A Tuesday Night

I had a mean hankerin' so I made the hour and twenty minute drive down to the HRBT to get my fix. Upon arrival I found a veritable buffet of light tackle species under the bridge.  The shad, up to 16" were in thick as well as the croaker, up to 12".  The croaker were so thick it took me a while to find a flounder bite.  When the jighead n' gulp wasn't torn up as soon as it hit the bottom, the flounder up to 15" were willing to take the lure.  Not only that, the bluefish were everywhere also.  I switched to a Yozuri Crystal minnow after getting tired of my soft plastics being bitten in half.  However, I was quickly reminded of how much I disliked bluefish and treble hooks.

Luckily, that's not my blood.  I removed the first of the two treble hooks from the lure, leaving just the one on the rear.  Bluefish + multiple treble hooks = Loud profanity and incessant damning of the freakishly hyper specie.

I also found good numbers of 21" - 25" stripers as well.   In the mix, I managed to find this guy and enticed him to partake of my 3" paddletail offering.

Light tackle fun 31.5" Striper

I probably could have pinched the tail and took it home, but I didn't. 

For a gorgeous night out, there was hardly anyone out on the water.  I saw one kayaker heading in as I was heading out and one other boat.  I basically had the whole place to myself and had a pretty good time.... satisfied for now.

But the Eastern Shore Reds are still heavy on my mind...