New Season Scouting 2014

sam05252014

MAY 26, 2014.  SCOUTINGI took the boat out last weekend with my good friend/client Sammy to do a little scouting to see if there was any life around. We headed out Saturday with not much hope for anything but maybe some mackerel. As we got to the mouth of the Scarborough River I was marking quite a bit of bait on the sounder along with terns working the water. We tried to jig up some mackerel but they just were not there despite trying several locations. I have to conclude that it was small spearing like bait, but boy there was a ton of it stretching for miles all the way over to Richmond Island. I did not bring any rods for throwing lures plus we did not bring any bait with us. There was good water clarity so we hit the shoreline and I put down the trolling motor to sneak around to see if anybody was around. After about 10 minutes I see a single striper in the mid 30"s dart off, kinda startled me too. A few minutes later I see a school of about half a dozen stripers in the mid 20"s swim off. This is very encouraging considering it was not in the river but full ocean front on May 24th. We motor over to one of our other fishing spots and it is not long before I see a large school of about two dozen stripers in the high teens. We are happily surprised and made plans to return the next day to see if we can hook one. We return on Sunday for a quick try at hooking one. We put out bait rods, one with a sandworm and another with a piece of frozen mackerel from last year. As we soaked our baits, we threw Slugg-os and a Jumping Minnow. We did not see any follows on the lures but we had 4 takes on the baits. Sammy manages to stick one of 19" and brings it to the boat for the first landed striper of the year. The past 3 Junes have been very good and I was a little nervous that the harsh winter we had may have changed things.The early signs are good and I will keep my fingers crossed that it will only get better.  I will update the report as the days go by. If anyone is interested in booking a trip in June, please contact me sooner than later as June has been filling up.   Keith