An afternoon fishing trip to the beach near the old Barnacle Bills Pier turned into a review of lessons past learned. When I left home to go fishing, the wind seemed to be a non issue as they were very light. However, as I walked over the dunes on the access steps, the wind slapped me ferociously in the face. A gentleman standing on the access watching the wind driven waves of the churning ocean commented on the wind. I answered that it was windy, but I was here and was going to give it a try. I soon realized that I only had a couple of three ounce lead weights in my bucket and the fishing rod I had brought with me was a medium light 7 footer with a fast, or limber tip, and my favorite fishing rod for mullet fishing, but not enough backbone for heavy weights. Although I could have walked back home and exchanged my gear, (only three blocks) I decided to use what I had. Stubborness or laziness? I guess that is debateable. Anyway, as I was rigging up, I noticed a huge colony of sand fleas at the edge of the surf, and I grabbed my flea rake and made a hurried scoop. That one scoop must have netted me at least 50 huge fleas. Delighted that I had plenty of my favorite surf fishing bait, I finished rigging with a hand tied double drop rig with the three ounce sinker and baited up with the fleas.
Now I am not against a walk on the beach, but I usually don't while I am fishing. But the wind and current was so strong that my weight was bouncing down the beach like a super ball. (The older anglers will know what a super ball is.) Now was the time to dig up some long ago learned surf fishing lessons. I cast again into the surf, and as the rig moved down the beach, I moved with it, holding my fishing rod high trying to keep it out of the waves as much as I could. Sure enough, soon my rig stopped moving. I had found my fishing hole. A few minutes of waiting yielded no bites, so I reeled in and marked my spot on the beach and walked back to get my gear left before I began my walk.
I returned to the hole and about ten minutes of fishing didn't produce any catching. As I reeled my rig in slowly, as I normally do hoping to catch the attention of a passing fish, my rig suddenly became "stuck". I realized that this was the edge of the hole. As I began to tug on the rig to get it over the edge of the hole, I felt a nice bite, and reeled in a hand size pompano. I baited up again and tried the same thing. Threw into the hole, reeled in slowly to the edge when I felt my rig get tight against the edge, and waited. Another bite. So, I summized that's where the pompanos were feeding. I am no expert of underwater currents of wave action, but I am thinking that as the waves and current washed the sand off the edge of the hole, the fish were feeding on the critters that were being washed out of the sandy bottom. I stayed until dark catching more than a few hand sized pompano.
So, next time someone ask me if it is too windy to fish, I will tell them that it may be too windy for the fishermen, but not for the fish.
Till next time...
Tight Lines!
Johnny
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