Chum 101
- Thread starter IHFISH
- Start date
Fished a couple of beaches this morning with @jasmillo, first one was slow, not enough fish around. @Stonedfish dropped by to give a good morning wave from shore as he was on his way to juicier water I'm sure 
More fish on the second beach, foul hooked one on the dorsal. Shortly after, a hen ate it right on the corner of her mouth and gave a good fight on the 8wt.
More fish on the second beach, foul hooked one on the dorsal. Shortly after, a hen ate it right on the corner of her mouth and gave a good fight on the 8wt.
If chum are around I use an 8 weight. When hooked in the mouth, most chum could probably be handled fine on a 7 weight. Foul hooked fish would be a nightmare on a 6. I foul hooked a fish today lifting my fly to cast and the damn thing took me further into my backing than most of the tuna I caught this year
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Another very solid outing fishing chum today. Lots of fished hooked once the pods congregated and the fish were around in numbers. The last few trips I’ve lengthened my leader and have been able to put smaller, unweighted flies in or very close to big pods without spooking them. Slows strips letting the fly hover in the water column led to a bunch of fair hooked fish today, including two that swallowed the fly deep.
A couple of specimens from today…
A couple of specimens from today…
Pink Nighty
Legend
Serious paddle right there!
mtskibum16
Life of the Party
@jasmillo over the years I've concluded it is in fact a numbers game. I've never or very rarely had hot fishing unless there are big numbers of fish pushing in. The scattered small groups are pretty much always inconsistent. It's when they start showing up in waves of fish that it gets really fun as you noted.
Yeah, seems to be the only consistent thing I’ve found with estuary chum fishing. Some days it is very good with just small pods, some days you cannot buy a bite. Large congregations of fish are consistently good. Not sure if it is more fish = more bites or more fish congregated together makes them more aggressive/territorial? Whatever the cause, it nearly always results in solid fishing.
That’s assuming there are not 40 fisherman ass hooking fish out of the pod you are fishing with every other cast. That almost always kills the bite.