Just as it got light out, we started hooking up. From 6:45 till 8, we went through all 18 eels. No fish over 40 inches but lots of quality bass. We were marking tons of fish right on the rip line, every time we dropped we had hits. Once we ran out of eels, we tied on Reaction Strike Revo shads and Bombers and fished them the same way we did with the eels. It was insane. With the lures, we had more blues than bass but it was fast action. The blues were BIG, most were at least 14 pounds. The lure in Mike’s pic is 9″ long, the Bomber is a 7″ B17 series…

As the tide died, we had to use the trolling motor to keep us pointed into the current. The boat was moving just enough to give the lures some action. The hits were solid. Most hits came in 25 to 30 feet of water and as soon as a blue was hooked it would rocket straight up and jump. As much as I despise blues, this was kinda fun… Especially since I wasn’t losing baits and hooks on every drop.

We left the Shoal at 9 so that I could get to work on time. That sure felt good to sratch that itch!

The reports over the weekend were not all that encouraging, but we had a couple of spots we wanted to check anyway. We had kind of hoped to make it to Montauk, but it didn’t take long to realize that it was not going to happen… Once into New York waters, there were breaking 6 foot waves with a few solid 8 footers thrown in occassionally just to to keep you on your toes. We were never in danger, we just didn’t feel like riding for 2 hours through that kind of crap. Instead, we turned north to look in some of the protected coves along the back side of Fishers Island instead.

There were plenty of birds working pods of bait and there were definitely fish under them. As it turned out, they were all bluefish. We shut the motor off and just drifted with the wind, scanning for any signs of albies. Sure enough, a few minutes into the drift, they showed up. They were in small pods and would only show for 10 seconds at a time, but it didn’t take long to figure out a pattern and set up an ambush. They weren’t far from the blues but they definitely kept their distance. When they did surface, the birds closest would flap frantically against the wind to get there in time. Sometimes they made it, more often they didn’t. We noticed a few birds that would stay higher, off the water, about 50 feet and just follow the albies. Where ever those birds went, eventually the albies would pop. Every time we were able to get the boat in front of the birds and make an accurate cast in the howling wind we were rewarded with a hit. The hook up ratio wasn’t all that great but we managed to hook quite a few and got several in the boat. We didn’t take too many pictures today as the weather was just too ugly to risk the camera, but we did manage to get some video  with my waterproof set up. Here are some pics and video…

Video from the day:

I had a hunch that they’d be along Fishers Island. We stayed tight to the south shore in an attempt to stay out of the worst of the wind. The conditions were much better there. There was still a huge swell coming in from the open ocean from what was left of hurricane Igore but it was not a problem to fish in. It was pretty cool watching the waves pile up along the shore line…

It wasn’t long before we found what were looking for… The birds were in a frenzy and the albies were tearing through the pods of bait. Justin started with a Deadly Dick and I used a 95mm Sebile Magic Swimmer. We both hooked up right away 

We hammered away at the albies, putting a bunch in the boat. As usual, the boat looked like a crime scene in no time at all. The albies were puking up anchovies all over the boat. The deck felt like skating rink… During the melee, we were  unhooking fish as quickly as possible to get the lures back in the water. It was bound to happen soon or later… I zigged and my albie zagged  and the next thing I knew I had on set of hooks stuck in my hand and an unhappy albie still attached to the second set… Sunofabitch! I manged to pin the albie to the deck with my knee and told Justin I could use a little help. Somehow he knew without looking what had happened. The first thing we did was get the lure and albie separated. The albie went on his way and we sat down to survey the situation. I had always heard about popping the hook back out with some pressure on the shank of the hook and snapping the hook backwards with some line wrapped around the bend of the hook. That was our only option… I cut a piece of fluorocarbon and looped it around the hook and told Justin what I wanted him to do… One, two, three, yank… I looked down to see the lure still stuck to my hand! Justin’s hands were wet still and the line slipped out of his hand. OK, dry the hands, rewrap the hook and let’s try it again. Second go around was much better. I tied my lure back on and got back in the game.

We boated a bunch more fish and I was able to play with my new toy. I recently purchased an underwater housing for my HD camera and was really looking forward to seeing what it could do. I have a few things to figure out but I was pretty happy with the initial results… See for yourself:

Here are few more pics from the morning…

]]> http://fishingct.com/long-island-sound-fishing/albies-in-a-small-craft-advisory/feed 1 http://fishingct.com/long-island-sound-fishing/it-only-takes-one http://fishingct.com/long-island-sound-fishing/it-only-takes-one#comments Sat, 18 Sep 2010 10:43:21 +0000 Captain Blaine Anderson http://fishingct.com/?p=933 Stroby and I launched at 3 this afternoon in search of stripers. The fishing has been so poor and the bluefish so thick that I haven’t actually targeted stripers in over a month now. The fall run should be setting up soon and I want to be there when it does. We took a ride in search of albies first, making our way through the Race, Ruins, Gut and then the Sluice Way. It was absolutely dead!  No birds, no bait… Until we got to the Gut. I think every bird in the Sound was there. The flock stretched across the entire width of the Gut. There were quite a few boats but everyone was jigging bluefish. There was very little surface action. We watched for a while hoping to see an albie pop but it was all blues.  On our way between the Gut and the Sluice, we stopped to jig some porgy to trade in for some bass. we found what we were looking for and headed east to the Sluice Way. The tide was cranking pretty good with drifts about 3.5MPH. We fished there for about a half an hour before running out of bait thanks to an endless supply of blues.

The sun was getting low on the horizon, so we decided to run to Bartlett’s, reload on porgy and try our luck there. The porgy were no problem, but the blues were. We went through a pack of hooks in the blink of an eye. Just before dark, my porgy started doing it’s typical death dance and then got thumped. This definitely was NOT the machine gun feel of a blue!  As soon as I was tight to the fish I knew I had a bass and a good one at that. Never got a weight, but she was 50″. It sure felt good to have a big fish in the boat again! That was it for bass…

It got dark and we moved off to Black Point hoping to get away from the blues. We switched from porgy to eels and hit my three favorite waypoints. There was an absolute TON of bait but, once again, the only fish around feeding were bluefish. We went through 6 or so eels and finally came to the realization that there just was no escape. We were back at the ramp around 9. That one bass made it all worth while, hopefully it’s a sign of things to come!

There were lots of horror stories of all out combat fishing over the weekend. Luckily we avoided all of that. There were a few boats but we managed to find our own fish and for the most part had them to ourselves. Even when there were other boats nearby, everyone worked together. There were even guys out in kayaks that were hammering the fish.

Jay and Andrew stuck with the deadly Dicks for the most part and I used a Sebile Magic Swimmer. We had too many doubles to count and at least 6 triple hook ups. At one point, we had a grand slam on at the same time, a blue, a bass and an albie… The birds were thick all day and would really ball up tight when the fish pushed the bait up. We were treated to a great show on more than one occassion.

With birds and fish and fishermen working so close to together, it was inevitable that we’d snare a few birds along the way. I think we got 5 birds in the boat. All flew away unharmed… That is not the birds blood on the deck!

As we fished we kept setting new goals. We wanted to hit 50 at first… 9 am… What next? Let’s get 75… 11:45, now what? Can we really get 100? Number 100 came on board at 2:05.

Here is some video of the action:

We decide that once we hit 100 that we would pack up and head home and check some local waters. We made our way to the south side of Fishers Island and worked our way west towards the Race. We came across a couple of pods of albies that were almost as thick as what we left at Montauk. For whatever reason, these fish were pick. Jay ended up putting number 101 in the boat but that was the only local fish. We were all pretty beat by then and after the day we had just had, we didn’t feel like working for them anymore. We were back at the ramp just before 4. 80 miles and 101 albies…. Maybe that’s whay I feel like I was in a car wreck!

It took a while for things to get going. There was quite a bit of bait spraying out of the water, but no real sign of bonito under them. Most of what we saw was small bluefish tearing through the pods of bait. We had no action till a little after 7, then the surface activity started. The bones were spread outr and in small pods. They didn’t stay up for long, but when they happened to pop up within casting distance, we had hits. Andrew had the first couple in the boat.

The higher the sun got, the tougher it got. The water was like glass. Albies and bones feed much better when there is a little chop on the surface. We picked away at a few more. They were really chowing down the silver sides. It was tough to match such a small bait but I knew I had picked the right lure when I had 3 hits in 6 casts… A small Sebile Magic Swimmer was the key to the last few fish in the boat.

I needed to get back to Connecticut Outfitters for the afternoon shift so we had to start heading back by 10. It was a short trip, but as always, Block produced for us yet again!

It started slowly at first. A few birds began to congregate. A few silversides hopping across the surface and then…

The bonito were blowing up in small pods all around us. We threw a bunch of casts with Deadly Dicks into the mayhem but never got touched. After 10 minutes, we switched over to plastics and instantly had blow ups. I was throwing a pearl 5″ Houdini and Josh was using a Super Fluke. We both hooked up and were promptly cut off. We had plenty of action, but started the morning by going 0 for 5. Luckily, things improved after that… Josh boated the first one.

I  got the next one…

Things got blurry after that. There were fish blowing up all around us for close to an hour. We had numerous explosions and several more hook ups. In typical tunoid fashion, the boat looked like a crime scene when all was said and done.

Here is a short video of one of Josh’s fish:

Bonito steaks are marinating in the fridge for tomorrow’s dinner!

Monday’s charter was with Chris and his dad, Tony. We managed only one good sized bass in the boat. Here are a couple of pics…

Yesterday, I had the crew from Bookfishingtrips.com again. I warned them of the fishing conditions but they wanted to give it a shot anyways. They were valiant in their fight against the bluefish and were eventually rewarded with 3 bass. None of them were worthy of taking the camera out in the nasty conditions we had…

Better days are ahead!

In the next 2 hours, the guys put a dozen fish in the boat. There were a couple that went 44 and 43″ and the rest were all the cookie cutter 40 to 41″ range with a couple just under that. The bluefish were present but managable all morning, I only lost 8 hooks today… Did I mention how much I hate bluefish????

Here is some video of the guys:

Here are a few pictures from the mornings action: