Kayak Trips and Fishing Reports 2014

[DarkSkies]

It's that time of year again, people.....although the weather and water is too cold for bass in most of our waters yet, if you think creatively and use your yak you can find more than the average fisherman because of the greater access you have.....:fishing:
Anyone who wants to post a kayak report or any intel that can benefit the yakkers..feel free to post up....:HappyWave:

[crosseyedbass]

^^^^^ could always fish the wwds

[DarkSkies]

That's part of what I was getting at Crosseyed bass. :HappyWave:
A kayak gives you access away from all the other folks. With the shrinking of fishing access we face in NJ and LI, I see kayak sales as being ever higher in the next 5 years.



Cheech was out on the 18th..... his first trip of the year. A little early but he enjoyed the exercise. Report and pics courtesy of cheech. :HappyWave:





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"Beautiful out there! Not a tug, but got some great exercise."

[DarkSkies]

Cheech was out again in the Hudson today. Pics and report courtesy of Cheech. :HappyWave:

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"Fished around the point, the trestle, Crawbuckie and back to ossining without a tap.Caught on this day last year, though we're probably a week or two behind with the winter we've had."



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[DarkSkies]

Report and video courtesy of Eli....:HappyWave:


"Quick video I took during my last trip. All fish caught on shad bodies with lead heads either vertically jigged or trolled off the bottom in about 15 feet of water. Simple fishing and very effective."





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H1bR1xduQU

[DarkSkies]

I know there is a pretty strong interest in this tourney.

I usually fish outside the tourney as they're not my thing.....

I do have a few friends who fish it every year.........:HappyWave:
I always try to keep up with how they're doing, and am rooting for one of them to place in the top this year.....
(I believe Eli won it in 2012)

Eli's doing OK so far..... despite tough catching conditions.....
Reports and pics courtesy of Eli....:HappyWave:









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"Yesterday was very tough with the bass with me landing just one in the back of the bay. Seems like the rain didn't help the bite one bit. It was a grind for most anglers maybe edging out two fish at most.



Today was much better with more bass although the size wasn't that big the action was good at sunrise with a mix of gigantic bluefish. I also caught a 22.5" fluke to qualify for Hobie Worlds in Amsterdam. I am going to try and go this year!!"

[nitestrikes]

I hope Elias wins it. I read his reports every week. Have never met him but he seems like a real nice guy. Good luck to everyone.

[J Barbosa]

Took my kayak out for a 6 hour trip this morning targeting big bluefish, wind was blowing pretty strong which can blow a light kayak around.

My brother and I had bluefish throughout the day ranging anywhere from 1-10lbs. Most blues averaging only 4-6lbs today. Managed about 4-5 of the bigger 8-10lb size on one of my homemade bucktails before a bluefish stole it.

We had to work hard for every fish as they were not stacked up in any one area. Five hours of trolling in strong wind and 2ft of chop in the bay...sometimes you get what you put into it. Soar legs and soar arms and as always a good time :thumbsup:

[J Barbosa]

Pictures from Fridays kayak trip.

Rui with a double header.
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[cowherder]

We had to work hard for every fish as they were not stacked up in any one area. Five hours of trolling in strong wind and 2ft of chop in the bay...sometimes you get what you put into it. Soar legs and soar arms and as always a good time :thumbsup:

Awesome report on the bluefish jb. Were you trolling anything else besides bucktails? thanks

[J Barbosa]

Awesome report on the bluefish jb. Were you trolling anything else besides bucktails? thanks

For bluefish I usually troll bombers as I get them used for $2-3 now that everybody wants sp minnows. I usually troll until we find a good concentration of fish and then I'll stop to cast top water plugs to them. Unfortunately yesterday's conditions were not conducive to top water so I used a bucktail.

That's what me and my brother trolled yesterday...bombers. I cast the bucktails when we managed to stay on one of the small schools but like I said the wind quickly pushes you off them when in a kayak.

I also troll the sp minnow when the action is slow. I find the rattles do a good job of attracting fish.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3684/14282180585_8bba83b568_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14282180585/)

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5560/14282180655_848b82d3c4_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14282180655/)

[finchaser]

Way to go JB

[robmedina]

nice I may have to come out with you guys one day after I get my motor:)

[J Barbosa]

Fished with Rui and my brother yesterday off the kayaks looking for big bluefish.


We covered a lot of water and kept picking away at the bluefish throughout the day but never really found any concentration of them until we were on our way back home.


Trolling on our way back about 100 yards from where we launched all three of us hook up :D


One of the bluefish we kept had a fluke in his belly. The blue was about 6#s.


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[rockhopper]

Nice going dude. Seems like every time you are out there on a kayak you catch at least one thing. way to go

[J Barbosa]

Shark nice fish!

I fished off the kayak yesterday targeting bluefish.

We got a bunch of them all in 3-6ft of water.

Seen more bait yesterday than I have seen all season. Adult bunker, shrimp and small rain fish/spearing type bait. The bunker were in deeper water and unmolested.

Small plugs like a Surfstix egglet swimmer were key to catching these bluefish. I did catch a few on a 2oz pencil but I had way more blowup and miss on it (single rear swish only).

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2922/14374495274_be4519c541_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14374495274/)

My buddy Rui got a nice weakfish he released.
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2900/14372079861_073a366f8f_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14372079861/)

We probably fished closer to shore than Darkskies did. :)
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5566/14188788398_2e725e9aa7_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14188788398/)

[J Barbosa]

One of my bluefish from yesterday...not really sure if this is from disease or a shark/dolphin bite. Marks were on both sides but much worse on this side.


https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3862/14375429245_c3627a27ca_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14375429245/)


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5591/14372102821_7b427fa702_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14372102821/)

[cowherder]

Wow great catches on the kayaks rob and john! john that is one scarey looking bluefish!

[hookedonbass]

Hey you can't bat 1000 every day shark. rob that is an awesome video like how you show the teeth of the blue before you put it back. Fished island beach all morning. One blue on metal at 6am otherwise no takers. Jbarbosa that is one nasty looking bluefish what do you suppose did that to it?

[robmedina]

John B- is that a trolling motor in your buddies hobie?

[seamonkey]

I met my fishing buddy Mikey at the bait store at 6am. High tide was 6:14 so we would catch the outgoing from outback. We bought Killies and squid to go fluking. after a brief stop at wawa we were at the bay to launch the kayaks. Water by the powerplant was 75 degrees. We drifted with the current and I caught a 14-1/2" sea robin. We continued drifting but nada. Chatter on the radio was no one was catching flounder.

I said to Mike we need to be by a drop off if we want a chance, so we moved closer to the flats while we were heading that way we saw a small boat with 2 guys and their rods were bent over. Turns out they were catching small blues in the 3-5 lb range. I had to relive myself anyway, so I anchored in the flats and hoped out and did my thing. The buys in the boat moved on. Maybe I scared them??? anyway, so I moved into their position and anchored up and through a SS popper and about my third cast I was in. I was using a very light action spinning rod and man that little 4lb blue was a ton of fun.

We moved around for awhile on the flats. I would stand up in my yak and can see the blues cruising. felt like I was in florida fishing the mosquito lagoon, lol! I could see channels cut through the flats and was able to guestimate where the fish were on a few occasions. Mike only hooked one blue , I got 4. they were all 3-5 pounds, lots of fun.

While we were on the flat Mike noticed a cloud of birds by the BI. Must have been a bass blitz- we heard a 47# bass and a 40# bass caught out front. Mike wanted to go there but I reminded him that he has a screw loose because there was no way we were ever gonna make it by kayak from where we were and we still would have had to go through the inlet- not a great idea.

I tried to catch blues on the fly rod but it was not gonna happen. I need to make some pencil poopers for the flyrod.

Here is a quick video- not promising it's good- but it is what it is.


http://youtu.be/BsZFCKcQaeE

Awesome report looks like you are having the best of times! thanks for sharing

[seamonkey]

One of my bluefish from yesterday...not really sure if this is from disease or a shark/dolphin bite. Marks were on both sides but much worse on this side.


https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3862/14375429245_c3627a27ca_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14375429245/)


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5591/14372102821_7b427fa702_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14372102821/)



that is the nastiest bluefish I have ever seen! I'm surprised it was still alive to hit your lure.

[J Barbosa]

John B- is that a trolling motor in your buddies hobie?

Yes, works really well allows us to cover many more miles of water and fast moving water that would normally tire you out quickly under human power.


that is the nastiest bluefish I have ever seen! I'm surprised it was still alive to hit your lure.

He put up a good fight and swam off quickly. That is one bad *** bluefish.

[robmedina]

Good to know DS- Sunday looks like better wind for the yak. I am gonna take my 2 cinder worms I tied today just incase.

[J Barbosa]

Fished with Rui yesterday off the kayaks. We changed it up for once and decided to target fluke instead of bluefish.

I ended up with one keeper and a bunch that would have been keepers based on last years size limits.

Rui caught three nice keeper fluke.

[J Barbosa]

The fluke I kept on Saturday had several shrimp in its stomach. I am seeing a lot more spearing the past two weeks.

[robmedina]

The fluke I kept on Saturday had several shrimp in its stomach. I am seeing a lot more spearing the past two weeks. John - roughly what size were the shrimp?

[J Barbosa]

Slightly smaller than a quarter.

[robmedina]

ok cool. Thanks. I have been tying up some grass shrimp patterns- was curious what size the natural ones were so I could attempt to "match the hatch"

[J Barbosa]

Fished with my buddy Rui on Saturday.

Had to pick through a lot of shorts but we ended up with two keeper fluke each.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2920/14302447589_7cecd5277f_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14302447589/)

[surferman]

^^^^ Make some nice fluke sandwiches out of that, good job. About how deep water did you find them in?

[J Barbosa]

^^^^ Make some nice fluke sandwiches out of that, good job. About how deep water did you find them in?

About 10-18ft of water, water temps have warmed up and the fluke are aggressive.

Forgot to mention SHRIMP, SHRIMP, SHRIMP again!!!

Hope to get in a bluefish trip this week before they disappear for the offshore spawn.

Also...BLUE CLAWS are in thick and the waters have warmed so they are coming in close to shore making them easier to catch.

[J Barbosa]

Fished the surf last Thursday and came up empty. Definitely on the wrong beach...Fished on Saturday from the kayak and had to pick through a bunch of seaweed and shorts to get some keepers. 10-1 keeper ratio sounds about right.https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5559/14348881387_6ac5fc1b39_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14348881387/)Crabbing this morning was pretty hot. Filled a 5 gallon bucket with big crabs in less than two hours. The guy next to us didn't catch one keeper in over two hours?

[J Barbosa]

Fished this morning off the kayaks - lots of rain, wind, seaweed, shorts...one keeper
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2896/14573370182_c43a3ccb62_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14573370182/)

[finchaser]

Nice going JB


Water in Manasquan inlet and ocean is 59 degrees just came back from boat ride in my friends boat and gave the inlet a quick drift completely void of life didn't even mark bait.

Beaches are opened to surfers only the 8 to 9 foots seas are and honest 3 to 5 if that they are sitting on boards waiting for a decent wave.

[seamonkey]

Thats not bad 8 shorts to one keeper nice going.

[J Barbosa]

This guy looks lonely in the sink all by himself...will have to catch a friend for him next time.
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3842/14657803373_03bd2c8d7e_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14657803373/)

Water in the back is really starting to warm up and it looks like the fluke are heading for cooler waters. Peanuts are in very thick in the usual areas.

[storminsteve]

Water in the back is really starting to warm up and it looks like the fluke are heading for cooler waters. Peanuts are in very thick in the usual areas.

I think I ran into some of those fluke tonight JB. Fished nomoco 6-8:30 managed 9 of them on the gulp mullet. Not one keeper though. A little windy. Still a fun time and nice sunset.

[porgy75]

Nice catching steve and jb!

[J Barbosa]

I fished yesterday again and still no luck finding the elusive croaker. Its almost ironic because last year I felt like it was too hard to fish the bay for fluke because the croakers were like piranhas getting to the gulp before the fluke ever got a chance to see it.

I cast net some peanut bunker and snappers in the morning.

I fished two rods side by side most of the day. On the first rod I put a live or dead peanut bunker and placed it in the rod holder and let the wind and current drift me around.

On the second rod I fished gulp by casting it and jigging it back to the kayak.

Yesterdays results was all shorts on both the gulp and peanuts.

The gulp caught me a lot of tiny fluke all the way down to 6" or so and nothing over 15".

The peanut bunker caught less fish but they averaged out to a larger size up to 17.5".

The bad news is the dogfish have invaded the RB and really love live peanuts. My friend snapped his light fluke rod when a 5ft doggie tried to run under his kayak.

[lostatsea]

Great report jbarbosa and steve.
JB do you feel the kayak lets you get to places where larger fluke are sitting? All I have been getting lately are shorts. I fished moco twice in the last week and got shorts each time. I was using 2 pieces of gulp swimming mullet white and chartreuse. I did catch but the south wind was terrible. I don't know how you guys deal with it?

[J Barbosa]

Lostatsea,

I have a love/hate relationship with the kayak. It definitely has it's advantages but at the same time it's not any easier to pick through all the short fluke and seaweed on the kayak. I think it's just a numbers game...catch 20-25 shorts for every keeper. I hate carrying the dam heavy thing around and once you unstrap it from the roof your kind of limited to fishing within 6-8 miles of the launch point.

When I first bought the kayak I had a hard time even finding the fluke in numbers. There is a lot of water to cover and not all of it holds fluke.

Once the water warms up some more and we get more bait into the surf I'll leave the kayak at home.

Peanuts...yesterday they were all mostly in the 3-5" range. This size is very hard to keep alive but can be done with some work. I threw the cast net two weeks ago and all I could find was lots of 1" peanuts so a new school must have moved in.

[J Barbosa]

Fished on the kayak yesterday targeting fluke. Caught a few shorts but not that many.

Did find the croakers however most were pretty small. Kept 3 that were around 12-16" and went back to fluke fishing. The croakers are too bony to bother with the small ones IMO.

[J Barbosa]

Same as Kayak:moon: unless your on terra firm it's a boat fish

I think we can both agree that both kayak and boat fluke taste delicious even if they don't count. :HappyWave:

[finchaser]

I think we can both agree that both kayak and boat fluke taste delicious even if they don't count. :HappyWave:


I'm with you pal:HappyWave:

[J Barbosa]

Lots of bunker in the bay yesterday. Small pods all over the place...too me that means having a hard time getting your offering to stand out so good job.

[DarkSkies]

Eli has been yakking JBay almost every day. He got his personal best fluke yesterday, 11.1 lbs.
Pics and report courtesy of Eli. Outstanding job. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :HappyWave:


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[Some days it's your lucky day. Today was mine. Did my usual fishing tricks and hit one that had some serious bend to the pole! What a fish indeed. Rounded out the catch for another 4 or 5 keepers up to 23" and some stripes to 28".]

[cowherder]

:clapping:Wow that is a real doormat. Nice catch Eli!

[J Barbosa]

:clapping:Wow that is a real doormat. Nice catch Eli!

A true doormat...congrats Eli.

[J Barbosa]

Kayaked the RB yesterday with my brother and Rui. We launched around 5:30am. There was a steady rain and it was blowing 15-25mph out of the North East. Seas were 3-4+ ft in the bay...anyone who has fished the RB knows it gets down right nasty with a North/East wind.

We fished 20-35ft of water and had non stop fluke action. I must have caught over 100 fish but only managed two keepers, one 18.5 and one 19. My brother caught one keeper at 25" and Rui caught a keeper as well.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5557/14632619128_04aba61b06_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14632619128/)


Only saw a few boats out there yesterday...about 3 party boats sailed and less than a handful of private boats. Again, where is everyone?

Also to the boat out of the RB that posts reports on a few different sites...where is your report from yesterday? I saw you out there I guess you didn't put enough meat on the deck to put up winning numbers for this tournament? A real fisherman posts all the reports or none not just the good but I guess that would be bad for future business.

[surferman]

There was a steady rain and it was blowing 15-25mph out of the North East. Seas were 3-4+ ft in the bay...anyone who has fished the RB knows it gets down right nasty with a North/East wind.



Thats interesting because in cape may a northeast wind is sometimes good for the back side. Turns the fish on big time. You were out in 3-4ft waves? You are a madman kudos to you dude! What did you catch that bluefish on were you using gulp?

[surferman]

Dude you could wipe 2 pairs of feet on that doormat. Awesome catch congrats!

[Blazin420]

...So finally got out on the kayak yesterday afternoon and found some decent action once the tide switched...Landed 18 total with 1 nice 20in keeper lost another decent fish at the yak about the same size*..Had 3 or 4 others that were last season keepers all in all a good day on the water...Lots of bunker swimming around with a couple good sprays in them..Most action was in 18-20ft of water FF read the water temp @ 76 deg....

[J Barbosa]

Nice going Blaze, I wouldn't mind seeing the 17.5" size limits again either!

[robmedina]

Blaze were you out front or in the bay?

[Blazin420]

Blaze were you out front or in the bay?
I was in the Sandy hook bay...And i agree John i wanna go back to the 17.5 regs threw a bunch back this year even from the beach that would have been in the cooler last year..

[J Barbosa]

I fished yesterday afternoon after work for two hours on a friends boat. Like Blaze reported there is big adult bunker all over the bay. Also saw lots of those luminous (at night) jellyfish all over the place.

Managed one keeper fluke, some shorts and another one that would have been a keeper last year.

Seems like more croakers may have moved in as my gulp was really getting attacked and I managed three bigger ones.

Croakers and keeper fluke came out of 30-40ft of water.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5572/14847903151_52592c670e_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14847903151/)

Got this awesome double sided fluke. I can't remember the proper name for them?
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3848/14664343319_aa2d41b81d_b.jpg (https://www.flickr.com/photos/94721242@N02/14664343319/)

[hookset]

Nice going B420 and JB. Like the coloring on that fluke. Fished moco early morning before sunrise. One stargazer on bucktail and gulp.

[jigfreak]

Good going fellas. have to be in it to win it. jb you are prob one of the best advertisements out there for buying a kayak.

[DarkSkies]

Eli did it again. Pics and report courtesy of Eli. :HappyWave:


"Although the bite seemed very slow for bay fluking I had favorable conditions for a shot at them early in the morning on Sunday.I had been fishing other areas for striped bass and the ocean side a bit with good results. But I wanted to get a feel for the bay myself. I made quick work with my Spro and Gulp combo and after a very solid, a pole that was pretzeled over I gently slipped this giant into the net.


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All I needed for a morning of fishing. Fish was 31" long and weighed into Bernie's B&T at 12.0 lbs. A phenomenal August!"

[J Barbosa]

Dam...two fish of a lifetime back to back. :clapping:

[DarkSkies]

^ He's back at it again, JB....

First a report I forgot to mention...
Kayaker Danny V got a 50......MB area......

I think it was the morning of 10-25-14...DannyV was fishing a live bunker.....got himself a 50#....very nice bass, Danny...:clapping: :HappyWave:
I think further details and pics might be on FB...post it if you want......and congrats to Danny for a well-deserved fish. :thumbsup:

[DarkSkies]

Eli's Pre Halloween fish.....


Report and pics courtesy of Eli.....:HappyWave:

Well it's been pretty lackluster overall this fall. Spent most of the time blackfishing across the pond with good results. A few bass here and there but not like the last 3 years. Until Thursday, the bay was cool, clarity was good and a fish I have never seen like this swallowed my bunker. Bottom of the outgoing tide I had a monster run on a livie.

She measured 49" and was put back to swim after photos. Looking at formulas she would be right in that magic range, I'll never know, but it was great to see this torpedo swim off. Being a fish gorging on bunker think there is a chance it was 50. I've lifted a 46" bass into the kayak before, but this one made the boat feel tippy like never before. Thank you Gene for the photo.

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Sometimes just be ready for anything, go out and fish because life is too short, enjoy every moment