Worst day of fishing that I can remember. Learned some things though. I learned about lugworms; at least that’s how they were sold to me. I guess the proper name is pile worm? Picked up a little box ($8?!), and ran down to the beach. Got rigged up, cut off a 3” piece of worm, and started to thread it onto a #4 mosquito hook. Damn thing bit me! So, surprised and confused, I ended up dropping the whole box into the rocks and I still have never fished with lugworms or pile worms whatever they’re called. Not to be outdone by an invertebrate, I then commenced two hours of depositing my gear on the rocks. I broke off 6 rigs and lost a kastmaster and a jig head with a paddle tail before I got pi$$ed off enough that I left the beach and went grocery shopping which was actually more fun. At least I didn’t catch any fish. In retrospect, I should’ve wadded up a $20 and threw it in the drink. Haha, I did enjoy the fresh air though. My Sundays normally bring me to IB anyway, so I’ve been fishing down there quite a bit. I should’ve hit up a spot on one of the bays. The conditions at the ocean weren’t the best down south. Pretty mixed up and much more chop than I normally like to fish. A 1oz pyramid sinker was not enough to keep a rig pegged, and that’s about my limit for this type of fishing. Looks like some other guys had a much better day than me, so I’ll chalk it up as ‘one of those days’. Haha.
Oh yeah, blood worms will bite you hard, damn things. Chunk of shrimp is still my go to. Cheap and it works, not as good as ghosts or BW, arguably, but it does work. When I am fishing really snaggy stuff, I use this rig, usually with a piece of steel at the end to reduce snagging even more. https://youtu.be/6WxUZYT-W2M
I’ve never been bitten, but I always wondered about those damn things.. Looks like an uncircumcised ding ding with spikes that unfold out of nowhere to latch on. Ya.. Real nice ! Lol.
Where 'd you buy the lugz? are they the shoreline brand? Haven't gotten my fix since Bluewater shutdown
I think you beat me Jonah, I have had my boat in the shop for over a month with a rebuilt outdrive on one of my twin 55's and I drove it down on Sunday to Dana only to have the starter solenoid be bad in the motor they didn't work on! ARGHHH but I didn't get bit by a worm.
I hate being bit by bait.. especially worms. Gives me the heeby jeebies lol. At least you got some fresh air. Was the tide high or low, and did you see any new structure since the storm?
I got there about an hour after the tide swing. tide was going out at a pretty good clip. As far as structure goes, everything was so churned up, it was hard to tell. The wave faces on the outside were sometimes overhead, looked to be 6-7 feet at the big sets. Calmed down enough inside the outer sand bar to give fishing a shot, but it was pretty ugly. Looking at the surf report for the rest of the week, there’s going to be plenty more water movement so maybe later this weekend can get out for a better assessment. Edit: I left about 2 hours before low tide. I will say this - MUCH sand has been removed from IB all the way up to the retaining bulkheads at the houses. The base of the jetty used to have a nice sand pack for about 40-50 feet, but that’s almost completely exposed now. Once the surf lays down for a few days, I can see how fishing could be really good.
I grew up surfing IB, that sand disappears every winter and the cobble rocks below start to show sometimes. It builds back up again in the summer. Might want to try the protected Jetty areas to the North of the pier since they are protected a little bit more.
