Hello Surfcasters
My new moon trip to Block Island with my son and daughter got off to a windy start. The wind blew 30 mph out of the West — normally the calm side of the Island. My son and daughter (both from the western US, California and Colorado) are fairly new to surfcasting. We all know that one of the biggest challenges to surf fishing is casting, especially at night, and most especially with big pikies. (My kids let me know early on they only wanted to fish my plugs.)
The West side of the Island was weeded up and the Southeast and South sides were dirty from big waves and the high “new moon” tide. We were limited to fishing the North side of the island. I know this area pretty well and have taken some good fish there in the past, but because of the strong west wind that turned northwest and then to the north we had to learn to fish the point a different way. This allowed both my son and daughter to successfully get into teen size bass in challenging conditions. Take a look at their photos on the site. We all benefited from the ability of a Pike to dig into the water while fishing in a strong cross wind. While the needlefish the guys next to us were fishing were being swept across the water with a big bow in their lines, the Pikes dug in with less bow, better contact to the plug, and more hook ups!
I also continue to benefit from fishing low water. Most of my fish and my biggest fish from the trip, 28 pounds, came at the bottom of the tide. Because of this (fishing at low tide) I have been using more surface pikes of late, mostly Giant Pikes. The bigger fish (28) came right at the bottom of the tide. On my next cast, I dropped another good fish, had a couple more bumps; then the tide turned, and the fish were gone.
The 28 came on my second cast with a new plug I am trying out. I am still working on the weighting but if it continues to produce I will have some available come spring!
Reminder! Photo Contest
Don’t forget to send me photos of your catch with a BWL pike in its mouth. (I’ll need the weight and type of plug you used). The fisherman with the largest fish (weight-wise) will win 2 custom plugs of their choice and color. The biggest fish to-date is 34 lbs – check it out here.
Fishing Presentation
I’ll be giving a talk for my local library on Surf Fishing and Plugmaking. It will be on Friday, Nov. 5 at 7pm at the West Stockbridge, MA Town Hall. If you are in the area, be sure to come and introduce yourself.
SLIMs Inventory Update
I have also put up a few more SLIMs on my site – check them out here.
Good fishing for the rest of the Fall,
Gary
PERMISSION TO REPRINT: This article may be reprinted provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: © Copyright 2001-2011 BigWaterLures.com. Reprinted by permission of Gary Soldati.