Nasty ocean yesterday (but great fishing none the less!)

[STRIPER LOU]

 The wind was honkin yesterday morning! A bit unnerving having a few come over the bow in the dark. First thought, what the hell am I doing here? Oh ya, its a good tide ........... Stupid!!!!

Tough trolling but managed a couple of nice ones on the big plugs right off the bat. Between the wind and the tide I thought they were bigger but both around 25lbs. Sun started to come up and I switched to the slope head swimmer. I finally retired the old one after (over 130 fish) to the winter rebuild pile. Last year I moved the weights on this plug about 1/8 of and inch. It had been working well but thought I might make it better. Its been a grand slam so far this year with fish caught on this configuration every single outing! Total for the morning was 6 bass to 35lbs and 9 blues of various sizes. The second picture shows a bass that had the most severe disfigurement I have ever seen. This guy had an offset in his backbone that had to be at least 4 inches. Looked really weird when bringing him boatside.
  All fish returned except for this one. Back to the doc fairly early and don't ya know it died down about an hour later!!!!!! I have a feeling its going to be a quick fall. The water temps dropped almost 4 degrees in a week. We'll have to see what happens.
....................Lou

[Shark Hunter]

You have had a good run this season Lou.
Thanks for taking us along again.

[Steve-O]

Way to go, Lou! Glad to hear your enthusiasm for a good tide bested your common sense to stay at home and sleep in, despite the weather.

[Dominick]

Good for you Lou.  What did you do with the gimpy fish?  Dominick

[STRIPER LOU]

Dom, gimpy has been eaten. The meat looked fine, no parasites or anything and the Mrs. and I are still standing straight, so hopefully all is OK. If we start looking bent over I'll know my decision to eat the old girl wasn't a good one!!!!! Didn't look like she was going to make it and didn't want to waste it so off to the barbecue grill it went. 

[thorhammer]

Lou, nice work! We do a lot of reel talk here but i appreciate how you break down the particulars on your lure sets. Keep the reports coming!