Last week was blown out by the winds so we had to do the unthinkable...go freshwater fishing. The reports were all good, and I called my buddy Billy Ragulsky (www.AllOutkayakFishing.com) to see what and where. He told us spinner and the popular chatter baits should get us some bites. I spoke to Lee, he bailed and gave me Tex's phone number. I called him up and it was set.
Chatter bait bass in the Wilderness Systems Thresher
Tex switched it up and went to a jig with immediate success
He hooks up again on the brush
I switch to the jig and got another
One thing I learned is that Tex fishes hard. We only had a couple hours to fish and there was no down time. He would have stayed into the night if I hadn't driven and had prior engagements.
We lost a ton of nice fish. My first bass that took the chatter would have been a new personal best, but right after the first jump it spit the hook. I just smiled, hey that's bass fishing. I don't expect to get out again although the spawn bite is really getting good, but as tautog have started to turn that's where my heart is.
I called Tex and told him Saturday was looking perfect so we debated options until we decided it was time to make the first trip of the year to the island for tautog. My first drop yielded a 19" male on a fiddler, then it was pretty much on all day. My biggest was 21, Tex found a hole full of them and we played with them until 5 pm. Most were caught on blue crab that we were lucky enough to get from Andrew as he was paddling in, however my first two and biggest were on fiddlers. We spent eight hours on the water and decided to paddle in with little bait left, a slight tail wind and two limits of tautog.
The season closes on May 1, so if you want to get in on some of the best eating fish, the time is now and its only going to get better.
Pictured above is a female tog. In the spring we try to keep the males and let the fat females that are full of eggs go. This girl was about to pop.
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