Caught a few smaller fish 20lbs earlier, should have kept one of them. I like to let the big ole ones live another day. Plus I think the smaller ones are better eating. Any normal day the 20lber is the big fish. Did I just complain about not catching small enough fish?
My running joke has always been to divide the total cost of the boat, gear or gas by lbs of fish. After catching a 20lb fish on a $500 rod, $25 per pound. Or a 3lb fluke after burning $300 in gas, fluke at $100 per pound. Today cut my total cost per pound in half for the season.
Charlie, that would be the best case scenario if they are late. I would think more likely the earlier migrating fish passed us by and we are just getting the tail end of it. I guess that's the pessimistic outlook. In any case just a fishermans guess, no facts involved on my end.
I don't understand the science of this stuff but we had good fishing up until the snow storm and not much until now. There has to be some connection.
Not much happening today, bait is very scattered. No body on the radio hooked up jigging. Few fish trolled and some blues early. Clams on the west bar was slow too.
We didn't find anything at all, what a difference with the storm. Maybe they need a few days. Gotta work friday. Will be back out Sunday, late morning got a church commitment I can't get out of.
Heard a bit of action further west by jones, but nothing great.
Beautiful fish, glad you guys had a great day! They're pretty thick in the Chesapeake right now so they'll be on the way to NC in a month or so. Largest fish in the fall tournament here last weekend was 51.65 lbs. A guy I know caught it trolling 6 rods, only fish for him all weekend. We trolled 30 rods and caught 37 in 2 days, biggest was 33 lbs for us.
-Joe
Come to the chesapeake and i'll show you. Planer boards with up to ten rods on each side and up to twelve pulled off the boat out back. We have to, the migratory fish aren't schooled up.
30 rods is sick. I pull 12 rods and the greenstick for a total of 21 hooked baits for tuna. Now with 4 speader bars 8 rod lures and the stick adds up to 77 lures trolled at once plus the witchdoctor teaser.
Peter, We primarily fish umbrella rigs with shads and one or two rigged parachute/shad lures from our 12 boat rods. Every rod is measured and marked from 35' with heavy inline weight to 300' with no weight. Our planer board rods have one or two parachutes rigged with shads and a trailer hook. Most guys use 9" shads, some use 6 and 12. Once in a while I pull a 21 Tony spoon on the way back line where it can't cause tangles.
30 rods makes a total of up to 60 baits.
-Joe
Brewster, do you ever pull anything below the surface? I've always thought offshore guys were missing out by not running some deep baits. I know some guys pull inline weights or diving plugs for wahoo. Why not when fishing for tuna? I would love to go greensticking with you one day, hehhemmm. Little hint there.
Didn't get a chance to call you on Sunday night. We fished the inlet until 3 on Sunday. No fish BUT we watched a guy who had a live well full of shad catch 4-6 fish a drift. Must have landed 20 fish in an hour and a half. We had some fish that hit but didnt hook up That live well just moved up the priority list. Like a dumb ass I didn't have sabiki rigs on the boat.
Got a few emails today and yesterday supposedly a big school of fish on herring in montauk and moriches was supposedly very active over the weekend.
Also what I marked as bunker a few weeks ago and earlier in the week was very clear on the finder. I marked a different shape this weekend. The bunker looked like a school bus suspended off the bottom, with fish marks down current . If I was marking shad or herring it either showed as more of a ball or a more extended flatter line along the bottom. The finder is new to me and I'm just getting used to what I think I am seeing. Also marked a lot of sporadic individual fish and not as much schooled up clumps. This may also be why the spoons worked much better this weekend. Never found a big enough body to feel like I was dropping a jig into any mayhem
Bottom line I think we've still got a good chance at fish over the next few weeks.
Walter I heard today was non stop teen to 30lb fish on herring in montauk. Don't have any details but did see two nor east reports that seem to back it up.