Quiet Waters

Thick forests of Black Pine creep ever so close to the oceans edge where nature is stunted by harsh salt encrusted winds eroding them over wind swept dunes like mini bonsai trees. My parents property is a stone throw away from a salt water canal that runs through this small east coast maritime town like its lifeblood. All you have to do is walk out the side door and and a few footsteps away lies several private properties and neighbors docks to fish from. 

This town doesn't receive the heavy pressure of surf crazed striper fishermen. You can really get lost in pitch black nights hunting for bass as they tail slap and boil up along the banks of this canals fast moving currents. The fish are not pressured here but there is so much bait fish in the water that the bass become ultra selective. Add on top that the window when they feed is time sensitive from 15 minutes before sunset to and hour after dark it makes this some of the most technically challenging fishing I have ever done. All night you can hear hundreds of bass slapping along the banks. You see a tail swirl and try casting blindly as close along the bank as you can without snagging a low lying bush. If you hook into a striped bass the fish actually has a huge advantage on you, the ripping current. They instinctively swim out deep into the middle of the canal and if your drag is too tight they pop you off and too loose you will get spooled. I must of lost five or six nice fish before I figured out the correct drag.  Here are a few compiled clips from my Summer 2014 trip.

.................................................................................................................................................................

.................................................................................................................................................................