I went out in my brother's boat this evening in the Bay. We wanted to liveline menhaden and rode around looking for pogies to snag. We could not find any. Who knows where all that bait went that was so abundant in mid week. So, we ditched that plan and plugged with artificials instead. We found a shallow cove that had a good amount of fish. Some were whirling, while others were being spooked by our drifting boat. I began working a pink Hogy. I was getting follows and whirls but no real strikes. Sometimes a fish making a big wake would follow in back of the Hogy and turn away right at the boat. I tried varying the retrieve, moving it faster, moving it slower, giving it more rod action, but nothing seemed to get a fish to strike. I've seen this type of thing go on before and sometimes these fish never do turn on.
My brother was using a small swimmer with no success and all of a sudden, he hooks into a decent fish. The keeper bass was over 28 inches (see photo) but that was his only hit as fish continued to whirl around us. I switched to a white, 7 1/2 inch Slug Go, and the same follows and whirls continued until finally I was onto what I thought was a good fish. Darn, turns out to be a bluefish (see photo). I got the 5 lb. fish in, released it and and replaced my cut up Slug Go with a smaller six inch model, hoping to fool a striper. Same story.....lots of whirls and follows, but no takers. All of sudden, bang, I am onto a decent fish. Maybe a keeper? Nope, turns out to be a good size blue in the 7-8 lb. range. I got that fish in and released it. By now, it turned dark and all the activity ceased ending what was a very frustrating night.