Shelter Island 7-16-06

[Robert]

Drew and I rolled into the parking lot at Shelter Island a little before 5:30 A.M.
we saw a bunch of lightening on the way down. It was striking all over the bay
when we got there. No way were we going to launch. It was just too dangerous.
We sat in the truck watching the show. It was awesome! The lightening struck North Island half a dozen times. Point Loma got his several times too! This guy was on the beach with his kayak rigged up and ready to go. Then the brainless idiot launches right in the middle of this electrical storm! He had 2 rods in rodholders right behind his seat about a foot from his head and he paddled straight out into the channel! Not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, that's for sure! Luckily he didn't get struck. It started to rain. Then Jackie and Bob got there a Little before 6:00. We waited till about 6:15. By then the lightening had stopped and the rain let up. We headed down to the Bali Hai shoal.



It was nice out today. Water was in the mid 70's. Very calm early on. We got into fish right away.



Jackie was catching some nice ones right off the bat!



I caught this little croaker. I think it is a China croaker. Not sure.



A little while later some big ones showed up.



The wind stated to pick up around 9:00 We were still catching fish, but it was a lot of work paddling back to the spot where we would start our drifts.
The wind really picked up now. We headed over inside the spotboat basin to try and find some shelter. The bite was pretty much dead by 10:30. We called it a day and paddled back in. The wind was coming out of the West at what seemed like 20 mph right in our faces as we made it back to the launch. It was a tough paddle, but we made it. We stopped of at Point Loma
Seafoods afterwards. It was a great morning on the water. Not sure of my fish count. Somewhere in the mid 20's on the bass with a yfc and that one other croaker. All fish released. Drew, Jackie, and Bob, it was a lot of fun fishing and hanging out with you guys! Let's do it again soon!

Robert

[Beachem]

Robert,

The light show we all watched before launching was pretty amazing. Pretty gutsy of the guy that launched during the rain and lightning, not sure it that was gutsy or stupidity?

Great fishing with you and Drew today. Jackie & I had a blast!

BC