Long Island 2009

[MuskieBait]

Oct 8, 2009

So…I arrived in Newark, New Jersey at 9pm. FishHeadRic (Ric) and I had a little mixed up with the dates but Ric called in sick and we had the weekend cleared. Phew! Disaster averted.

Ric picked me up at Newark and took me for a tour of Manhattan. It was difficult to take night time pictures in a moving car…but here are a few attempts.

Empire State Building



Time Square at night…feels like I was in Tokyo!



Oct 9, 2009

After a good night of sleep, the day’s plan was to fish some shallow rock piles for black fish aka tautog. We bought some two dozen green crabs for $20 and got on Ric’s 15’ Boston Whaler.

We used a 2-hook bottom rig with 1oz bank sinker. We used half a crab for bait. Ric said we will get into a lot of scup aka porgy (Stenotomus chrysops)…and sure we did!



Ric also said we could run into schools of striped bass and bluefish. Ric got a call and while he was on the phone, I heard a loud splash and looked for it. I didn’t see the fish but it sure did left a large ring. I picked up the rod with a popping lure tied on and made a perfect cast straight to the commotion. I gave it one pop and a 5-6lb bluefish dive bombed on it. The fish missed the lure so I gave it another pop and another bluefish grabbed it and started running. I didn’t even had to set the hook! The fish ran around and I had to kept adding on more and more drag pressure. We were fishing with 50lb braid so I wasn’t worried about the line snapping. But then the fish ran to the bottom and I felt a bit of rubbing…then ping! Gone! The braid was cut above the steel leader. L

I tried to cast another popper at it but the school was gone.

So back to fishing for blackfish. They didn’t seemed to be around. So we moved to another spot at a rock jetty. It was more porgy and no blackfish. We made another move to a set of dock pilings. There were no blackfish around either but we caught more porgy…and well…I caught one of the biggest porgy Ric had even seen…and he used to work on party boats that fish for porgy and blackfish. It was about 3.5lbs. Talk about getting lucky, huh?





Ric decided to fish a spot at a lighthouse.



We both has a couple of hits that felt like blackfish but the hook came off for both of us. Ric was a toadfish magnet and he landed 4 toadfish :lol: They call came out of the same little hole which was strange. We found a few more porgy as well.

It was getting late and Ric suggested that we fish a back bay and see if there were any striped bass around. We cast poppers, spooks and crankbaits but the fish were not around. Oh well…back to dock we went.



It was a great day of porgy…even though they were out of season and we had to keep moving from spots to spots to avoid them to try and find the blackfish. Ric said the water is still a little bit too warm for the blackfish to move in this shallow.

Oct 10, 2009

We woke up at 9am to pack up the car for our trip to Montauk. It was going to be an overnight trip and we would be sleeping on the beach. Actually, the night before, we were up until 3am preparing leaders and lures for the trip. We went for a coffee run, then went to grab some gear and some advice from a surf legend. He gave us a few spots to try out.

We also stopped at Walmart for a few extra bucktail jigs. One more stop for lunch at McD’s and we’re on our way to Montauk. Along the way, we ran into some SLOWWW traffic. Apparently, this happens every weekend and there were a few farms along the main road to Montauk. As cars wait to turn into and out of the farms, it backs up traffic. So we wait ever so impatiently to pass this section. Then we ran into another slow area because the Hampton Film festival was going on. :?

Finally, we got to Shinnecock Bay. We were going to fish the dam there but the tide is coming in and the dam was closed…so there was no current. We didn’t see any serious fisherman targeting striped bass. There were only white bucket fisherman so we moved to check out the beach and the jetty.

The wind was whipping from the north. When that happens, the surf builds up huge on the south shore. And it was rough out there. We did see some birds working a bait pile but it was way too rough for my first surf experience. So we fished some crabs for blackfish in the jetty. The water was muddy and rough, so it was difficult to fish the bottom rig properly. Ric had a hit that felt like a blackfish but when the wave hit his line, the fish dropped the bait. I got snagged a handful of times and didn’t had a hit. After an hour of no fun, we decided to continue our way to Montauk.

Finally, we got to Montauk at about 7pm. We went to a local bait shop to get some eels for bait. They were about $3 each and we bought 8 of them. Each eel was about 12” long. The eels will be used for night time fishing. Meanwhile, we went to a spot called Turtle Cove near Montauk Point to see if the striped bass and bluefish are blitzing in the evening. As we found out, it was dead. There were no baits and fish didn’t want our bucktail jigs or spoons. We got back to town at about 9pm and grabbed a couple of burgers. After dinner, we made one more run for a bit of groceries and off we went to another spot to fish for the night. The tide was at about 3am to we were to fish all night for the incoming and the outgoing.

It was a 2-mile hike to our spot. We took a few lures only and packed the live eels, the lures and our bit of groceries into a backpack. We hiked on the beach for a while, then stopped to fish when we found some interesting structure. Fish weren’t there, so we continued to move on. We stopped a couple more times but haven’t find the fish yet. Finally at about 1:30am, we reached our spot. We already had the live eels rigged on a large (maybe 2/0?) hook. We didn’t need to put on any weight. The idea was to cast beyond the first breaker and work the live eel into the trough inside the first breaker. Ric fished for about 15min when he finally had a strike! The first fish of the night was a 27” striped bass. Then Ric landed another cookie cutter striped bass…and another, and another. Here I am wondering what I was doing wrong. Ric called me over to fish his spot but I’m still not getting hit. For one, I was a little worried about wading in knee to waist deep and have the surf come washing about waist to chest deep. However, after a while, I got better at reading the surf and waded out a little more. I was still not getting hit so I figure maybe my casts were a bit short. So I aimed my cast at 45 degrees to add a bit more distance…and three casts later…BAM! Fish on! It gave up a good fight and took about 5 min to bring in. It was my first striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and a 27” fish is not too shabby! Ric felt relieved that I finally caught what I came looking for. Yeah…finally…at 3am in the morning :lol:





The release



The rig and the live eel



We continued fishing and well…once I figured them out…I was on fire! I caught another striped bass with the eel until we finally ran out. Then I tied on an 9” Slugo and caught 3 more striped bass between 3am to 4:30am. At one point, there was a pod of fish in front of me and I went 1 for 4 within 15 mins including fighting time. It was nuts. The biggest fish was 28” and just legal…so we kept that one for the table.



At about 5am, I had to take a break. Fishing in the surf and fighting the current was very taxing on the body…not to mention that we had been up for 20 hours already. We began to see some twilight so Ric and I decided to pack it at this spot to try Turtle Cove in the morning. We were heading back to our parking spot but noticed the amount of fisherman already lining the beach. Ric said Turtle Cove would just be shoulder to shoulder…so we decided to remain on the beach and fish on the morning low tide.

We put away our fish in the car, switched up some lures and added a few more, then headed right back to the beach. Since everywhere looked as crowded, we fished right by the access. Ric had tied on a silver Croc for me and he was fishing a diamond jig with a plastic tube rook that imitates a sand eel. I must have lucked out on a good spot since my first 4 casts were 3 striped bass between 26-27” and a 2lb bluefish. There were guys fishing beside Ric and I that were just jaw dropped :lol:

After that, the action was actually quite slow. Between 7am to about 9:30am, we picked out a few more bluefish about 2-3lbs and Ric landed a nice 32” striped bass. We got very tired at the end and decided to call it a day. We did see one good bird pile out in deep water that looked like false albacore working a bait ball. There was another bird pile with at least a hundred birds working another bait pile…and that one looked like striped bass and bluefish.

We grabbed breakfast then found a place to nap. Originally, we were going to wake up a little later and try for blackfish along a jetty. But when we woke up at 1:30pm, we were still too tired…so we decided to call it a trip instead and go home. On the way home, we were stuck in some traffic again and didn’t get back to Ric’s house until 5pm. Ric passed out after getting home and I couldn’t even wake him up at 9pm…so I went to bed as well :lol:

Oct 12, 2009

Ric and I were both a little fished out…so instead of fishing the last morning in Long Island, Ric cleaned the striped bass and made an awesome breakfast.

Baked striped bass



Panko-coated fried striped bass



After breakfast, we unloaded the gear off the car and I packed my luggage. We decided to see if I can have a walking tour of Manhattan. Unfortunately, the Columbus Day parade was going on and there was no way to find parking…so instead, we just drove around Manhattan. Here are some pics though.











That face is the Red M&M :lol:



I had to thank Ric for making this trip possible even when we had the weekend mixed up. Ric even said if there’s a possibility, I had to come back next fall in late October to experience the blitz fishing. I may just take him up on that.