Went out striper fishing on the CT River. Fishing wasn’t nearly as good as yesterday. I only caught two good fish, and broke off another two. Broke the knot joining the leader to the braid both times, and both times on the rod that I put together last night to sub for the one a bluefish ripped out of my grasp yesterday. I was out of my preferred 20# Fireline, and loaded up with 50# Big Game Braid. I found tying the blood knot I join the two lines with troublesome with the slicker finish of the braid. Still, one of the good fish put an awful lot of strain on that knot without failure too, before I broke the next one off on a close to the boat hook set.
Got far more action today on a Limetreuse Slug-Go than on my usual Ice Shad, Chrome, Arkansas, Albino or Smelt. Yesterday was an Ice Shad day, by the way.
My first fish of the day, until I had a grip on its lip, I would have bet money it was a 40 incher. I was shocked when I got it to the boat and found a 31~32 inch class fish had just had its way with me for that long. That would be the only fish I would boat on my usual favorite, Ice Shad Slug-Go (bottom, above).
Anyway, other than that 1st fish, it was a Limetreuse day (top, above).
At least until the tide was almost at full ebb. Then it just died. Once we convinced ourselves we weren’t leaving fish to find fish, we ran a couple other spots, and the best we could do was to find a bunch of schoolies out closer to the mouth. The schoolies seemed more willing to hit a hard jerkbait than a soft plastic. Caught a bunch on a Pointer 100 in Chartreuse Shad.
We ran that bite into the ground, and when it petered out, we decided to hit our starting water again, but to fish it with the jerkbaits this time, instead of the big Slug-Gos and topwater plugs. Only one bite, and it wasn’t a striper.
Fluke on a jerkbait? Up the river on a 3 foot deep flat? That fluke’s (noun 1. any of several American flounders of the genus Paralichthys, esp. P. dentatus, found in the Atlantic Ocean.) gotta be a fluke. (noun 2. an accident or chance happening. )