Breezy - 5/13

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Good luck on the 13th - Breezy Point - w ics
So far this season - my catching has not been anything like last year.
My wife saw me getting ready to fish Wednesday night and commented that Thursday was the 13th.
I figured can not do much worse and never really bought into all that superstitious bull sh*t. I figure as long as I walk around the trailer twice - clock wise , wear my lucky fishing hat , get into the boat with right foot first , start the port motor with my right hand , drink coffee with left hand - how can the 13th be unlucky ?

My friend John met me at 4:40 am and off to Breezy Point we headed. Light drizzle made the drive tense.
I always worry about another driver sliding into me on slick roads. The construction site at Rt 214 was fun - got to love when the road narrows and shifts with little notice. Hmmm , maybe the 13th is bad.

Stopped by Tyler's and met up with fellow TFer Rowboat Ryan ( Ryan ) and he followed us to the ramp.
Got there to find only one other trailer and a nice NE breeze. Oh well , time to fish. Quickly launched and headed out. GPS was not working - 13th or loose connector ?
Ran out by compass to #78A and radar showed only one other boat - roughly a mile away. Not often this area is vacant so we set out the lines while heading SW with the breeze to our stern. John has fished with me a lot and Ryan soon fell right in place as we all set lures out. Mix of color on the shads - purple , green glitter , white , chartruese and green glow. Clouds and breeze made it chilly for mid May but felt like good Rockfish weather. Once the spread was out - noticed GPS was working. Worked along the edge to 78 - east / west made for a nice rolling ride. Watching the boards cut through the chop - we all hoped for a hit. Depth finder showed promise - fair amount of bait with a few fish mixed in. Radar showed 6-7 boats in the False Channel near #4 and I would have loved top troll across the Gooses to them but crab pot floats prevented that. Worked south along the eastern edge on slack current. Once near #2 - turned NE and wandered up into False Channel. Not much on the meter and the boats up farther began to spread out. Saw a few boats go by with boards painted white and no flags - just shook my head. Tough to see them if you are reading this.

Checked a few lines but all were clean. Wind shifted to east and began to wane. Water was very clean - the diver in me was aching to go in. Heard on VHF a 36 caught near #78 - damn , cussed myself for leaving good marks. Worked over the sunken barges off James Island - nothing on them but I love seeing them on the meter. Plan to dive them in summer. Worked along the 45 foot edge and saw more bait. Crab floats were close to the boards butwe avoided them. Let a huge ship pass and then headed towards CP marker. The bay was getting calm and we spotted ripples of bait on the surface. Trolled the boards through it but no hits. Odd - maybe 13th is bad. Trolled west towards the CCNPP and just on the western channel edge - a board rod buckled. Ryan was soon reeling in a fish as John moved the boat rods out of the way. Great teamwork and soon a fat Rock was next to the boat. John did a good net job and the skunk was off the boat.



Fish hit a tandem chart/white 6/2 80 feet back.

We swung back around but no other hits. Continued to work the area and about an hour later - got another hit. Tandem again - and John reeled in a nice fish but we had to measure it to be sure. At 29 inches - it was legal and iced down. Wind dropped out and sun came out - so much for the 13th being bad.




We checked some lures again but all were clean. Trolled around the bait we spotted on the meter and saw some flipping on top. Now / then saw a swirl from what looked to be small Rock. John's phone rang - work related call - just as a rod got hit. Sorry buddy , I took the rod. Nice fight and soon it was beside the boat. It hit a single white / chart back 90 feet. Ryan netted the fish and we had a limit at 11:30.



We debated heading in but it was too nice a day to quit early. Trolled north with a slight east / west zig zag on the channel edge. We talked about how the fish all hit bullet heads - 4 or 6 oz that had opposite skirt / shad colors.



Head color was not debated - chipped up was the color of the day. The troll back was easy and we were amazed at the bait pods breaking water - great to see. No big pods - just 10 to 15 foot circles. Around 2:00 - we were near Parkers Creek and a planer rod got crushed. Ryan reeled in a nice 35 incher that was camera shy - OK maybe it shook free from my grip at the boat. Did not matter - it was going to be released anyway. It hit a 4 oz bullet head - white sparkle with chartruese shad- 90 feet off board. We reeled in the spread and although all the lures were clean - three had tiny Menhadden scales on the front hooks. With flat seas - ran the motors wide open to clean out the carbon. The ride back was quick at about 38 knots.

Got the boat on the trailer and Ryan surprised us by giving his fish to us. He still has some in the freezer. Great guy to fish with - even had him calling them Rock - instead of Bass by end of the day.
So much for 13th being unlucky. Catching four Rock in about 8 hours last year would be considered slow but so far in 2010 - it is a good day.