Got an invite to fish Canyon Runner Charters one of the best charters on the East Coast. Left at midnight after the storms moved offshore. 48’ 80’s version Viking with large Bonner Box on deck. ran to Triple Wrecks. Must have been 60 boats out there. Lines in at 4:40AM. Two long riggers rigged ballys, 4 wide tracker spreader bars white pearl, purple black, green, pink. Two rigged ballys in the wash. One way back just behind the farthest spreader bars. First fish hit at 5:15. Boated a nice 40 lb Yellowfin at grey light. Lines out again on the troll. Any life that showed itself got covered up quick by center consoles with poppers. Second Yellowfin boated at 6:00AM. Fought the Poppers for awhile then trolled farther North and East. Hot day much beer consumed. Around 2:00PM got some intel the bite was on near the Toms. Pulled in out riggers and made the run to the flats inside the Tom’s. Whale spouts dolphin schools birds. We knew it would happen soon. Chugged our way around the few boats there. Suddenly a sportfisher gets a double right in front of us but we were still chasing whales in the distance. Question was do we mug the boat fighting the doubles or keep chasing the whales which seemed to moving East. We followed the whales. Finally making headway on the whales came across a patch of Shear Waters mixed in with Dolphin and the whales chomping on sand eels brought to the surface by the big whale flukes. 3 rods started to scream! Boated 3 nice Yellowfin. While we slowed to get the lines back out 3 chicken Mathis attacked the spread and got boated. On the next pass through that Nat Geo area we doubled up but lost one at the boat. Plowed that field again. No love right away but Pow! The long rigger Bally got smacked. Of course the biggest fish and farthest out they handed the rod to me. Boated our 7th Yellowfin. After that the bite shut down even though there was plenty of bird, whale, and Porpoise action. Trolled until 6:00PM then headed for the barn. 7 Nice Yellowfin, 3 Mahi.
Hell Yeah! Thats awesome... unfortunately dealing with knee issues (AGAIN) or Id be up there today.... You rigging the ballyhoo with Islanders or chugger heads?
Little inshore trip to Axcel for flatties on Thursday yielded 4 keeps and 1 seabass. Lots of youngsters and almosts. Highlight of the day was passing a kidney stone when I got home! Beer is a wonderful remedy.
Headed out Tuesday for a meat hunt. Was originally thinking about bonito/blues but the Ling bite is smokin right now so, I'll fill the cooler. 3 weeks until next Tile trip so I'll be bringing spinning gear, mackerel rig and a A47 just in case some bait comes thru.
I get the cleaning done by the mates and put immediately on ice. Really good eating fish. I like Ling better than Sea Bass. Basically its the oily strips I'm after for the smallish Ling and keep the fat filets for the table. Need the oily scent in the water on the Tile Trips. Will stop by Fisherman's Den and get some bunker too. Use some for the Canyon trip and freeze the rest for the Pulley Ridge trip in October.
Weekday headboats are the way to go! This particular boat is known for being railed most trips but not yesterday as I had all the room I needed to work. Drop and reel fishing all day with really big knothead SeaBass coming up early followed by big fluke. Finished out by the lobster pots. Ling were coming over the rail as fast as a person could crank. This is where my smaller electric reel came in handy. Put 20 Ling in the box in perhaps an hour. That 1 Sea Bass limit evidently is shall we say, elastic... Folks were boxing the really big ones that came up including yours truly. 2 weeks until the next Tile Trip. Might do a Blues/Bonito run to get some meat for the trip. If I do, it will be another weekday trip.
Took a trip down memory lane last Saturday. Fished Long Island Sound for Porgys out of City Island, Bronx. Hadn't been on that water in over 40 years. The last time I fished the sound was back in the 80's on the Bronx Queen that unfortunately now resides at the bottom. The bite was really slow but for me, it wasn't as important as just being out there one last time. We had our gear we usually use in Jersey with us and of course, we got the side eye from the mates. One actually offered me a boat rod that looked like it had tangles with more than a few gator blues and I politely passed. The locals had no experience with small electrics and so they figured we were overloaded. Well, since the porgy were only hitting tiny bloodworms (shocker), Wifey and I switched to straight up bottom fishing for Fluke and Sea Bass. NY Reg is ridiculous at 19" keeper size so I had to go outlaw and boxed 2 16"ers. Wifey just missed the pool with her dinner plate porgy. The passengers next to us were first timers and we helped them more than the mate did. Needless to say, no tip. All in all, probably won't fish LIS again as there are better fisheries off Jersey and further north off MA. Strange, I had always thought LIS was deep. We were in 75' all day. Probably cause the Capt. didn't wanna burn more diesel. Best part of the trip? Jerry's Reef at the end of City Island Ave. Still there after 75 years and the food is still great. Portion sizes rivaled what you get up in Gloucester, MA. Good to see NYC again too so it was a bit of a homecoming for me. Jumped on the NJTPK and headed back to PA on Sunday morning. This upcoming Sunday? 2.5 day Tile Trip!
Fluke run yesterday. Fished Axel then Seagirt Reef. All shorts 2 keeper Seabass. Sucked. Had a former Lineman for the Giants with his two sons on board. Traded insults drank beer and had a good time anyway. The weather has been beautiful recently. Hope to get a day trip for Yellowfin this week. Would really like an overnight chunk trip but depends on the weather.
