10% of the Bottom Catches 90% of the Big Fluke!

NYSharpie said: A banner day for us is pushing off by 6AM, fishing the local drops and specific tide stages, catching em up, and leaving the dock with the boat and fish cleaned by 1130AM. Then off to Ginos for a lunch - right Eddie! Cold Seafood salad!

Never have more true words been spoken! However, I'd argue that being all done at the dock by 10:30am is the PERFECT day! But that is only true when the weather is in the 90's or more by noon. I HATE THE SUN. I HATE THE HOT WEATHER. I HATE HUMIDITY (it ruins my hair)!

I could fish for tog right until the last glimmer of sunlight is ducking under the horizon! If the weather is above 80, I'm a bitch :sleep: If the weather is below 60, I'm a HERO :geek:

NO SUCCESSFUL FISHING TRIP ENDS WITHOUT A SEAFOOD SALAD AT GINO'S!!
 
WOW, was that the rare Kaminski post right there?

That more rare than a 3-winged eagle. A 2-headed fish. A Gino's lunch tab picked up by NYSharpie (Frankie)!!
 
Also more rare than Savvy (Eddie) not complaining about some variable we have no control over; wind speed and direction, water clarity, temperature, boats dropping anchor right in our drift lines, no coca cola on the boat, heat, not enough cloud cover, too much current to hold with 2 ounces, sea weed, fish are too deep, hanging his custom jig on the bottom --- Did I miss any Eddie?

IOJ Baby!!!! LOL - Those of you who know Eddie know that this is his official "throw in the towel line." It means - "It's over Johnny!!!" Think we had a new record last year and he called one out at 7:30AM. LOL

I'll leave the "No Coca Cola Story" for another thread......Maybe a "Quirks of the Crew" discussion??? What do you guys think?

Eddie, you can be a true pain in the ass, but a Theresa V Fluke or Bass trip is not the same without you!!! Tails up Buddy!
 
Wow, so much sage advice here there is not much more I can add to it. While I agree it is true that 90% of the Fluke come from 10% of the bottom, as others have mentioned, that bottom can change from year to year, sometimes even from one part of the season to the next. Obviously movement of bait has a lot to do with it but finding and knowing what structure actually produces with regularity is a big key. If the structure has the ability to attract all forms of the food chain the Fluke will be there. As Lep stated, sometimes you get lucky and a good drop holds fish for years.

That leads me to my main point. Most captains know this, but it is often a struggle to implement this plan. Setting aside a hour or so to "test fish" a new area is a time tested way for really filling out your drop book and turning an otherwise tough day on your usual hot spots into a winner. Some of us are more stubborn than others about working proven grounds to death, some just want to get back to the dock early for that "tasty Seafood Salad"! But doing a little prospecting each time you go out can only help in the long run. The problem I have sometimes is that after 50 years of doing this I now have more drops than I can possibly fish in any given time frame!! But using your savvy, your local network, and powers of observation does pay dividends.

Regarding the long runs. I too can no longer tolerate what I did as a young man. 3 hour plus runs one way so I could catch Cod in the summer is a thing of the past. However, running 2 hours to the south side of Montauk for a crack and the major # of DD's swimming around there is still doable. While we are on the subject of working time tested drops here is a perfect example. On my last Fluke trip to Montauk, late August 2017 I caught a 10.3# fish on the very last drift. On my first trip back to Montauk in mid July of 2018 it took a couple of hours but darned it those same exact set of numbers didn't give up another DD Fluke. Those coordinates are now immortalized in my book!!!
 
Hi Mike!

I 100% agree that prospecting is something we need to do more of. With technology as good as it is, and with a bundle of structure already marked in the system, finding promising areas is not too hard. I would be the first to agree that there are many times when we talk about trying out a new area, and we just run right over it and head home. Hope to do more of that this year, especially South near our tog drops!

Frank
 
Hi Frank,
Always trying to learn more from Lep, the "Fluke Master" I did take his advice on trying some of my Tog spots in the Sound on the north side of Plum a couple of years ago While I did not catch a lot of fish there I did mange one DD which can really make the time invested worthwhile.

Looking more closely at my own efforts and the amount of time and frustration I am willing to tolerate brings me to the conclusion that I am also a member of the "Fluke" cult!!!

BTW, great thread and those are some very impressive Fluke photos in you earlier post! You have really fine tuned your game over the years.
 
Thanks Mike! Definitely feel more confident in recent years fishing for those flat suckers, however, like anything else that’s worth doing, there is still much to learn!!!
 
The one thing we need to do more of on the Theresa V is fine-tune our efforts in the home base of Jamaica Bay. Year after year, big fish are caught right in our backyard (especially in the early part of the fluke season) and we haven't cashed in enough. We know where "the good" bottom is, we just need to be there at the right time. I remember about 4-5 years ago I caught that 9+ pound fish on bottom we regularly visited but since our "outside" bottom was so consistent, we haven't fished it much.

I admit that I am a big reason why we "drive by" those old spots because often the water in the bay is dirty, full of seaweed, crawling with discourteous boaters, has ripping currents & it's too easy to spot steal in the bay. Too many land markers and googans around that can't wait to jump your drifts or throw an anchor in your path thinking they can catch some porgies.

But the REAL reason we "need" to start prospecting again in Jamaica Bay is a sadder story. "OUR" bottom that had been so great to us the last 8-12 years has really dried up. We simply don't see the quality or the quantity of fish we did in years past. We had that area so mapped out it was ridiculous. Similar to what Pete has going on at his main drops. We could go there at a specific stage of the tide and we would just wait for the 5, 6 & 7 pound fish to slam our jigs AND our peanut bunker! It was a no-brainer. Among our group, over the years, we pulled better than (20) 10+ fluke off that bottom & that's NO exaggeration.

The saddest thing about it is that we have no idea why we're not seeing those fish anymore. It has everyone baffled. It's an unexplained mystery that often makes me question how much longer I can do this fishing thing.
 
Eddie,

Maybe part of the answer is, simply, more artificial bottom being dropped. Similar to some of the old Tog drops not being what the once were, Fluke are fish that gravitate to structure; more food, more ambush points, shelter, etc... The bay is good early as you get many of those fish that come in every year, our inshore ocean drops are probably a stop for those guys either coming in or leaving (which makes sense why it is good sporadically, this year we caught some nice fish there in June). Many of those inshore drops might now be "stops" for our guys, not locations they stay very long. Having said that, our inshore bottom was home to more porgies and baby seabass this year than I have ever seen, prime meals for quality fluke. Just my speculation, but you can't argue with the fact that more consistent fluke fishing over the past 3-4 years has happened over bigger, cleaner, and deeper bottom areas.

Frank
 
I've been saying that for a few years now. Ever since they dropped that new bottom to our south, we haven't seen the fluke in the numbers we're used to. My guess is we'll have to trek SOUTH of those areas to catch our fluke. Maybe even the Jersey Reef :confused:
 
We have a good amount of bottom down there so plenty of starting points. We also have a fast and seaworthy boat, so let's make it happen!
 
You guys crack me up! More prospecting where we fish in Dec is called for. Been saying it for a few seasons now. If I were closer, that’s where I’d fish all Summer. Way better than the Cattle Corrals in my neighborhood! Way less competition.
 
KAMINSKI AGAIN??!! Mark, you've reached your post limit for the next 2 years!
Let me fine tune your comment: "Did Eddie just say he would venture beyond the green side of Ambrose??? Jersey reef?? Eddie, you feeling ok? "Fishing the green side of Ambrose BEFORE November is unheard of!!" Now THAT IS a true statement!

Frankie LOVES that December bottom, right Frank?

When I catch my 10+ fluke on a jig, I'm retiring!! IF I HAVE THE "RIGHT" ROD IN MY HANDS WHEN IT HAPPENS!
 
I don't know, Eddie. With your tackle obsession, is it possible for you to ever have "exactly" the right rod in your hands? If so, you will be disappointing a lot of reel manufacturers and rod builders!!:D
 
I believe there is a “practical limit” to how much fresh hard bottom a given area’s fish population will, well, populate.

I feel that there are only so many fish moving into (or through) a given area. There will be a certain amount that will remain behind on the deeper ocean drops, which will be the ones we target in our hard bottom efforts, as the season really spools up.

Once they’re caught up, you would need to wait for a fresh influx of newbie fish to re-populate that bottom. But sometimes there’s no new fish waves coming. Hence, we catch what’s there, and then IOJ.

Putting more hard stuff on the adjacent bottom doesn’t really increase the fish biomass of a given area. Instead, I believe that it further thins the fish that can be caught on any particular drop, within that area of operations. There's no endless supply of fish out there to take the place of the ones we pull off our pet drops. Especially so, in these days of intense angling pressure.

However, a benefit that might not be immediately apparent is that more structure tends to “spread the fleet,” giving more “parking spaces,” albeit with less fish per given drop. So we dust off a drop and that’s often that. It goes “barren” for a good long while, per my earlier comment.

More bottom sometimes = less fish per drop, so more running around for a given quantity of fillets on the cutting table.

And this all applies not only to fluke, but doubly so for tog, in my opinion.
 
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As far as Eddie’s new rod obsession, Capt. Mike is dead-nuts on the money.

I was like that for many years, but my rod/reel collection has now just about reached “Critical Mass,” with the distict possibility of a “China Syndrome” meltdown of my wife’s patience if I continue to accumulate rods that effectively duplicate of what I already own.
 
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