Nov. 20th UPDATE

The last blow kept me away from the off shore action. hit the bass hard the last 3 days in ocean conditions that averaged six foot rollers. Many big bass, what November should be...had Rob out and tapped about 18 bass on the jig to 37 inches...very nice. Rob is having a good year, bluefin tuna, albies and nice stripers. Sandy Hook north to the Ambrose channel, there were huge bodies of fish moving through. The last blow from the east pushed a ton of sand eels inshore...they were piggin hard. All bass taken on jigs, they were stacked heavy on the bottom and mid water colume. The strike rate was fast and furious...would have 4 anglers hooking up simultanously!! some very good action. Will be focusing back on the tuna with better offshore condtitions the next 2 days. will have more to report...catch'em up...

Capt. Chris

Nov. 11th

The inshore bass action in most definitely in the "on/off" cycle...one body on bass and blues move in and its good for a two then it thins out. As the water temps continue to drop, the bigger bass will move through. They largest bass we landed are always in Nov/Dec.

Offshore, which is really very near inshore....know that the tuna have moved in closer, we were on em probably 5 to 10 miles off the beach. Has been impressive...Sunday/Monday and Tuesday we were chasing Bluefin  around any where from 40 to 150 pounds. Sunday and Monday were difficult, it looked like they were crashing on tinker macks and sand eels.
They would not hit ballyhoo way back, squid bars, cedars, jigs, bull plugs...you name it! I know that sluggos up north are very popular. So on the heavy tuna casting rods I set a weighted sluggo (13 inch with 4 oz. egg sinker)) and put a  blue and white bally skirt in front to cover the egg sinker, then a crip to keep it from sliding up and down as you cast. Both with weight or no weight are effective...weighted are just easier to cast cause, nothing worse than being 10 yards short on busting tuna! Had 2 decent maylays around the boat...first one was so close you could throw a fly at em,  but no hook up. Second maylay about 10 yards away...chucked the  the 13 inch sluggo, as soon as it landed, what looked like 2 80 pound class tuna crashed on it and missed...a third 80 zoned right in on it hard too. Fantastic animal !! had em on for a while, unfortuately, we lost it at the boat.... 70/80 class fish. Frustration in overdrive for a while after that, i think the term is PISSED!

Crap weather for a few days...swell upwards of 12/13 feet near off shore...hope it does not disturb what we have going on out there right know. I sure know where I will fishing the next 5 weeks! Any interest, I dates open after Thanksgiving...

Catch "em up...

Last Weeks of October

Capt. Chris
Dragged myself to write this report because I knew it had to be done... After the albies thinned out the weather became absurd, it washed out most weekends in Oct, making it almost impossible to look for the bass. Had a few good weekday blitzes,  usually on monday/tuesdays, when no one could get away from the office. Had one decent off shore run near the Ledge, counted about 35 boats on a Wednesday out there all jigging after a decent report that really was not backed by any photos (???), anywho, ran past all the  jiggers about 10 miles south east and found 63 degree water ran hit a  bunch of football bluefin tuna on the troll...not big, upwards of 33 inches but a good find...The most recent off shore run was yesterday with step swell in the AM, which flatttened out and found in the PM about 11 big marks down the  water colume about 50 to 100 feet...no hooks ups.

Running near off shore every timeweather allows! Let me know if you have interest!!

Capt. Chris


First Week of October

Missed a few days with the blow that came through and when I did get out there, it was bait by metric tonnage...everywhere. Managed do do well on schoolie bass upwards of 29 inches. Since the blow the Albie action has  moved a bit south...not to far. Had to reschedule a couple of off-shore runs do to crappy weather (starting to get really old) and a couple of spots I'v heard from the big boats is starting to heat up ! and not far !!! Shooting for Sunday again if it doesnt crapp out. Big bass on bunker to the south our waters too. Just need a very slight change in the jet stream to make things good again...

All yours,
Capt. Chris

Third Week in September.

Shot out to the Atlantic Princess Sunday in search of BFT, about a 60 mile run, flat like a lake and no wind, just fantastic weather, encountered many, may boats out there...cruised at 40 mph on the way out and i gotta say Wylie Nagler, the designer over at Yellowfin has just dialed in so well the design of the 34, it is a fantastic ride! even in the slop, you can take on a head sea with 3/4 footers and the yellowfin just climbs right up on top of 'em and really moves. Anyway, back to the report, the BFT fishing on Sunday would be best defined as "picking". Fish from 40's to 120 were being taken through out the day every10/15 minutes, it wasnt the bite of the last few weeks that was just explosive. Reports came today that it had picked up a bit and there has been some inshore BFTsightings as well. Breezy today was blowing up on albies. We struck out on the BFT but the skippy and ablie action was decent and they were fat, in the 8 to 10 pound range so we broke out the light tackle and went to town on these guys! Got a couple of runs off shore this week will keep you posted.

Say tight!

Capt. Chris

Second Week in September.

The blow that came through last week put a decent dent in the fishing, turning the water a coffee brown for a day or two, since cleared and some gator blues showed up. That last body of albies that went through were a little small but who's complaining? Hope the next one has larger fish. Boat is running sweet and will run off shore this coming Sunday, maybe sooner if weather allows, decent tuna reports out 30 miles....tight lines.

Capt. Chris

September 8th

Albie action is outstanding right now! better hook up rate on the incoming than the outgoing, yet out going still very good. Even some bonito being taken here and there. On the off shore side out 20/30 mile great pelagic action w/ skip jack and more albies, bonito, mahi and smaller bluefin. Further out bigger bluefin. Setting up some off shore runs next week on the Yellowfin...this boat is fast and a very well laid out deck...pictures soon.

Capt. Chris

August 31st

Swells off shore just to large right now to chase the BFT...however, the shore line is producing decent albie action. Very clean green water, blew in from the East. No blues to speak of and no lay over bass but there will be plenty of time for that! Out yesterday on the albies w/ Dave and his 2 boys, lots of fun...Jeff Lawson was out in his boat and we were hunting the green machines, forgot to mention a couple of weeks back in my report. Jeff was fly fishing off Breezy with a red clouser and he hooks up with a 4 1/2 ft. mako! on the fly! how cool is that! The balance of this week should have decent conditions along the beach for the the albie hunt but I think the week off shore will be a bit bumpy. All thing go right, new rig at the end of the week.

catch'em up!

Capt. Chris


August 17th

Got on the tuna out at monster Ledge in in my neck of the woods, 50/60 pound class fish, larger further South East...since then,  the 15th, got up to Chatham w/ the tribe to visit the waters where my folks ashes are scattered in Pleasant Bay. Did squeeze a day near off shore for some tuna action and it was HOT! Jigged Crab Ledge w/ Capt. Jeff Bees, EAST RIPE CHARTERS, if you planning on heading up here, make sure you reach out to him...he knows these waters!
Hooked up on seven toons and landed a real brute @ 150 on 80 lb test spin rod, battled for an hour. A very fine tuna!! Getting the paper work done on the new rig, so...will report the local waters when I get back!
 
Catch'em up!
 
Capt. chris



August 10th

Made another run on it on Saturday...one very hard knock down and all the skip jack and bonito you want! 5/13 pound range, assertive little guys banging on the spreads all morning. Had to keep an eye on the gear...they don't even put an arch in tuna rods...would had been huge fun on light spin gear! Lets get to the good stuff, I went ahead and posted the snap of the new rig.



A 34 Yellowfin w/ 2 250's on her...very, very clean boat! Waiting for engine analysis before the full commitment, yet I was confident enough to go ahead and post the photo. So it looks like delivery in early Sept., a 400 mile range, radar...all the good stuff and SAFE! Still very practical inshore, draws 19 inches and a massive casting deck forward, I can put 3 fly anglers or four spin guys up there...PLENTY OF ROOM and she will move, cut the 3/4 footers at 35 knots like a knief through butter...very smooth, go where the really big fish are! Wylie, the president and owner of Yellowfin Yachts, has a indepth racing background. So you get a great fishing platform on a high speed hull. A great combo! I will be crawling all over it!

The current Topaz will be on the market very soon...out side of that, I will be at Chatham for the week of the 15th to 22nd, chasing tuna for a couple of days and having great family time...

Catch'em up!!!!!

Capt. Chris

Third Week of July 2009

Got out and worked the grounds between the Mud Hole and the Glory Hole on Saturday, got down there about 5:30 AM after running for a couple of hours into a southern with big swells...4 to 6 's but they were soft with a 8  second spread...topping out and no more than 23/4 knots. Lots of traffic out there. My buddy Rob Reni sailed out JI  Inlet at 2 AM for the Chicken Canyon...Rob hits the honey hole and I got skunked !! he had 3 BFT to 50 pounds and 2 bull mahi mahi at 15 pounds,....very nice. Would have loved to push deeper into the Glory but a huge fog bank was moving up and out off NJ...that just gave me that feeling...so we surfed big swells all the way home. Seriously looking to size up the rig next season for further off shore runs...something in the 31 + with radar will fit the bill. A properly rigged 31 + can take to amazingly far destinations, so until that happens, The Glory Hole will be my goal line and there is plenty of action there!
Keep you posted!

Capt. Chris

Second Week of July 2009

Ran off shore again...warmer water but still room to move up. 2AM Sunday departure...talk about running without headlights! wow! pitch black once open water... really need a high powered beam out there. Regular lights just make it more difficult to see so I just shut'em down. Set the spread about 4:30, covered Shark reef, south to the Little Italy out to Monster Ledge and the Mud Hole. Green water and very clear, good amount of life, 6 Fin back Whales and 4 turtles and plenty of bait...alot of peanut bunker on the surface. really need the water to turn cobalt blue from this light green. Did manage to get the "stink off the boat" with a decent sized Bonito. Radio chatter was below average. Reports came in in the afternoon some large fish in 150 class were taken about another 20 miles southeast, thats the next stop given an opening in the weather...that will be about 140 miles round trip! and even more incredible! gas, at my marina came down 30 cents! a good omen!.

Capt. Chris

First Week of July 2009

Covered about 110 nautical miles yesterday! Ran to "Little Italy" looking to confirm a report of large sand eel schools. Water temps dropped about 5 degrees since Saturday's wind ... found clear blue water ... 4 fin back whales. Got hammered by 2 gator blues. One was taken at the boat by a 7/8 foot mako. A violent explosion of blood and foam ... pretty wild! There were small groups of sand eels with nothing on them, scattered here and there. No sight of the huge school of tuna reported. Then ran to HA buoy 10 miles west of "Little Italy" past the Mud Hole and Monster Ledge, the water climbed a few degrees ... no sightings.

I think the wind from Saturday changed things up a bit ... it was 25/30 knots out there with 5/7 footers. Yesterday the conditions were pretty sweet with a 5 knot breeze and flat. I will make another run by the weekend if weather holds and I try to get some more solid reports.

Capt. Chris


Last Week of June 2009

Delayed with crazy stuff with this report...The bass action continued strength lasted till about the middle of the month, then someone hit the kill switch...at least for the fly/spin guys. Just East of Breezy, the area was invaded by snapper blues and they moved in like locusts, just everywhere! gorging on sand eels and silver sides.

Decent bass are still attainable with live lining bunker, where the is no shortage of by a long shot. Huge schools of bunker off NJ and north in my area...bass to 30/35 pounds can be taken but it is a wait...can be live lining for hours....not terribly exciting for those of us who like to sight fish. I am sure there will lay over fish for July but for the most part, I hate so say...the action is kinda done till the fall. Last week some pulled up a 50 pound Back Drum, which was massive, maybe we will see some schools move in like last July.

The real NEWS started over this last weekend, when reports from the shark guys came in about the tuna! Out around the120 ft. line, Tuna (BFT) have taken 30/80 pound range! VERY EXCITING NEWS! The HA Buoy, Glory Hole and other areas have had sighting of large schools of Bluefin have been seen feeding on sand eels. Perfect timing to get a boost of excitement after the recent slow down. Forecast looks like a bit of wind and chop over the 4th. I will be running near off shore after the holiday, about 35/40 miles to search 'em out. I have the boat fully rigged for this kind of fishing (safety Gear too). Departing at 3:30AM and usually getting back in early mid afternoon. Have some buddys with larger boats making a run of it on the 4th...will report. We need a summer like 05 when we had those schoolie BFT all the way inshore! TOOOOOOONA.................

Capt. Chris

June 8th 2009

June is rocketing out of the gate! six hour charters are averaging 30/35 bass!, sometimes by 9 AM! We have had crappy weather which is fine w/ me...that cloud cover sure helps on keeping the action going! About 20% of those bass are 33 inches + and up to 23/4 pounds...very fat and clean!  The new moon phase is just going to confirm even better action! those super pigs south of us, will hopefully start to show!, gear of choice...six inch storm shad and chartuse and white flies, 4 to 6 inches...then there is the bazooka of lures, Frank Crescitelli's  "Bunka Boy" lures, pretty sweet action on these. Incoming tide has had the bigger fatties, out going has also had a respectful yield of bass. Fish finder screen is red with marking the bait...tons of it!

3 boys under 5 and little sleep...gotta get while the gettin is good!

Capt. Chris


May 20th 2009

A bit of a late start waiting for a couple of boat parts and REAL busy w/ 3 boys under 5!

The bass are around in a big way...if you can get the coffee brewing very early, you can get em. first light around 4:30 to 5:30 sun up some big bass are attainable, balance of the mornings have yielded all the blues you want and plenty of schoolies. The weakfish are here too in the J-Bay area. June has always been my best bass month for the last 4 years on the outside and hope to see a repeat of that this June! (on the light spin and fly). I do have some dates open so please don't hesitate to give me a shout! I have added a few more Van Staal 100's to the quiver (6 now!), so it wont be for a lack of great gear.

Tight Lines!

December 8th 2008

The Bluefin tuna are in near shore in a big way! my last 4 runs we found them in 70 to 90 feet of water. Nothing on the sonar...just explosions on the surface every 5 to 10 minutes. Large fish too,in the beginning some of the fish were as small as 30 lb class fish, as of Saturday, nothing under 150, some  of them could have  even pushed 200 lbs! massive fish in so close.
Thats the good news! The weather has not helped...blowing hard most of the time, have not been able to get on the water more than two times  a week and thats the good news. Even thought these fish are busting in pods of 5 to 12 fish on the surface, they are like chasing ghosts, very, very difficult, they seem to be eating only what is directly in front of them, they will not bank off to either direction to chase something. 3/4 times I had these fish run right through my spread...soooo frustrating to watch!!! only one way to hook up (as how it happened last year), is to put the lure, small, 2/3 feet directly in front of the pod, there is a better chance of them hitting it if they dont have to change direction. The craziest was on Saturday, out with Robert Lynch and Pat Quinn. We had a pod of maybe 15 150's come with in 6/7 ft of the boat...feels like you could hand feed em! Gonna keep chasing them till the new year. If you want to chase submarines, let me know and  dont forget you ski goggles...gets nippy out there!

November 17th

Well, here's the Nov report...second half of Oct was pretty beat, with poor weather most of the second half really did not get much done.
So, lets move on to better things! The Lower NY bay offered more schoolie bass from 23 to 27 inches than you could imagine!, I mean 60/70 fish day! loads of fun but tough to find any slobs. Last week 3 fish in 40 plus pound range were taken, so there are a few around. It was this time last year I hooked a 41 pound hog on the Ballyhoo on the outside while searching the toons. Speaking of, I was out with Chris Roe and we went to the Mud Hole and found 4 pods, each holding 6 to 8 fish, probably in 40/80 class. 2 fish breached within 10 feet of the boat!!! really nuts! we were on them for maybe 30 minutes then they vanished. 2 days later I get a report much closer to shore (within sight), one guy I know, said they were busting on the surface for 4 hours!!  60/150 (class fish) too bad he could not hook up. The thing that I have noticed the last few years as the fish are moving south. They are sipping on tiny rain bait, they will not hit squid bars or chains, NOTHING LARGE... Every time that I have hooked into one of these giants, it has been with very small lures. 1 & 1/4 oz. or less, inch and a 1/2 at the  most. That means then, lighter tackle too. They are here and its time to get at em! There is about 6 maybe 7 weeks for these guys and then subtract 50 percent of that time for foul weather and there might be a window of 15 to 20 days to chase these giants!

SOOOO...if you have some interest, give me a shout!

Capt. Chris

3rd Week of Oct.

Very disappointing...nothing but wind, wind and more wind! There have been a few high pressure  systems tracking through the region making  for crappy conditions.  Not a westerly either,  these 15/20 knots blows are coming in  from the north and east, really mucking everything up! Very annoying because just before the blow their were some great tuna reports coming in from the "Monster Ledge". Most of the fish have been in the 40/60 class, how ever an incredible 300 pound Blue'fin was taken in the area!!!!  a massive beast!
Looks like a pretty stiff blow for the balance on the week except for a few mornings, afternoons look ugly all week. Hopefully more to report later on...

Later,

Capt. Chris

1st half of Oct

The Albie action started in the late part of Sept and halted by 2 weeks of rough weather from the East. Picked up again in the first week of Oct and thinned again! Urrr...The Albie action seemed to have started strong...there have been a trickle of sighting here and there from the Highlands to the Coney Flats. I dont think we even did 20% of what we have last fall, however,  the  new moon cycle starting Oct 14th should get those  currents and tides starting to rip, so, look for good moving water, that should bring in the bait ( not there is huge amounts now, start seeing 1 acre lots of redish nervous water) and get thing fired up. The Bass action has been best on incoming tide or at sun up on the out going tide. Found larger bass on the incoming.  One of the more interesting sights out there on the outgoing tide by Breezy is the crazy amount of really big sturgeon breaching, sometimes you would see then 8 feet in the air! I would bet some of these were well in to 50+ pounds. A couple of crazies throwing Bucktail jigs at like mad hoping for a hook up?...didnt see that happen.

Lets hope for one more surge of Albies in the balance of the month!

Capt. Chris

Week of Oct 5th Report

After almost 2 weeks of huge swells and blowing East/South and some crappy fishing, the REAL Albie run  begun! Saturday was epic, bass blowing up in the AM early then the Albie run really reached blistering levels by 8:30 AM. Frothing pods in every direction and these were nice fish, 10 pounds plus in some cases. This lasted till about noon, then a bit of a lull, so  I bail with my Client, Jim Percell, had to head back to the city. What happens? John MacMurray  calls me...DUDE!  Going OFF!!!!!  He says, this is so crazy...did like 20 Albies on the fly! afternoon action made the AM run look like kid stuff. Go figure... the action was awesome, looked like there were washing machines all over the place! no gun and run here. There fish were banging all sorts of flies and my new favorite light spin lure, YO-ZURI Jig Minnow, if anything looks like a healthy Silverside, this is it! aint cheap @ 9 bucks but effective. Like to see this last the duration of Oct.

Next week,
Capt. Chris

September 24

"ROLLING THUNDER" thats the only way to describe the conditions out there! Had Albies all last week until the weekend, then it shut down after it started blowing from the East...getting worse after this high pressure system pushed down from Canada. Tomorrow will be the worst (25th) with a easterly sea swell between 10 and 15 feet!!! Out last Sunday and tried the humps just off Breezy, that was nuts! gun it in between the rollers, 8 to 10 ft., hook a bass, soften the drag and punch it about 200 yards to get out of the way from the thunder, then pull in the fish. Did that a couple of times till I saw the transducer on the bottom of a boat next me, or I should say above me! Then I asked, why are we out here? lets bail! had enough excitement for one day...does suck because I had to reschedule 5 charters, better safe than sorry...usually a major weather events can really turn things on out there, so...high hopes for next week!
Hope to report good things...


Capt. Chris

September 15

Hard tails are HERE!!!!!!!, for a while there I thought it was going to be like the 06 season, which had no Bonito and just a few Albies. We boated 9 fantastic speedsters after a little scouting, hook but lost another 4, incredible fun!!!  and these  machines were feeding on some of the largest silversides I have every seen,  some  of these albies puked up 5 inchers! and that was the frustrating part the last 2 weeks, there has been a ton of bait in the water, clearish green water with a ton of jellies around...perfect conditions were set up. With all this bait, will stay peeled for Bonito and maybe even some schoolie B'fins.

Sept is pretty booked with a day here or there, however, do have opening s in Oct.

Tight lines,
Capt. Chris

End of July and through the first weeks of August ...

Well, to continue with reporting more of the same...poor conditions along the shore line with this continued southerly thats bringing the brackish water and weeds, I have been running out to the Mud Hole and Monster Ledge. Along the inshore, it has been...at best, cocktail blues. Pretty crummy. Getting passed the 20 fathom line its a different world and yes, the hard tail search continues...yet so worthwhile when you get to  cobalt. Ran to Monster Ledge yesterday and had sights of things you would only see on Blue Planet or Nat Geo if not getting out there. Gas?, well thats just part of the game, dropped a bit too. Not a bad run with a blow less than 10, about 50 minutes. We hung with in a few yards of a mother Fin Back with her calf for a good half hour, giving her a little distance...so cool! then along come around 120 (last count) ocean going dolphin and these guys are not shy, hanging around the boat and riding the bow. You could reach over and touch the dorsal fin. They sound like the are breathing through a plastic cone...Big 'ole Mola-Mola and a bunch of Leather Back turtles...speaking of turtles, Capt. David Azar was out the prior day and witnessed a Mako making brunch of a turtle...wow! Something the folks over at PETA need to see after recent crying and bitching about fishing...spare me, they have no clue.
Yes, the toons are in our thoughts but this is one hell of a cool diversion while on our search, there was the usual chatter a bit south and there are hook ups. Sights like these can give you a larger perspective of the blue stuff, puts you in awe. The weird part, is being on the Subway 4 hours later!

Next week,

Capt. Chris
Manhattanfly

3rd week July...

Bertha moves out...Cristobal moves in, had a window today and jumped on it. The next 2 days will be snotty. Shot for the 20 fathom line early, water turned a cobalt blue, a real change from Saturday. Once at the line, we dropped our spread, working south east, wind 2 to 4...sweet,  like a lake!  40 minutes into the troll... we see a big jumper! start to get stoked!, another hour, 3 decent bait balls, nothing on them, starting to bum a bit...when off my bow, about 200 yards... an awesome sight! a Fin whale around 60 feet or so, just huge!! Tried to get a bit closer for a photo, submarined, waited around for  twenty minutes or so...gone.  Continued on, next, a massive sea turtle, just a ton of awesome life out there!

Slows down a bit, then we see two more jumpers...50/60 range, stoked again! Then all silent. Tough... third run out there and have had visuals each time...dont know if its better to see them and hope for a strike or not see them and pray for a strike? Got reports of Bonito at RI and some Skip Jack headed north along NJ. Just to much life out there not to try again...out Friday.



The water has warmed, however, I did not take into account that southern swell pushing the warmer water in would also bring in the "dirty water", very silty, green/brown. The CI flats and Breezy, all the way to Ambrose Tower is pretty brackish. On an up note the small half dollar clear jellies are in here in mass, a good indicator to the Bonito, the timing was about the same last year, I think once the water starts to clear a up we will see the action. Made a run out to clear water Saturday, about 8 miles pasted the BA buoy again, water was a sweet 74 and real clear. A little bumpy with 2 to 4's. Once in clear water we marked some of the largest marks I have seen on my Garmin, real big! down about 130.  We ran an 8 spread in a southeast direction along the north side of the beginning of the ridge down to Monster Ledge, the end result, one very solid knock down. I heard the day before one Capt. had a B'fin on and there was the usual positive chatter on the VHF.



They are definitely pushing through, however, not easy but always worth a shot... weather allowing! Probably see some Mahi around the traps too.
Praying for the "Bones" inshore and the "fast fish" near offshore! Lots of dolphin around too.

Next week...

Capt. Chris

2nd Week of July

Went out Friday for the initial near off shore scouting run with Rob Reni and Bret. Water started out cold in the low 60's...the southern sea swell action we have had for the last week or so has pushed the cooler water inshore. The temps shot up pretty quickly once we were out about 8 miles, hitting about 72. The water looked fishy, a pretty clear blue with a tint of green and lots of jellies, and real flat. Ran to the tower, dropped an 8 rod spread and headed east to the NA buoy....nada, ( except for the wolf packs raiding our spread!) turned south after hearing some chatter on the radio,  about 15 miles south east on the BA. Finally saw some birds working the surface, Rob shouts 2:00  o'clock!  saw a pretty good sized back roll on the surface twice...medium sized tune...then the birds vanished. Punched it back so Rob could go chase some bass and got back by noon. Probably covered 45 miles or so.  Looking good out there...running out there again second half of the week.

See what happens next week.

Capt. Chris

1st Week of July

Shallow water bass action has continued to be decent with schoolies and good sized blues in 8 to 10 lb. range. Surface plugs and fly poppers have performed best. 

Going through a bit of a transition period as the water warms up...dont get me wrong, I love watching the stripers/blues b$%&h slapping the surface action...Now the mind set is on the pelagics.  Tuna reports scattered here and there, a bit of a waiting game. Just got B'fin report not to far off...near offshore, even though the water is still pretty green out there. Its tough wanting to make a scouting run out there with 5 bucks a gallon! and of course, that warm water eddie is still sitting out there spinning away...just out of reach. The upside might be if Bertha tracks towards the Carolinas and pushes all that really warm water up over the shelf into our neck of the woods. The last few seasons the palegics really were the show, so if the bait and water currents have doing what the have the last few years...we should have a great season!

More next week...
Capt. Chris  

4th Week in June

These waters never fail to surprise me...Hitting my usual haunts, we ran into a amazing sight, Black Drums and they were monsters! these fish were well into the 40 to 60 pound range. Fining on the surface in large schools, maybe upwards of 50 to 100 fish! and they are not black! The waters were calm so getting a visual was not difficult.  I was sitting on the bow with my binocular  looking around then looked down to  my right and saw 4 huge drums cruise by ...At first glance,  I thought they were sharks ...they almost have the same body locomotion.



Chucked storm shad...not go, shot a green bucktail (2oz.) at 'em, did the trick, ran like a steam roller and snap!... just wild. A few guys got'em to the boat. saw Ricky Fink out there, the day before he hooked into...get this! a 66 pounder on an 8 weight fly rod...It is just really cool how each season something new cruises in...in the past there have been a hook up here or there but these were big schools of em. On the bass side, still getting our fill of large schoolie bass, Breezy, Coney Island flats have had plenty of bass on em...probably get a few more weeks of this action, longer if you can find some cooler water pockets.



 As usual, I am still watching that eddie move ever closer in this direction, just coming over the shelf and still holding together...T-U-N-A!!!!!!!!!! maybe less than hundred miles now...

Lets see what happens next week...
Capt. Chris

3rd Week of June
On/off...on/off, the action has changed from day to day. Bass action was decent in early part of the week early 4:30 to 8ish or so and then the blue fish would come in by the acre, you could hear slapping and flopping all around the boat on baby bunker and silversides, fun on the 8w/9w. The early week bass were schoolies for the most part. Second half of the week noticed temps dipped a bit the the action surpassed the first week June! Like Montauk! without the traffic, well, sort of...Thursday we boated about 18 bass to 27 inches and 1 to 33 inches, still had the blue mixed in. Saturday was huge!, Had Steven  Beasley out with  his buddy and they did very well...somewhere around 25 bass to 27 inches, 1 at 33 inches and 15 lbs. The days beast came in at what we though was around 24/25 pounds and long! after a lenghty tug, Steven got this fish to the boat and during the reach it popped the leader! a really nice fish! Probably the largest bass this spring. All this action was on the fly...funny thing, could not mark any of these bass...they were all on the surface! After 5 hours of tugging on bass we tossed in the towel and Steven headed to the ball game with his son...Saturdays dont get much better than that!

I'm still watching that eddie move a bit closer and its hasnt broken up...we will see. Also getting some small B'fin tuna reports here and there...just cant say exactly where!

I do have to say, this  has been a really good bass run (except during the heat wave),

Much better than last year.
Just gotta get out there!

2nd Week/June
The crushing heat wave we experienced over the last weekend slowed the action considerably,

I saw water surface temps go from 46 up to 60 degree's since the beginning of the month, spiking in the last few days. aAso not much in the way of cloud cover either. (Those good bass days always have plenty of cover).



It has been all blue fish (with only a couple 30+ in. bass) since the last report, not that the bass have left, they have just gone deep. Those wire line trolling guys and live liners are still doing very well. I think with some cloud cover and getting the temps back to normal will bring some improvement, we sure made due with what we had!  watching those blues trash surface plugs and fly poppers is always fun!

Again, Chuan, picked up a very fine bass...very healthy, most of the bass have been this season. "Clean Fish".

While waiting for this air and water to get back to normal, I have been watching a huge warm water eddie that has been spinning in this direction for about a week...this thing is large.
Last July it was when the bonito came in I saw something like this (see attached).
A good sign.

Also attached, a photo of John Macmurray holding what looks like a 40+ lber! He was cruising along and he sees this thing belly up in the water, reaches over and pulls it up, what does he find, a huge flounder caught in its throat! this thing choked to death...thats crazy.

More to report next week.

Early May/June
I am always excited in early May to to get the rig in the water, all the gear in order and get my charters lined up only to discover (as usual) that the rain/wind blows out my runs for a good portion of the month...This has been a consistent factor every spring. That being said... you would think I would learn to wait for the bass on my favorite areas.

May on the outside brought the blue fish and they were not bad this spring, upwards of 10 pounds and about a hundred bucks in trashed lures...had one put a 90 degree bend in a Hopkins # 6 hook...pit bulls. Some record Weak fish taken in Raritan bay and some massive bass with the live liners in J-Bay.

First week of June the afterburner's kicked in hard! with outstanding bass action in the Lower NY Bay. Had Mike Carissimo out the start of the month and he scored huge with a 20 plus pounder on the fly, handled it like a real pro... Chuan Wong hit the bragging board with a real good looking bass...light tackle (4  new Van Staals 150's on lite rods) using the 6 inch storm shad, sink to the bottom and a slow jig back up, slammed 'em!!!

However, the epic day out, was with Sheridan Reilly and Lonnie in from Austria. Getting out there at 4:45 AM was the plan, then getting a read on increasing air pressure incoming tide and a breeze from the East...I thought for sure some one would put the switch in the off position...I could not be more friggin wrong! IT WENT OFF!!! by 10AM my guys slammed about 40 bass! actually complaining about sore for arms! HA! how awesome is that!

These fish were about 25 to 35 inches with full bellies and they were still piggin out...

A few fish that Lonnie hooked into were two handed haul outs... I mean, a soft ball could fit in their mouths. Really great stuff...

Sure hope this is an indication for the balance of June...and getting stoked another awesome skippy, albacore, bonito and blue fin (December) year. Last season set the bar.

Have a few spots open the second half of the month, if you have some interest...give me a shout. New report next Friday...

Get out there!,