Post up up your 2019/2020/2021/2022 Blackfishing Pix/Reports/Adventures/Musings

[OVERBORED]

Frustrating for sure.

Especially when I hear from friends out east that it's lock and load Tog and Sea Bass fishing South of Block/Coxes!

 

[Leprechaun]

Uggh.

 

[Leprechaun]

Will this damn wind ever let up?

 

[OVERBORED]

It's a shame as fishing turned on to the west South shore.

 

[Leprechaun]

I know. Tough to get there with all the wind. Can’t imagine transiting JI in these conditions.

 

[OVERBORED]

I know. Tough to get there with all the wind. Can’t imagine transiting JI in these conditions.

Can't take a chance. Who knows how much that channel has shifted.

 

[OVERBORED]

Some really good fishing at 17 a few days ago. Rumors of a 17lb fish caught.

Heating up just as the season is coming to a close...... recreationally. (Comms. Get to enjoy the fishing through to Lunar New Year)

 

[Leprechaun]

Hit the 90' drops N of 17 for 45 minutes w/o a tap. Moved to Jersey 65' and had some very limited life. Capt Mike, Robbie Pav and I ended with only 3 Rec keepers and a bunch of Comm toss-backs. A truly gorgeous ocean today - like Capt. Mike said "50 miles of ocean-running and not a drop of water on the windshields."

Whelp, no one told the fish. And so ends 2024 on the Lep. Not my favorite year, that's for sure.

 

[captmike28]

Hit the 90' drops N of 17 for 45 minutes w/o a tap. Moved to Jersey 65' and had some very limited life. Capt Mike, Robbie Pav and I ended with only 3 Rec keepers and a bunch of Comm toss-backs. A truly gorgeous ocean today - like Capt. Mike said "50 miles of ocean-running and not a drop of water on the windshields."

Whelp, no one told the fish. And so ends 2024 on the Lep. Not my favorite year, that's for sure.

Still always a great day to get out fishing with good friends! Thanks for all the trips and some nice Fluke as well this season!!

 

[OVERBORED]

Maybe it was too nice today

Made it back safe, boat ran well, finished the year with friends......sounds like a great day to me!

Thanks for your honest reports all season. Always appreciated!

 

[Leprechaun]

So that's it for 2024. Altogether, a somewhat underwhelming year's fishing. Fluke significantly off from years past, and as for the tog, though we had trips during which they chewed their heads off, well, the rec keepers were tough to come by off JI.

Went down to the boat Christmas Eve, before the festivities and this is what greeted me:

Uggh. Boat coming home day after Christmas and now I have to deal with more than a thin layer of skim ice. Hoping it melts a bit with the just over freezing temp the next 48 hours.

Yeah, well got down to the boat around 9:00 this morning and not only had the ice expanded down the canal, but it got even harder. Brought a little plastic snow shovel to try to remove some of the icy snow in the cockpit - marginal success with that.

Good thing I allotted plenty of time to work thru whatever issues needed attention, because (naturally) Chris/HippyChik calls to tell me he has to "move me up," as his haul before me cancelled. Great.

So I go fwd to the helm to warm her up. Cranks, crank, crank, no start. Great again. Check for fuel, good. Check for spark, better than good. Choke a little too open, so I use a long screwdriver from the helm to hold it closed while I crank. Nope, still no good. And the starting battery begins showing signs of slowing down during cranking. Tie in the big Group 31 Deep cycle second battery and she cranks like hell, still no start. G**-damn Holley carbs, always run perfectly - until you really need them to work . Tick Tok, Chris is waiting at the Freeport ramp - and so I go get the "Big No No," a.k.a. starting fluid, a.k.a., ether.

A couple of blasts into the carb, turn the key and BANG, a carb flame fire burning nicely atop the carb. I really hate when that happens. I snuff it out with a rag and decide, let it sit a few minutes and see what's what.

So I go about my business loading the car with my 30 amp Hubble dock power cable and few other things going home for the Winter. Get back in the boat and turn the key - fires right up. Jeezuz, what a relief. Obviously flooded and now cleared out. I'm no fan of marine fuel injection setups, but carbs? Can be a problem as well.

Anyway, she's all warmed up, I get out of the boat to throw off the lines - and nope, frozen like a rock to the cleats. Boy, I'll tell ya, Winter is no fun for boating. Five pails of water poured onto each of the cleated lines, and a big Snap-on screwdriver to pry, and off they came.

Next phase, undocking. I could get a couple of feet of headway into the ice, but that was it. So up to the bow (slippery as eff) with the boat hook fully extended to break it up a bit. Success - I now was able to get her going forward, but I was unable to spin her to exit the canal, just too much ice to turn a 26-footer's stern against it. So, back and forth, forward and reverse, whilst spinning the helm like a freakin' roulette wheel, at least 20 times in order to get her pointing in the right direction.

And down the canal I go, bumping her in and out of gear, with the really disconcerting sound of fiberglass cutting thru the ice. Jeez, I've done this many times, especially when we were making January runs to 17 (Hey Capt. Mike, remember THAT fishing?), but it's really not something I am any level of comfortable with. Take a look. Uggh:

But in the end, it all worked out. Idled down Hudson Canal, then flew "around the corner" at 20+ kts to the ramp, Chris hauled me out and to the house, and there she now sits.

One "good" thing about cutting thru the ice - it really does a nice job of removing the hull's slime coating. Not perfect, but good enough that the pressure washing can wait til Spring.

Changed the oil and filter in my Ford V8, (5 qts 20w-50 Castrol GTX with a pint of "Hi-Mileage" STP, and a WIX black filter), sucked three gallons of Non-Tox antifreeze into the RW side of the cooling system, put three 75W bulbs in the bilge, and now we wait til next Friday for Squiggy's to come shrink wrap her. Phew, quite a day - glad its over. And that goes for the entire season too.

Well, sort of, anyways.

 

[Chinacat]

So that's it for 2024. Altogether, a somewhat underwhelming year's fishing. Fluke significantly off from years past, and as for the tog, though we had trips during which they chewed their heads off, well, the rec keepers were tough to come by off JI.

Went down to the boat Christmas Eve, before the festivities and this is what greeted me:

View attachment 88890

View attachment 88891

Uggh. Boat coming home day after Christmas and now I have to deal with more than a thin layer of skim ice. Hoping it melts a bit with the just over freezing temp the next 48 hours.

Yeah, well got down to the boat around 9:00 this morning and not only had the ice expanded down the canal, but it got even harder. Brought a little plastic snow shovel to try to remove some of the icy snow in the cockpit - marginal success with that.

Good thing I allotted plenty of time to work thru whatever issues needed attention, because (naturally) Chris/HippyChik calls to tell me he has to "move me up," as his haul before me cancelled. Great.

So I go fwd to the helm to warm her up. Cranks, crank, crank, no start. Great again. Check for fuel, good. Check for spark, better than good. Choke a little too open, so I use a long screwdriver from the helm to hold it closed while I crank. Nope, still no good. And the starting battery begins showing signs of slowing down during cranking. Tie in the big Group 31 Deep cycle second battery and she cranks like hell, still no start. G**-damn Holley carbs, always run perfectly - until you really need them to work . Tick Tok, Chris is waiting at the Freeport ramp - and so I go get the "Big No No," a.k.a. starting fluid, a.k.a., ether.

A couple of blasts into the carb, turn the key and BANG, a carb flame fire burning nicely atop the carb. I really hate when that happens. I snuff it out with a rag and decide, let it sit a few minutes and see what's what.

So I go about my business loading the car with my 30 amp Hubble dock power cable and few other things going home for the Winter. Get back in the boat and turn the key - fires right up. Jeezuz, what a relief. Obviously flooded and now cleared out. I'm no fan of marine fuel injection setups, but carbs? Can be a problem as well.

Anyway, she's all warmed up, I get out of the boat to throw off the lines - and nope, frozen like a rock to the cleats. Boy, I'll tell ya, Winter is no fun for boating. Five pails of water poured onto each of the cleated lines, and a big Snap-on screwdriver to pry, and off they came.

Next phase, undocking. I could get a couple of feet of headway into the ice, but that was it. So up to the bow (slippery as eff) with the boat hook fully extended to break it up a bit. Success - I now was able to get her going forward, but I was unable to spin her to exit the canal, just too much ice to turn a 26-footer. So, back and forth, forward and reverse, whilst spinning the helm like a freakin' roulette wheel, at least 20 times in order to get her pointing in the right direction.

And down the canal I go, bumping her in and out of gear, with the really disconcerting sound of fiberglass cutting thru the ice. Jeez, I've done this many times, especially when we were making January runs to 17 (Hey Capt. Mike, remember THAT fishing?), but it's really not something I am any level of comfortable with. Take a look. Uggh:

View attachment 88892

View attachment 88893

But in the end, it all worked out. Idled down Hudson Canal, then flew "around the corner" at 20+ kts to the ramp, Chris hauled me out and to the house, and there she now sits.

One "good" thing about cutting thru the ice - it really does a nice job of removing the hull's slime coating. Not perfect, but good enough that the pressure washing can wait til Spring.

View attachment 88894

Changed the oil and filter in my Ford V8, (5 qts 20w-50 Castrol GTX with a pint of "Hi-Mileage" STP, and a WIX black filter), sucked three gallons of Non-Tox antifreeze into the RW side of the cooling system, put three 75W bulbs in the bilge, and now we wait til next Friday for Squiggy's to come shrink wrap her. Phew, quite a day - glad its over. And that goes for the entire season too.

Well, sort of, anyways.

Wow
What an adventure that sounds like
Glad it all worked out

 

[OVERBORED]

Yeah........that does sound like an adventure. Glad it worked out for you.

Now you can "put it in the books"! lol