Fishing Report - Flagler Beach Surf 7-28-11
July 28, 2011
Weather: partly cloudy
Wind : light winds
Water had a light chop with a 3-4’ swell
The pogies have shown up in force at Flagler Beach, finally. I got a call from my electrician friend, Rick Edwards Wednesday…..”Larry, you need to be over here, you ain’t gona believe the bait pods, they stretch as far as you can see”.
...................................... Just a little corner of the pod trying to get around me.
I took a ride over to do a little recon about noon. It was overcast and there was a light chop on the water that made seeing the bait difficult. I pulled over to do some glassing and could hardly believe my eyes! The bait school was from the back of the breakers, 200-300 yds wide and I could not see the end of them with my 10x32 Nikon’s! U n b e l i e v a b l e! I have never seen them in such mass. The one thing that was missing was any striking action in them. There was not much to be seen but I figured there had to be some fish under them.
That was all I needed to see! I had a meeting scheduled for Thursday morning at 9:30 but I made a plan to launch as soon as I got thru with it. Another friend that I fish with regularly, Len Parker was supposed to meet me at the beach after the meeting but poor planning side lined him. It’s not the best idea to fish like this alone but the wheels were already set in motion and there was no turning back.
I scouted the beach from South 26th street all the way to Beverly beach. The largest school was about N. 15TH Street. I got all the gear down to the beach and readied for my first surf launch for the in two years. Last year the pogies were just no where to be found. The launch went good but as usual I took a good one right in my lap that swamped the boat. The scuppers relieved it quickly and I kept paddling until I was clear of the ruff stuff.
I paddled right into the middle of the pod and made a cast to snag a pogie. The bait was shoulder to shoulder from the surface down 3-4’. They were so thick I did not even need a treble hook to snag one. Matter of fact, you could snag one with one rip of the rod on every cast.
There was some decent tarpon action but I could not get one to find the pogie with the hook in it among the millions of free swimmers. I did not manage to catch a fish and only ended up with one bite that cut my bait in two just behind the hook. I saw 30-40 tarpon strikes all together and had one strike so close to me I could have touched it....I had pogies and water blown all into the boat! I came close to walking on water! I promise you that will get your attention.
It was getting late and I had not seen any striking action for a while so I called off the hunt with the idea of a return trip in the morning.
Being in the middle of one of these huge bait pods is like nothing you’ve experienced! You would be surprised just how much noise they make with all the flipping and jumping. It’s a constant clatter that almost sounds like chirping. The hole time their flipping water on you. It’s quite a site to see.
The bait is slowly moving south and it is a little late in the year so there is no telling how long this will last. If you have any intention of going you better take advantage a.s.a.p.
Good Luck,
Larry
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