On the bright side, Friday was supposed to be a wash entirely. The rain was supposed to fall all day long, however it wouldn't actually begin to fall until sometime around midnight. So Friday after work, I made my way to camp "Mystic KOA" where one of our members Rich had secured three, four bed cabins to be our command station for the weekend. The campground located in North Stonington, CT is a well-kept place with a large and kind staff, which provided comfortable lodging and easy 20-25 minute access to most of South County Rhode Island. After unloading unnecessary gear from my car into the cabin I was running about an hour behind schedule. Most of the guys I planned on fishing with had already ventured out. I donned my waders & boots about a half hour after tournament start, got in my car and set out for a night of fishing. My first stop was the Quonny breachway, a place I had never seen never mind fished before. As I pulled up to the first parking area I noticed 7 vehicles all with CT plates. I got out and another fisherman was just walking out and I joked, "Hey do you know if Rhode Island is nearby?" He laughed and said he was wondering the same thing. Just as I was about ready to walk-out myself another member pulled in who had picked up some tackle for me so I would wait as the jigs he had picked up would be my best bet at catching fish under the big surf conditions.
I hastily unwrapped 5 Andrus Jetty caster bucktail jigs as Ian (a new member) geared up. Now an hour and half behind tourney start we started walking to our destination... road block, a private dock extending into the water rerouted our first attempt. We walked through an overgrown path to the road and turned right to walk past a series of houses. Starting up a dirt road we soon realized there is no "path". Aboutfaced, we walked back towards our cars to the first house without lights on and cut-through their property. It was a good choice as it brought us to the turn in the breachway. So we started fishing and to me the breachway current wasn't an unfamiliar feeling as it struck as similar to trout fishing in a river. Just as I was getting settled-in to the feel of the place, Ian was ready to move. Somehow, and it all kind of blurs together now, we were back at the car in three separate occasions. Overall I fished Quonny in four separate broken sessions over three and a half hours. Nothing was strung together, no hits from fish, and my partner wants to move to another breach? In my head I was thinking what is the difference, but I went along with it...
We stopped short of our destination to get out and look for baitfish. Checking under the lights of some roadside boat slips at the next breachway channel we saw a good amount of bait and it was in my mind a promising sign that there could be some striped bass around. At the parking lot, another angler started talking to us about how he hadn't caught anything but the night before was exceptional. As he launched into showing us all of his plugs and the bite marks on them, I felt as if we were both stuck in quicksand as this angler linked sentences together without hesitation. I finally managed to break the cycle to say, I need to go fishing now, before the tide runs out. So I started casting the channel working the far side, the center, and the nearside before changing position. About half an hour into fishing, I hung up with the bottom near another angler and said "Before you cast again, I'm hung-up," I walked towards him opposite the current and pulled free and apologized. He said no problem, any luck? I picked my hood up over my eyes and noticed it was one of our members, Toby. I said hello, and introduced myself to him. He said he hadn't caught anything but had a few hits, which was all I needed to hear. In that instant my confidence changed entirely and I knew I would hook into something soon. Not fifteen minutes later I got my first hit, and set the hook on a fish. My heart picked up a couple steps as I had never fished inside a channel before and my first concern was how to land a fish in the current. Drag peeled off and I chased the fish down current to a conveinient concrete stair case. I struggled for a minute to get my boga-grip in the fishes mouth but eventually found a purchase on the fish's lower jaw. I held the fish against my body to not illuminate the silhouette to other anglers and got a measurement of about 37 inches and 19lbs on the boga. At the time, we did need this fish to cull-out other smaller fish, but I couldn't do it. I released the fish unharmed and would regret doing so after hearing our club report around 2 am the first night, as it would have upgraded our catch. Just 20 minutes later I hooked into another fish that was right around 34" but I just popped the hook and let him swim away without taking it out of the water. I worked the rest of the channel to the point over the next 45 minutes without a bump and began to wonder where Ian was? I thought he must be into fish as he had not come my way for even a second.
As I turned the corner around the bushes into the parking lot, Ian's car was backing out of his spot. I flagged him down and asked where he was going. He said, Walmart for some gatorades, I said, "I've got extra gatorades in my car, besides I just landed two nice bass." That was enough for him to pull right back into his spot. I dug out a gatorade and handed it to him, he downed the whole thing, and said, "Bucktail?" I nodded, "Let's go." Not ten minutes later Ian hooked up to a fat 35" bass that pulled the boga down to 18lbs, which he decided to keep the fish and weigh it in. Back at the lot, we met up with several other members and talked about our next moves. Just as we were going to set out for more fishing, the lightning moved in too close for comfort and we decided to call it for a few hours. I followed Ian to walmart so he could get some ice and a cooler for his fish. While I was waiting for Ian to find what he needed, I shot this quick video in the walmart parking lot of the rain we were dealing with.
Sleeping in your car in waders, Saturday's fishing, and the winners to follow....
