Here you go Andy!!
Had a plan in mind at work today and decided to shoot right down to the shore as soon as I got off. Pulled up to the inlet at 6:45 after a long drive, line in the water by 7. Gotta love “local summer” at least, got a great parking spot
I fished around the inlet for about an hour with no real action. Met a guy named Chris who I recognized from the Facebook page as a bass guy, he said it was his first time ever saltwater fishing. Nice meeting you! Unfortunately the inlet bite was not hot today, I didn’t see one fish landed. After dark, I rolled up the pant legs and took off the shoes, threw em in the backpack to go shallow wade the surf. I had tossed a few different lures around the inlet like deadly dicks and epoxys, but in the surf I knew I wanted to throw the blurple SP Minnow.
Started casting and walking north, the wind was blowing from the south pretty good. About 15 minutes in I was hooked up - something pulled a good amount of drag off my new tsunami shield 5000, but unfortunately it came off the hook. I was thinking it was a decent sized blue.
Walked the beach slowly and made what seemed like hundreds of casts before I hooked up with a very greedy snapper blue. He had something going on with his head, like he had been attacked or had some kind of disease. I stuck around that spot for a bit and got a few more light strikes but nothing else.
I was hitting the jetties the whole way up and after walking almost 2 miles I decided I should probably start heading back the other way. It was about 10pm at that point and I live an hour and change away, plus I gotta work tomorrow!
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on the way back I decided to focus my attention on the jetties. I was giving the rod a good swipe to get the SP to the sand and after that a slow retrieve , kicking up sand on the bottom. The second jetty on the way back was the winner as I got slammed. Fish fought hard and put a good bend in my MH 10’ airwave and I thought it’d be a blue for sure, but it turned out to be a decent schoolie bass!! I had really hoped I’d catch one but didn’t want to get my hopes up, so I was freaking out (which is evident in the picture quality
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). After a quick picture, I got it back in the water and it kicked off hard out of my hands. I was throwing the 5” SP, so I think the fish was somewhere in the 18-22 inch range judging from the photo. I forgot the tape measure so no official length.
Nothing else happened after that but I didn’t care, it was a great night. Water was warm, wore only a light jacket, and the beach was empty. Can’t wait for more fall saltwater fishing! Tight lines!!