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!,