Several Trips - one half hearted mission - South Jersey Sheepshead

It always takes me a while to learn to catch a new species.  I've recently been half-heartedly targeting Sheepshead.  A little obsessively.

  How can it be both obsessive and half-hearted?  I always intend to commit more time to Sheepshead, but after an hour or so of no action I revert to my "plan-B" whatever that might be.  Usually this time of year it's Fluke fishing.  

They are often 17.5"

Fishing for Sheepshead is like Tog fishing, another species I targeted half-hearted and only recently caught a few of.  In this type of fishing you become very intimate with the bridge you are fishing.    (Whichever one it may be)

office cubicle

...also, because it's bait-fishing, there's a higher chance of by-catch like this Toad-fish.

Opsanus tau

There's only so long that I can stick around in one spot and let the little black sea bass at the bottom steal my crabs.  I had fiddlers one day, asian shore crabs another, and even bought some shedder crabs to see if that would work better.  I would become impatient and then change gears...

...like trying some night fishing by the lights. 

Sunset Paddle - Mike

 We did an early evening session and only managed to catch weakfish.

Fishing in the dark

 Also, a by-catch of fluke fishing is millions of 12" weakfish this year.

12"weakfish

I might squeeze one or two more South Jersey Sheepshead trips in, but September is here, and I'm about to change gears and do some long distance runs to target Bull Reds in the Southern Chesapeake.

Solo Trip - first keeper Fluke - Mid August

I took a trip to Stone Harbor, 

Bought some killies, caught a few Fluke.

  Lost one by the boat.  

Landed another that was 17 3/4".  

Got caught in a thunderstorm and hid under a bridge.

The drift was slow,

the clouds had passed.

My rod felt heavy with the weight of a fish,

as it neared the surface it took a run back down, 

and then back up, and into my boat.

It was delicious!

19" Fluke

Fishing With Nick

The main plan was to fish Great Bay,  catch snapper blues and live-line them for fluke. 

The back-up plan was to use a bucktail and gulp.

We had a window in the AM of relatively low winds. 

Fish Factory

 The snappers weren't at the launch, and I probably gave up too soon, but after about ten minutes of casting a snapper zapper at the banks, I switched to gulp and hooked into a sea-robin pretty quickly.

Sea Robin

The rest of the day was SLOWWWW.  I found some snappers in the main channel, but I think they were just a little too big.  Also, the water was really weedy.

After the incoming current picked up and the wind picked up, we headed back into the feeder creek.  

Summer Sedge Grasses

There we both had short Fluke, and the day was already getting long.

Nick and a fluke

Micro fluke

The ghost pulled up to the boat ramp as we were loading.  His stories were many.  He talked about fly fishing in PA, and Md, and his secret spots in the area.  He told us about his day recently of catching the "big 4."  (Striper, Blue, Weakfish, Fluke), and showed me his secret weapon lure.  As awesome as that sounded, I felt pretty good about just catching the big three; Sea Robin, Snapper blue, and short Fluke!

Annual Adirondacks Trip, 2019

"You're going to have to jump off, your boat is sinking!"  

Thus began another camping journey to Tick Island at Middle lake Saranac in upstate N.Y.

Moments before Brian jumped in

What was known as "Floaty" boat was overloaded.  It started taking on water through an unsealed hatch in front of the rear seat.  Brian, Wendy's brother, who had never been to the lake before had to swim the last 50 or so yards to Windy Point.

The water in the lake was generally high.

underwater lilies 1

Underwater lilies 2

  There were no bear sightings, and we were between heat waves.

KGB fishes

Mike with a nice Largemouth Bass

The bugs were peskier than usual, probably because of the rain and heat of the previous month.

Mike and Ellery paddling from Windy Point to Tick Island

The moon blocked our view of the stars.

Moon sky

 The fishing was slow.  I had only hooked up with one or two fish per outing, and had only caught one Pike the whole week.

small Smallmouth

smaller Smallmouth

However, the camping was great!  Ellery took control of the meals, Brian the fire, and mostly we played games and enjoyed the scenery.

Last picture before the paddle back