Just a quick recap on what's been biting. We are still getting a solid Bull Red bite in the Inlet. The deep troughs, at 50-80 foot depth are holding plenty of feisty 40+ inch fish. They are eating Blue Crabs and cut bait with the occasional fish being taken on large Shrimp.
The Sheepshead bite is on fire right now! You know it's good when you can get 2 clients on a 10 pound fish in the same week. Especially when neither of them have ever caught a Sheepshead before. The bite has been better around the Little Jetty's Park area but, the fish have started turning back on in the Inlet as well. We have been getting them on Fiddler Crabs and split Blue Crab chunks. The 10 pounders were caught on Blue Crab.
The monster Black Drum bite has been delayed as most of you already know. I did manage to get one of my clients on a 70(ish) pounder the other day. I believe this was a straggler at the head of the main school. Normally when the spawn has fully integrated into the area, we'll get one fish after the other. Right now it's still a bit early. We are using very heavy tackle for these big fish. I wouldn't suggest bringing anything lighter than Grouper tackle for these. Fast currents with a fish this size means certain death if you're under gunned. I use mostly conventional tackle equivalent to a TLD20 or Penn Squall 30. I would stay away from anything under a 40 pound class rod. 50 or 60 is better. We want to be able to release these big breeders unharmed.
The Whiting bite is going off right now. I got a little break in the charters and spent today with the wife doing some surf fishing. We started off hitting a slough up close. We could clearly see that a sandbar was fairly close and getting a line to the other side wasn't an option. The fishing right off the get go was excellent! Anna and I were draggin em in one after the other. After about an hour, the slough stopped producing. The tide at this point was down enough that we were able to walk through the slough and fish from the sandbar. Once we got out there, the bite was on. Once again, we were tossing fish in the box. Eventually we decided we had more than enough and left em biting. The Blue Fish were far more plentiful than we liked but at least they are fun! I really enjoyed getting back to my roots for a change. It's been far too long.
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Danny Pardue