White Island, 5-29-12

[Amish Ed]

Landwhale and I launched about 5:45 to a chilly south wind and scattered clouds. Water was warm (guessing about 65º) with not much chop. We got to the island and Steve was on the fish right away. It took me a while to find them, but I did. The wind was perfect for drifting along the northeast corner into the dock area. Worked it that way until the wind shifted and then just worked different areas in and around the dock area. Tried the North corner for nada.

Then the barge came in. I figured it would stir up some forage and maybe the bass. Turns out it did and the bite was great. It did make for a lot of paddling as the prop wash was coming out and a good clip. It was kinda like fishing the entry channel at Newport on a ripping tide. Plus, the strike zone was limited to about the 15-22' depth zone. So it took lots of maneuvering to stay where you wanted. In fact, I found almost all my fish today in about 20' around scattered rocks. The fish were hiding behind the rocks and you'd pull the bait off the rock and then get nailed. I missed a lot more than I got and got broke off a few times. Found the 17lb was definitely better than the 8lb. Then the barge left and the bite died. So we left about 15min later and we were back on the beach by 11:00 or so.

By days end I had 13 bass, mostly legal sandies, but a few calicoes too. The day started as a Zoom fluke and brushhog bite. Once that died off I switched to flurries and found redfish, fire avocado, and avocado chartreuse to be the best. Both 4" and 3" got bit. During the barge bite the redfish was getting slammed left and right, just had a hard time making the fish stick and not getting bit off. I used to hate those barges, but I think in the future that will become my favorite time. Had a super fun time and as always it was great to fish with Steve.