Donald and I were talking the other day that all holidays, birthdays, funerals, weddings, etc. should be celebrated in February. Just make it one 28 day obligation. It would spice up the winter and get all those nagging commitments out of the way of the fishing time. It's not like 30lb bass are busting the surface all the time. Most people have gone to the beach all their lives and have never seen that before.
Will and I spent a good portion of Mother's Day with mother ocean, possibly to the slight disdain of our human mothers. During the morning of driving and checking, we discovered a lot of bunker spread along the coast. Of course, the area where the fish were on it was in our backyard, which we discovered after two hours of searching for greener pasture. We found some fish running through bait around 9:00am with the help of an informant, but there was too much bait and not enough fish. We parted ways for Mother's Day. I said if you have a window left today, make it between 3:00pm-5:00pm because it always seems like it turns on at that time if it's going to happen.
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| This is spring bass water. Clean and green with a SSW wind. 3:30pm. |
We met up again around ten minutes to 3:00pm. The phone rang at 3:00pm. It was Rick. I picked up and said we're going to start checking north and work south. He said there was fish on the beach where he was at. Ok we're going there. I tapped on the clock in my car, see Will, 3:00pm, right on schedule.
We arrived and didn't see anything, but I've been through this before and knew they were around, they were probably just moving fast. And that they were. Moving real fast. We eventually met up with some others a block down, when all of a sudden the water erupted right in front of us. By the time the snags and poppers hit the water they were gone. Will, did you see that? They're here! But they're gone already. Damn.
That always signals to me, start looking north and south, because when the fish are in, they are usually in other areas. It was hard to tell in the wind and chop and cloud shadows, but it looked like purple water was turning white around 1/4 mile north. Then it looked like someone backed a dump truck of bowling balls into the water. Sprint! I got my popper into the mix just in time. Bang! A bass tail slapped the popper 3ft into the air! I stopped all movement when the plug landed. A huge blow up and then another and finally a hook up for my first bass of the 2012 spring season.
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| I like a bottle neck popper better than a pencil popper in a stiff side shore wind, it feels like it holds better. This bass agreed. |
What a rush! As soon as it began it was over, and no one else in our group got any fish. A scan through the binoculars revealed frothing white water about a mile and a half up the beach. Let's go! We arrived and saw bass blowing up the surface like crazy . . . Two casts out in a stiff SSW wind. This was going on for two hours I was told. They would get close, but then move out. It was nice just to be able to see a display of life.
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| Wading out to a bar for blind casting. Blind casting after the surface action settles down is a proven technique. |
After taking Will back, he was surely in trouble, I heard Shell E had picked up a nice bass by blind casting. That's why there were ten people standing in a line casting like crazy and not catching anything when I returned. It was rumored that JM had a blow up. I was good, I got a fish, and it looked like things were settling out.
There hasn't been any action since Sunday, at least locally, due to S winds and upwelling. When the wind first changes to S it can be great, especially in the spring for some reason. But more than 24 hours of S wind and forget it. Today is Tuesday, the wind was S today, Monday, and Sunday, so I probably won't be fishing until Friday or the weekend. And there's no W following, only a wrap around to NE and E. Usually there is a W wind after a frontal S, not this time, so this will be a new one to compute.
