The wife and I hit Bulls Bay today, leaving out of Buck Hall. There were seven open parking spaces on a beautiful Wednesday so confidence was low. We entered the bay during low tide and headed to a spot on the far north end. We noticed no birds on the island or the shell-covered bank on the north end. There are always birds there, skimmers and oyster-catchers. Wife asked if the sonar was working since we didn’t see any indication of shrimp, anywhere. Went shallow and looked for shrimp in the prop wash. Nothing. Rather than go home we decided to go out farther. We headed
back south past the island then out towards the breakers to the huge flat. Even with today’s tide (1’ at low) it’s shallow. 2.5’. We anchored and waited for the tide to start moving. Wind measured at 6mph drifting up to 7 mph but into the tide. Wife tried a test cast without bait and came up with 6 nice shrimp. I was surprised. We generally anchor and one-pole, throw bait around the boat and enjoy the quiet day and wife doesn’t have to drive. Wind came up to 12 mph then increased to 15 (yes I take readings) so sitting still didn’t work. We had one licensed pole with us so we baited both sides and started throwing. We caught nice shrimp on every throw. Even with just the one pole we ended up with 1/4 cooler of large and jumbos. Threw back 3 mediums. No by-catch, no debris, no jellies just nice shrimp. Wife is getting more confident and didn’t dump me in the ocean so we’re bringing the set of poles next trip.
We both figured after the hurricane that this would be our final trip. Now we’re itching to get back out.
Don’t stay at home y’all, it’s on! I miss the days when the overflow lot was packed and everyone was bringing in decent coolers.
We were out there also, but didn’t have great luck. I took a friend that’s never been before. It was his first time throwing a cast net, and it was also his first time driving a boat. He caught on after a while and I think he really enjoyed the new experience (maybe not so much with mixing up the bait patties, lol) so I’ll call that a win even though we didn’t catch a lot! Today was the first time I’ve ever had an issue with the dolphins getting in the way like that though. I guess I’ve just been lucky in the past?
If that was you mid-bay with white poles, we saw you. And we saw flipper in your area. Luckily he didn’t bother us. It’s frustrating to see someone throw tacos on bait but we all had to start at some point. Throwing the net in my yard was nothing like trying to load and throw off of a boat bobbing in the waves and wind. Good luck next outing.
When I was showing my wife how to throw the net, I put a red solo cup in the yard to give her a “target” and had her stand on our porch for a little height. You always have a destination target when on the water, practice that way at home, too. Helped her confidence immensely while on the boat.
Yeah that was us in the red boat. We stuck around through the incoming tide and no matter where we went the dolphins, followed. Are they going after the shrimp, or the fish meal itself? We could sit for an hour and not see one at all, but as soon as the motor was running, they would appear.
I realized that I didn’t answer your question. I believe dolphin are going after the clump of shrimp and other prey that are feeding on the bait balls. Dolphin are so powerful that they’ll knock the bait ball off your spot so what they are eating is irrelevant since you need to re-bait.
