8-3 to 8-6-09

[hengstthomas]

8-3-09 CHP
Met up with Sport and Steve and had made arrangements to meet up with Morty later as well . I got there around 7pm and found Sport at the end of the Pier ...
The Barricade ..

Looking back towards the beach ..

Didnt really do much .. Fished till dark for Flounder and picked off 4 with the biggest being 16" . People around started picking off fish more and more as the sun went down and the Flounder bite dropped off .
Around 9pm I tied up a rig for Croakers and casted .. SNAP !! Forgot to open the bail .. Grr ! This was a Kodak moment because it the 2nd time in my life using Braid . I retie another and it was dead .. 2 or 3 guys picked off fish on Shrimp and Bloods with a mixture of Spot and Croakers . It was still very slow .
I tried the honey hole and pulled up 1 nice Croaker and missed a few as well .. All I had left were circle hooks and I tried everything but couldnt hookup .. Gonna stay with Mustads
I was gonna try for Flounder again but I couldnt find any spots to try to my liking and when I settled for a spot I got crossed twice . I got irritated and decided to leave .
Got home around 11pm with no bait for tomorrows boat trip
Atleast I didnt get skunked and I got to see another nice sunset ...

As I walked down the pier I saw lots of small Snapper Blues under the lights and even thought I saw some "gold & purple" in there too

Morty it was good to see ya again and thanks for dropping off my reel
Steve and Sport I am sure I'll see you soon
Thank all 3 of you as I could have lost my wits last night if I wasnt in such good company .. Lots of rookies out there last night thats for sure .

8-4-09 "Pirates" in the Canal
Fran , Sammy and Alfie picked me up at 6am . It was foggy as heck and at times maybe 10 to 15 feet visibility .
We get on the water and find it not moving even thought high tide was predicted at 8:30ish am . This lasted until about 10:30am . I picked off 3 TB Flounder and 1 big Oyster Cracker while they took a skunk so we opted to hit Roosevelt Inlet for some fresh bait . We tried tandems with Squid and Gulp and got hits but no fish landed so I put a Croaker rig on and started getting bait . Fran asked me if I wanted to go back to Flounder and without the tide moving I knew that would be a disaster since both Alfie and Sammy could not cast and didnt really understand Jigging .. neither one could set the hook either but you know what .. They will make you laugh and smile all day Great company for old farts
SO we head back to the Canal and I strip bait . I get 3 more TB's and of the 3 of them they still have yet to land a flatfish .
We made a move to the "bird houses" and Alfie hooks up .. a 21.5" Flounder Fran says he has a horseshoe stuck up his rear LMAO !! Aflie gets a few more TB's as well .
Not sure if Sammy caught one or not but he had plenty of opportunities and just would not set the hook , he didnt really seem to mind .
The tide started to rip with the wind and I missed fish afetr fish and could not really hold bottom but did pick off 2 more small TB's .

Thats when the "pirates" attacked


We called it a day at 11am ..
Alfie's fish and Frans catch of the day

Great to fish with you again Fran too bad about the tides and such .. next time

CHP 8-4 / 8-5-09 "Doormats
I picked up BelAirSteve at the Ferry around 8pm and we headed to the Pier . The Pier was pretty packed but the first few lights were OK .
We started out looking for Spot for bait for the Croakers and slowly picked up both . After we had 10 Spot we started to head out towards the end . The Pier had thinned out considerably and we took a spot where the Gate used to be . I cut up a Spot and had to get my rigs from my truck .. When I got back I noticed the left corner was empty and I rushed to take the Spot but someone beat me to it so we settled on the second to last light .
I picked up 2 small TB's and again the left corner was empty and not much action going on so I grabbed the spot
Steve kept the Croaker rig on and played with Croakers and a few TB Flounder while I stayed with the Tandem for Flounder .
The bite was the best I have seen it since they opened the new section . I picked up a few TB's and then got slammed with a nice 25" (ish) Flounder that broke off the jig when I flipped it , It hit the fence and I think the top hook got caught and the weight of the fish cause the line to snap .. Hurt a bit as it was a very nice and HEAVY fish . I got serious after that and in the next hour banged 2 more like it
The first was almost 23" and weighted 4.28 pounds .. The second one was just shy of 25" and weighed 5.06 pounds . The bigger one spit up this 7" Spot ..

I waited till sun up to get the pics .. These fish bit at night .
I picked up around 30 TB Flounder with a few nice fat ones that were 17 to 18 inches ..

I also got a nice 11" Croaker that looked like it escaped an attack from a Porpoise .. Forgot to take a pic
Anyhow It was a great night and again got to see a wonderful Sunrise ..

Steve it was a pleasure to meet you and fish a mini Marathon with you as well
I hope you come back to do it again soon .
We fished until 8am .

I'm sure Steve will chime in when he gats off the Ferry and gets home

Triggers on the Dirtman 8-6-09
Well I finally got on the Dirtman and it was certainly a BLAST !
Steve picked me up around 9:40am and we made a pit stop before meeting Mike and Harry at the Marina in IRI . We had a car pull up next to us and I had to snap a pic ..

On the way out of the inlet we saw a boat with quite a few heads on it , they were anchored and everyone was on one side .. The boat was leaning bad but fefore I could snap a pic the crew had moved ..

The crew ..

Harry had brought some Deer Sausage with cheese and Pickled Tomatoes .. They were excellet and I had my fill for sure .. even finished off the Sausage

Had some rain but the Seas were gentle on us

I noticed that the Croakers were slightly different than the ones at CHP with nice Golden fins ..

We caught plenty of Croakers .. Could have filled the boat with them if we were targeting them .
The first 2 stops didnt produce any Triggers but we did get Croakers , Seabass , Pinfish , Porgys , Scup , Sea Robbin and Mike even got 2 Flounder ...
Mike and Steve get the prize for Smallest fish

We had a huge Sea Turtle come check us out and stuck around as if it wondered WTF !

Harry started it off with 2 nice Trigger in a row and I followed suit with 4 of my own ..
My first Trigger .. I'm a happy camper

We picked them off once we figured out where in the water colum they were and how to avoid Mr Croaker and Mr Seabass
Ended the day with 30 Triggers between the 4 of us
Steve even lassoed a nice Tog

Kitchen Shots at the Hook House

Triggers Maw

Who me ?

Checking the rear view mirror

Great day on the water with an EXCELLENT Crew
Thanks for the Trip Mike and for putting us on some fish !

 

[FishinsMyLife]

I hear those trigger fish eat well..Nice catchin

 

[Andy]

Awesome as usual Tom. :beer: