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Weekend Surf and 9.7 million skip jack
FINALLY got to spend a weekend down on the island. I was extremely pumped about fishing the surf as I had been reading here how it seemed to turn on. Got down late Friday and spent probably an hour goofing around with gear. Woke up Saturday morning around 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. Decided that I was going to throw live shrimp under a popping cork and headed down to Sea Isle. Got back to the beach and waded in pretty early say 6ish. Pink skies in the East were fantastic. As I waded out there alone looking at the sun come up I knew that catching fish or not was not the end all be all for me this morning as I was grateful to be out there experiencing God's creation.
Made it out to the 2nd bar and baited up. Got a good shot out there and waited maybe a minute before the cork was pulled under. Set the hook to nothing. Huh. Reeled in and repeated. Same thing. OK fine...get me once, cool...get me twice in a minute and so be it. Third cast same result. Fine, I suck. Fourth times a charm? Saw the skip jack launch from under the cork and make off with the shrimp. Time for a strategy change. Threw out there and started reeling in pretty much immediately. Bingo. Serves him right. Unfortunately this was the beginning of what I firmly believe was my personal war against the largest school of skip jack on the Gulf Coast.
After twenty minutes of this crap and hooked a 16" spec. I unloaded the bait and put on a paddle tail in pumpkin seed with yellow tail...my go to. I figured this would sink faster and get through the damn jacks. I was wrong. Change again. I know...spoon. I now know that spoons are jack freaking candy. I am now drawing the attention of another angler down the beach a ways as I shout YOU JACK BASTARDS! Nice. I went from enjoying the perfect morning talking to God to cussing out jacks in a half hour. Regroup Brad, regroup. Moved down the bar.
As I was moving I was thinking about what to throw next. I remembered a post on here last week about DOA's not working in our area. Folks...dem jacks like DOA's! Added a sinker to it to get faster to the bottom between the second and third bars. IT WORKED. But on a sand trout. But hey, if I am away from the jacks then I have won the war right? The war continued but this time I had a new enemy...Mr Sandy. Actually had fun with the sand trout. I bet I caught thirty of them all on DOA. I would let it settle between the bars and wait for maybe thirty seconds to a minute at a time before it would get picked up. Left the water at 8ish with all the sandy and jack catchin' I could stand. Least I got one spec! I have used many a jack for redfish candy in the past and I guess the word got out. Jacks win this round.
This morning I arrived in the water at the same spot with renewed excitement about all the specs who were waiting on me. It was not to be. I threw the kitchen sink this morning and felt one hit on a mirr o lure. That was about it. Water was a lot dirtier than Saturday and I'm guessing they were further out.
All in all I had a blast. At least I got a story about the time I did battle with 9.7 million jack fish...
Made it out to the 2nd bar and baited up. Got a good shot out there and waited maybe a minute before the cork was pulled under. Set the hook to nothing. Huh. Reeled in and repeated. Same thing. OK fine...get me once, cool...get me twice in a minute and so be it. Third cast same result. Fine, I suck. Fourth times a charm? Saw the skip jack launch from under the cork and make off with the shrimp. Time for a strategy change. Threw out there and started reeling in pretty much immediately. Bingo. Serves him right. Unfortunately this was the beginning of what I firmly believe was my personal war against the largest school of skip jack on the Gulf Coast.
After twenty minutes of this crap and hooked a 16" spec. I unloaded the bait and put on a paddle tail in pumpkin seed with yellow tail...my go to. I figured this would sink faster and get through the damn jacks. I was wrong. Change again. I know...spoon. I now know that spoons are jack freaking candy. I am now drawing the attention of another angler down the beach a ways as I shout YOU JACK BASTARDS! Nice. I went from enjoying the perfect morning talking to God to cussing out jacks in a half hour. Regroup Brad, regroup. Moved down the bar.
As I was moving I was thinking about what to throw next. I remembered a post on here last week about DOA's not working in our area. Folks...dem jacks like DOA's! Added a sinker to it to get faster to the bottom between the second and third bars. IT WORKED. But on a sand trout. But hey, if I am away from the jacks then I have won the war right? The war continued but this time I had a new enemy...Mr Sandy. Actually had fun with the sand trout. I bet I caught thirty of them all on DOA. I would let it settle between the bars and wait for maybe thirty seconds to a minute at a time before it would get picked up. Left the water at 8ish with all the sandy and jack catchin' I could stand. Least I got one spec! I have used many a jack for redfish candy in the past and I guess the word got out. Jacks win this round.
This morning I arrived in the water at the same spot with renewed excitement about all the specs who were waiting on me. It was not to be. I threw the kitchen sink this morning and felt one hit on a mirr o lure. That was about it. Water was a lot dirtier than Saturday and I'm guessing they were further out.
All in all I had a blast. At least I got a story about the time I did battle with 9.7 million jack fish...
LIVIN THE SALT LIFE 
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