Kayak trips and fishing reports 2011

[DarkSkies]

2 day report


Mon PM - yak fished 3 hours in windy conditions, 1 short bass on T&W.
At first I planned to fish a few places, but the first stop proved difficult with the steady wind. I missed the flood tide as well, and had to fight against current for the duration. However, after hearing all the great yak reports for 4 days, I theorized some other places would be holding good bodies of fish for the artificial bite. I was dead wrong on this theory, and spent the 3 hours proving it to myself. In the end, I was able to scratch one small bass on a T&W. The lamemess of that was apparent, as I trolled past lots of structure. If there were a reasonable amount of bass there, I should have had more action.

Slightly discouraged and with a building wind, I bagged if for the night with the yak still on the car.









Tue AM- had a small window before it got snotty this AM. Had 1 hour to fish before work. Got to the party a little late. It seems some of the nicer fish are nailed right around sunrise. Managed 2 short yak bass on artificials.

They're hitting the plugs hard on the troll. I initially started out much further than I needed to be until I realized the fish are in relatively tight.

I started trolling bombers but got no love with them. Switched to small flashy yo-zuris, and got action within a few minutes. I got 2 short bass after that, and had to stop to get to work. The tide was dropping out anyway, and you could see the action dropped with the dropping tide.... (I believe this is called EBB Tide.... )

Met MSGDan (DannyV) out there and some of the guys he was with. He was giving pointers to a newbie, a younger kid who seemed very appreciative as Danny got him into a few fish. Despite his unselfishness, Danny remained high hook for the morning, getting into 15 fish to 36". 10 of these were 30" and better.

There were also a lot of small fish hooked as well, but the level of activity was the addicting part for me. Although I missed most of it, the little that I did experience will keep me coming me back until those fish spread out.

On the way in, I got a chance to talk with Dan a little more. I'm thinking about nominating this guy for a Kayak outdoorsman of the Year award. In a world where many fishermen, shore, yak, boat, are into it for the numbers and the ego, MSGDan is one of the old-school sportsmen, never too busy to help a new guy out or talk fishing. And he's about as hard-core as they come. Nice to finally meet ya, Dan.

I took some pics of his fish. Maybe if I get his permission, I'll post later. Quality fish, they seem to be eating well.

[jigfreak]

Now thats what I'm talking about, you finally got out there ds.
Shorelady - nice fish your friend got there! Looks like you all got into a mess o bass. Same thing in SJ, fellas, it busted open over the weekend.

[storminsteve]

Wow, great effort ladies and gentlemen! I need a kayak!

[DarkSkies]

Steve, these fish are in tight. They're roaming the edges in the low light hours and when the tides are high.

DannyV got a 36" bass within 50' of the sand right around sunrise. Although the kayakers have an advantage here, for those motivated enough to try for them from the beach, they're definitely close at the right time and tide, on the dark side. Check your PMs.

[DarkSkies]

Fishing "window".. cold dirty water killed a 6 day winning streak

Yak fished the bay before sunrise and 2 hours into the ebb.
Some of the best of the best yakkers were out there.

MSGDan and Joey C launched before me. They got nothing in the pre-dawn darkness. I fished from 5:30-7:30am.

Ran into Joh Schein, kayak author and owner of KFM,, and his buddy on the way out. Very nice gujys, it was cool to finally meet them.

Cold dirty murky water. Official temp guage today said 58. There was no way the temps were anything near that where we were.
I think they managed 1 fish among 6 of them, according to an e-mail I just got.
I veered off from them and worked several miles of sod and structure, drifting with the current.
Used every cold water presentation I had, not a tap.

I figured they had the deeper water covered, so I went all the way down, working every inch of the structure and sods with small rubber, swimmers, and bucktail.

A long way to go for no action, but as a fisherman I had to give it a shot.

I saw the guiys still out there when I left.

IMO the water is too cold and muddy for atificials. I did get a report that some bass were nailed by guys using the T&W in another location. That's one presentation I didn't use. Next time.

On an end note, we all focus on the fishing, and the catchin. That's what guys want to see.

I may get some grief for this, but the sunrise colors on the water this morning were spectacular. The full sun stayed behind the clouds until 8AM. Athough no signs of fish life, there was a richness of bird and animal life at each place I passed by.

Several kinds of ducks and shorebirds, many that I couldn't even identify.
The usual geese and gulls, and the laughing gulls as well (No Swans, though ) It was a truly awesome morning out there, and I was glad to be a part of it.

[DarkSkies]

There had been some good action in the bay with some teen bass and stray bluefish under the bunker schools. Hoping to get a piece of that action, I launched in the bay at 5:30am this morning. High wiinds were forecast for later on, but I saw an early window and took a shot.

I heard the bunker flipping when I launched. As I got out to where they were, I realized they were scattered as opposed to bunched up together. Sometimes that works. Other times it's not enough concentration to stimulate mass carnage by bass and bluefish. That was the case today, as there seemed to be very few fish around, including bunker.

I snagged and dropped for awhile, no action. When I realized that wasn't going to work, I snagged 2 more and put out pieces. No action on those either.

So eventually I decided to troll and jig past structure, with dannys, small mid-water swimmers, rubber, and bucktails. No action at all. No action either for the boat out there fishing with clams and bunker, or for the shore guys fishing the same.

With the wind building I decided to head back to the put-in. Met some good people, and swapped stories. Sometimes the best part of fishing is the intel you develop when the bite sucks.

Ran into 2 yakkers, John, and Mark (aka PassionForFishing). Seems many in the kayak world know Judy (Shorelady) and her friend Dee, and Dee's work with Casting for Recovery.
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...d-support-info

The JBay tournament seems to be on everyone's mind for now.
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...nt-Information


Also spent a long time talking to an old-time sharpie , a guy who doesn't even know the meaning of the term, but fits the bill nonetheless.

Matt, a 78 year old retired steamfitter who would rather throw artifcials than anything else, showed me his old-school plug bag. This bag contaiined plugs and bucktails he either made or modified to most effectively work the areas he fishes. He caught a 52" late Spring bass 7 years ago using one such modified small plastic plug. Great stories, I could have listened to them all day. When I get a chance I'll try to post some of his plug mods.

The main problem with today is the bunker were very scattered, and the strong winds. The fish are on the move in the ocean in their Northern migration, though. Any time you can dial in to intercept these fish you'll be rewarded.

[DarkSkies]

Jbay fishing has been pretty dismal this year, nothing like comparable catches for April and May in years past. The Jbay tournament results were pretty poor. Weather was a factor in this, but historically it's been a lot better even with bad weather.

2 of the most hardcore yakkers I know, Eli and Mark, had been out there many times getting blanked, or only connecting with schoolies. Yet they wouldn't give up, they persevered.

They went out again in the fog, Thu night and half of Fri. They found the bunker and some bigger bass, at last.

Eli got 7 bass to 39", Mark has the hot hand with a 46" 32# fish.

Here's a video Mark took. Awesome effort guys, you really worked for those fish, well-deserved!

[CharlieTuna]

Great report, send some of those big ones up this way.

[Shorelady]

Fantastic!!!

[hookset]

Wow those are some monster bass!

[baitstealer]

Love those video reports keep them coming

[DarkSkies]

We call Eli the Human Fishfinder, the dude lives to fish, and has racked up some pretty impressive catches this year. He puts in a lot of time and fishes rain or shine. I remember one day last year I drove over to meet him, and we fished Jbay in 3-4' swells.

WTG, Eli.

Some of the videos he's put up recently:


Bluefish






35" Jbay bass

[fishinmission78]

Awesome, I need to get me a kayak.

[dogfish]

Thanks for these Dark and Co. We're still getting schoolies here, nothing big yet. I've been out on the yak 4 times with only rats to show for it.

[DarkSkies]

DannyV got some nice bass 4-12 in the back of RB, just now getting around to posting it.

WTG, Danny, it was great to finally meet ya in person!

[DarkSkies]

Eli and Mark were going to make a trip to Moco NJ from LI to try to hammer some of the big NJ bass that had been around.. I tried to help them wiht launch intel, but at the last minute they didn't like the wind, and decided to abort for the Western Sound.


Although they didn't get any big bass, they had an awesome day catching multiple species. there seems to be more bait in the W Sound now than there is in NJ, so naturally the predators were following. Sandeels and rainfish were there by the millions, and it was an all out bonanza for these 2 as they each caught over 75 fish for the day.

That's impressive by any standard. Mark (Iplayfair) has kind of a goofy way about him but I mean that with all respect. Watch the video as he plays fish after fish. This guy is a great fisherman, loves to fish, and has a ball no matter what fish he catches.

If anyone has any production contacts, I'm thinking these 2 guys would make a great segment for kayak fishing for ESPN outdoors. I think they would be immensely popular. Their enthusuasm for fishing jumps right off the screen.


Here's the report, with video......




Mark-
Man what a blast !! Me and Elias slammed the fish today. We caught everything !! Mostly porgies and fluke though. We caught Porgies, Fluke, Bass, Bluefish, Searobins, and even a dogfish. The porgies were HUGE !! great scrapy fighters. The biggest was around 3 pounds. I had a few double headers with bass and a porgy. Crazy action that lasted all morning. We both kept a limit of pork chops and probably caught over 75 fish each. Lots of laughs, a nasty sunburn and a filthy kayak....Great stuff !!


Eli -

Had birds working ALL morning, all sorts of species busting, fluke were rolling like carpets, sea robins were tail slapping and the best were when the Porgys were on top and assaulting the jigs!!!! I caught at least 20 porgys on jigs! Some of the bigger ones too!

I dropped a very nice Fluke early in the morning as it took me off guard.

I am glad plan b worked out but we need to get to that ocean and cream those monsters.

At least 75 fish caught today by each of us, I had about 5 Bass, 2 Bluefish (one gator), 40 Porgies, about 15-20 Fluke, and some trash in the mix.

[fishinmission78]

I wish I had a kayak today, the bass were just out of reach. Cool report- that guy Mark is nutz!

[DarkSkies]

Observed Swell report. Moco to Occo:

Thought I would start putting these up. I wanted to bring the yak down yesterday as some of the bunker were too far out of reach. Also got some intel that blues 13-17# are reachable in a reasonable distance from a surf launch, maybe 1 mile out in places.


Looking at www.njsurfer.com web cam, it seemed do-able for a surf launch. The winds forecast weren't that bad either. However, when you get to the water, it's usually a different story.
When I really am worried about the conditions, I'll supplement my search with www.wunderground.com or some other hourly forecast site.

For some of the folks who live far from the surf, I'll try to post OBSERVED swell info every time I'm out fishin. That's an important factor to me, and should be for folks who are concerned about safety.

Yesterday, even though the bunker were relatively close, the heavy fog, storms, coupled with the swell, were serious marks against a safe trip. I heard of some guys raring to get out there, but I urge ya's to let safety be your guide.

Yesterday I watched a fellow fisherman dive in and swim 70' out to retrieve a lost plug after we failed to snag it, more on that in another thread. No fish or piece of gear is worth your life.




Swell info Fri PM:
Waves 3-5, NE swell, duration 2-3 secs

Swell info Sat AM:
Waves 1-3, NE swell, duration 5-6 secs

[DarkSkies]

The Human Fishfinder was out again.
He hit up Jbay in the early pre-dawn hours, found some smaller adult bunker and livelined them....
Though others have caught big monster fluke on live bunker, it's not very common. The biggest fluke are aggressive predators and hit like a freight train.
I'm not a big fan of fluke fishin, but when I taked to him and heard the story, my blood was pumping!

Great report, even though you dropped the biggest one, bro. You'll gettum next time...







"Holy smokes was today the best day of Fluking I had ever down here in JBAY.


Sailed at 4:30am and found some bunker getting worked. I dropped a decent bass as he wouldn't commit. Did a few drifts on the rig in deep water and wiffed a doormat. And I mean a DOORMAT. Double digit 100%, some guys that fish with me know I can overestimate sometimes, but this was no joke. The Bass hook didn't penetrate correctly and I lost him in some rips.

Very sad.


Did a rinse and repeat and brought another candy size bunekr into the same drift and put a big fish just a hair under 6lbs.


Whipped out the bucktails and beat on them. Limited out with more fish around 22" and released about 5 keeper sized fish. Just incredible.


I almost called in sick, but the tide turned around and I didn't want to gamble."

[stripermania]

Fluke on a live bunker? Holy crap, I never would have believed it. Awesome!