One of my favorite clients Bill Y. told me on a trip this past August that he was just as happy to have the fast-paced action we were having that day as he was to have caught a big one the previous September trip.

When the time for the annual “Bill, Bill, Billy, and Art” trip came around in September, I wasn’t sure what we were going to find that day. The weather had been kicking up the waves and wasn’t going to allow the area I wanted to fish, to be fished “comfortably,” — we all know I’ll fish in some pretty rough conditions if the fishing justifies it. We set out running down the river to find birds working everywhere at the mouth of the river. We actually took a bit to load up on bait fish, as they were running all over only giving us brief moments of bailing them in the boat, and then having to get on them again. I knew there was a good chance we would need a lot of bait for our 6-hour long trip, so I made sure we’d have plenty — or at least I thought I did.

We headed to the oceanfront to one of my favorite spots, where I knew we would be protected from the waves and nothing seemed to be brewing there. After giving it a good 10 minutes, I decided to have the guys pull 3 lines while we trolled to the next spot. As we turned a corner, Bang, bang, bang! they all get hit and missed. I stopped the boat and we threw a new bait out. While I’m getting the next one ready, the new bait is already hooked up to a fish. I wasn’t sure if we’d stay in this spot yet, but as the fish was coming up to the net, a few hundred striped bass followed him right up to the boat. I hit the spot lock and the guys proceeded to go virtually nonstop, one after another until there was no bait left. Now, this left us in a predicament. We had a few hours to go until we were supposed to be in.

Do we go out and catch more bait, or do we call it a day? There’s always a chance by the time we get back the school has left the area. So, I let the guys decide and they were really happy with what we had done. Our wind-protected spot held up for hours of non-stop action and kept us from having to deal with the rough waves that were just around the corner. All in all, it was a very productive day regardless, so that was a wrap on another great late September trip with Bill, Bill, Billy, and Art.

Somewhere in all the mayhem, the fish pictured below managed to grab two baits like our previous “Two for One Special” from 2021. Absolutely amazing this fish managed to track down two mackerel before any of his competing schoolmates were able to. The fish was landed by Bill and Bill.