A Short Report With Pictures 5-11 and 5-12, 2015 by: Steve

bluefish jump

          My first overnight trip of the year. I fished topwater around sunset with no action, switched to drifting eels after dark. Had a few run-offs that didn't come tight, and one short striped bass that came off boatside before I could get a snapshot.

up close

      No action on eels, topwater, or bass assassins in the early morning. I decided to head for deep water, trolling an eel along. The eel found it's end in a bluefish, so I tied on a 2oz kastmaster, reeled fast, and was tied into a bluefish in a few casts. The action was steady for around an hour or more, most were in the 6 to 8lb. range, though I lost some larger ones, the bite ended not quite at the end of the outgoing water, after the blues moved off the wind picked up and I paddled in.

a moment of truth

      It takes some nerve to subdue angry bluefish in a kayak, that is part of what makes it thrilling, they are probably the hardest fighting fish in our back bay and inshore fisheries, they jump, sound, and take repeated long runs to the end of the fight, rarely laying on their sides like the esteemed striped bass.

fishing rods in the way

After All.