Broke in the new Pro Angler

[seriola_killer]

Spent today from 6:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. getting familiar with my Pro Angler and new sonar unit (Lowrance Elite 4 Gold). Launched at the beach next to Shelter Island. Slight to moderate breeze and a decent current, of which both died down later in the a.m.

Pedaled straight across from the beach to the area nobody's supposed to occupy on the other side of the channel. I've hit alot of Sand Wedges in my time, so I know what 100 yards is, but that didn't stop the patrol boat from chasing me off. What the hell, they have cool guns on their boats, and I don't, so I'll play by their rules.

Drifting in roughly 40' of water casting to shallower (15-20') along the edges of weed beds with chartreuse 3" grubs bathed in Unibutter produced 9 fish on the first 9 casts (all spotties). Of the 9, 4 were legal with the biggest around 15". All released. At this point, got chased of the great bite by our Navy's finest.

Next we drifted around some submerged structure of sorts, with baits jumping outta the water all around me and baitballs all over my sonar. Marked a couple decent fish in 30' or so about 15' down while all this was going on. Dropped down some sort of 5" swimbait that was clear / green but it also had orange (almost like an egg yolk sac) in it.

Instant bendo on a nice sand bass. I am guessing it was around 18" or so. Lost it at the thumb. FUKKKK! Oh well, shit happens. Repeated the same around the bait balls, but to no avail.

Pedaled back across the channel to fish the sailboat moorings. 18 - 25' was where the action was at. No significant structure, just mud bottom. Couldn't see anything until I set the white marker on my fish finder. BINGO !!! All of a sudden the only red images on the screen were the fish hugging the bottom. Thick as fleas. But no takers... Dammit!

Threw everything at them, nothing worked. Then, switched to the smallest leadhead that would hold the bottom and fished New Penny Gulp Shrimp. It was like ringing the dinner bell. Over 30 fish C n R'd the final hour of fishing.

Good size, too. Fun on 6#.


Towel in the pic is cuz of the sore thumb. Yeah, I'm a pussy, I know.

Now that I feel more familar with my sled, who's going to La Jolla on Easter? I guess I better check NOAA first, but was curious if anyone was gonna be celebrating the resurrection of Christ by killing some tankers / forkies.