Bug Hunting - A Tale of Two Philosophies (11/23)

[Latimeria]

I really love picking up new tips and tricks when i fish on someone else's boat.  I don't usually go on other people's boats because generally they scare the crap out of me... but there's a few that are tied into the scene.

I've been dialing in my hooping over the past 10 years and really getting it fine tuned from the older days where I was just chucking out a hoop near the jetty.  I've been looking at tides, moon phases, current speed & direction, swell, bait, time of season...etc.  Really looking at it like fishing and not just dropping on hunches.  I know the " hunches" pan out well too, but it at least keeps my mind active and improving.

Well, the guys I went with tonight are really skilled fishermen and are deeply personally connected with the commercial and sport boat fleets (buddy's and grew up with them all).  I have to say that letting them roll with their way of doing things left me perplexed.  Some of the reasoning did not line up with what I've seen or what I thought was even possible like:  When the swell and current is up, the bugs all move into deeper water.  Personally, I can't imagine the bugs wanting to all walk in ripping current hundreds and hundreds of yards in a strong current just because of the swell? I would think that the lobster would just hunker down in place and maybe the deeper water bugs would be more active because of possibly less current.

In any case, they liked the current for bugs and I was the opposite.  I like the end of a current to bring the scent trail and then at slack, the bugs can follow the trail up to your nets.  It's been a pretty proven thing on my boat but I'm only a passenger on someone else's.

Well, the swell was way bigger than expected.  I definitely was perplexed with their philosophy on dropping nets and even the net configuration, but they have been doing it for 60 years out here so who am I to say?

We netted about a dozen on the first set along with an eel.  No legals, but not looking really good.



The swell was driving the nets in and dragging them along the bottom.  The nets definitely needed to be weighted.  I also saw some serious frays in the line that they weren't too worried about which later proved terminal to two lost hoops.

Besides that, the sea lice were terrible!



We lost two more to the big swells dragging the nets a hundred yads into the surf zone.  Not a good night... then we were running to the barn and licking our wounds when we decided to make a last minute drop in the inlet.  I pressed them that the tide was right for how I like to bug and with the slowing tide that was topping out, it might be good.  We also had some of the freshest BFT bait available he got off his buddy that morning from the processor, so it was time to use it.

Well, the first set and we got 3 legals along with 20 shorts.



Next set and we got 6 legals with 40 shorts!



We wanted to drop again, but it was late as hell and we did end up with 3 bugs a piece along with a real doozy of a bug so it was a bottom of the 9th hit!

I was stoked that my philosophy of bug hunting worked to save the day, but they chalked it up to their persistent style that got them.  Hey, I'm definitely not a lifelong bug hunter, and I won't argue with anyone's style of fishing... but I'm glad to know my data driven science did not fail us tonight.  LOL



until the next bug hunt!