Steve, Cowherder, and others, it was the first trip of the year...and we avoided the skunk....
Thanks for the words.

The friend I was fishing with, was in 2nd place in the Jbay tournament last year till he got knocked out of the box the last day....he is one of the most persistent and dedicated fishermen I know....and the only one in recent time to successfully yak fish under the Verazzano Bridge in 90 feet of water and get some bass and cod with his jig tactics.
He consistently crushes the fish by yak at the mouth of the Jamaica Bay even when no one else will brave the cold and crazy current....so I knew that between the two of us we should have been able to find some fish,,,,

When you have a good season I think it's very humbling, and good medicine, to not do so well for a change....









I'm always suspicious of folks who seem to catch all the time and never get skunked....

In the fishing community we have special names for some of these internet heroes...each one of them has a name that describes the amount of padding we think he does to his count...but that's really private. because they're in the minority......the guys who catch consistently and are out there a lot don't need to pad their catches....

Even the folks here, I'm grateful they post their skunk reports because you can tell there are nights where the fish just ain't active for many reasons...and a skunk report helps us to all understand, that fishing, ain't necessarily a night where you're catchin....

Sometimes I feel fishing from a yak isn't a fair comparison...if you are willing to work and pedal, you will most likely find at least 1 fish...trolling a T&W is almost foolproof for finding scattered fish....but the T&W did not produce this time....








When the fishing is easy you don't have to think that much....
A lot of the yakkers IMO get into that pattern..some of us will catch,,,,and others come along after and think they only have to repeat what the others did, to score big.....

That strategy hasn't panned out this week, as most of the guys out there, after the initial fish up to 25#, are only getting fish 24-32"....while any catch is a good catch, you can catch fish that size from land. For me, I'm yakking to get to the fish that I can't get from land,,,,and my goal is always a 20# or better.

Granted, it doesn't always happen, but IMO pushing yourself like that, is what works for me.





The yakkers who continually get my attention are the ones who are not afraid to think out of the box...to run different than the rest of the herd runs....those are the folks who will consistently pull in bigger fish....and they earn every one of them.....

Hope to be back out there soon.