Sunday, December 31, 2017

Happy New Year

The boat went out on marathon wreck trip yesterday. With the temperature in the low teens and snow in the forecast, I politely declined. The snow started about 8am and didn't let up until the afternoon. They made their first drop 35 miles offshore and worked back in to 15 miles, covering various depths. Dogfish made things difficult and the only place to get away from them was in the deep, were some nice ling came aboard. This morning the woods looked like a winter wonderland and it was 12 degrees when we headed to the bakery at 7am. Some guys were fishing at the power plant when we went by. All the lagoons and canals have ice on them, but the bay is still clear. We saw the usual ducks, some Tundra swans and a young male northern harrier hunting over the marsh.

Friday, December 22, 2017

Winter Fishing

We tried a trip out to the mudhole wrecks, looking for some Christmas treats. Lots of dogfish were encountered, and we had to pick through the short sea bass to get a handful of keepers, some ling and a few jumbo porgies. The sunrise was spectacular and the dolphin show on the way home was as good as it gets with many of them riding the bow and jumping around the boat. At day break, we saw some birds working tight to the water on what looked like bluefin tuna. The inshore boats reported lots of striped bass. We will sail as long as the weather holds out and will run open boat blackfish trips every Friday in January, fishing deep wrecks in search of trophies. Over the last few years many super jumbos were landed on these trips, like Capt Howard's 20lber.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Winter and Flounder, Snow and Snowy Owls

We set up for flounder fishing Monday morning, and had to put some time in to get our limits. We headed to the beach after that, with the intentions of some bass fishing. The tide was very low and a change of plans was made to do some exploring. On a hunch, I checked out a spot and found our first Snowy owl of the winter on top of a dune about 300 feet away. Tuesday, the plan was to grab the flounders right away and get to the beach while there was still some tide. Well, you know how that goes, Evelyn had a limit and I only had one bite in three hours and lost that jumbo lifting it over the wall. When we got to the beach, the west wind had the water blown out but I tried some spots anyway and had one bump on a lure. The birds were working about 3/4 of a mile of the beach in a beautiful flat calm ocean. We explored some trails and dunes, and did not find much of interest, except some snow geese on the bay. The snowy moved to higher dunes to the south to escape a group of bird watchers. Fresh flounder fillets make some nice dinner and we put away a pack for Christmas Eve.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Snow and Cold

Not much to report this week. Capt. Steve fished in the snow on the weekend and made a catch of blackfish before the weather got too bad. The cold temperatures this week kept us from fishing, but yesterday I got a call from "Hippy" Paul to meet him down at the bay. The blow out tide from the strong NW wind made perfect conditions for clamming and he was already out in the bay. We picked a few dozen from his basket for a nice treat. The temperatures are forecast to be near fifty next week, so we may look to see if the flounder are still around.

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Keep On Fishin'

 I got to play deckhand on Thursday, as Tim was down with a cold. It's that time of year, and seems to be going around. Anyway, off we went with a really cool group of anglers, in search of the elusive blackfish. For whatever reason, the blackfish bite has been off this season. I think it comes down to the daily "conditions" as there always seems to be too much wind or a funny current, wind and tide in different directions, things just not coming together. We started the day with a beautiful flat calm sea, but soon the wind cut loose, and a funky roll developed with the current. And the fishing got funky as well. Plenty of bites, lots of shorts, but the big ones would not take hold and we only had a handful of keepers for the day. We even had some porgies and a fluke. With the threat of a snow storm on the horizon, I figured we should try once more for flounders. Tim was back aboard the Skylarker with Capt. Steve, and they headed out with a good gang. Evelyn and I stayed on the dock, and it only took 15 minuets to limit. The flounders were of a bigger size too, what we used to call "shoalies" and I landed seven (including a double header) and Evelyn had two and a 22 inch striped bass. We took our limit and headed home with some for a few fish dinners. The boat called in the afternoon and they were coming in with the best catch of the season. Some limits were boxed and the fish ran up to 8lbs. It was just an all around biting day.

Monday, December 4, 2017

What A Day!

Weather was forecast to be nice, so we got an early start on the flounders. Good thing too, as they seemed to bite right away and as the current started to run they shut down. I landed three and Evelyn had two and then we headed to the beach and had lunch. When we got home the temperature was over fifty degrees (it was thirty when we left this morning) so we headed to the woods. The pickerel were hungry and I landed six and raised many more on a topwater. Salt and sweet in the same day. Cool.

Friday, December 1, 2017

Something Different

This morning we were up early as usual and decided to try for winter flounder. A quick stop in the tackle shop for some $10 per dozen sand worms and we were on our way. Evelyn landed one immediately and over the next hour and a half, I threw seven on the dock. Guess what's for dinner tonight?