Brian & Shannon Brown
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
I had the privilege to take out Brian Brown and his wife Shannon for a 1/2 day on the bay. We met up at about 7am at Shelter Island and headed straight out to catch some fish. It was a cloudy morning with a stiff South wind making it a bit chillier than normal. The water was anywhere from 64 to 67 depending on where you were in the bay. It was a negative low tide at 6:30am with very little movement pushing back in.
Within the second cast or so Brian quickly hooked into a Barred Sand Bass (aka Sand Bass) to start the morning off. Within a short amount of time Shannon matched him with another Sand Bass. After about 45 minutes Brian hooked into something really nice which peeled off line and wrapped itself in something down on the bottom. We tried to let the line slack to see if it swam out and tried pulling him out from different angles but he wasn’t budging. You could feel it on there when you gave him so line but could never get line back. My guess was either a large Sand Bass or a Black Seabass hanging around some structure. Unfortunately the line ended up rubbing around too much and eventually broke.
At one point Shannon set the hook on a Bass which decided to take off running. Her line was peeling off the reel every so often as she battled the Sand Bass with her 6lb setup. Eventually she got it to the boat so we snapped a quick picture before releasing it.
Shannon with her quality Barred Sand Bass caught with a Reebs Lure.
We had a slow but steady pick at the bass all morning with a lot of missed fish due to them being a bit lethargic, probably due to the low pressure moving through. We moved around and tried a few different areas with each one usually producing at least a few bass. They also managed a few Spotted Bay Bass along with a Lizard Fish. A few times during the trip each one of us seemed to hook into something really nice with it peeling the line off the reels but then eventually the fish would pop off. I don’t know what kind of fish they are but this has happened a with a few different trips. One day we will get “it” to the boat.
We finally ended the day with both Brian and Shannon hooking into some Spotted Bay Bass fishing the shallows along Navy Amphibious Base. Shannon wanted to see some Seals I took them over to the bait docks to snap some photos and see our lazy friends hanging out on the docks. Just as we were about to head in I realized there was a Submarine coming into the harbor which was a treat to see. But that is whats nice about the bay, you never know what your going to see. Hopefully though, I get to have Brian and Shannon again sometime on the boat. It was a great time with some fun conversation.
Until the next report, tight lines!
Captain Peter Hamann