sometimes a plan works almost too well, by Alexi

   I have been paying close attention to the surf reports, particularly the height of the waves.  (As I've said before I am not interested in flipping my kayak in the surf if I can avoid it...)  I noticed that a couple of important factors were lining up really well for Sunday morning to be a good fishing day.  First off the waves were 0 to 1ft.  Secondly the wind was under 10mph.  Thirdly, there had been reports of pods of bunker out front.  Not a lot, but enough get my interest peaked.  I called Steve and KGB to tell them my plan and see if they wanted in.  I had a bbq to attend Sunday afternoon/ evening because it was Mothers' Day, and my folks were going to be visiting my brothers house.  What this meant was that I would have to get my fishing done in the morning.  I was joking with my friends the night before saying "I'm going to go out and catch two giant fish, come back and show up the bbq drunk, and smoking cigarettes and just flop the fish down in front of the grill."
   Both Steve and KGB were otherwise occupied.  I'd have to go at it solo again.  I convinced my housemate Colin to join me on the trip, for him getting out of town and sitting on the beach was enough incentive.  We were going to leave early.  Like 5 a.m. early.  Really we left at 6.  We stopped a couple of times.  I picked up a tube and some bloodworms, not knowing what to expect, partly expecting to troll around for a few hours and return home empty handed.     When we pulled up to my familiar ocean launch site I "took a look" (what fishermen say when they're not fishing but are checking out the ocean scene, usually with binoculars.)  As is often the case, there was another fisher type person walking off the beach with some advice.  He saw my Kayak and said " I heard that the kayak guys are really nailing 'em at Manasquan."  I was for some reason full of bravado and said "I've caught fish plenty of times where I'm the only one around doing it.  I think there's fish here."
     I thought I saw a dark area near a boat about 100 yards out.  that got my blood pumping.  I quickly put my gear together and got on my wetsuit. .   Walked out and launched.  Not a hitch.   I quickly put on the tube-n-worm and start trolling south, if only because that's the way Colin was walking.  Within minutes I saw some splashes.  They were a little small for bunker and I didn't want to switch to the snag yet as I had really only been trolling for maybe 5 minutes.  I trolled past the splashes.  Nothing.  I heard more splashes.  I scanned the horizon.  I could hear them, but I couldn't see them..., then I saw them.  A not too thick, kind of spread out Bunker pod.   I switched to the snag and prepared the deck of the kayak in case I had to put a fish there.   Snagged a bunker on the first cast.  Waited.  Was this going to be a repeat of two weeks ago?  Snags and no fish?   Sometimes there aren't big fish under the bunker, just bunker.   I saw another pod splashing around to my right.  I reeled in the bunker, put in my kayak, and cast to snag another.  I figured if there were fish under the splashing pod, the best place to have a snagged bunker would be directly under the splashing.

first snag n drop bass from my kayak

    This time I felt a zing, a tug, a pull, almost immediately upon the snag a bass had it.  I waited, and after a longer zing, I set the hook.  Fish on.  Solid.  It swam right at me.  I had no idea how big it was.  I even doubted there was a fish on, and that it wasn't just the bunker (for a second.)  Then, as it came upon my boat it dove.  And dove.  My rod was completely bent over.  I quickly adjusted the drag, and now we had a little bit of a stalemate. We both held our positions.  I started to reel her in, closer to the boat, up from the unknown depths of the ocean, as she came up, she dove again.     I was not going to muscle this fish into the boat.  I wanted to land her safely,and not have her twist and break my line at the side of the boat.  I planned on eating this fish, and that was that.   I waited until she floated serenely next to me, and situated her head towards me, and use my lip grip on her mouth and my left foot to lift her gently into the kayak.

They say bass eat the bunker head first, not always...

   Then, the pods of bunker pretty much exploded all around me.  I mean, I was into another fish within minutes.  This one was bigger, and she surfaced.  I had hardly any sleep, and in my mind these fish were enormous!  The second one was gut hooked.  I didn't want to risk gut hooking another so I cut the line on the snag and started to pack everything in for the (dreaded) return to shore.  As I got closer to shore I noticed that some swells were much bigger than others.  I decided to put everything away.  Tie everything down.  And I even went so far as to put the fish IN the hatch of the hull.  With everything secured I prepared for the reverse landing.  Again, easy, and successful.
     I weighed the bigger of the two at Grumpy's and asked about rods, because I have new conventional reel coming in the mail any day now.  My gear was pretty much maxxed out, so when I catch a larger fish in the tournament (Jbay) this week, I will be better off with heavier duty gear.   Left the beach around 9:30 a.m.

      That was the best hour and a half of fishing ever.   Next time I will try harder not to gut hook the fish so I can be more selective about the fish I keep, if I decide to keep one.