Atlantic Bonita

[CaptFly Profile]

The James River in Richmond was blown out ... so no Shad to be had ...
Checked the fishing and weather reports ... hhhhmmm
Left out of Harkers around 7:30 am on Saturday entered a nice fog bank after getting outside the hook.
Tide was really moving saw a nice 7' hammerhead just finning around ... threw a fly at it (just for fun) the fish turned and ate and kept swimming along ... didn't alter speed or course after being hooked just walked off under max pressure ... held on until I was broken off
Nice low wind day so crossed to the east side played with some smallish blues and just started poking around ... rolled straight east and chased birds around hoping to run into some Albies.
After seeing a few busts and coming up empty decided to take a break and check the jetty.
Fished the jetty a bit and hooked up some small jacks and some more small blues.
Got antsy as per usual got on the radio and asked if anyone had been on the Bonito.
Raised Water Dog guide service ... "get out here ... get out here NOW ... its STUPID!"
So off I went back to the east side (wishing I would have just stayed out there).
Finally spotted him around 2miles east of the hook he was just bobbing around waiting ... saw some birds and some busts and ran up immediately hooked an Albie and a Bonita ... that was it~
No more birds busts ... Checked the tide ... slack low.

What a tease !!!

Fun while it lasted ... most likely will give it another go soon~

[SOBX Profile]

Man, glad you found some on Saturday, but you rode right over more shad and rockfish on the I95 bridge at Weldon than you could imagine. Water levels were high enough to allow some attempts up river, but shad could have been caught right across from the landing. Rockfish bite has been early before all the boat traffic gets heated up.

Glad you found some fish at the jetty, any size to the blues at the rocks, and no gray trout?

Good Fishing!!!

[CaptFly Profile]

I have to be honest ... Shad has been so hot and heavy on the James I was glad to get a break.
Would have loved to get into a few Striper though ....

I have been really wanting to get into some Atlantic Bonita though ... seems like every year I am just too busy or booked up with Shad to get down for them.

It was a welcome change~

All the blues were on the small side ... and I was a bit disappointed to not run into some trout, but hey it was a beautiful day and there was a bit of action so I enjoyed it quite a lot .

Water temps were amazingly high at 68.5 the color was fantastic and there was sargasso everywhere ... even saw a few flyers !