8/22 Saw Some Things..

Walked out to the west wall again this afternoon. Since the weather has turned to the slightly more seasonable lately its motivated me to get some shore fishing in. I didn't catch anything great today but I didn't get skunked, and saw some pretty interesting southern visitors.

I fished my way all the way to the end of the wall with nothing really to show, but in years past I tend to see the first albies of the season out towards the end, and often out of range, so with nothing to see in close I decided to keep walking. Few guys out there fishing for blackfish, and I saw one catch a nice triggerfish! First Trigger Ive seen this year, I snapped a pic as the angler was about to unhook it, but these guys didn't catch anything else noteworthy in the time I was out there. I didn't get anything noteworthy either, and started working my way back from the tip. Around 3pm I saw a few fish pop up tight to the rocks that looked like Albies! They weren't in my casting range, and after that 10 second pop, they never showed again. They may have been Bonito, but they were large pops and slashes that really looked like Als. Small pod, never to be seen again. I did end up catching another nice Bluefish around 10lbs, and one smaller around 5lbs, both after I eventually switched to the Xrap.

As I got closer to shore I saw a school of small fish swimming the rocks, and not knowing what they were, had to snag one to see.. Big School of what looked like Jack Cravelles! I don't know for sure if they were Jack Cravelles or what but some kind of Jack. Aside from that, it was a typical slow late summer day at the Wall, thankfully the Blues are around to keep the skunk away, years past I would generally just catch nothing on days like today, or some small junk fish like short Seabass, Porgy and Searobins if you jig the bottom, which I did a bit, and caught all of the above.

Bonito continue to make their rounds in all the local shore areas but they come and go, and lately when I've been out they've generally been no where to be seen. Also pictured is another baitfish that Im unfamiliar with, looks like some kind of Scad? I do not know, but there was a nice sized school of those swimming along the west wall too.