Hook, Line & Sinker...



 

 

It was another day in which I got about 4.5 hours on the water, and while I didn't catch a bunch of fish, the ones I did catch were decent. From top to bottom, the fish weighed 3-14, 1-9, 1-0 and 1-5. I had been on the water about 1.5 hours before I got the first fish, the 3-14, on a Thin N, as I was working a point going into one of the coves.

Moments after boating that first fish, I started seeing some swirls in the water. It didn't take me long to put down the crankbait and start throwing a spinnerbait. After 15 or 20 minutes, the swirls continued and, in fact, were becoming more numerous, but the spinnerbait wasn't producing. I replaced it with a walk-the-dog topwater, also to no avail. It was then I decided to try a Bang-o-Lure, and that's when things picked up.

I caught the fish shown in the last three photos here, along with one other that would have gone about 10 inches, on the Bang-o-Lure. The fish weren't really slamming the topwater bait, and several of them were missing it on the first pass. In most instances, though, they would come back for a second or third try, if you just rocked it a little bit in place.

Besides the four that I caught with the Bang-o-Lure, I missed at least three others. The swirls continued throughout the rest of the day, so I never picked up a crankbait again after I started throwing the topwater bait. For the last hour or so, I never had the first strike, as I kept working my way back toward the marina from the mouth of West Neck, which is where most of the topwater action occurred.

The water temp when I launched this morning already was above 50 degrees, so I wasn't surprised at the way the day went. It certainly was nice to have at least one more day of topwater action this season, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I may see yet a little more tomorrow before I call it a day.