Summer has Arrived

Every year my family go and spend some time by the shore.  It's been a great tradition for a good number of years.  


 Got to see, fish from the bow and pole my friend Mark's new skiff.  Success was had for both of us.  I blew my fair share of opportunities, but did land my first sight fished striper, such a fun way to fish.  I'll take one of those over 10 blind casted. 


 Open vistas, the smell of salt and constant wind are a few of the things that come to mind when I think of the coast.

 Out for an evening stroll and saw this.  Couldn't quiet pass the marshmallow sky up. 

Stripahs

Made a run to the coast for some fall saltwater fishing.  Had heard from some friends that the bass were low in numbers but there were a bunch of Albies around.  While there were a bunch of albies there were more boats on the water than ever and everyone was running on the fish and putting them down.  If people wouldn't do that one can really pick at them but alas it wasn't to be so.  Got a ton of smallish bass one day and the next day one albie and one blue.  Despite the less than stellar fishing it was great to be out on the water with friends. 

The trip (day 3)

The drive to the coast was uneventful.  When we got there we quickly launched the boat full of excitement.  As soon as we hit the outside of the river our spirits sank as we were greeted by a wall of fog.  Shit.  We pulled onto the nearby flats and tried to stalk the flats but the light sucked and the fog became even more dense.  After a while we moved off to a different spot by a small creek and some fish busted in the shallows.  I prodded my bud to cast and he looked at me doubtfully but cast anyway.  Halfway through his first cast he got his first striper albeit a small schoolie.   

                                                   My bud's first striper.

A few minutes later I got a hit and it was a small Sea Robin.  Interesting looking fish.

                                         Pec fin of a Sea Robin

 We ended up hanging out waiting for the fog to break and were eventually rewarded with a half mile of visibility.  We ran out to a good rip to try to get in some fishing.  As soon as we arrived we saw a couple of fish bust on top an encouraging sign.  This part is a little vague in my memory, maybe the result of the fog, but it seemed like we caught big stripers on every drift for an hour or so.  

                                                           Hooked up

                                      

                                         All the bass were big, this being the largest one. 

To say the least it was on and we had this popular place to ourselves.  After an hour or so the fog started to set in and we headed in.