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Neils boat wasn't in the water 48 hours and it was off to the bass grounds. We got an early shot of fish going up to spawn this year and it was game on. Must of caught 20-25 fish all on spoons in about 3 hours, doubles almost every pass. You can't believe how much these kids have grown in season. All the adults (Mark, Neil and myself) cranked maybe one fish each, the rest were all done by Jr and Cort. Both of these kids did a fantastic job, they are shooting the wire out on their own, pulling the rods out of the holders, gaffing fish and beginning to leader (the most dangerous for fingers).

So anyway lots of fish in the teens with the largest going 38.75 lbs. And we did it all at 16kts!!!!!!!




Needless to say the season is off to a great start, now if we could just get the kids to change oil and paint the bottoms.

Awsome trip. Good job.

Jp, great fishing! glad to see there are some fish around. The kids look to be having a ball. Went out yesterday on a 54 Bertram nice boat, great crew, had a good time. went out beyond the big rock in to the stream, 75 degrees water. one white marlin spit the hook or I dropped him, but since I'm telling the story he spit the hook. It's good to be on the water again. thanks again for your help...Russ

thats what i like to see, great job

teach us jp ,you say spoons are they on monel ? i notice the jersey boys going with monel then triple swival with 4 to 6 oz. sinker then 20' of 50lbs. mono with large style bunker spoon is this the rig? at what speed ? i cannot troll for bass with my boat because it cannot go slower then 5.4 knots one one engine with drogue but i have the use of center console and would like to try for early bass.----thank you

Nice start to the season.. great having the kids along,too
Wayne

Nice. I fished here on the Bay Friday with my kid, and only managed one 38" fish. It was hot (of course when I was working), and has really cooled off in the last week. Guys in the southern bay are supposedly tearing them up. Nothing better than fishing/catching with kids.

jp ,thanks for posting the pics,lets hope our next trip is half that good

Nice work and even better to share with the kids. Funny how different tactics are up and down the east coast. Here in the Chesapeake we troll a rediculous number of rods (up to 28 on the charters without tangles), mainly in the main/deep channel of the bay in 60 to well over 100ft of water. Most people don't use spoons anymore as they are "agressive" and will reak havoc on the spread. We prefer "passive" parachutes for the most part.

Questions: Are you using weighted "bunker" spoons?
When you say each pass, are you fishing structure? A channel? Depth?
How many rods?

Just curious, congrats.

Also, you're allowed to gaff stripers (rockfish here)? Not so here in MD even if its clearly a legal fish.

Great pics JP

You and Neil should be proud......those kids will talk about these days for the rest of their lives......wish there were more like you guys



Harry

really great in every way.

Great Job there guys! Cort & JR

JP, you and Neil need to get them some video's on how to change oil and paint the bottoms of both of them boats.

DQ

Questions: Are you using weighted "bunker" spoons?
When you say each pass, are you fishing structure? A channel? Depth?
How many rods?

We are using just the regular montauk spoon. It has a weighted keel but other than that no other weight than the wire line.

We fish mainly structure or pods of fish in the open bottom. Each pass I'm refereing to each run over the most productive areas.

Max rods for us with spoons is 3 most days we only fish two rods.

Bob, If your that fast on 1 its time to get trolling valves, seems a shame to done all that work and have to use a center console to go bass fishing on. The rigs are simple 300 feet of wire, monel or stainless your choice with a 25 ft wind on leader at 130lbs. Clip the leader to the spoon put it in the water and "tune" it then drop her back. You can get away with almost 4 kts if you know how to tune the spoons, I like 3.2, theres nothing really to teach, you just have to do it. And don't let your spoons spin.

Thanks for the great comments the kids went to the Manasquan River Marlin Tuna Club Spring Opener yesterday. Jr won largest bass in the juniors division and Cort won largest Bluefin and Yellowfin in the juniors. Lots of fun.

thanks for the return post .you mention montauk spoons so i assume you are using there favorite color ;green. 300' of monel and no other weight tells me you are down 30' in the water column so your just outside the inlet.last year i try to troll with the boat running on one engine i could get down to 4.8 then i would go in and out of gear to try to maintain 4knots also letting the spoon drop and then rise up . do you have any luck with unbrella rig on one side and spoon on other ? i guess a little tough for your young girl to reel in but i am sure the older boys can handle it. over here in fire island inlet the unbrella rigs seam to outperform the spoons and can pick up school blues to be frozen for chum later in the year.like i said before trolling is not very popular here for some reason most like to use clams and drift next month the baitfish start schooling up outside the inlet and the experiance fisherman go to livelining.as to the boats not being able to go slower then 6nots or so i weight this with the ability to get 18gal a hour at 28 knots to go to offshore wrecks and of course the 72mile run to the canyon .even at 18knots the fuel economy more then offsets the disavantage of not being able to troll for bass. most often we get birds going bonkers on a school of baitfish and the guys would much rather cast lures behind the drift of the blues attacking and go for the bass underneath rather then the somewhat boring troll .this time of year you have to go for anything that works like you and the children enjoyed .

Bob,

Don't assume anything. The spoons and the colors are visible in the pic, no secrets here.

The offer is still on the table, if you want to learn come on down. Even though we're trolling I don't think you'll be bored.

Here the colors are either White with Red on the Keel or Plain SS with Red on the Keel. I make other colors but only to sell as eye candy...never really productive with other colors.

Trolling a Spoon and an umbrella...you either need to adjust speed for the spoon which makes the umbrella less effective or you adjust the speed for the umbrella and the spoon becomes less effective.

If your catching blues your not on the bottom.

3-3 1/2 is my speed of choice...you should get 3-4 sides side to side spoon motions followed by one nice erratic motion then back to a side to side motion. It takes a bit of speed and spoon tweaking to get it right. When you see what you like at the surface...watch the poles pumping action... thump thump thump thump and one good pull...wait a sec then thump thump. When you let it down make sure you still have the same action...a bit more sedate as you let out more line...but he same action non the less...and not a quicker flutter as that means the spoons spinning. Currents under neath are not always the same as on the surface...so you'll have to adjust accordingly.



Here we are only allowed to fish two rods when trolling...somehow I always find myself with at least four and maybe a downrigger or two unless the fishing is good. That is unless I am by the VZ bridge...they patrol there all the time...so it's two rods or a fine.

Another word of caution on trolling both spoons and umbrella rigs. They don't track behind the boat the same. It's a must to fish the spoon way away from the umbrella or you will find the two lines tangled with hundreds of twists, ruining both lines. Spoons are "agressive", umbrellas are "passive".

Of the numerous rods we fish on the charters in the Chesapeake, one of the most productive by far is as follows:

Either 35' or 55' feet of line (80 lb braid) to a 28 ounce inline sinker, 24' leader (60lb mono/fluoro) to an umbrella. When I say umbrella, here we use 6" plastic shads as teasers and a parachute with a 6", 9", or 12" shad trailing back about 20". It's lethal and you guys up north could fish one of these along with your spoon out 300'.

An old post of mine Dec. '08.
http://www.bertram31.com/newbb/viewtopi ... 7e3629a963

Face wrote:Also, you're allowed to gaff stripers (rockfish here)? Not so here in MD even if its clearly a legal fish.

To the best of my knowledge, it's the same here in NY!!

That would be news to the Montauk Charter fleet.

Harv wrote: To the best of my knowledge, it's the same here in NY!!

Not judging, just asking.
-Joe