A fisherman's platter.

Thanks to the full moon, the tides were perfect this week. Full just after dusk and dawn, my favorite fishing times. The weather was not great, windy out of the NE - E on Sunday and Monday, but by Tuesday they died down and the surf was flat.

So what's this about a Fisherman's platter? Well I caught a little of everything. First it was whiting, I always have one rig out for this the most reliable of beach catches. A couple were on the small side, but soon I was throwing these back having caught enough for supper.

Then a couple of nice hits on my bluefish rig. I like to catch these little fighters, they jump out of the waves like a ladyfish, and are pretty good in the pan if you eat them fresh (I mean within 24 hours of them leaving the sea).

And last but not least, a surprise on the whiting rig, a Florida pompano. This great eating fish is a great fighter too, keeping the characteristic of it's realative the jack!

So quite a good week on the beach, see you all next time! Remember, if you are not going to eat it today, throw it back for the next time.

Lots of bluefish, but a little smaller.

This week the tide is not good for my favorite fishing times, dusk and dawn. We are running down to lowtide around 10, so both the morning and the eveniong were a little iffy. However, the bluefish were there, although one needed a pretty good cast to get out to them. The schools were mainly 12"-13" but I got one at 15", and that was a good fight. But even the small ones are fun.

The tide starts to get better on the weekend, so we will be back then!!

The Whiting were big and bountiful!

Last night high tide was around 10pm, it got dark just before 9. I started fishing at about 7 wanting to catch the rising tide. And it was great.

I had walked the beach at low tide, noting that the sandbar was pretty well unbroken over much of the beach I normally work, so I chose a spot where the slough was at its widest and the sandbar looked a little deeper. I was fishing with frozen shrimp and had two rods out, one rigged for bluefish, the other whiting,

The hits started about an hour after I arrived, and the first catch was a beautiful large fish. Others later were a little smaller, but the average was bigger than normal. Interspersed was a nice 20" bonnet head shark which gave a grand fight, and a small sailcat.

I had caught enough by nine, so I left before the full tide, but even so I had been pushed to the top of the beach by the tide and the large rollers left over from our recent stormy weather.

While on the subject, the other day walking behind the RV park I noticed a pile of fish dumped in the trees. Good eating sized whiting. I dont understand. If everyone just kept enough fish for their own immediate use, and either stopped fishing, or released the rest, the stocks would improve on their own and we would not need regulation. To waste fish like that was criminal!