LI For-Hire and Head Boats - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[surfstix1963]

The Ebb Tide hardly ever catches fish.The lazybones is a good boat if you can get on it capt. Mike is great

[williehookem]

Written by Capt Gene Kelly


8/13/12

When the boat next to you isn’t sailing that’s a recession and when you aren’t sailing that’s a depression and right now things are pretty depressing for the Montauk charter fleet. Friday and Saturday are always the busiest days (Sunday traffic scares a lot of people) and when I made my early morning check this past weekend there were a couple of boats still tied up that shouldn’t have been. And this is August, normally the busiest month when most of the established boats would normally be sailing every day unless they were blown out. And now, most are lucky to get in four to five trips a week.

I run a charter service and most of my calls come after potential clients have gotten tired of calling boats only to find out they are booked. Back in the early spring I was getting inqueries which is very unusual so I thought that this would be a better year than last year, which was a pretty poor one. But I guess as all the poor economic news developed, people started to change their minds about how they were going to spend their $$$.

Now most of my calls are from individuals looking to join in with others on a shared charter, which we used to call a “splits” until they became extinct. Years ago when I started out splits were very common and all the old timers remember Tuma’s Tackle Shop where Mrs. Tuma would coordinate things. You’d hang around in front of the shop until she would call you and give you six anglers to take out. Nowadays there is no central booking agency where that can be done. All the charterboats are getting calls from singles or doubles that want to join up with some others on a trip, and undoubtedly every day at least one trip could be put together.

As I always say when I hear guys moaning and groaning about the business; “It could be worse, I could own a boat”.
As for the fishing, you could check back with last weeks report. It’s pretty much the same. There are a good amount of makos around and if you go sharking you will probably catch - and release - one. Tuna fishing is nothing to get excited about

On an overnighter you will probably catch a couple of yellowfin and maybe a bigeye, but what is considered a good catch these days would have been considered a poor one a couple of years ago.

Inshore striper fishing is still tough and Southwest Ledge isn’t looking as good as it was. Bottom fishing is good for porgies and sea bass and OK for fluke.

[plugginpete]

Written by Capt Gene Kelly
, but what is considered a good catch these days would have been considered a poor one a couple of years ago.

Inshore striper fishing is still tough and Southwest Ledge isn’t looking as good as it was. Bottom fishing is good for porgies and sea bass and OK for fluke.

Capt Gene knows his sh*t, one of the best out there.
some boat reports from this weekend -

Montauk bass - "Fished from 9am-1 pm yesterday and had 2 stripers around 15 lbs. Didn't see much else happening; seemed pretty quiet."


Montauk boat - "We fished 4 Hrs Friday and 7 Hrs Saturday and only boated 1 Blue fish. Probably 200 hundred boats in the fleet and we saw very few fish boated.
I am sure the fish will show up Sunday since I am not fishing. "

[surfstix1963]

Big blues yesterday diamond jigging in the rips at Montauk on the Lazybones, as soon as the tide made up all hell broke loose with big gators NO bass.The day before big gators swimming with 18"bass they are feeding on baby weakfish in the rips right now they all were spitting them up.If it is the same case with the FEW fish that are actually taking the beach route think yellow plugs when fishing for them.I may get out but right now the good bite is out deeper.As a side note I did have some time before the boat left to check out a few spots out there in the surf for nada.

[Monty]

If it is the same case with the FEW fish that are actually taking the beach route think yellow plugs when fishing for them.I may get out but right now the good bite is out deeper.As a side note I did have some time before the boat left to check out a few spots out there in the surf for nada.

Thanks Stix. The 2 bass I caught last Sunday am, one on gold over yellow ss darter, other on white bucktail with yellow pork. Will keep the yellow in the mix. Congrats on tangling with some Gators.

[surfstix1963]

Thanks need a few days off let the back rest up

[plugginpete]

Nice trip dude. Was looking for some of them blues tonight at the CSS but struck out. Hope we see them soon.

[surfstix1963]

Mostly everything is deep they have the food so no need to come into the beach the schoolies will be in the beach line.Try a SP minnow in bone or yellow tight to the beach.

[plugginpete]

Many thanks for the heads up surfstix. The yellow SP worked for me this morning.