What happened to Fishing in the Dark? week of June 22. Stone Harbor, by Alexi

      Two to three weeks ago we were still discussing launching our kayaks out front and snagging bunker for big stripers.  Now we're talking about fluke.   The transition from spring to summer this year was a a hard pill to swallow.

 Wednesday, June 25

     We stood on my porch, ready to load the truck, and I thought about fishing.   I was much less confident about the day than Steve.  (When I imagined the day, and how it would go, I could only see myself blown against a sod bank.  Drifting and jigging for fluke requires just the right drift.  I had gone out last week and nearly got skunked if it wasn't for a small blue.  My confidence was at an all-time LOW.)  The winds predicted for wednesday were 15-20 mph, and for thursday it was 10-15mph, so I decided to wait until thursday to fish.  While Steve was fishing on wednesday I re-watched John Skinner's videos on fluking.

      Steve was fishing live spot on a jig-head a-la Dan Insomniac style.  He had a nice sized weakfish come up next to his boat and unhook itself, some run-offs, but no fluke.  Not the best report, but we both went back out thursday anyway.

 Thursday, June 26

     We weren't on the water fishing until noon.   I had a wire short out on my Humminbird transducer cable, and it kind of bummed me out.  I caught a couple of short fluke, then,  since I was still close to the car, I drove over to the Kayak Fishing Store to see if Chris had a replacement cable.  He didn't.

Short Fluke

     It was very difficult to get a good drift set-up.  We wanted to ride the incoming tide further back into the spaghetti, but the wind was from the South and West, and it just wasn't happening at a rate where I could present my lure well.  For the brief moments when the wind would slow down, and the current would give me a good drift, I would hook up or get hits.

almost 18"...

     I was beginning to get really frustrated.  The sun was getting lower and lower in the sky, and the route we were heading in had less and less water.   I knew that there were big fluke back there, but my vertical jigging Skinner set-up only works well in at least 6ft of water.   With no depth finder, and a feeling of desperation, I started casting my pink fin-s.  I've watched Steve catch large fluke on a similar lure.  I've caught large fluke on lures at the sedges.  I know that it works.  Also, all fish love the pink fin-s.  After just a few casts I hook into something big.  It takes some drag.  It feels heavy.  It feels like a ray, but I know it's a big fluke.  I'm getting subtle head shakes.  It takes more drag.  I get some line back.   I'm confident I have a good hook-set.  We are at a truce in our tug-of-war.  I tighten my drag by one click and put a little more pressure to bring it up, and......it's off.

   

sunset, no wind, no fish...