A Personal Best

      As a youngster I learned fishing through the art of bottom fishing here in Long Island Sound.  Over the years I have had some spectacular days fishing for Fluke, Sea Bass, and Porgies.  I never had much luck with the Fluke, but the Sea Bass and Porgies are another ball game.  I have always been very fond of porgy fishing, and I was very happy to drop a cut peace of clam down this morning.  What came up was a new Personal Best Porgy!  Sorry, no 50 pound bass of 20 pound blue.  It was evident The Porgy broke off another angler recently by the broken leader hanging out of his mouth.  Someone's "the one that got away" is my Personal Best.  The Porgy taped out at 16.75 inches and hit a little over 2.25 lbs. on the scale.  I have always come close to the 2lb mark but i broke it today.

Finally a Good Outting

   The last few fishing trips have been POOR.  Not much to tell a story about unless everyone wants to read about a 4 hour 16ft aluminum boat ride.  The last 3 trips may have produced 4 schoolie bass, which is unacceptable, and I honestly felt like I forgot how to fish.  Did the fish go into lock jaw? move on? night feeding pattern?  Whatever the problem was things needed to change.  Yesterday things changed.
    I got out on the water with Jan at 530 am.  It was questionable if we were even going to get out since thunderstorms were flaring up all around us.  We got some fish close to the ramp, and it looked like the makings of a great morning.  I then noticed the sky in the west getting dark and we decided to seek shelter.  We pulled up on a sand bar, threw on the rain gear, and waited it out.  The Radar app on my phone showed the storm passing just to the north and intensifying as it got east of us.  We didn't even get a lot of rain.
   Speaking of rain, Connecticut has received a lot of rain lately.  In June 10+ inches fell in one week shutting down the clam beds for a month.  Those beds were reopened just prior to the 4th of July and Jan and I were very eager to get over there.  After the thunderstorm pushed east and the sun came out a little we made the run.  Pushing the boat off the sand bar was a little tough  since the tide went out a little, but we got it.  We hit the clams hard and fast!  I even took a break from them to snag a few oysters.  I like oysters but I still prefer the clam better.   On the ride home We went back to plug fishing.  We got 3 more fish one of which was a  37 inch 18 pound fish.  I threw him in my new Engel Ice Bag and took him home.

      The big bonus of the day was the oysters.  Last spring I got a new oyster knife.  As soon as it arrived in the mail the rains started.  It was like buying a new snow blower and getting a 50 degree winter.  The knife is made by Victorinox and is a New Haven style blade.  It is a great oyster knife!

Here is a video of my trip
Clamming CT