish holidays and don’t even like to fish weekends, but today, as you know, was our only window. Still, tons of rednecks who don’t know what they’re doing out there today.
You catch anything at ship or was it a sand bar day? When we left yesterday it was blowing 16-18mph at the Petit Bois station. Was 2.5s with 3s at a tight interval in the sound and not much better after passing Horn. I was running low 20s trying not to break my crews’ back. We ran 30s all the way home though with the following sea. Roughest trip yet this year.
damn. Running low 20s is rough on the body, good call by you. But those snapper will still eat better than just about anything. Looks like our pattern might slowly be switching up and we will get rise of these nasty, high SW winds. I was out of there by 8:30. Tagged a bunch of trout for research, including a 6.25 pounder. Smashed a jerkbait. Caught a bunch of shrimp and a few crabs yesterday afternoon so we’re gonna have a feast for lunch.
My planned overnight trip was cancelled due to sick kids, but I did manage to go out for an hour or two this morning until getting rained out
Tried a new section of our big river for some more Bartram's Bass. Doing a DNR clinic on them tomorrow.
Big one just swirled up near me Good cast Questionable hook up Spit me on his first jump Looked really nice though
Yesterday went to a DNR clinic on the native SC redeye bass. Then hit the river for an hour or two for them before setting off for an overnight fishing trip.
Went out for a few hours in negative tide in almost 100 degree heat. Don’t think the fish like that much. Caught a 25 inch red on a 1000 reel L power and fast action and it had zero fight. Thought it was a small trout at first. Took a bit to revive him too even after a short fight.
an overnight trip to a stream I used to fish with my dad 25 years ago. Got there late so only had 30 minutes or so to fish in the evening, just in the DH section. Then settled down in the car for sleep. Spoiler Then got up at 5:30 in the morning and started hiking. After over 3 miles I started fishing and ended up over 5 miles in before I hiked back at the end of the day. Lost count on the number of brook trout I caught.
i think the Catawba will have some as you go towards Marion and Lake James. Lake James has good smallmouth.
Started on a smaller stream and decided I wanted a bit bigger river so I switched over. Based on results I should have stayed with the first one, but can't complain. Was a pretty crowded Father's Day.
Ol catfish wanted to tangle with the Buffalo this evening Shoutout PowerPro braid on my bass rod Hafta crop video for a photo when I get home Had a 50 yard run back to the dock to grab a net Luckily he was also fat and tired and was still on my pole when I got back
Jumped around to 4 different streams yesterday. Stream 1 Spoiler Stream 2 Spoiler Stream 3 Spoiler Stream 4 Spoiler
my penchant for skunking guides continues. I was in BC for a week and booked a day fishing around Whistler. The shop fucked up, all our emails referenced the right date, but they scheduled me for July on their calendar and the final confirmation(that i skimmed over to the waiver) had July. So, I had to fish a day later than I planned and the weather turned to shit. I got two thumps all day fishing for bull trout and rainbows on tribs of the Squamish. not really cool.
Like most of the country we had a solid two weeks at 90+. Cooled down some this week so buddy and I went out this morning and was pretty shocked how well we did. All of them fairly large for here. Have a salmon trip scheduled for October, really looking forward to that.
Guess I'll have to fish somewhere else when I go to Virginia Shenandoah National Park suspends all fishing, effective immediately https://www.wric.com/news/northern-...spends-all-fishing-effective-immediately/amp/