On Tuesday morning we had Julie and Austin, both who just graduated from Kansas and were proud Jayhawks. We left the dock at 645am in some major fog, so on went the running lights and radar right at the dock. We cleared the breakwater and set out sights (not that we could see much) for the South Edge of Billingate Shoals. The last few days its be CRARZY fishing just on the edge.

We made out destination in 30 mins and started out search for some breaking fish. The great thing about thick fog is that its very quiet, so hearing birds and fish splashing is easy…the bad thing about fog is you can’t see what you hear unless its right next to you. Well as we made our way east we heard and saw them. We started to toss the pink and white slugos at the breaks, but that was not working, so on when the pencil poppers with a rattle in side, just to give it some noise and a little weight to get it out further

After a few casts, Austin was hooked up and all I heard from the bow was his Shimano Stradic 6000 was SCREAMING DRAG. I told Austin to move to the rear of the boat, so Julie could get some tosses in. After a nice 10-min. fight, we got to see some good color, then we were able to get the net to it…first fish…. first stripe-ah….36 inches…..16 pounds…that’s the way to start your first saltwater fishing trip out. A few minutes later, I heard the same noise from Julie’s Stradic 6000 …same drill…she moved to the back of the boat…..worked the fish to the boat….got to see some great color …..in the net….32 inch striper….12 pounds….that was her first stripe-ah….well at that point with two great fish caught on top water and tossed back in for another fight…we again set out searching. We put Austin on point so he could find the fish. We searched around for some time, however the fish came up fast and then went down even faster

We then set out our umbrella rigs on Lead Core line (6 colors) and covered more ground, since the top water actin was slowing down. We were able to find some big schools just on the edge and when we marked them, we went tight. One time when the Shimano TLD 25 was ripping line, Austin muscled in three stripers on the same rig…all over 25 inches….I think Austin was thinking he just caught the Governors Trophy for the biggest fish !!!!!

Stay safe and think screaming drags,

Capt. Mark Haley

www.shannonsea.com