2011 Jamaica Bay Kayak Fishing Tournament Information

[Shorelady]

I'm glad you brought up the point about boat fishing. It makes sense.
And back to the tourney. The last I heard at the beginning of last week was 188 registered!

[DarkSkies]

Tourney Update:

I heard over 300 people registered and things went pretty well. Shorelady may have the final exact #.

A few friends of mine, Eli and Mark, were in 2nd and 3rd place for a while with 34" fish. They eventually got knocked out of the box by bigger fish. Hey, that's fishing.

These 2 guys fish hard and know JBay like the back of their hands. They put in a lot of time scouting before the event and create all their success through hard work and perseverance. Even though they didn't place, if ya ever have a chance to fish with 1 or both of these fishnuts, take it. Also 2 of the funniest guys you'll ever meet.

The consensus was that the SE weather pattern killed the bite.
I'll buy that.

However, Jbay is filled with baitfish of all kinds...
I think it's significant that notwithstanding the bad weather, no bass were caught over 30#, not many bluefish were caught (in the past years these monster blues were all over that bay), and not one weakfish was caught. Even though weakfish are basically extinct, every year someone nails a nice one in that tournament. This year, not a one, the last I heard.

So, is this just an indication of poor fishing conditions for the tourney?
Or, an indicator that there are actually less fish around?

I don't have enough proof to substantiate either hypothesis, as I haven't fished Jbay to see for myself, yet.....but the tourney results do raise some interesting questions.....

If Jbay, being the marine-life estuary it has been, rich with all types of forage fish, abundant beyond your wildest dreams....is not holding the fish this year that it has held in the past....why not... and where are they???

Again, not looking to down on the tourney, congrats to all, and the effort they put into this.

And well-deserved congrats to Judy (Shorelady) and Dee, who give their all each year for Casting for Recovery.
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...d-support-info

[DarkSkies]

Here's another perspective from Eli, who was 2nd in the tourney for a while. I thought he summed things up pretty well.






"Fishing was not that great...
Here is my full detailed report.

Launched Friday morning pre tourney in the back. Snagged some bunker and started the troll. Went all the way to the pier cut up to the channel with just one Bluefish biteoff.

Went back to where the bunker were thick and snagged a few and again started the troll, this time very close to the shore. I had three bass explode on top of my bunker but just would not commit. If I slowed down, they would ignore it, 1.5kts they would keep missing it....incredible!

Thought long and hard after the captains meeting and decided lets fish there again...

Afternoon bite was on for a brief period. PAPD gave me the big boot. Landed five bass up to 36" and my buddy Mark had one 37.5" that held us both in second and third place only with a 40" fish in first.

Feeling good after day 1 and that area figured we should do it again day two.

Much slower...I was the first boat on the spot and had a live bunker inhaled within five minutes of arriving. Before any other yak got to the spot. Other guys showed up and nothing doing I trolled my livie for about an hour all the way to the end of the runway with just nothing. FINALLY as I wrapped around a security bouy I hit a giant, the circle hook method didn't work on this fish unfortunately and he was gone. I'll be thinking about that horse for sure....

I hit one more 33" bass and that was it.

A pair of 38" fish were caught in the area I caught them Friday afternoon, and a 42.5" fish won it caught on a Tube N Worm.

The action aside from that quick window Friday afternoon stunk. Everyone was pretty excited when I told them I had five fish because most had one or none. "