Current Waters: Time To Shuffle The Deck

When you spend every day on the water, you are bound to have those days and weeks where things just don’t come together the way you expect. There are some weeks that are just not as good as others. I’m ready to put this past week in the rearview mirror.

However, I am thankful for the stripers. The striped bass fishing has been outstanding and consistent this week, so I shouldn’t complain too much. The rest of the fishing is pretty much status quo from last week. The bluefish numbers are increasing slowly. We are getting some fluke (my favorite to eat). The bluefin tuna bite has its highs and lows right now.

This past week we were challenged with some adverse conditions. How about that wind? We’re still fishing though.

The good news is that we can put this week behind us. Tomorrow is another day. And every day is like opening day on the water. You never know what you’re going to get until you get on the water and cast a line.

Optimism is the best personality of a fisherman. That’s why we tie the lines and leave the dock every day. We are optimistic. This optimism can be seen in many forms: the challenge and thrill of the hunt; the curiosity for what’s around the corner; the willingness to try new things even when something else has always worked. It’s like an addiction.

With that in mind, I am optimistic about this coming weekend.

The full moon on Saturday will hopefully change the weather patterns and bring more migratory fish our way. Fish tend to migrate in the big tides and it would be great to have more variety and mix things up. Full moons help “shuffle the deck,” as Captain Pete Kaiser likes to say. A new moon or full moon will cause stronger or more pronounced tidal movement. When there is more water movement, there is also generally more bait movement and more fish-feeding activity – it’s a great cascade effect that can lead to a welcome change in the water.

We interrupt this article to bring you an excerpt from my wife, Dr. Sarah Bois.

I have asked Captain Carl multiple times, “how do you know where the fish are.” The answer is a huge combination of information. If it were me, as a scientist, I’d write everything down – record every detail. I imagine a huge data set with many variables that could be combined in a statistical model to determine the ideal conditions (and potentially locations) for each species of interest. Carl and other anglers (I’m looking at you Captain Pete Kaizer) basically do all that in their heads. It’s like there is a crazy angler algorithm where all the data goes in and the numbers are crunched, and the answer comes out. An area can “feel fishy” when it really just looks like an open spot of the ocean to me – it all looks the same! But of course, it’s not. The people who put the time on the water are the ones that put all that info together (in their heads or on paper) and can get us on the fish every time.

So what goes into finding the fish? When I asked Carl recently here was his list: Date, time of day, weather, water temperature, wind direction, the time of the tide, the size of the tide, bait around, other people’s reports, what your network says and the ever important “I have a hunch.” A big part of it is putting the work in, going on the hunt. Even when the fishing is great you have to keep looking, always try something different. Do your own homework.

I hope you can get out on the water this weekend or during the week. Keep us posted on your finds, interesting observations, or just enjoy time on the water.

Current Waters is presented by Topspin Fishing