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Sure, no problem. You did just make a good point I should address.
The bigger issue isn’t knowing what tackle to bring to <insert area> so much as it is to know the fundamental skill of achieving presentations to biting fish. This is the process:
1. find fish
2. show them the lure
If you can’t find fish, well then you’re not going to catch them, and if you can’t show them a lure, then how can they possibly bite it? You can be on the mother lode of trout in 30ft of fast moving water, but if they never see the lure then you will never get bit.
Those are the two things that hose people’s fishing trips, and thing #2 is what eludes most anglers. I don’t mean to come off as so critical or overbearing. That’s not my intent. My intent is to point out that if you had known how to get presentations then you would’ve known on the first cast that 3/8oz or 1/2oz isn’t cutting the mustard. You would’ve had the opportunity to correct the issue by either tying on something heavier or rigging something heavier (i.e. tying two 1/2oz jigheads together). I imagine you would’ve had a radically different trip if that were the case. Or maybe Breton Sound just sucks right now. lol
There are areas that I’ve never been to but have caught limits of trout because I understand this process. Whenever a boat in a spot is catching fish it’s usually because they’re getting presentations when the other boats are failing to do so. But people usually further F this up by chalking up their success to using live bait or Nuclear Baloney or whatever “secret” color they’re throwing. That’s rarely the case, if ever.
The most simple stupid way to get presentations is just to have a Heavy Drop Shot tied ready to go, with spares tied and stored in a ziploc bag. The HDS comes standard with a 1oz bank sinker. That will work in the Jump, Seabrook, all the places that tend to be tougher due to water depth and speed. It works there and it would certainly work in Breton Sound and (in the worst case scenario) taking the 1 oz bank sinker off and putting on a 2 oz is easy. It really succeeds where jigging begins to fail.
So if I were you I’d:
1. Knock out Inshore Fishing 101 (that way you learn the things you don’t know that you don’t know….since you’ve unwittingly told me that)
1a. Specifically, this video lesson about getting those good presentations. Learn the easy way how to know you go to the bottom.
2. Rig up some Heavy Drop Shots. Nuclear grade, doesn’t-matter-because-it’s-gonna-happen presentations.
3. Plan out future trips and let us know so we can fill in any details that are missing. “Last minute” trips usually fail. Yes, some people make those happen, but mostly because they’ve been out there a bunch and already have the aforementioned tackle/knowledge read to rock n roll.
4. Post that badass fishing report because you’re gonna slay ’em.
