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Weak Nights

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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
by Frank Ruczynski

There are not many things I enjoy more than catching weakfish during the night tides. After many years of tough fishing, it's great to have the weakies back again! My nights have been filled with solid strikes, bent rods, lots of croaking/drumming and some awesome drag pulling, headshaking battles. This year's weakfish run continues to be one of my best seasons in close to a decade.


I love it when they talk to me!

Over the last few weeks, I've experienced a consistent bite that just seems to be getting better. The speckled beauties are showing up in good numbers and sizes in many of their old haunts. While I enjoy catching the spike weakfish this time of year, the bigger weakfish are a welcome unexpected bonus. Since September's full moon, schools of 20 to 26-inch weakfish have been mixed in with the spike weakfish. These fish filled in nicely as we transitioned from the recent closure of the summer flounder season to the beginning of the striped bass fall run. Weakfish anglers tend to keep to themselves more than most so I guess it's not surprising that even though weakfish reports are picking up, they aren't quite on par with what I'm experiencing on the water.

Vertebrate Fish Fisherman Recreation Fin

This 25-inch weakfish slammed a bubblegum-colored Zoom Super Fluke

Did you even wonder why most weakfish sharpies are so tight lipped? While most of us enjoy a little elbow space, it's mostly due to the fact that when the fishing action is good, weakfish are among the most predictable fish that swim in the ocean. This may sound pretentious, but I've spent twenty-five years chasing weakfish and I think I know where these fish will be before they do. It may be hard to believe, but I'd wager that ten years from now, I could set up on a particular rock, on a specific day, time, tide stage and not only catch weakfish, but probably predict the size within a few inches – however, the wager would have to be rather sizable for me to give up such a predictable location. It may come as a surprise to some, but when weakfish are around in good numbers, they are almost as predictable as the sun rising each morning.

Eye Jaw Sleeve Fish Feather

I'll never tell!

To break it down even more, weakfish not only tend to have seasonal habits, but they tend to feed on the same tide stage night after night. The old saying, "You could set your watch to the bite," couldn't be more true. High and low tides change about fifty minutes a day so if I had a good bite from 11 PM to 1 AM on an outgoing tide, chances are the next night the bite would take place from 11:50 PM to 1:50 AM. Lately, the fish seem to be most active during the last few hours of the outgoing tide, but each location has it's own windows of opportunity depending on bait, structure and current. Time spent learning weakfish habits will pay off for years to come.

Fish Fisherman Fishing Ray-finned fish Recreation

20 years later - same place, same tide, same bait, same result!

Unfortunately, it looks like my weakfish train might be coming to a screeching halt. The recent northeast wind and rain is a real bite killer. I think we could withstand a couple days of coastal flooding, but with constant 20 to 30-MPH NE winds combined with an influx of freshwater into our back bays, things aren't looking good in the near future. With talk of Hurricane Matthew working its way up the east coast early next week, things aren't looking great in the long-range forecast either. Events like these combined with tomorrow night's new moon have a way of flushing our back bays prematurely – say goodbye to the mullet!

Photograph White Blue Grey Staple food

Coastal storms and mullet runs seem to occur at the same time each year.

I don't give up easily so I'll be trying for weakfish as soon as the weather breaks. Weakfish seem to be a little more sensitive to weather and water conditions than most other fish so I'm hoping that Hurricane Matthew tracks east and heads out to open water or it could be a long two weeks. If the hurricane brings more coastal flooding and wind, it may take a while for our waters to clean up. If this scenario plays out, it will likely be time to switch from weakfish to striped bass.

In the meantime, it's probably a good time to get back to some sweetwater action. Our ponds and lakes should benefit from the heavy rain. Some of our local waters were as low as I've seen them in a long time. I've spent most of my free time chasing weakfish, but when I did stop at my local fishing holes, action seemed to be on the slow side – little largemouth bass and a few small pickerel. Hopefully, the cooler weather and extra water trigger some better action. I'm looking forward to spending October mornings and afternoons in my kayak chasing largemouth bass, crappie, pickerel, perch and rainbow trout.
 
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