I took a chance of fishing on Thursday afternoon hoping that the low going to high tide would produce some fish. Unfortunately, the water had turned over for the first time in four months and it was a cloudy green and very unappealing.

I tried almost everything, mussel, clam, sand crab and grub with no bites what-so-ever!

After much procrastination I decided at the last moment Friday to go on back down to the beach and trying it again. The weather was beautiful with no wind and warm sand. No reason to go back to yesterday’s bad memories so I decided to try a spot about a mile down the beach.

My first thought was to use the clam and mussel as it had produced so many nice fish over the last month. Several casts and not one bite. Now that Fall’s here it was time to break out the motoroil copperflake swimtail slider grub. First cast a few nibbles then fish on! Nothing big but a handful of nice perch.

Now the sun was setting and the sea was flat calm glassy.

It was getting dark and time for just a few more casts. As my line came up coast with the longshore current I was bumped once, twice, fish on! This one seemed a bit bigger. Within seconds it ripped off 100 feet of line and I knew I had something good. It was getting darker by the second and I somewhat imagined it would pull me out to sea. Lucky for me it didn’t and I eventually go her up onto the beach.

Well, now it’s dark—but you know, just one more cast. I straightened up my grub and cast out into the darkness. Keeping tension on the line at all times I could feel every groove in the sand. Bump, Bump, fish on! Another fight in the dark and another great spotfin croaker.

Here’s a look at #2 and the sunset just before being released to grow bigger today for a bigger fight tomorrow!

The setup I used today was a spinning rod’n’reel with 6lb pink Ande as my mainline and the Carolina rig. On the C-rig bigger waves today meant using a 3/4oz sinker, a bead, a swivel, a shorter 18inch 6lb fluorocarbon leader and a #2 super sharp Gamakatsu split shot hook. A super sharp hook means more bites that become more fish.

This weekend and this upcoming week offer some great conditions for surf fishing. Smaller surf from the south will keep water temps up and clear in most places. We are expecting mild winds until later in the week when a small storm may pass by. Best of all we have some great tides that will provide both good fishing and good bait gathering. Both the morning low going to noon high tides looks great and the evening low to high looks promising too.

I’ll probably be tempted to go out one more time this weekend as there are some great tides—hopefully, I’ll find more fish and less green water!

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