Last night I sent out a batch email to my clients inviting them for a beach buggy day of fly fishing.
Getting people to jump on last minute is tough, so I decided to go with the plan myself.
It really was a nice morning. Started airing down in the dark and was at my one and only "Area"
for the morning. First light with an incoming tide had birds everywhere and fish busting on top. It was great except for the 25-35 mph NW wind. Only a few anglers out but as day arrived they came, and came, and came. It didn't matter to me because everyone was spaced out and no one mugged someone else when they caught a fish.
And boy were there fish caught. A lot of them.
I would say in just the beat I was on over 100 fish, most keeper or just under sized, including some big ones were caught. They were caught one at a time, in bunches, and I even saw one guy doubled up, he caught a big one on an Ava (metal), and another keeper on the teaser. That would be a hoot on a fly rod.
I watched as fish after fish after fish was caught to my left and to my right. After 4,500 casts I was getting a little frustrated. Now, most of the fish were caught on AVA's thrown a mile out using spinning gear. But, truth be told, it doesn't matter, you still get discouraged, even just a little bit. On my 4,501st cast I went tight and landed a FAT 30" fish, that probably went 15 pounds which was heavy for it's size.
I went to take a picture and my Canon G12, yes one of the ones I get repaired six times a year, would only make humming and electronic short sounds. While on the rocks with Chris yesterday we took a rouge wave and I think that did it in. So, no pictures, but I'm a straight shooter, you all know that by now. I finished the day with one landed, one bigger one flipped off on the wash/beach border and a missed bite that I just froze and didn't set the hook on.
The best part for me, besides being out there and catching a nice fish, was seeing the caught to release ratio. Let's say I saw 100 fish caught on the nose, I would say 80 of them went back, even maybe 70 of them. And those weren't shorts, there were some real big fish released. I only saw one gentleman, I say this respectfully as he was elderly and had some trouble walking, do a striped bass drop kick. At first he put it on the sand hoping a wave would come up, but it never did. As I watched and figured out what was going on I started walking over so I could revive and release the fish. Before I got there it was kicked twice back into the water. He should ask someone for help when he hooks up, there were enough of us nearby.
Below is one anglers hook-up and CPR, catch-photograph-release, of a nice bass that he landed. One thing I noticed when I got home and was editing the pictures, in just about every frame, someone is hooked up, it was that kind of morning.
