Misty Calm

At last, a few hours of free time on Sunday afternoon. The weather was calm, mild, and damp. Rain and mist. The water, silver. Not many boats out on the water so I decided to attempt to hook some shad and attempt to live line in the channels. The shad, however, were not biting and only came across some menhaden. Rather than rigging up the bunker snagger (something that is less and less appealing to me over the years) I figured that topwater fishing the shoals and eelgrass meadows would be the most fun.

But first I thought to check and bait my lobster pots, and I am glad I did. The first pot was empty except for a couple of spider crabs. I baited with frozen mackerel and moved on to the next one. Finally, two legal sized lobsters! (The most expensive lobsters in the bay!!). The other two pots were empty. But I was quite happy and moved on to fishing.

The Cow Yard produced a few fish along a well-defined tidal rip. An absolutely beautiful scene of water rushing over subtidal sand dunes. These fish were small but energetic. Next I drifed along the Nummet area and only had one follow. One boat was anchored in the rip which made it difficult to stay and investigate further. So I headed south a quarter mile to the Plymouth Harbor entrance where tidal energy was readily visible and the water gin-clear. A few drifts over the patchy eelgrass/sandy bottom produced about 8 fish, no size to speak of. But much fun. My last stop was near Cordage where I noticed a dozen terns diving in very skinny water. I nudged into the line between sand and grass...about 6 to 10 inches of water, and man, hooked one striper on a surface plug that went ballistic: straight up about 3 feet. Again, the scenery was absolutely amazing.

The dampness began to attack my cell phone (it was rendering odd R2D2 noises) which reminded me of the time in this timeless day. I headed in.