Hit up the JBay kayak fishing tournament last week with Sam looking for the ever elusive weakfish.

We fished hard and found some fish!







We found a good bite and had an hour and a half of picking at them on Saturday. On Sunday there was no one out and I had the fastest bite of the weekend all to myself!

Some bonus bass, many in the 36" range too, all in all, a great trip!

East and west (and straight out!) of Poppy there are swarms of bluefish as usual. More bass, and some good bass, mixed to the east. We were nailing fish right and left when the fog showed and messed up things for the evening. Well, it didn't actually arrive until much later but it rolled in from the west when the tide starting coming and buddy who is a serious fogaphobe pleaded we head back before it descended. This as the bass were getting into the act more and more as the sun lowered. Oh well, we creamed the blues and that felt good after a winter of freezing our butts off.



We awoke today to fog city all around the Hyannis, Centerville, Poppy, Barnstable area. We tried to launch in four different spots - even Wareham - but the fog wouldn't depart. And this is right up to midday. So we pulled the plug and headed to Plymouth, should have done this from the get go. We arrived for the last the third of a weak outgoing but still found flocks of birds following slurping bass. Alas, the bass were less than aggressive, especially the bigger ones who followed but rarely bit. We caught 4 or 5 after cracking the code - small metal, the bass were on clouds of sand eels - then had to go. The morning had been great we heard.



Weather was sunny and hot with a nice SW breeze until 245. We had just pulled the boat when a wall of cold wind swept the parking lot and then commenced to really blow. The wind changed from SW to NE in a minute or two, and it buried the temps. It was an amazing wind swing, one of the most dramatic I've ever seen. SW 10mph to NE 20+ just like that, boom.



We headed north to find NH shrouded in mist and fog - 53F with a steady NE 15-25 wind chilling the coast.

Bahia Honda Key. Drifting crabs boated 6 Tarpon 70lbs -100 lbs each fish was about 15 - 20 min battle Capt Kevin Grubb worked the boat 50lb floro 50 lb braid my son had 4 I had 2 ... all Tarpon safely released This was a trip waiting for many years and the dream came true ...did someshore line fishing along side the bridge entering Grassy Key ( Toms Harbor ) each am 1/2 doz. pomps (4- 6 lbs) Topwater Yo-Zuri popper great fight about 10 min 1 cuda yo-zuri minnow Spheros 3000, 7' Tasaumni Travel rod 20lb floro 15 braid 1/2 hr after the sun came up the show was over . 6:36 sunrise I was checked for a Fla. fishing license which I had
BTW Did drink in Key West Sloppys Joes , Tony's Saloon and Irish Kevin's

I hadn't yet gone out looking for fish up here this spring because our data in the lab indicated that the river was only about 48 degrees on the incoming tide. I figured I would start looking next week after a run to the cape this weekend. After dinner tonight however, I decided to go out for a run down along the beach as the sun was setting. Right as I was turning to head back to campus I looked out over the water to see a swarm of terns diving with fish under them! --127-3---127-3---127-3-
There was another student fishing and I watched him get a few hits. He said he had picked up several decent fish in the river yesterday. I went out to throw a few casts tonight to no avail, but I will be getting up to go chase fish in the morning before work. They're finally here!
Tight lines,
Joe

Wow.... I'm still 3 thousand miles away from the Cape and I've got a bad case of BT......(bass thumb)



It is LM bass bugging time around here....again....and in 2 mornings I got around 50....2 to 4#.

It went like this: (click on to start the video)

Last week I was in Sanibel and the wind was East and SE just about every day and killed the Snook fishing as far sight fishing was concerned all week. It really shut every thing down and from Sunday through Thursday I only saw 2 Snook in total.

I did have one hookup on a Snook that buried the fly about 15 feet away from me while blind fishing. The fish hit so hard, he bowed the rod over and took off and the line ripped through the water and then he went airborne and threw the fly. It was awesome while it lasted. Amazing power from this fish. I would estimate the fish was at least 30 inches.

Friday I got 5 small jacks, one Trout, one Ladyfish and one Spanish Mack. That was my big fish day. I was able to fish all week with my friend who lives there and it was just one of those times when it was not going to happen. The week before, my friend was seeing hundreds of Snook and caught some nice fish.

Today was a day where I needed to feel the Tug and got my fix and had a good day. I started at my favorite beach, got one fish which was my welcome home fish, while not the biggest fish , it just felt good after last week so he got his picture taken. It was the only fish landed in the morning and then I moved from the beach to an estuary for the last 2 hours of the drop and picked up 16 fish and the biggest was just shy of legal. When things died after the tide went slack , I moved back to my beach and picked up 10 fish and dropped and missed at least another 10 before calling it a wrap.

The big fish of the day was very strong and almost introduced me to my backing but it never made it out of the tip of the rod, but he did make 3 long runs.

It's good to be home.

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I was out fish a south side harbor this afternoon. I caught the last hour of the outgoing tide and the several hours of the incoming tide. Nothing on the outgoing tide. Worked the incoming fishing and moving around a bit. When I started stripping in what felt like 5# of weeds, I though one more cast and I switch to the spinning rod. Got the first hit of the afternoon and landed this 28" striper. Needless to say I delayed switching rods. Caught two more on the fly and sat to take a break. I couple of men showed up (father and older son) Dad pulled out a whole herring and cast it out. A minute later he is tight with a decent size fish. Into the bin goes the fish and out goes another herring. Sure enough he is tight again. The son is not doing as well since he is using cut bait on the bottom. I managed one more fish on the spinning rod, and they are up to five fish.

I have a 2007 merc 4 stroke 25hp that has been leaking since it was new I think. I would always see a slick in the water while the boat is stationary or drifting but it was not terrible. There is always some residue on the outside of the engine starting at the first cowl segment after where the cover sits. I was trolling for 4 days straight and noticed that there was a large slick constantly behind the boat and a ton of residue on the motor itself. It is wet under the cover but only on the bottom and smells gassy but not like fresh gas... I had a two hour ride home in the rain and when I got home it was leaving gas puddles in the driveway. I can not find for the life of me where it is coming from. Someone please give advice! The shops around me are not very good and if I take it in now I can kiss it goodbye for the rest of the season!

Thanks,
Mike

I have a lot of stains on my boat from stuff that got into the boat over the winter. Now before the caterpillars eat the leaves above the boat and fill it with 'pillar crap, I trying to get things clean. The concentrated boat soap I'm using does not seem to be doing much. What do others use to clean their boats when they have tough stains?

5/20/13

There’s starting to be a little more life on the water, although less than there should be when you consider how good the fishing has been.

The fluke have spread out more and are in the Rips as well as the deeper water. But the better fish (up to 10 pounds this week) are off the south side. You can probably catch more in the Rips, but the keepers are scarcer there. In addition to the fluke, the squid baits are also attracting some stripers, blues and nice big seabass, which are out of bounds until mid-July. That’s especially frustrating since in New Jersey they are in season since yesterday.

The stripers are cooperating nicely with many boats able to catch limits on halfday trips and the ones that don’t only a fish or two short. The good old green ‘chutes are doing most of the damage, but diamond jigs are catching fish as well, and any sighting of birds will also result in a pile of bluefish.

If you are a cold weather fishing aficionado, you will appreciate the news that there will most likely be a new world record for codfish approved shortly after a 103 pound fish was caught by a German angler this week.

For more info about fishing in Montauk, check out www.montauksportfishing.com

And, if you would like to get the reports by e-mail, drop me a line at captaingene@montauksportfishing.com

5/20/13

There’s starting to be a little more life on the water, although less than there should be when you consider how good the fishing has been.

The fluke have spread out more and are in the Rips as well as the deeper water. But the better fish (up to 10 pounds this week) are off the south side. You can probably catch more in the Rips, but the keepers are scarcer there. In addition to the fluke, the squid baits are also attracting some stripers, blues and nice big seabass, which are out of bounds until mid-July. That’s especially frustrating since in New Jersey they are in season since yesterday.

The stripers are cooperating nicely with many boats able to catch limits on halfday trips and the ones that don’t only a fish or two short. The good old green ‘chutes are doing most of the damage, but diamond jigs are catching fish as well, and any sighting of birds will also result in a pile of bluefish.

If you are a cold weather fishing aficionado, you will appreciate the news that there will most likely be a new world record for codfish approved shortly after a 103 pound fish was caught by a German angler this week.

For more info about fishing in Montauk, check out www.montauksportfishing.com

And, if you would like to get the reports by e-mail, drop me a line at captaingene@montauksportfishing.com

Anyone have any thoughts on bass/blues for this week (PM if you'd like). Looks like high seas with strong SE winds for most of this week and I don't want to waste the week I'm committed to taking off.

Yes the rough seas will disperse the bait (can't do much about that).

Will be boating out of West Falmouth (27ft) so can get to most places. Going up canal to sheltered bay side is clearly an option (Sandwich thru Brewster) .. but anyone have other thoughts beyond that?

A last minute cancellation let me get a late start on Sunday. At the crack of 9 I rolled into the ramp. 30 minutes later I pulled back on Mackerel batted into the air in small short lived, aggressive feeds. Olive over white, 10” Hogies on weighted hooks got the most attention for me.



Drifting around the mackerel schools showed bass consistently under the boat for about an hour and a half to the end of the tide. In the area over mackerel blind casting and jigging Hogies with a fairly rapid, erratic retrieve brought bass up off the mackerel in groups of 2-3 at a time.



Larger sized X-raps got similar attention. I stuck with casting artificials despite the abundance of live bait, had no real reason to switch over, I didn’t have trouble getting fish to eat. With housework I’ve been ignoring, I headed in around noon. Nice short fix.

Saturday I spent the day at the Red Brook Harbor boat show. After the show I went to look for sea bass. I jigged humps from 15 to 40 ft of water. On my second drift over a hump in approx 30 ft of water I had a group of fish slid under the sonar.



A few seconds later I hooked up on a white bucktail. Thinking I had a decent sea bass I was pleasantly surprised when the fish came to the surface. Another Squeategue. This one a bit further away from the others in open water., and a bit larger in size @ 26”.



A few more drifts over different bottom structure gave up a few short sea bass and a 15” fluke. The fluke was another surprise from 40 ft of water. Mot much to speak of for sea bass that I could find, no surface feeds of stripes to speak of. Every fish I did get showed up clearly using bottom zoom. Running out of light I headed home into the west end of the canal with wind against tide. Made for a fun ride in.

Firs, macks are very thick off the Gurnet. Best time is very early AM...5:30 - ? AM ? It seems that later hours are less productive. I boated 100 in one hour Friday.

Schooling fish have been boat shy, feeding on "micro" bait, and very fussy. Those who crash into them and then swing the biggest plugs only move the school...offering no opportunities for the angler. School fish measure in the teens and low 20's inch range.

There are keeper size fish..so far in the 30 - 35" range. But one needs to work for them. Bigger fish have not yet arrived.

Of course all of this report varies from boat to boat. And varies from tide to tide.

Good luck!