captmike28
Well-Known Angler
Back on the water for a triple play beginning on Wednesday and culminating with today’s trip which included one very special angler.
Wednesday’s group, the Tony party, were looking to fill their coolers with Porgies and the Scup were happy to oblige. Started at one of my favorite drips near Shelter Island for a steady pick of fish that resulted in about 20 fish per man for a 2.5-hour effort at the top of the flood. Had to do a lot more sorting than last month but still saw some nice sized fish to 2.5# come up. Then I broke the cardinal rule by leaving fish to try and find a larger class of fish. Hit 3 other normally reliable Scup drops for nothing but birds! So, we returned to the morning drop for the ebb tide and easily finished off a boat limit with some 3# class fish now appearing on the stronger tide cycle.
Yesterday, I had the Neil and his wife along with their close friends visiting from England. We only had a brief window of 3 hours to fish as they had a lunch engagement set up at the majestic Pridwin Hotel on Shelter Island Fished east of the dock and despite a tough wind vs. tide drift we still found the Fluke hungry and willing to take our baits. Managed to boat 5 nice keepers out of 20 fish, a totally new experience for the Brits who were very happy to head home with some fresh Fluke filets for dinner.
Today’s trip found Matt, Kevin, and our host on this board, George S., join me for a combo Striped Bass/Fluke trip. Left the dock real early looking to take advantage of my favorite flood tide at the Race. We arrived just as the tide started to push and after about a 20-minute search, Kevin nails the fist Bass of the day a fat 35” fish, close to 20#. However, despite marking good numbers of fish in a few locations they played hard to get this morning. After the first Bass we ran into the pesky Blues again and landed 3 real brutes in the 10# class. Still a lot more searching and nearly the entire flood tide was needed to land just 2 more 28” Bass to round out our limit. This had to be the toughest Bass trip I have had in a long time on a big moon phase in June.
Back to the bay for the ebb tide and after about 30 minutes of slack water the drift picked up along with the Fluke bite. We spent the next 2.5 hours picking Fluke on each drift with a similar result to the day before, 5 keepers out of about 20 fish total up to 21”. So, ultimately the guys all went home with a nice bag of filet for the table.
Wednesday’s group, the Tony party, were looking to fill their coolers with Porgies and the Scup were happy to oblige. Started at one of my favorite drips near Shelter Island for a steady pick of fish that resulted in about 20 fish per man for a 2.5-hour effort at the top of the flood. Had to do a lot more sorting than last month but still saw some nice sized fish to 2.5# come up. Then I broke the cardinal rule by leaving fish to try and find a larger class of fish. Hit 3 other normally reliable Scup drops for nothing but birds! So, we returned to the morning drop for the ebb tide and easily finished off a boat limit with some 3# class fish now appearing on the stronger tide cycle.
Yesterday, I had the Neil and his wife along with their close friends visiting from England. We only had a brief window of 3 hours to fish as they had a lunch engagement set up at the majestic Pridwin Hotel on Shelter Island Fished east of the dock and despite a tough wind vs. tide drift we still found the Fluke hungry and willing to take our baits. Managed to boat 5 nice keepers out of 20 fish, a totally new experience for the Brits who were very happy to head home with some fresh Fluke filets for dinner.
Today’s trip found Matt, Kevin, and our host on this board, George S., join me for a combo Striped Bass/Fluke trip. Left the dock real early looking to take advantage of my favorite flood tide at the Race. We arrived just as the tide started to push and after about a 20-minute search, Kevin nails the fist Bass of the day a fat 35” fish, close to 20#. However, despite marking good numbers of fish in a few locations they played hard to get this morning. After the first Bass we ran into the pesky Blues again and landed 3 real brutes in the 10# class. Still a lot more searching and nearly the entire flood tide was needed to land just 2 more 28” Bass to round out our limit. This had to be the toughest Bass trip I have had in a long time on a big moon phase in June.
Back to the bay for the ebb tide and after about 30 minutes of slack water the drift picked up along with the Fluke bite. We spent the next 2.5 hours picking Fluke on each drift with a similar result to the day before, 5 keepers out of about 20 fish total up to 21”. So, ultimately the guys all went home with a nice bag of filet for the table.
