After my Stripercation ended I could think of nothing else than going back to the ocean fish for more fluke. So, on Father’s Day, I headed back to the ocean to fish. I also had the opportunity to do something that offers as much satisfaction as catching a fish - teaching someone else how to do it. In this case, I was teaching my niece how to catch fluke.
Several members of my family rented a cottage on the beach and just before sunrise I met up with my niece to begin our adventure. She had never caught a fish in the ocean and I was brimming with excitement to show her how to do it.
The marine forecast called for rain and thunder showers. Luck was with us and those showers missed us. We were blessed with an overcast skies, comfortable temperatures, and a pleasant breeze. The only condition that did not go our way was the current.
The river adjacent to our cottage dumps into the Atlantic ocean. This action combines with the tides to create unpredictable and fast currents. These currents made controlling our small boat difficult. I anchored outside the current on a big bend in the river with a sandy bottom.
We directed our casts toward the current and prayed to the fish gods. They had mercy on us. There seemed to be fish all around us. The bigger boats were able to get further up the river than normal thanks to the extremely high tide due to the full moon. They were landing quite a few stripers trolling in the current with surgical tube eel rings.
We settled into the rip fast water and dropped our lines in the water. In short order she scored her first fish of the day and her first ocean fish - a dog fish. I’d set her up with a seven-foot fast action inshore rod mated with a Stradic 4500 reel.
The reel was spooled with thirty-pound test braided line and an eighteen-inch twenty-pound test fluorocarbon leader. I tied on a one-ounce jig-head with a bare hook then baited with a strip of squid.
For my rig, I used my own creation. A pink shad body with a pink one-ounce jig-head ounce- both of which I designed and manufactured. I wanted to try a combination I’d seen. So, I tied on a leader of twenty-pound test fluorocarbon to the jig-head. Next, I connected to a three and half ounce pink and purple flake bass tube.
The tube would trail behind and flutter in the current. I figured this would be especially attractive to fluke when using a “stop and go” retrieve. To do that retrieve I would cast my line, let the presentation sink then slowly crank the handle one and a half times and then pause. When the jig falls to the bottom and plays dead the tube will continue to swim in the current giving the fluke a target to hit and the time to attack.
Meanwhile my niece scored again. Her second fish was a sea robin. I had forgotten how dangerous handling a sea robin can be. The fish flipped around and caught my hand with the spikes on his big bony head. I was bleeding everywhere. While I was dealing with the injury she caught a scup.
I could not get my line in the water. Every cast produced a fish for her. I had to net and unhook the fish, then rebait the hook.
Later, I was able to do some fishing too. As soon as I dropped my line in the water my combination worked. I reeled in a twenty-inch fluke that had swallowed the Texas rigged tube. As I lifted his head up to net him the tube popped out of his mouth and he was gone. The 1/0 hook fit the tube snuggly and kept the weeds off but the barb couldn’t get enough of the fish’s mouth to keep him on.
I should’ve used a 2/0 hook like my son suggested.
Now, I was on the fish as well. My second fluke hit the shad bodied jig and was a nice keeper for the cooler. Meanwhile my niece was filling the cooler with scup. She was also catching more fluke than me.
She was caching mostly small ones with the squid and jig combo. She caught one nice keeper and with that one we had enough for everyone at the cottages dinner.
When we returned to the cottage the family greeted her with the words that every uncle wants to hear. “You caught more fish than Uncle Jay.” I love it when the people (especially kids) I take fishing catch more than me. The excitement, the smiles, and laughter and the stories is what I fish for these days.
Guiding and teaching about fishing is one of the few things I can do and share with kids. I have caught lots of fish. I still want to catch fish and I still have fishing goals but there is no better fish in my boat than the ones my kids caught.