Author Topic: Point Pleasant Canal 6/02 (Read 2084 times)

wink_man · « **on:** June 02, 2008, 12:46:14 PM »

Hit the canal early this morning, another lousy tide said I needed to be there at 3AM, so I was. Seemed like another typical day, except I had to be there in the dark. At 3:15 I had a 24 inch striper, another pretty fat one, they are eating well in the canal. Quickly measured, and a pic taken, and back in the water he goes.

Before full light I miss 2 more good strikes on the Fin-S, prolly because I was still half asleep. Later on I get another strike, and it's a small bluefish, about 2 pounds, another Fin-S destroyed, and back in the canal he goes. Then I get another hit, and it's fighing pretty good, and I can't seem to turn it, a lot of resistance. Turns out it's a tog about 15 inches, that I managed to foul hook in the belly. I don't know if he went after the lure, or if he just got in the way and I foul hooked him, but I took the hook out as gently as possible and released him.

Then I start working the bottom of the rock wall, close to the canal edge, but 30 feet down, jigging the Fin-S fish. I get a hard hit, and I am awake and set the hook properly, and feel right away I am into a real good fish. Fish is surging and fighting deep, no head shaking, and I say to myself I have a big striper for sure. My new light striper/weakfish outfit made short work of him, I was impressed, and I have him coming up to the surface, I am thrilled. He comes up and it's a big alligator blue, around 14-16 pounds or so. Now I don't want this fish, but I have a problem. I don't use my net on blues, and I have no gaff, and there is no way I can possibly lift him over the wall and fence with the 15 pound braid, it will cut right through my hand. I opt to work the rod and try to seesaw the line through his teeth to cut it, but it's a 30 lb leader, and it doesn't work, and he's hooked deep. Finally, the net gets the vote, as I figuered I might as well weigh him just out of curiosity, he was a big fish, and I was curious as to his weight, I hate to estimate. Besides, the net is due for a new mesh bag anyways. I net him, lift him up and all hell breaks loose, LOL. The wood extension handle, held to the aluminum handle securely by 4 stainless steel screws snaps right at the aluminum handle. The line snaps(it was frayed), fish and net go into the water, the bluefish swims off to the right, the net is floating towards Barnegat Bay, and I am holding a useless wood handle, LMAO. So I didn't land him.

I let the net go, I figuered it started life with us floating in a marsh on the back side of the bay, many years ago, when my kids found it. We fixed it up and over the years, it has netted many many fish for us, including my sons 13 lb. 2 oz. striper on the Memorial Day weekend this year. Hopefully someone else will get a thrill finding it, as my kids did, and fix it up and put it to good use.

The water was flowing to fast to fish where I was by 7am so I went to the mouth of the canal to check things out. Water was clear, a lot of cabbage and weed in the water today, with the hard runnig tide. Blues didn't come into the mouth of the canal this morning, the guys were getting an occasional blue. The blues were running up and down the river, the birds were working over them and you could see them breaking the surface below the birds. But they stayed out of casting distance of the mouth of the canal. As to boat traffic, I can only say I sighed a sigh of relief compared to yesterday, LOL.

A new(much sturdier) net has been procured along with more Fin-S fish, I'll see if I can christen the net either later this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

Garry