Infatuation with lures- Part 3

I meet silver fox in  a lot, his tiptop is on and he’s ready to go back to the light. He wants his pound of flesh and I don’t blame him. I lost all my leaders in the mayhem, including  about half a dozen Bucks. So while I am trying some new leaders in the dark silver fox is on the move yet again. On his way to the light.

After finishing tying few leaders in the dark I went to the Bluffs and made few casts but I didn’t particularly care for the way to water was moving, or for the way the waves were moving. So I go back to the truck in the lot and drive further along to the north side. I sent text to  silver fox where I am, so he can find me later. I filled the bag with Sebile swim shads, darters and heavy needles, locked my phone in the car and I’m was on  my way.

As I walk in the darkness, I see  few guys plugging  the famous spot (let’s just call it that) and I also see a solitary angler on the other side of them. I decide to go on my own and take a position about twenty yards on the left side of the angler. I fire 155 Sebile Sinking Shad into the darkness, pick up the slack and start working it with slow, deliberate raises of a rod, pumping if you would like to call it that.

BAM!!!

I set the hook and feel a extremely heavy weight. Line starts to peel off my Van Staal and then the line just snaps

WTF!!!!

I retrieve my line only to find that  knot I just tied in the parking lot failed! There is a lesson for today boys and girls,  don’t rush the important shit. I changed the leader, now pissed,  not only that I lost the fish but I lost stick shad.I fired up another cast with Sebile shad. Two cranks ….

BAM !!!!

Exact same thing happens.Line is  pealing off my reel and then it snaps  again at the knot !

Are u serious @#%^$@!!!!!!

Some of you’re probably questioning why I can’t tie a decent knot. Or the fact that I would admit this publicly. And I could explain to you that I  fished the previous night late.  And that I did 4 hours of weights working out and my regular job in last 24 hours and  that I don’t remember the last time I slept. But you know what? There is no reason or good excuse to tie a bad knot.

I walked back to the truck and refilled my bags and retied all my leaders.

Of course the whole time I thinking if those fish are still going to be there when I get back. When I got back in the water they let me know within seconds, as the fish slammed the shad and shortly  bottomed my 30 lb Boga scale. The next half an hour there was basically a repeat motion, almost like watching Groundhog Day. Big fish after big fish was hammering the stick shad. Even when I switched to gigantic 8 inchmodel it got slammed within two cranks of the reel. Amazingly the fella next to me never    landed a fish in that time span. I swear to God I wanted to walk over and give him one of the shads but I knew that we were in New York and he was probably going to go tell me to fuck myself. Which is exactly what I would say to him. And before either I or you get carried away about Sebile shads in particular, a public device announcement is in order.

There is no rod that can do it all, there is no magic in any lure, the ratio of success in surf is probably :

90% Pilot

10% Airplane

Many of you could have replicated this with another lure. Many would not know where to cast however. Most would cast during a strong NE exactly in  the direction the fellow next to me cast. Which is exactly where you should cast UNLESS you are 20 yards down tide. My point is, I am no genius. I am just aware of some very specific things about this particular spot.

Pilot , not airplane.

After about an hour the bite petered out and I moved to the other side the reef. I found  silver fox in this Quigley getting ready to go in the  water. He told me he had a few fish at the light but had a hard time landing them. I filled him in on my stick shad experiment and told him I was going to make a few cast in front of his rig while he gets ready.

I got into water and fired a long ass cast into frothing water with 155 fast sinking shad. I wanted to bring  it up in the water column fast as this is notorious shallow, fast water area. I pumped the rod once , and it  was almost ripped out of my hands. I knew immediately this was a good fish and I started to backward one step at the time walk  towards the shore while looking for silver fox. All went well until I got the fish in close, then she used the backwash to peel off a lot of line on three consecutive runs. I yelled in the direction of  his truck to come down because I might need help in that sweep But I don’t know if he heard me with waves crashing all around me. Finally I had a fish  laying on the its side on dry land as wave receded. That right there being a key word “receded”. It looked slightly smaller than the 47 ponder I have hanging above my desk, with shoulders just as impressive. She banged her head few times on the rocks and I saw the Sebile Shad  fly out of her mouth. I was tripping over the rocks trying to get to her and slide my hand inside her mouth but a wave beat me to it. Suddenly she straightened out is was is about a foot of water. There I was using my feet AND  my knees trying to tackle her. I just couldn’t get a grip one her,  the sliminess and the waves gave her freedom. I frantically searched with a flashlight in the foam to no avail. I let out a @#%Y primal scream, walked into the water , made a cast and then set the hook about a dozen times on the next poor fish. I was cursing profusely for the next several minutes while silver fox walked in water and and hanged a bass that bottomed out his  scale on the next cast. 

He actually went to Dick’s  Sporting Goods and bought some shads  after listen to me talking about them and  he was using them. He said he was getting plenty of hits but was just having a hard time setting the hook. So a night that  started at 8 PM went to  4 37 AM in the morning and we were still banging fish. I remembered because I looked at the watch and did a double take, then asked Silver Fox to confirm the time. Who said bunch of old geezers cant do an allnighter….

coming up…

Part 4

The Redemption