As The Tide Goes Out

Adam, Dylan and I went in search of some salt water action. Although or trip was at the completely wrong time of day the tide was good. We caught very nearly every bit of the out going tide, though unfortunately the first spot we fished was vacant and we only caught the tail end of a bluefish blitz in the second spot. I had just enough time for the choppers to shred a clouser to a pulp before they moved on. Fortunately there were still some fish there so we kept fishing for a few hours and boy am I glad we did. Pretty much everything has been at least a week earlier than it was last year, so right now the snapper blues are going ape. I caught somewhere in the 70-90 range. Six flies were shredded by their obnoxiously sharp teeth- I tie my snapper blue flies with LOTS of epoxy but they still get wrecked!

  Every once in a while I would snag a peanut bunker which would be donated to Adam. Unfortunately the first one got completely destroyed by bluefish which based on the bites were decent sized.

As the low tide aproached a shallow, rocky stretch of the river that had started out as a rapid dropped and turned into a set of riffles and slicks. I waded in and began working through it with a sand shrimp pattern. It was like fishing streamers on a trout stream, except the action was fast and furious, and instead of salmonids the fish I was catching were miniature versions of Pomatomus saltatrix. Adam eventually had to try so I handed him the long rod.

 
Before Adam had a chance to hook up Dylan was into a fish. It turned out to be a large sea robin. Considered to be a trash fish, I've always found sea robins to be a bizarre looking and crazy fish. I'd love to catch one on a fly!

The it was Adam's turn. It didn't take long before he was casting the distance needed to hook fish. Honestly the kid's a natural. He caught his first two fish on the fly in short order. 

Before we left I made a few more shots in that riffle, and caught five or six more fish! Adam took a few photos that turned out pretty sweet. 

Adam will be on his way to Florida next week to start preparing for collage life. Hopefully he'll find some awesome new fishing spots there that he can show me when I get down there ;)


*Last Two Photos Courtesy Adam Eurbin.