How long do you fish the spot ?

As I was patiently waiting for bluefish to arrive one thought has been spinning in my head on continuous basis. You’ll understand why as I fill you in on exactly how I was  prospecting for these fish but I am curious of how many of you look at your spots

I have few spots that I’ve written about them before.  One is where Bob lived until a guy in Grady White ate him. It seems like he also ate his cousins BillyBob and Billy Ray, his niece Babbette and his brother Bobby. This kind of spot, if you showed up at “right” tide and wind , you were guaranteed fish over the years. Sometimes on the 5th cast , sometimes on a first but they would be there. It would change slightly over the year. First, big blues would show up late April or early May, then small bass in May. Eventually some weakfish would filter in and small bay blues. June was a shmagosboard, usually blues in daytime and bass and weakfish in dark and so on..In August it was almost 90 % weakfish. Did I ever get skunked there ? Hell yeah, even when fishing was good. Sometimes fish are just not there but when they were there, you usually knew within 5 casts. It could be because you really do not need a rod to fish some of these spots as the rip is literally 5 yards from shore.

I call this my 5 minute spot. For example three times last week I drove to it, made 20 (and that is too many) short 30 feet cast and left. If blues were there I expected them on first and every cast. It sure would not take 20 casts for them to announce their presence. This takes about 5 to 10 minutes and then I am gone, on the way home. I know to some of you , preparation, driving 1/2 hour than walking 15 minutes to a spot to make 10 casts and then going back home seems stupid..or at least a little insane. But I don’t have an intern to send him to my spots to check it out. Yes, I can read on FB where this fish are and I can go there, but at this point in my life I probably won’t. I will either catch fish my way in places where I want or stay home. My days of running around chasing reports are long over.

So this spot, even during summer when there are more fish available, i treat the same way. Five to 10 minutes and I am gone to either next place or back home. Usually during the season I will have few more similar spots in vicinity i can hit along the way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.

I don’t fish sandy beaches away from inlets (for example in my area that would be RM5, Gilgo or SP) that often. You probably will find me closer to any of LI inlets, usually on the west side and at a particular tide. So when I do fish the sand, for example Gilgo beach, after about 10 casts I ask myself “why am I here?” If I don’t see any bait or fish caught, I’ll probably lose interest in ten to fifteen minutes. Now place me a mile east at Sore Thumb on outgoing current and similar structure , my mindset changes dramatically. I am willing to “wait out” to see if anything will happen for an hour or two as the current either increases or decreases.

I should mention that all the things, tide, current, wind time of the season and so on are equally important and can each be THE only reason why you have a banner night or get a skunk. Having said that, the tide level is the one that I am concerned with the least. Since 99% of my time is spend fishing the current flow, the tide is almost irrelevant to me. In Jones Inlet the current will start flowing out an hour or so after high tide where in Fire Island inlet few miles east the current may start flowing out MANY hours after high tide.

So those kind of spots , I can do an hour or two…or three. Very rarely will I fish the spot longer. Even if its fish on ever cast, after awhile I’ll go back to my truck for camera. Its just the way my brain works. I’ve fish with friends who like to fish the ENTIRE current cycle in the inlet, hoping the fish will be at first of ebb, then middle, then last.

So is there a place where I can fish for hours at the time even if i am NOT catching? Only one that I’ve ever found. I can spend ten hours on rock at Cuttyhunk casting into nothing. Hell, I’ve done it and did not complain once. Why? Probably because I am the least familiar with that place. Going there once or twice a year is not enough to understand it or know what works with consistency. Yeah, you might figure out the tide but there is wind, bait and other things that you did not. When fishing in MTK for example 99.9% of places you fish, at some point you are going to run out of water,they will get too shallow. In Cuttyhunk, you can swim to rocks a 100 yards of shore where at low tide you are casting at 18 feet of water! That is a big difference

And yeah, having  blues show up on the last day of April with vengeance was fun..