Night of the Living Dinks

[mwatson71]

I launched around 10p at Sea Isle, about 2 hours later than I planned. Life gets in the way of fishing sometimes, but at least I still got to go fishing. I had an extra 91 lbs on the stern as my 12 yr old decided last minute that he wanted to go and, as I was already behind schedule, I decided not to load his yak and would just throw him on mine. Paddling the T160 was still pretty easy once under way. It took a little more effort to get started but once moving it was fine. He hit the first underwater light coming out of the marina and picked up a 14.5” speck on his first cast. Another cast and a dink 10” speck. One more cast came up empty so I paddled on.

I soon realized I was basically going to be his transportation for this trip. He confirmed this when we reached the first overhead light in the bay by saying “Can you turn a little more to the left? I can’t cast at this angle.” A first cast, another dink. He was throwing a 2” swim shad. While he was casting, I tied on a Yo-zuri 3D minnow. Second cast on the Yo-zuri landed a small speck. This continued for a few more minutes before I switched to a 4” sand eel in glow/chartreuse to try to pick up something of size. A couple of hits but no takers.

We moved on to the far west end where there were two large overhead lights. He kept throwing his 2” shad and getting hit every cast. Mostly small specks with a few decent sized sand trout, all released. I spent most of my time keeping him in line with his targeted area so he could more easily cast to his spot. School starts next week so this is one of our last summer outings so I wanted to make sure he had a good time.

We ended the night with a keeper speck and a couple of flounder, all consumed at dinner last night. The question came up which fish do I like better. My response was to me it is like comparing a NY strip to a ribeye. Depends in the mood I am in. So fellow anglers, which fish do you prefer on your table?

[Ron Mc]

good title, a 16" spec fillet is the best the coast has to offer next to flounder, and since every thread needs a photo

[TexasJim]

When I have trip like that, and other anglers ask, "How'd you do?", I tell them I went to Subway, Home of the Foot-Long!
TexasJim

[YakRunabout]

Nice outing - thanks for the report -
Maybe many were small but you had some action, took some home and have some memories to keep -

Fish I prefer - I guess that would be the ones I have caught!
No preference for eating from the main 3. I prefer trout for filleting cause they are so easy!

I like to catch all 3, but when you hook into a nice redfish you know you have something else on the line - especially if it has been dinks all night!

[Dandydon]

My tip of the hat to Watson for paddling his son around all night and still managing to catch fish.
Sounds like the legal ones were scarce!

The normal Plastic Navy crew all went last night except for me, so my thrills must be vicarious! My last Kung Fu session resulted in a sprained ankle, my fault for taking on two opponents at once, each less than half my age and about 230 lbs. Despite my injury, they both cried "Uncle."
As for ranking fish fare, my local order starts w/ Red Snapper & Grouper (both deep-water), then it's that 16" trout, followed closely by flounder, then redfish.
Thanks for the great report, and thanks to Ron for a super green-light photo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ron Mc]

my ex-wife wouldn't eat snapper, not even out of the ice water - I'll save my photo of a trip out of Port O in a 25' cuddy, when we returned with a board-full plus one samsonite-sized red snapper. We ran out of bait and I was catching blues on my fly rod for cut bait, which improved our snapper catch rate.
DD, I was worried my daughter might have been one of your opponents, until you said they cried uncle.

[Dandydon]

Ha ha, Ron Mc! I've already heard what a General Bad-Ass she is and wouldn't want to tangle with her.

Sad to report no females in my Dojo. The only women I deign to strike are the kinky ones who seem to enjoy it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[karstopo]

Dinks don’t stink, not if your kiddo is having fun.

The tastiest of the bunch, IDK, I like them all, at least trout, flounder and redfish.

[Ron Mc]

It's actually easy to compare a NY strip to a ribeye - the ribeye can never dry out when you cook it.
Leave the freaking sirloin on the tri-tip and slow-smoke the whole thing.
In the case of fish, it's always the fish with the Least taste and the finest texture and flake that wins - flounder.

It's kind of a shame to kill redfish for their food value (unless you're hungry), their value is that they fight with shoulders.
It's a total shame to kill big sow trout - everything about them is the highest level of inshore sport.

[TroutSupport.com]

Light Fishing is fun... but it's rare to kill it with solids. It's almost always dinks. Even then if I'm staying at a place with lights I won't pass up making a few casts. Bigger fish (17") will hang around edges and shadows and sometimes on the bottom.

Actually, there was one eight pound trout I couldn't revive and it was quite tasty. I don't condone this activity but it didn't go to waste.

[impulse]

Dinks don’t stink, not if your kiddo is having fun.

So true. I think a lot of us old guys get more hung up on size than the youngsters, whose attention span hasn't been pounded in place over years of reality.

When the kids come over and we fish the lights out back, they keep track of numbers. And even piggy perch count in their contest. Sure, it's great to get a photo of one of them with a big one. But catching a bunch of dinks holds their interest better than that occasional whopper.

[shoffer]

I was there and saw it all. I probably hooked and landed 40 dinks that night also, except one 15 incher that I let go because I did not see the point of keeping one little fish. All of mine were caught on the Lele, Yozuri 3DS Minnow in 2.75 inch size, and a DSL glo in 4 inch on a 1/8 oz head. No photos, Ron, because not much worth seeing, other than Watson being an excellent Pop and enjoying his son's excitement over catching fish.

[Ron Mc]

absolutely, your kids catching fish is more fun than you doing it - learned that from my dad long ago, bro.
Tobin and bigger fish - over a similar green light in the same canal in my first photo (across and 3 doors in), I've sight-fished 22" and 23" specs using XUL tackle (4-lb) and 2" shad to match the bait size - it was also in August.

[kickingback]

I was there as well. I caught one dink in a light and went to find flounder. Got two and then went back to the lights and caught a keeper spec. The only one for the night. Great report Watson! Had fun with you guys again!