Sorry for the lack of reports… It was a loooooong week. Here is a brief look back at the last few trips.

On Wednesday, day 3 with Larry, we started out slow but ended up doing OK. We worked for everything we got though and even spent an extra 2 1/2 hours on the water trying to figure the bass out. Other than sunburned feet, my reward for the day was watching Larry battle a 50″ 44 pound bass.

We also had Bob and Larry’s son Drew on board. Everyone boated decent fish. Bob had one that went 47″ if I remember correctly. Bob is a big dude, the pic doesn’t really do the fish justice, but it was a just over 40 pounds…

We went in, cleaned a few bass and had some lunch. The guys went on their way and I got ready for a trip with Daiwa and Connecticut Outfitters aboard the Black Hawk. We shoved off at 4 pm with 35 of our customers and fished the race for bass. The weather was nasty with heavy rain and lightning. Our guys made the best of the conditions and caught a few fish in less then stellar conditions. Captain Greg even stayed out an extra hour for us. I ended up with 3 hours of sleep in the truck before meeting Larry and Natt for day 4.

Day 4 was a real grind. The fish just weren’t in an eating mood. I was seeing them on the electronics but we had very few hits. We fished in as little as 15 feet of water and as deep as 80… I think we ended up with 6 bass or so. Again, we worked hard for every fish that we got.

Thursday night I slept like a rock and when the alarm went off at 2:30 am felt like a new man. Larry had Chris with him today. The bait gathering went well. It was overcast with a slight breeze and mist in the air. There were only a couple of other boats out and I felt great about the conditions.

This time we were getting plenty of hits but the fish just weren’t inhaling the baits. We went through quite a few baits and eventually put few fish in the boat. We lost a couple of bigger fish and even had one chase one of our baits to the surface in 30 feet of water. We watched him smash it a couple of times before grabbing it and heading back to the bottom. Not really sure what happened but the hook somehow pulled out of the bass. That one hurt as it was deffinitely over 45″… Oh well. Chris had never fished like this before and was having a ball watching all the action. He was a quick study and picked up technique quickly.  Here are a few pics from my 5th and final day with Larry.

The title says it all… Today was one of the most frustrating days I’ve ever had as a charter captain. I had Larry again today, this time he brought his son Drew and his friend Alex. We started off with a few good sized porgy but it was a slow pick After close to 45 minutes, we decided to head out with what we had. We fished the same spots that have been producing for over a week now and really struggled to find much of anything at all.

We were getting hits, but they weren’t real aggressive. The bass would hit the bait once and that was it. Just enough to kill it and make it useless. We had a couple of hook ups on some better fish and had one that was close to 45″ within a few yards of the boat but it popped off. We dropped another that was a bit over 40 as well. We didn’t get the first fish in the boat until 8:45. By this time we were out of bait so we had to run in and scrape up a few more porgy. This time they were a little more cooperative and we had about 15 in a half an hour. By the time we got back out, the tide had slowed to a crawl so we moved on to another reef. The tide had just turned as we got there and put a 38″ bass in the boat pretty quick. We had a couple more hits but no hook ups so we ran 11 miles back to the first spot in hopes that the change of tide would help.

More of the same… Short hits and dead baits We managed a few more fish over 36″ and somehow lost a few other good ones. I didn’t have to work at CT Outfitters today so we even stayed out a few extra hours in hopes of finding bigger fish but it just didn’t happen. It was one of those days… Tomorrow can only get better!

And so begins another busy week of charters… Today I had Larry for the first of 5 straight days. Larry has been out with me several times in the past, today he brought his friends Tom and Dave with him. Neither had caught a striper much over 20 pounds before. My mission was clear, personal bests for both.

Things started off pretty slow, I was getting concerned when by 6:30 we still hadn’t boated a fish. We dropped a fish that was well over 30 pounds right at the boat but never did get it leadered. We decided to move a couple of miles and try some deeper water. That was the ticket… The guys dropped down into 60 feet of water and almost instantly doubled up. Nothing huge, but the skunk was out of the boat.

We stayed out there for a while and kept catching but the fleet finally closed in on us and we decided to move on to another rock pile that wasn’t so crowded. The tide really wan’t doing much at the new spot so we made a couple of long drifts to give the tide some time to move again. It didn’t take long… In one drift we went from .5 to 1.2 MPH. That was all it took, they were feeding again.

We did well right up until we had to leave. Here are a few pics of some of the better fish on the day:

Frequent flier, Stroby and I had a couple of conversations leading up to todays trip. The forecast wan’t looking good. Winds gusting to 20 out of the south, heavy rain and possible thunderstorms. Couple that with the remnants of a full moon tide and it was going to be sloppy on the reefs. At 6 lastnight, we made the call to go for it. If the fishing hadn’t so damned good all week, we would have stayed home.

We were greeted with a colorful sunrise to the east and dark, ominous clouds to the west.

We got out to the first spot and dropped down into 30 feet of water, Bob hooked up immediately. Gotta love the instant skunk-be-gone! Bob’s fish was a big one and actually pulled the boat around for a bit. Normally we’d chase a bigger fish down to shorten up the fight for a safer release but Bob said he wanted to take one so he went toe to toe with it without my help. You can see how dark the sky is behind hime here… A quick check of the radar confirmed what we already knew…The rain wasn’t far off.

That was the last fish for a while. The tide had slacked and it was now pouring. We stuck it out in hopes of finding more fish on the ebb tide. We made the right call. It took 3 drifts to go from a standstill to 1.1 MPH. We were hooking up again. I hooked up next. This fish fought a lot bigger than it was. It was still a great bass, but I was thinking I had another 50 on the line for a minute.

Bob and i went back and forth hooking fish after fish. It seemed like every drift, one of us had a fish on. The tide was really cranking and we were drifting at 3 MPH and it was very hard to feel the bottom but the fish kept coming. Bob had another real nice fish during all of this…

We could hear the thunder coming. The wind was really picking up and the rain drops were getting big… But we were still hooking up. Just as we boated this fish, there was a flash of lighting that was a little too close. Bob scrambled for the camera, snapped a pic and we quickly got the boat ready for a high speed run back to the ramp. In no time we were doing 50 MPH and passing bigger charter boats like they were standing still. Of course once we got the boat back on the trailer, the storm passed and the rain all but stopped. Oh well… I’m glad we made the call to go. You can’t win if you don’t play!

Here is a video from the morning:

I had Larry and Paul on board today for the first of back to back days. Larry was treating himself to a 50th birthday present. His one and only request was a bass that would put him in the 50 club… No pressure…

The tide was perfect, we had the beginnings of a flood which made it easy to get the bait. We had what we thought was enough in about 45 minutes and headed out. By the time we got to the pile, the tide was moving good. It didn’t take long to hook up. The guys weren’t in the water for 60 seconds before they doubled up… The first few bass were decent but not what we were looking for.

Things started to improve after a while. Larry got the 5th fish of the morning, he stuck a good one that measured 47″.

We had a few more fish that went between 40 and 43″ but things died quickly as the tide slowed. I made the call to pick up and run 10 miles to a spot I hadn’t tried yet this season. The tide had already turned there and was moving a good clip. We only had a few baits and were running out of time. The guys didn’t waste any time at all in hooking up. 4 more fish on the next 6 drifts. All were nice, big fish. Paul had the biggest at the new spot…

We had a great day with 13 fish boated, 8 were over 40″… But no 50′s… Maybe tomorrow!
Here is a quick video of the day’s action:

Wayne and son, Dan made the trek down from VT in hopes of finding some stripers. The hard part was the bait on this trip. The porgy were a slow pick. We eventually got enough to get us started. We made the trip out to a rock pile 30 feet. The tide was cranking at almost 3 MPH so it took some serious lead to hit bottom with some lively scup on the hook.

Wayne hooked up first with a big bass. This one ran him around the boat a couple of times and he had his hands full for a couple of minutes. She measured in at 44″, a nice way to get the skunk out of the boat                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

The bass were not real aggresive this morning. The porgy would do their dance and get hit but never really inhaled. We had lots of hits which resulted in mauled baits but the hook ups were not coming as quickly as they should have. A couple of drifts later, Dan hooked up with his first of the morning.

We kept picking away and were rewarded with a nice morning on the water…
Eventually, the tide slowed and things got much easier. The guys could feel a lot more of what was happening on the bottome and they started hooking up more consistently. We lost a few decent fish but boated several quality bass with one official COW in the mix. For the most part, we never had much company out there. It looked like most other boats were fishing for fluke. Conditions were great all morning, a decent tide and flat calm water… Here are a few more pics of some of the better fish on the day:

Needless to say, we had a vert disappointing striper run in the CT River this spring. If my memeory is correct, we hit flood stage 5 times between April and May in the Hartford area. This was by far the worst season I’ve had on the river. I was very much looking forward to getting back to the reefs…

I had my first charter of the season on today. i hadn’t had a chance to do much scouting so I wasn’t sure what I was going to find. Bait is always my biggest concern. With bunker and hickory shad a no show so far, we would be on the hunt for scup. We shoved off in a thick fog and made our way to my first waypoints on the porgy grounds. It took a little while to find exactly what depth they were hiding at but once we found them, we got a bunch in short order. I was expecting a lot more shorts but there were several keepers in the mix. I wanted to get to the reef early, so we decided to come back for more later and went with 6 baits to get started.

We pulled up and I got Jake and Tim rigged up and showed Tim how to drop down and hit bottom. As I was explaining my technique to him, the porgy started doing it’s death dance. Before I could even hand the rod back to Tim, the bait had been smoked by a striper! I hooked up and handed the rod over. Within 30 seconds of the bait hitting the bottom, we were on! That’s the way I want to start every season…

After a short battle, Tim got the skunk out of the boat with a fish just over 35″. Surprisingly small for a large bait but they wanted a smaller fish for the table… They got it. I bled it out and slipped it in the box.

Things got a little fuzzy after that. We had some pretty fast action for the next few hours. The guys had some BIG fish on and for whatever reason, we dropped 5 fish during the fight. Each fish was on good and screaming drag, even turning the boat in the rip. 2 of them got us in the rocks and broke off, the other 3 just came off somehow. One of them was right at the boat, I was reaching for the leader and the hooked popped out, this fish was a solid 40 pounds. I felt like throwing up… We did eventually manage to put a few nice ones in the boat with the biggest going over 30 pounds. They all went back. Here are a few pics:

All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better way to start my salt season. From here on out, I have a full schedule… There should be some big fish coming over the rails next week!