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Date: June 7, 2021 Body of Water: Plum Island Surf Fishing Moon Phase: New Moon minus 3 days; waning crescent Tides: Low Tide at about 4:50 PM; building tide throughout Boat: None With: Alone Target: Striped Bass Time: 4:45 PM - 7:45 PM Conditions: About 95 degrees (and even warmer inland!); clear and bright; mild westerly winds and surf 0 - 3 feet, with extremely clear water. No obvious bird, bait or seal activity. It was so hot, I almost didn't care if I caught any fish. I just needed to get out of the city and catch a breeze, at the very least! When I finally arrived at my fishing spot, I suspected it was just "too nice" to expect much fish activity. The skies were high, the seas were calm, and the water was super clear! I walked down the beach to the first accessible "structure", a hard sand point with some mild shoreline surf. This placed me within a couple of hundred yards of my fishing spot from the prior session. I arrived at just about the bottom of the tide, and I could not discern other water movements (sweep, rips, cuts, etc.) I waded in and started fan-casting with the A17 Diamond Jig. This felt a little overly aggressive in these quiet and clear conditions and so after after about a dozen casts with no response, I switched to slowly swimming a Hogy Epoxy Jig along the sand bottom. This was pleasant, but also unproductive! Fortunately, I spied a schoolie following my lure. When the same lure was followed by a much larger bass (keeper-sized), I knew two things; stripers were present, and I needed to switch things up to get some bites! Fortunately, I made the right call; my first cast with a 4-inch Al Gag's paddle-tail swim-bait was first pecked and then thunked! I carefully played the bass through the surf and onto the sand. My next cast enticed a micro-bass. That bass was too small for even me to photograph for On the Water's Striper Cup! Plus, with two bass on two casts, I suspected I'd have plenty of opportunities for other pictures. It was only 5:30 (Low tide plus 45 minutes or so), and the fishing should only get better. It took a half hour, a move down the beach to another small point, and a change to a 1-ounce Crippled Herring to get the next bite and landed striper. For a few casts, I had repeated "touches" on this lure, but no aggressive takes or hookups. I switched back to the Al Gag swimmer (now presented with my light Avid-and-Vanford combination) and started catching! In the next hour or so, I caught at least seven additional bass to about 18 inches. Just about all of the hits were at the farthest extent of my cast, although one spunky guy provided a cool, visual strike at the base of the small breakers, now almost at my feet! In general, if I missed a strike on my slow retrieve during this period, I could entice a hookup by speeding the lure away. Along the way, I also sporadically threw the Crippled Herring, a smaller A07 Diamond Jig and a Pencil Popper, if only to keep any local, bigger bass honest. These all went untouched. When I'd gone about 30 minutes without a decent fish, I decided to call it quits. I had hoped that the bite would improve as dusk progressed, but I'd seemingly lost contact with my fish, I had a long drive home, phone calls to make, and the Green Flies had arrived about a month early! As I walked off the beach, others were setting up. All were bait fishing (I had seen one family of three casting paddle-tails earlier in the evening), and those with reports also indicated just small fish. What do I have to say about this? Again, I'm not much of a surf fisherman; and all the bass I touched this day were small; but this was perhaps my best surf outing, ever. I've never landed double-digit stripers in a single session from the surf before. Moreover, I stayed in pretty constant contact with fish throughout and made some good calls to maintain that contact. It pays to be observant! I'd not had a single touch in the first half hour or so, when I saw the first bass following my epoxy jig. The next cast revealed a keeper-sized follower. Had I not seen these fish, even rejecting my baits, I might have moved further down the beach or lost confidence. But a quick switch to the Al Gag's 4-inch swim-bait exposed some biters right away, and I was able to build the session from there. I saw another "large" striper cruising the base of the second set of breakers, and it was just plain enjoyable to watch the silvery stripers fighting in the ultra-clear water. It was even more fun to watch them swimming away upon release! Note of warning to my future self or anybody else that might be interested; I accessed the beach via the Newbury town access ($10 parking). The entire beach within the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge is closed until mid-August due to Piping Plover chicks. That's a bit of a hassle, but it's also why the refuge exists, in the first place. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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