2008 Fishing Reports

Aug 16th: Blues, Blues and More Blues

Bummer...  Still no sign of pelagics, and man, we've been looking hard.  Fortunately, there are good amounts of big bluefish, and fortunately they aren't offshore like they were last week.  And, we've been picking away at the bass along some structure, so really the fishing hasn't been terribly bad sans the lack of pelagic action.  The good news is there are crazy amounts of bait.  Schools of bay anchovies like you wouldn't believe out front and the usual seasonal dense concentrations of peanut bunker in the back.  Unfortunately, so far it's just been blues and the occasional bass on them.  The big bait concentrations really just happened this weekend.  So, it's only a matter of time before those false albacore and hopefully some bonito find them.  The pieces are definitely in place.  It's gonna blow up any day now.  That I'm sure of.  And the fall?  If this bait sticks around, I suspect it's gonna be a good one.  And we've still got some choice dates open for it, but they won't last.  So ping us soon.  And stay tuned. 

July 21 - Summer Patterns Set In

Indeed, time to admit the summer doldrums are upon us.  The bass, while still around, have been conspicuously hard to catch.  The good thing is that the bluefish are enormous.  We've had to run a ways offshore to get them. but we've been consistently catching bluefish north of 15-pounds, and some real bruisers approaching 20-pounds.  There are still bass to be caught in Jamaica Bay, but the water is very murky and the bass are small and finicky.  The flats behind Breezy Point which usually fish good this time of the year are offering no visibility at all, thus no sight-fishing.  Thank God for those bluefish!  Can't tell you how many we lost last week as they just bit us off, or swam us around structure.  Some real bruisers this year.   Wouldn't want to be swimming with these things.  Still no sign of pelagics, unless of course you were willing to run out 90-miles to the Canyon.  Still no "blue" water within striking distance, but we'll keep an eye on it.  No inshore pelagics to speak of either.  I do expect they will show up soon enough though.  Certainly by August, so stay tuned.   If you want a crack at some of these big blues though, do contact us.  We can totally put you on some of these acrobatic bruisers.  Still lots of availability for the fall run.  You know how to reach us.  

July 1 - Strange Things Afoot

You can deny it, knock it, call it a conspiracy by the alarmists, but it's a fact that the earth is warming.  And, well, while it certainly isn't a good thing, we've been enjoying the effects these last few days.  For the last week we've had big black drum in our little neck of the woods.  Usually an inhabitant of more southern climes, they aren't unheard of here, but they are indeed very rare.  Every other year or so, someone will catch one or two on clam-bellies.  But I have never heard of them in any substantial numbers.  Nor have I heard of great schools of them finning on the surface like permit.  But that's just what we've had here.  I imagine they won't stick around too long.  Hell, they might even be gone by now as fishing on the ocean side has been out of the question with the steady heave we've been getting from an offshore storm.  But wow were they cool when they were around.  I think Capt. David Azar hit the nail on the head when he said they looked like a herd of cattle.  These were big fish.  In the 60 to 70 pound range and they were eating plugs and soft plastics!  While the pics don't do them justice, it would take at least two of us to lift these things into the boat.  Cool shit!  And, did I mention that there are still plenty of bass around?  Lots of'em.  Mostly schoolies, but definitely a few bigger fish in the mix.  Water is getting warm and I expect we'll begin to see some pelagics soon.  If this year is anything like last year, we'll see those bonito any day now.  Stay tuned!

June 16 - Still go'n good

Man am I spent.  Been fishing real hard.  Up at 3:30AM every day and underway by 5.  But it's been good.  With the exception of a few down days where there wasn't much more than bluefish, the ocean side has been pretty darn good.  In fact, today was probably the best I've ever seen it!  I had to pick my clients up at the Inwood train station at 4:08AM so we were well underway in the dark at 4:30AM and at Breezy Point at 5:00AM sharp.  Epic Montauk-style bass-blitzes. Complete mayhem.  Man I wish I had brought the video camera.  It was sick!  There were butterfish, squid and some sort of weird bait that I've never seen before.  Turns out they were "king gar" or "needlefish" Scomberesox saurus. Pretty crazy...  These things were flying out of the water everywhere while bass and bluefish (both big and small) were going bonkers on them.  Huge boils...  Big bass flying out of the water.  Getting doubles on every 3rd of 4th cast.  Love that sht!  Inside there are fish also!  Small bass and larger bluefish have blitzing Atlantic silverside (aka spearing) with some frequency.  One would think it would begin to slow down with all this warm weather, but so far it's showing no signs.  Perhaps the most memorable day this week, however, was with the Bressmans.  These good folks have been steady clients for the last 6 years and always seem to bring good karma with them.   I almost canceled because of the threat of serious thunderstorms, but we managed to get out Saturday afternoon.  The wind subsided as soon as we got to Breezy Point and the ocean turned to glass.  The sun dropped and Michael Bressman proceeded to connect with a 34" fat bass which grabbed the fly right by the boat.  And, in a salute to Father's day a large pod of dolphin gave us a show...  Now dolphins are nothing new in my book, but when they show up as the sun gets low, and they roll on a windless smooth surface, it's pretty spectacular.  We were all awestruck.  Now, enough of the sappy stuff.  It's on!  Give us a ring or shoot us an email if ya wanna get out. 

June 9 - Hot, Hot, Hot

A lot has happened since May 27th (again again I apologize for the later update, but sometimes it's not easy to fit it all in).  Most notably, the huge rise in air and water temp.  The creeks have pretty much shut down due to a combination of major influx of large adult bunker and an increase in the water temp by a good 10-degrees.  As you may imagine though, you can still drop a livie down there at dawn and a big bass or bluefish will grab it right-quick.  At any rate, live-lining aside (and the live bait fishery has been quite good) there are plenty of big bluefish and a handful of schoolies in the back-bay willing to take a fly or plug.  All the bass action on fly/light tackle has moved to the outside.  Sure, we're burning more fuel to get there, but it's been worth it.  Keeper-sized bass have been blitzing fairly consistently on sand-eels and silversides.  Most fish are in the 28" range, but we've gotten a bunch over 30" and a few in the mid-30" range during the last week.  It dose tend to be a morning bite however.  I did see a few bass in the white-sand flats on the backside of Breezy Point over the weekend, but not in any numbers worth targeting yet.  As the sand-eels get into those white-sand flats, expect the sight-fishing to get good.  And this should happen soon.  Another thing we can look forward to is the potential of another great bonito run, like the one we had last year.  Keeping my fingers crossed on that.  Lots of openings over the summer months.  Shoot us an email if you'd like to get out.   

May 27th - Man this year is awesome!

Sorry for the late reporting this time around, but I've been fishing hard.  With the exception of a few "off-days" in-between the fishing has been sick!  I just can't believe we've had big bass consistently in shallow water like this.  There are still grass shrimp around in good numbers, herring are popping up as well and the bunker (while not as abundant as in prior years) are still around in pretty good concentrations.  Almost all the good fish this week were caught in the creeks with a handful under the bunker schools in open water.  There have also been some fairly good blitzes on spearing in the bays.  What's great about all of this is that we're catching fish just a stones throw from the marina.  Fortunately for us, we aren't burning too much gas...  Unfortunately, as the fish are bound to do with this warm weather, everything will eventually move outside.  And when that happens we'll be forced to charge a small fuel surcharge.  No other choice.  At any rate, I don't want to dwell on the negative.  The fishing has been just awesome this spring, and I'm really psyched about that!  Soon we should start getting better concentrations of sand-eels, and when that happens the sight-fishing game will be on, and that is super fun.  We've still got plenty of days open for that, so shoot us an email. 

May 16 - Despite the East Wind Things are Still Going Strong

Not the best weather this week.  I was okay with that as I had a wedding in CA I had to go to last weekend. Of course there was that sick satisfaction one gets from hearing most folks got blown out.  I was back underway on Wednesday though and it picked up right where I left off.  The grass shrimp hatches weren't readily apparent, but those larger stripers were most certainly there.  They seemed to be on some larger bait.  Something long and slender, perhaps herring.  But more importantly they were still in the shallow water, and there were still hammering poppers!  Without a doubt, my favorite way to fish.  Wednesday and Thursday fished great.  Couldn't ask for better days, with very little wind and plenty of stripers well north of 30".  There were also some mini-blitzes in deeper water on spearing, but these held 10 to one bluefish.  Today was a bit difficult with lots of east wind and sideways rain.  Still, we managed to catch a few good bass on poppers.  And speaking of bluefish, there were some real big ones mixed in with the bass on those mudflats.  Took a monster tossing a Slug-Go during a down-time tide change.  I have to say that the fishing this spring is the best it has been in the last 5 years. 

May 6 - The Best Grass-Shrimp Hatches in Years!

Wow!  I was gonna wait till Friday to do this report, but I just couldn't wait that long.  For the last 4 days grass-shrimp have been hatching thick at dawn and dusk, and the bass have been on them in a big way.  Too many fish north of 30" this week to count!  And if you know anything about a grass-shrimp hatch, you know that they happen in some very shallow mud-flats.  Thus, we're getting these fat spring fish to eat poppers in just a foot or two of water!  Based on the last four springs, the grass-shrimp hatch seemed to have been a thing of the past.  I had written the lack of substantial hatches off as a casualty of climate change, pollution or some other factor I had no control over.  But I stumbled over a big one on Saturday and we had fish in the mid 30" range on just about every drift.  Same thing on Sunday and the same thing today.  I can't F'n believe I have to leave this action for a wedding in California the weekend!  The nerve of folks getting married during peak fishing season!  So inconsiderate.  David and Danny have some dates available though.  Shoot us an email if you want to get out last minute.  It's good, but I don't know how long it will last. 

May 2 - Things improve

A load of fish in the back this week.  Plenty of double hook-ups and at times, the marks on the fish-finder were just ridiculous.  Saw the first of the season's grass-shrimp hatches on the mud-flats yesterday, but surprisingly, there were only small bluefish on them.  The bass are still deep and are on some sort of small bait that I'm marking, but have been unable to determine the species.  My guess is that they are spearing.  I'd think that it's just a matter of time before they figure out that those grass-shrimp are up in the mud-flats.  When that happens, we'll be banging fish on poppers in just a couple feet of water.  Maybe by the weekend.  Still a ton of bunker around.  The guys live-lining them are starting to see some fish north of 20-pounds.  What we're doing with light-spin-gear and fly-gear are mostly small fish, but we are getting some fish in the 28 to 32" range.  The size should only go up with each week.  Oh, I almost forgot...  There are large bluefish mixed in with the bass.  Boy are these things fun on a flyrod...  All-in-all, not a bad start to the season.  I'm optimistic that it's gonna be a good one. 

April 25 - Getting Bigger and Better

The fishing was pretty good this week.  Loads of schoolies around just like last week, but there are some bigger fish in the mix.  The amount of bunker in the back bay is extraordinary and the guys livelineing are scoring big.  Not much in the way of small-bait so far, which can make flyfishing somewhat difficult, but still we are finding good numbers on the fly and this will only continue to get better.  Without a doubt, this season has started much earlier than the last three...  And that's a good thing!

April 17 - It's on!

Splashed the boats last week, and it's really good to be back on the water.  For the last several days we've been into solid light-tackle/flyfishing for schoolie bass and even a few "keepers" in the mix.  The weather this weekend has been great and each day we are out, the size of the stripers seems to get incrementally larger.  The back bay is load with bunker, and while I haven't gotten a chance to drop a livie down, my guess is there are some pigs in the bay eating these big baits.  And it won't be long until they get active enough to eat a fly or soft-plastic.  Water temps are unusually high for this time of the year.  My guess is things are going to break open in a big way within the next week.  Stay tuned!