With a survey sounding ship just over a mile away and in retreat, I wasn’t too c…

2021-07-03 20:09:07
Monty Hawkins

With a survey sounding ship just over a mile away and in retreat, I wasn’t too concerned with how the bite began. Not stellar, as expected, but as the ship moved further south we had an improvement in our action.
Today, however, the improvement was minimal and never stayed with us. Perhaps the slow start was from natural causes.
Unlike years past & dozens of interactions with sounding boats; in recent weeks two of the last three close passes with a ship equipped with a sub-bottom profiler had no effect on our catching.
I’d never seen it before.
A new type of sounder? We need to understand it. These things are in use world wide. We should know what they do to fish & mammals.
Today the morning bite was kaput. That left no real way to measure whether sounding equipment was altering fish behavior or not.
Dern sure something was. Had to work for every fish we boxed this day. I suspect north winds and yesterday’s foul weather put sea bass off the feed.
Or was it an abundance of feed? Butterfish, tiny fellows, were being spit up by some sea bass – not all..
Fishing!
When the current backed off and the sounding boat was 8 miles and still leaving, the bite improved again.

I’ve often seen where a choppy north wind (but not howling!) will be good for tuna. I call it a ‘tuna wind’ in summer. Since I rarely have opportunity to target tuna, I also call light northerlies a pain in the neck. No one calls it “a sea bass wind.”
Did what I could with it. Had the Rindfuss family in double digits; Ron Peacock too. Jake Hurlock of Littlestown PA took the pool money with a dandy. Everyone had dinner..
Bit saucy most of the day. While headed home the ocean came glorious.
Still have room tomorrow. Forecast best this week.
Cheers
Monty

Capt Monty Hawkins
Mhawkins@morningstarfishing.com
Info@ocreefs.org

Source