captmike28
Well-Known Angler
Just finished 4 straight charters starting last Friday and overall results were quite “fishy”!
Friday’s 4-man crew began their half day trip with a couple of hours Fluking in the Bay. Very light wind and tide conditions mean I had to power drift to produce any decent action for the lure presentation. Our first drop in Shelter I. Sound gave up steady action with Fluke landed on almost every pass. However, all nine fish landed wound up sub legal. Moved a little further east for the last hour of the ebb tide and managed to cull 2 keepers to 3# out of 6 more Fluke. Next ran up to the Gut hoping to repeat the excellent Bass action these fellows enjoyed 2 weeks ago. As soon as the flood tide got moving the bucktails used were getting slammed hard on every drift. Only problem was that the Bass population had been overtaken by large, powerful Blues in the 8-12# class. The guys had a great time bending the rods, getting a serious workout, and putting about 10 fish in the box for the smoker. Only down side was just one short Striper joined the party that day.
Saturday, I had the Mike party with his wife and another couple who have made a fishing trip with me an annual event for the last 3 summer visits to LI. They too had wanted to catch some Stripers but with only a half day to work with and no interest on their part to battle the Blues, we opted to stay in the bay and wok on the local Fluke population. Seeing that our keepers on Friday all came for my eastern drops we headed right back there. We did have to work through a lot of birds and a few small Blues but eventually found 4 nice Fluke to 3.5# out of nine fish landed over a three-hour period. Finished off by running west to try and find a Weakfish and although Barbara did have a nice Weak of about 4# boatside it came free just as I was about to place the net beneath the fish. A few nice sized Porgies also found the box in this location.
Sunday the Lanny party of 5 wanted a full day outing to go for both Stripers and Fluke. With more time to hit some distant spots, I ran to the Race for the Ebb tide and found a nice steady pick of Bass with just a few Blues mixed in. Lanny Jr. had never caught a Bass before and he started things out in grand style on the second drift by landing a fat 35” fish tipping the scales at a solid 20#. Despite the heavy boat traffic, we managed to land our full boat limit with 2 of the other slot fish in the 33” range plus a few shorts and 3 monster Blues! Back to the Bay for another crack at the local Fluke and we arrived just at slack water so the first hour of our efforts found mainly bird action. Once the flood began, we started to pick plenty of Fluke, 16 total but again the number of shorts was a bit disappointing. Still with their perseverance the guys did manage to box 4 keepers to 21” to finish out the day.
Today I had a small 3-man crew of Pat and his 2 friends looking for Fluke on a half day trip. I was a bit concerned with the forecast of a pretty stiff S/SE breeze and and ebb tide making for a poor lure presentation. However, we were fortunate that the stronger breezes held off for a t least a couple of hours and we managed to find a decent drift pattern in the bay. My better drops from the weekend trips produced very steady action all morning with a far better ratio of keepers than on the previous outings. In fact, by the time we hit the 3-hour mark there were 10 keepers in the box to 22” along with another 20 short Fluke returned. We were planning to make a Weakfish drop but the guys really wanted to try for a Fluke limit so we hit one of the more reliable spots to the west and did catch another 8 Fluke with one more keeper in the same size range. So, ultimately, we finished the half day trip with 11 keepers, only one fish shy of a full boat limit and easily our best Fluke outing so far for this season. I sure hope this bodes well for my next group of charters beginning on Wednesday.
Friday’s 4-man crew began their half day trip with a couple of hours Fluking in the Bay. Very light wind and tide conditions mean I had to power drift to produce any decent action for the lure presentation. Our first drop in Shelter I. Sound gave up steady action with Fluke landed on almost every pass. However, all nine fish landed wound up sub legal. Moved a little further east for the last hour of the ebb tide and managed to cull 2 keepers to 3# out of 6 more Fluke. Next ran up to the Gut hoping to repeat the excellent Bass action these fellows enjoyed 2 weeks ago. As soon as the flood tide got moving the bucktails used were getting slammed hard on every drift. Only problem was that the Bass population had been overtaken by large, powerful Blues in the 8-12# class. The guys had a great time bending the rods, getting a serious workout, and putting about 10 fish in the box for the smoker. Only down side was just one short Striper joined the party that day.
Saturday, I had the Mike party with his wife and another couple who have made a fishing trip with me an annual event for the last 3 summer visits to LI. They too had wanted to catch some Stripers but with only a half day to work with and no interest on their part to battle the Blues, we opted to stay in the bay and wok on the local Fluke population. Seeing that our keepers on Friday all came for my eastern drops we headed right back there. We did have to work through a lot of birds and a few small Blues but eventually found 4 nice Fluke to 3.5# out of nine fish landed over a three-hour period. Finished off by running west to try and find a Weakfish and although Barbara did have a nice Weak of about 4# boatside it came free just as I was about to place the net beneath the fish. A few nice sized Porgies also found the box in this location.
Sunday the Lanny party of 5 wanted a full day outing to go for both Stripers and Fluke. With more time to hit some distant spots, I ran to the Race for the Ebb tide and found a nice steady pick of Bass with just a few Blues mixed in. Lanny Jr. had never caught a Bass before and he started things out in grand style on the second drift by landing a fat 35” fish tipping the scales at a solid 20#. Despite the heavy boat traffic, we managed to land our full boat limit with 2 of the other slot fish in the 33” range plus a few shorts and 3 monster Blues! Back to the Bay for another crack at the local Fluke and we arrived just at slack water so the first hour of our efforts found mainly bird action. Once the flood began, we started to pick plenty of Fluke, 16 total but again the number of shorts was a bit disappointing. Still with their perseverance the guys did manage to box 4 keepers to 21” to finish out the day.
Today I had a small 3-man crew of Pat and his 2 friends looking for Fluke on a half day trip. I was a bit concerned with the forecast of a pretty stiff S/SE breeze and and ebb tide making for a poor lure presentation. However, we were fortunate that the stronger breezes held off for a t least a couple of hours and we managed to find a decent drift pattern in the bay. My better drops from the weekend trips produced very steady action all morning with a far better ratio of keepers than on the previous outings. In fact, by the time we hit the 3-hour mark there were 10 keepers in the box to 22” along with another 20 short Fluke returned. We were planning to make a Weakfish drop but the guys really wanted to try for a Fluke limit so we hit one of the more reliable spots to the west and did catch another 8 Fluke with one more keeper in the same size range. So, ultimately, we finished the half day trip with 11 keepers, only one fish shy of a full boat limit and easily our best Fluke outing so far for this season. I sure hope this bodes well for my next group of charters beginning on Wednesday.
