How sweet it is to be able, once again, to leave at first light, no regard to tide, find some clear water, and whack the trout on Trout Tricks, something I haven’t been able to do since the cold spell (cormorant feasting). Raddaddy hipped me to the trout being back (somewhat), so my Long Island clients and I targeted them today. The key was creating a reaction bite with the Trout Tricks on 1/8th ounce jigheads and realizing there were only one or two trout to be had in any one spot. We also threw mud minnows under a popping cork and never got a strike.
Max, in the pic, fished hard and caught seven trout by himself.

Yesterday, which was the full moon, I decided to catch some largemouth bass for Frannie’s and my dinner. Conditions could not have been worse. The Salkehatchie River, which is about 1/3rd of a mile from the house, is high and dingy, from the rains, the day of the full moon is not a good time, and the middle of the day in August isn’t either. Why the middle of the day, instead of the cooler, early morning or late evening? Because that’s when the moon is underfoot, the best time of the day to fish. Can you say Solunar Table. The next best time is when the moon is straight overhead.

My main confidence factor, however, was the lure I used, the Shakeyhead. Nothing more than a Zoom Finesse worm, green pumpkin in color, rigged weedless on an Owner 1/16 ounce jighead. Throwing the bait on a Zebco 33 with 8 # line, I quickly figured out the fish were under branches, in the shade. I caught two chunks in short order, iced them down and headed to the house.

Check out bass tournament reports on http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaste/index or http://www.flwoutdoors.com/bassfishing/flw/and you will see, time and time again, a tournament winner state: ” The bite was off so I picked up the spinning rod, threw a Shakeyhead, and caught a limit.” If it works for the pros……..

The whole deal is throw it out, let it sink, and watch your line. When it twiches or takes off, reel down until tight and then really set the hook. I just gave up my number one technique. In another installment I’ll talk about catching the big ones.

The “frog strangling” rains we’ve been having (global warming?) can make inshore fishing difficult. A heavy rain during low tide can really muddy up the water, and the fresh water pouring into the creeks and rivers can shut off the bite. Do we just stay home? Absolutely not! While these conditions do limit the areas we can fish, looking for those areas is the key. Close to the ocean and way up the creeks are the two areas I concentrate on. Right after the rains the waters near the ocean are still clear and salty. Then, after a couple of tide changes these waters are clearer and salty again. The upper creeks I look for are the ones that don’t drain large areas therefore runoff doesn’t adversely affect the salt content. I cruise these, looking for pockets of clear water. Then, hopefully, we whack ‘em.

Just got in from a quick half day trip, bottom fishing. Was a nice change compared to fishing the White Marlin Open last week. We caught more vermilions then we knew what to do with, a few dozen sea bass, two small gag groupers, a couple porgies and triggerfish, and the typical amberjacks. great day to be on the water.

Tight Lines,
Capt. Gasper Marino
www.wadmacallit.com

First round of Sea Merchants Shirt Club went out today! FSI is really excited about this new service. Call 888-360-5559 to sign up, or click here for more info.

Rascal wins first place in the Edisto Marina Governor’s Cup, they released 4 sails. Over the entire tournament weekend 40 sails were released and 1 Blue Marlin.