Friday, January 29, 2016

Snowstorm

The weekend snow was a pain in the a** to say the least with over two feet in some places. But we are lucky it occurred in an El Nino winter. If a storm like this happened over the last two winters, we would be dealing with snow on the ground until April, like Boston did last year. Mild temperatures are making it melt fast and 50 degrees are forecast for next week. Hmm, maybe a cod trip in the future?

Friday, January 22, 2016

A Sign of the Times

The reporter on Eyewitness news is standing in front of the boats in Sheepshead Bay telling everyone how bad the weather is going to be tomorrow. The boats are dark and no one is around. A few short years ago, there would be a bustle of activity as most of the boats would be shaping up to sail on a fishable winter day. An approaching storm usually means a "calm before the storm" and the fish would feed heavily as the barometer drops, resulting in big catches. Years of poor fisheries management  and over bearing regulations have destroyed an industry that I have grown up in and devoted my life's work to. The never ending hype by the media has also helped to shape a generation that is afraid to go outside and would rather walk around with their head down, staring into a phone, acting like it has never snowed before.

Saturday, January 16, 2016

A Winter Fishing Trip

We sailed yesterday with Capt. Steve on the new Skylarker. I can't say enough about the boat. It has to be the nicest charter boat on the coast, big clean and fast. It only took us an hour to get out to the cod grounds. There was no wind and a light swell when we arrived and made it hard to anchor. Around mid-morning the wind piped up to about fifteen knots from the SE and the cod started biting. Capt. Bubba from the statue ferry was high hook with six nice cod. I had three keepers and a short. Mark D. had some cod,  a blackfish, a ling , some sea bass and lost a big cod of about 20lbs. at the gaff. Tom the sinker man from Atlantic Highlands had the biggest cod, a solid 25 lber. Some of the other anglers did not do as well but everyone went home with a bag of fillets. We may get to go one more time before Capt. Steve stops sailing for the winter.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Winter Weather and Fishing

A coastal storm is predicted to pass offshore on Saturday. The forecast has varied wildly from light west winds of 5 knots to howling calamity of NE gales and 20 foot seas. Being that the weather idiots have no clue, we have decided to cancel our trip and reschedule on a nicer day.

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Big Ship

One of the new container ships just came into the harbor today on it's maiden voyage. The ACL "Atlantic Star" is 971 feet long and holds 3800 containers AND 1300 vehicles. This thing is so big it took five minutes just to go under the bridge. It's time to get out of here.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Winter Fishing

So far, this winter there are still stripers and blues along the beach and I even heard of a couple of fluke that were caught on blackfish rigs. We can only hope the mild weather continues like it did in 2012 when we caught ling all winter. Happy New Year.