Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Dog Days of Summer

Hot...Hazy...Humid....Not exactly ideal working conditions, might as well go fishing!

After last Wednesdays striper trip was so successful, when Andy and Butch wanted to striper fish, I never had a second thought about going back to the same area the following tuesday. Apparently I should have, as the area was seemingly void of life. We saw very little surface activity, and fish were few and far between. Thats why its fishing and not catching I suppose. Despite all that, Butch landed his first ever striped bass!
A new species...hopefully the first of many!
After we decided to abandon the bass and blues, we moved onto porgies, and they brought a few home for lunch. I was later updated "they are better than the flounder fillets from the store". So no snickering about them the next time your out there watching someone else catch "little fish!"

Wednesday morning brought with it similar conditions, and when I arrived at the launch, early as always to prepare, I found my sports waiting for me already! I knew they were excited to get out there, so I made quick work of getting the boat rigged and ready. Before too long, they had matching bluefish in the cooler from the first spot. Not long after Sal landed a second, which showed signs of being stuck in a commercial net at some point....
Net-scarred bluefish
Last time I hosted them, Brandon outfished Sal. Sal was ready for battle today, and not long after that added another fish to his tally....he snatched a nice striper out of a school of bluefish! Nice job!
Late July Striper
They added a few more bluefish to the box, and had a couple near misses at the side of the boat, the tide slacked out, ending the blitzes. We ran around a bit, porgy fished a little, and before long the tide picked up again. Brandon had some catching up to do, and he did it in fashion.....
GATOR!
So far thats the best blue aboard my boat in 2011. It taped 34" and weighed in at 11.5lbs. Think you can top it?!?!

With this heat the striper fishing is likely to stay a night time game, but the bluefishing should only get better through August....and lets not forget Bonito!!

Thanks for reading, 
Captain Bill



Wednesday, July 13, 2011

A Warm Welcome

Today Mike joined me for some striper fishing. Mike captains a boat in Maui, and has spent the past 2 years chasing Marlin....but his roots are here on the east coast chasing stripers. He wanted to stick a few bass on the flats first thing this morning since he never fished stripers in that manner before. There were a decent number of fish in the shallow water, and weather cooperated, giving us bright sun, clear skies, and little to no wind. It didn't take long, and he had his first striper in a couple years in hand, and his first ever from a flat!
Schoolie from the skinnies! 
By 8am or so, we had landed a couple of fish, and decided to go for a ride to see how things looked out on the reefs. Just after I commented on how quiet the water looked, we spotted a school of fish crashing bait on the surface and went back into fish mode. Mike hooked up instantly, and broke off almost as quickly. We figured bluefish and re-rigged with appropriate leaders to prevent further fly loss. On the second drift we both hooked up, as well as the third, then took turns on the next couple drifts until the tide petered out, and not one bluefish!!
Mike hoists a nice bass
A nice welcome home!
We called it a morning just before ten, each satisfied with our efforts. Saw a lot of fish, had a lot of fun, thats what its all about! 

Lots of openings and lots of fish out there....call me!
Captain Bill 
860.918.2338
Captbille@gmail.com

Monday, July 4, 2011

Holiday Weekend

The 4th of July weekend is one of the toughest times to fish. The weather is often hot and muggy, and everybody is out enjoying their time off of work on the water. The best times to fish, if you are like me and just have to get out is at night, or you can put some time in to getting yourself off the beaten path to some hidden water.
Friday after work, while trying to decide what to do, my friend Mike called with an idea to hit up a few local lakes from the shoreline after dark, and not deal with the boats, hoping to pick up a few fish at each spot and move on. Our first Lake produced a keeper largemouth for Mike, a small largemouth for me, and plenty of bug bites for both of us. Lake #2 proved to be our hot spot of the night, where this smallmouth was our lunker of the night:
We each caught a few nice fish at this spot, then moved onto Lake #3, which didn't even cough up a single fish! No big deal, we had our fun. 
Saturday evening I decided to do a little hiking into one of my favorite smallmouth haunts with the flyrod. It wasn't long before I was into fish, with this keeper inhaling a green over white deceiver:
A few more smallies followed suit, but then a couple strips into a long cast the water exploded, my slack line disappeared, and my drag started singing! I had a hunch this was a striper, but my hopes were on big smallmouth. A few minutes in I was able to get a look at my fish, and striper it was. One of the most fun battles I've ever had on a flyrod, as this fish was far larger than anything I intended on landing tonight on my trout rod!
Onto Sunday night, I hiked again, this time a solid 25 minute hike up river. Once I started fishing I was quickly rewarded for my efforts with a beautiful, calm, stretch of river to myself, and better yet, hungry smallmouths....mostly smallmouths anyway, my first fish was a largemouth, a first for me from this stretch of river:
After a few smallies came to hand, I saw a trout rising. Too lazy to change to a more appropriate fly, I threw a 4" deceiver at it. It took him two tries, but he managed to inhale it...
So, that was my weekend in fishing! I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday as much as I did. I'm hoping to have some time on the salt this week, I'll keep everyone posted!