Product Review - Fishin' Magician's Skid Stik Lures

Take a look at the Fishin' Magician's Skid Stik lure as I fish it for stripers in the mouth of the Connecticut River.

$6.66

That's how much our two coffees at the Shell station range up as at 3:30 a.m. this morning. The clerk laughed about the devil's number. Should we just buy something else? No, the die had been cast. I joked to Jeff that if we slammed the fish, I'd have to buy $6.66 worth of coffee every morning. We put in at Baldwin Bridge and I tied up as the place was empty, filling my live well and checking out some of the new lighting I had installed. After ten minutes, we began to motor slowly down river. Passing under the bridge, we headed towards North Cove to look for bunker.

I was running slow until the sky started to lighten more to the east and I could better see the water surface. Having had the worst luck this season with submerged objects in the river, I was in no hurry. By the time we were three quarters of a mile below the bridge, I throttled up with no response. My stern was sitting alarmingly low in the water. Had I put the two plugs in before we left? Yes, I had left them in after yesterday and seen both in before launching. I immediately turned on both bilges, the second having been installed earlier in the season as I was worried about just having one and a hand bilge. We were taking on water rapidly, and my fear was a blown connection in the live well system. Jeff started working the Whale Gusher hand bilge and I turned straight in to shore, praying we could make it up on the flats above North Cove and beach. We were holding our own against the water as we approached the flats. The tide was nearing the top of the flood and as we made the edge of the flats, I slammed a rock with my prop, shearing it off. I knew they were in the area, but it was dark and priority #1 had been to get to shallow water before swamping. I threw out the anchor and went overboard into the waist deep water. My prop was gone, and to my surprise, so was one of the rear plugs. We were at least making headway against the flooding, so I retrieved a spare plug and put it in place. The only explanation I can come up with is that I had unscrewed one of the two plugs yesterday to see if there was any water and perhaps didn't fully tighten it, allowing it to work loose and pop out as we motored down river. If we had been taking on water since the time we launched, I wouldn't have made it 100 yards off the dock.

We were dry again within a few minutes and sitting three hundred yards above North Cove. The tide was still moving in, but nearing slack. I dropped my stern mounted trolling motor and kept my fingers crossed that it could get us back up river before the tide started out. It was no small irony that this was the first time I had brought the trolling motor along in the last month or two. Slogging back up river was going to take forever, so I told Jeff to go ahead and fish. He did manage a schoolie and a few swirls on a top water plug. The Gemma Rose II avoided the skunk! It was touch and go getting past the railroad bridge and up towards Baldwin Bridge as the tide had started to flow out, but we eventually managed to get back to the dock without calling Boats US.

The lost prop was not a big deal, as it was dinged up and a replacement is already sitting in the garage. I get to fish quite a bit, so there's always next weekend. I feel terrible for Jeff, with whom I haven't been able to get out on the water all season as he's always working his ass off. I really hope we get a few more chances before the end of the season.

Obviously, I'll be checking not only that the plugs are in, but also double checking that they are tight. The second lesson is that a spare prop isn't very useful sitting in my garage. Finally, if the morning coffee rings up to $6.66, just turn around, go home and go back to sleep.

PS - Think of how much worse it could have been if there was a banana on board!

Eastern LIS Report 7-19-2013

Things have been looking up in the Eastern Long Island Sound.  The effects of the many inland storms are subsiding, and the fishing has really picked back up this past week.  Solid reports of bass have been coming in from most of the reefs from Westbrook right over to Watch Hill.  Greg Myerson landed another monster, 73lbs., a week or so back.  After talking with a few people and seeing some of the screenshots of stacked fish, I couldn't wait to get back out.  Winds have been gentle, and with the heat and humidity over land, nothing beats being out on the water.  Took a trip out yesterday evening, and had some nice topwater action south of Fisher's towards the end of the flood tide.  Bartlet's was slow, as indicated by the complete absence of birds and boats.  Fish were stacked up on the reefs east of Fisher's.  On the way back in, I stopped to chat with Matt and Nicki who were finishing up with the Black Hawk 4-10pm Happy Hour trip.  Charter and party boats were getting their fills of blues out in the Gut and Pigeon.  

Capt. Jack Balint https://www.facebook.com/jack.balint?fref=ts

Capt. Blain Anderson https://www.facebook.com/blaine.anderson.75?fref=ts

 

Weather for the weekend is going to shift a bit, with a front moving in tonight and tomorrow ahead of cold air for the beginning of next week.  Yet another wrinkle in what has been an erratic start to the summer.  Hopefully the fishing will remain decent.

 

From http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/AN/330.html

"Tonight

SW winds 10 to 15 kt with gusts up to 20 kt...diminishing to 5 to 10 kt after midnight. Seas around 2 ft.

Sat

SW winds 5 to 10 kt...increasing to 10 to 15 kt in the afternoon. Seas 2 to 3 ft. A chance of showers and tstms in the afternoon.

Sat Night

W winds 5 to 10 kt...becoming NW late. Seas 1 ft or less. Showers and tstms likely...mainly in the evening. Some tstms may produce gusty winds...heavy rainfall and frequent lightning in the evening.

Sun

N winds around 5 kt...becoming E in the afternoon. Seas 1 ft or less.

Sun Night

NE winds 5 to 10 kt. Seas 1 ft or less."

 

Great night of fishing on the Blackhawk with Capt. Greg Dubrule and crew!

The forecast was for rain and a good ebb tide.  We headed out to Race Point at 8:00pm, and I personally was hoping to finally get in some better fishing, with a shot at some big stripers.  I love going out on the Blackhawk's night trips a few times a month, as it gives me a chance to fish areas I otherwise wouldn't in my skiff, and always holds the opportunity for some really big fish.  With a limited number of angler on these trips, more time is spent fishing and less dealing with tangles, etc. I probably went out on 4-5 of these trips last season, as well as a few Happy Hour 4-10pm excusions, and a Diawa Demo trip.  I can tell you that I came home with a cooler of striper fillets on every one of them, and on three brought home the pool as well.

We had a pretty good group headed out, with several of the guys having done a lot of night drift fishing.  It's not as easy as it seems, or some make it out to be.  If you've fished the Blackhawk, you've heard Capt. Greg's pre-game speech.  Keeping your rig feathered on the bottom during fast drifts without hanging up or collecting other lines takes practice.  Some guys will snag and lose $10 worth of lead and jigs every other drift.  Others will never stay in the strike zone after initial contact with the bottom.  Last night, I think all but 1-2 of the 18 anglers on board had multiple fish.  While I've been on trips where we caught a greater number of fish, I've never been on one where the quality was better. 

I came back with a cooler full of striper fillet's, but I swear Capt. Greg was drifting me over the guppies!  My biggest keeper at around 40" wasn't even going to put me in the top 10.  We had about an hour stretch where each fish over the rail seemed to get bigger than the last.  A guy with a 45 pounder was looking pretty good, and nine nights out of ten would be collecting the pool.  Out of the water comes a 48, followed by a 56 to 57 pound fish.  A few more in the upper thirties and lower forties weren't even in the running.  I can tell you, the mates Matt, Nicki and Alex did an awesome job, as not one of the big fish was lost to tangles, angler inexperience or at the net.  For some reason, Matt just got left out of all of the pictures! 

Thanks for a great trip, and I look forward to fishing with you over the next few weeks.