Strange late season

I was going to make this post about my setup on my Frontier, but have decided to report on this strange late season instead as there are developments with my kayak at the moment. We can talk about that later.

So the fishing has been odd this year. I caught a ton of bass in February (in the future when I say bass, I mean largemouth bass. I'll specify when I'm talking about stripers or smallmouth.) It was so warm the bass got active way sooner than normal and would aggressively hit baits like rattletraps and jerkbaits. It was a great start to the season. Unfortunately it led to a tough summer with brutal heat. The fishing was really slow. This affected freshwater and salt as the big flounder got harder to find, presumably moving out to deeper and colder water. Fall bass fishing took longer to really get going this year as well. Only in the past couple weeks am I really starting to get that classic fall pattern of bass hitting fast moving baits...especially one of my favorites...crankbaits. I love fishing crankbaits. There is just something really fun about bumping them into cover and getting nailed by a big bass. I'm glad they are back to biting again and I can't wait to fish through November as the bass fatten up back in the creeks on baitfish. Other than the prespawn it's probably my favorite time to fish.

It seems the fall striper run is on schedule. I went out a few times with some friends to try  my luck with a tactic I've never tried before.... trolling a tube and worm. This is basically a long bit of rubber tubing with a hook on the end, tipped with some bloodworm. I've also heard GULP Sandworms work well too. This is tied to 3' of fluorocarbon leader and then to a keel with a weight attached to get to the right depth. The keel ties to your main line. My friend Capt Camo kills them with this setup in the back bays and it seems by far to be the preferred way to target stripers out of a kayak. It's tough getting used to, especially if you are paddling instead of pedaling but I still used it to hook into several stripers, though my biggest one broke off, much to my dismay. Let this be a reminder! ALWAYS retie your knots between outings! This is a fun tactic and I will report more as I keep trying it.

So my buddy Jared flew up from Mississippi to do some kayak fishing with me. We were both pumped to get into that great fall fishing. But as is often the case with this hobby... the weather conspired against us. Friday we waited for hours for the unrelenting downpours to move on. They didn't stop until around 1:00 PM and that much rain chilled that water down and the bass wouldn't hit anything. We kept at it and eventually Jared told me he would like to give up on those fish and go enjoy the Flying Fish that were chilling in my fridge. We drowned our sorrows and geared up for day 2. We hit Strathmere with my friend Smitty and tried the tube and worm for stripers. The first half of the trip we paddled against the tide (which is better for keeping the tube at the right depth) but by mid to late afternoon the wind started blowing WITH a very hard running tide. I've never been in water moving that quickly. Smitty kindly offered to pedal his Hobie back to our launch as we knew we would never make it while paddling. Jared and I paddled like crazy to get to the meeting spot, often making no headway whatsoever and resorting to finding shallow water so we could walk uptide pulling the kayaks behind us. We made it...but it was a real adventure. Luckily Jared seemed to be having fun anyway and he did manage to catch a tog at the bridge. We were so glad Smitty was there to help us and this was a reminder that every trip out is a learning experience. We learned the hard way that the weather can change quickly and wind is a kayak anglers worst enemy when you combine it with a mean tide. It was a fun adventure nonetheless. It figures that the day after Jared left I hit a local lake and caught 9 bass, mainly on crankbaits. That's fishing I guess. Addictive, fun and frustrating!