Well sometimes the plan does kind of come together. Believe me, I didn't find these fish. (But first things first.....when your tell your friends, Dad, brother, or clients, "It's go day", they should listen. Rant over.) These albies have been kind of camped out for the better part of the week. While my plan was to look for bass I couldn't not check all the possibilities.
The marina got busy after I put in and soon I was out and straight across the pond to check out a spot I was dreaming about. It was going to be going good......bass......schoolies with bigger ones mixed in......blowing up on peanuts. Forget it. When I got there, no birds, no bait, no bass, no streaks on the fish finder.
So I ran south and stopped where I thought it might be good....nothing. Now Monday I shot myself in the foot and turned around at that point and came up lame. Today I wouldn't make that same mistake twice. It was about 830 and I was going to see things I haven't seen before.
Right at the can I saw my first bird over an albie, might have been a little after 8 o'clock. Then it got busy, real quick. Albies up everywhere and the beautiful thing was that there were that many birds, bait, and blow-ups, early, no one had to motor around. You arrived, you shut off, and you waited. I caught and released for about an hour and half and at times just when I thought it was over, it got better.
I dropped the rod and picked up the camera with the long lens. I was looking for tight and in-focus shots of albies eating and bait spraying. If you thinking trying to catch them is hard try to get their picture. When I got home I ws disappointed that I didn't get the shot and even more disappointed that I didn't step back and take some wide angler shots. These pictures don't tell story of the albie fishing out their today.
I saw some old friends, some other guides, and even my doctor, who I reluctant to engage because my prostate-rectal exam is over-due. So the number of fish was crazy, the no-need to run-and-gun was pleasant, the size of these albies (>27"), to me, was bigger than I am used to. And lastly, I learned
a big lesson. So after watching like 5 albies eat me fly and come up empty I decided to check it after about 45 minutes. I had went tight on the first one during that after-the-photo-shoot session and it must have snapped the hook. Note to self- if you're not hooking.....check your fly.
After a new fly and few more I decided to go look for bass. Took that long ride to Coney Island and then over, around, across, out and back to the dock.......nothing, Bay is 52 degrees. Didn't see much for bait, birds, and nothing on top of the glass-flat bay. Guys were trolling in the channels and near the lighthouses but I didn't see anyone score.
Around 5 Lauren had to go to the beach for a school project, "perfect". Saw some bunker and nothing on them. what I did see was town machinery redoing beach replenishment protecting the beach club from the storm tonight. Can they do that at whim? Do they have a green light? Permits? Inspections? What a joke. That thing is way down into the trough and pushing sand up- doesn't seem right.
And lastly, here's my rest-of-the-season-prediction. Bay is 52 and for me dead-so that whole peanuts emptying out-over. Albies gone after this blow-over. Gannets diving on mackerel, which usually happens at the end-over. Big bass on the way- over. Basically 2018 is the year old the albie and the lame fall run. Micros and schoolies don't count.....I'm talking about good fish.