Just
About the Time You Think You Have Them Figured Out, Things Change
No matter how many days you have on the water and how many fish you catch, there
is sometimes a monkey in the wrench.
Water is warming, bait schools are starting to show and you would think, you
could work the same baits and patterns as years past and all would be the same.
BUT no, the same baits and patterns are not like years past and the fishing has
a monkey in the wrench.
I have been fishing these waters for many years and up to a couple of years ago,
I could pretty much tell you what day certain species were going to be at a certain
spot and which bait to catch them on. But since the hurricanes of two years ago,
things are not the same. Right after the canes, we had species here that should
not have been here during that time of the year and species that should have
been here were not. Now, this year species that should be here now are few and
far between and species that shouldn't be here now are here and in pretty good
numbers.
Take flounder for example. Flounder usually do not show up here until mid May
but here it is a month early and we are catching good numbers of these tasty
flat fish. Don't get me wrong, I could never complain about catching flounder
and probably will never will.
Black Drum that should have been here last month are just now starting to show
up in any numbers and where these fish should be they are not. One day you will
catch them in places they have frequented for years and the next, you will have
to look all over for them.
So, what do you do? You can keep trying the proven spots and methods or you can
drop back and go with the flow, as I tell my wife. Going with the flow is sometimes
a good thing as you will try new spots and methods that sometimes pay off big.
Here is one example of dropping back. Last week, I went out in search of a species
that every year since I could remember has been on a clam bed in the middle of
the river. These fish have been on this spot each and every year since the beginning
of time or close to then. I got to the spot, sent out my anchor, baited up and
sent out about 4 outfits, expecting to slam dunk some black drum.
Well, about thirty minutes went by and no drum. Not only no drum but no anything
else either. About now I an starting to second guess myself and wonder if I have
messed up with relation to the date they should be on this spot. The older you
get the more your memory starts to slip and I was thinking, just maybe I was
here early. About thirty minutes more passed and still no bites, have I messed
up? I stayed about ten more minutes with still NO BITES before I tooted the horn
twice and hollered up, "LINES UP".
Since the fish were not where they should be, I tried to remember all of the
places that in years past I had found that looked like they should hold fish
but did not. After racking my brain, I remembered a spot that I found some years
back that looked real good on my Humminbird color scope but after fishing it
a few times with no results, I sort of put it way back in the memory bank. As
I remember, this spot was hard bottom with some light natural growth and after
sending a lead with down to sort of get a feel, it had some clams or oysters
or something that felt like rough jagged bottom. Now if I could remember exactly
where this spot was. I found this spot many years ago before I had a gps on the
boat and I tried to triangulate this spot based on landmarks on the shore.
Well, we headed that way and luck must have been with me as I found it after
only about five minutes of searching. I now have this stored as a memory waypoint
on my gps.
I got my anchor put down and the boat slid back right on the spot on only the
first try. My color Humminbird showed a nice hard bottom with what looked like
fishies just off of the bottom. It cant be, I managed to find something on this
spot that has never produced even a toad fish, could I be that lucky? I quickly
sent down all four rigs and before I could get a cold drink opened, I was hooked
up. This was a nice fish and a good tugger as line peeled off of the spool. Up
to the surface came a nice eight pound drum and in the net it went. Before I
could get the Daiichi Circle Wide 5/0 out of it's mouth, I was hooked up on one
of the other outfits. Now this is more like it. This action went one for the
next hour, with a total of thirteen nice drum and one big sheepshead.
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