And the 1" slot is just a cluster IMO, especially with fish sitting out in the sun.
Post your 2019-2022 Fluke Pix & Trip Reports Here!
- Thread starter Leprechaun
- Start date
Well, well, well, you can never tell...
Even if the regs suck, at least you are adapting and abiding
Sorry no new Fluke reports from me yet but I do have my first Fluke charter scheduled for next Tues 5/10. We shall see.
Just to continue on the G-D riff, Chinacat will be happy to know that as I was pulling into my slip last Sunday, I looked across to see that "Sugar Magnolia" is now floating! Is the "Sunshine Daydream" ready to fish Mitch?
Captmike-
Unfortunately the "Sunshine Daydream" is behind schedule.
The bottom is painted, motor running and most "mechanicals" are tuned up and ready.
After 20 years I had to replace my bimini top and enclosure.
My canvas guy is behind schedule and holding me up.
I could launch but that would leave everything exposed and it would be much easier to finish the work on land rather than in the water. I was hoping to see him show up today but hopefully tomorrow morning.
Hoping to splash next week and hit the porgy grounds next weekend!!!
Yes Mitch, everything is way behind schedule when it comes to repairs and availability of parts/components. The only reason I had my new cockpit bolsters ready for me to install last month is that I ordered them in January!
Don't worry, plenty of time for Porgies and you wont' be missing much this week. Looks like 6-8 straight days of east winds..ugh!! Right now it seems like I will probably have to reschedule this coming Monday and Tuesday's charters. Even though there are places to hide int he bay even the Scup are not that fond of a prolonged easterly blow. And Fluking under those conditions is just an exercise in futility!
With a little patience, better days are ahead.
Getting closer. Got up early today to pull the shrink off her, and now off to do some field work. Gotta pay for this sport some way.
Chris/Hippy Chik Transport is coming Jun. 4-5, so I have to give her a good waxing plus a few other odds and ends jobs. Then we'll see what's what with my nasty Inlet.
Chris/Hippy Chik Transport is coming Jun. 4-5, so I have to give her a good waxing plus a few other odds and ends jobs. Then we'll see what's what with my nasty Inlet.
Hiya Mitch! This is my "New Normal," considering the DEC effectively killed my far-to-the-West April/May Jersey flounder fishing with the 2 fish/man reg, the banning of our early seabassing (though states to our North and West do have a Spring biscuit season), and my lack of interest in trolling bass.
So I guess my "new" fishing season is what it is. Fluke and then tog and then back up on blocks in my side yard. Hardly seems worth all the boat-owning effort and expense. Ehh, maybe its time to pass the Lep along to a new owner that is more enthusiastic about the local fishing scene than I am. We'll give it a hard think-over this coming Winter.
So I guess my "new" fishing season is what it is. Fluke and then tog and then back up on blocks in my side yard. Hardly seems worth all the boat-owning effort and expense. Ehh, maybe its time to pass the Lep along to a new owner that is more enthusiastic about the local fishing scene than I am. We'll give it a hard think-over this coming Winter.
There's always something more to do after you think you're done.
My very last task every Spring is to scrape and paint my anchor with white Rustoleum. And why do I do that? Good question. Its because some of the grounds that I fish every late Fall/Winter have "ghost" lobster pot lines laying on top of them. When pulling them to the surface they are much more apparent when wrapped around a white anchor - making it a bit easier to reach down from the bow with a serrated knife duct-taped to a boat hook and cut my anchor loose.
So this week I reached that happy point in my boat prep, went ahead and lowered the anchor for its scrapping/painting treatment, looked up - and WTF! Check this out:
I freakin' HATE bad late-inning surprises, whether its with the boat, or my Metsies, for that matter. Geez, I've broken lots of stuff on my boat - and fixed all of it, but in the 25 years of owning the Lep, never have I encountered this particular conundrum. Must have happened on our last trip this past December, while "bulling" a hung anchor out of a snag. Now I can see why my anchor line took some significant chaffing last Winter.
I know lots of guys that use a Good Windlass and davit, but none I know of have ever cracked a solid aluminum pulley. That davit (as an assembly) currently sells for $500, so needless to say I was VERY unhappy.
Next day I called Tom Ring Jr., the co-owner of Good Windlass (they ALWAYS answer the phone btw, try that with Simpson-Lawrence or any other windlass manufacturer), and he had the solution. Apparently this isn't an uncommon occurrence, though I've never heard of it. New roller kit (including the secondary rear delrin roller) $98, shipped overnight. Wow, I'll take it!
Tom told me its an easy repair - just take down the davit, knock out the knurled cross-pins and reverse the process with the new rollers and pins. He called it "A piece of cake." Ever notice how manufacturers ALWAY make a job sound easy? Yeah, well not on a davit that's been out in the elements for 25 seasons.
Stainless steel and aluminum don't really love each other, not at all. I must have hit that cross pin with a 30oz ball peen and steel punch at least 500 times, no dice - not a micron of movement. Then I repeatedly heated the aluminum around the pin on both sides with my MAPP gas torch. For sure I thought that would do it. Nope, zero results - no discernable movement. Its at this point in a repair job that I start to sweat. Geez, what to do?
When confronted with a tough job that seemingly has no good solution, I have found that it really helps to sit down, catch my breath, and brew up a cup of coffee. As I was mulling this nightmare over, the lightbulb over my head finally clicked on. I took the davit into the garage, got out my trusty Snap-on hack saw and cut through the stainless steel pin - which gave me enough room to wiggle off one side of the cracked roller. Then I locked a Vise-grip on it and using the ball-peen against the Vise-grip, I knocked the pin halves inwards, and out of the pulpit's two sides. Sometimes I arrive at the right technique just a little slower than someone else might, but I always seem to get it done:
A HUGE relief! The smaller rear Delrin roller met the same fate and so a potential launch-delaying issue became a not-too-bad repair - once I arrived at the "proper" technique. Now the anchor is all spiffed up and back on the boat, and I'm doing my final cleanup - with a targeted launch date of next weekend. I'm hoping my transmission repair and engine wiring job both work out as well as this did. And after that? On to the ocean fluking!
My very last task every Spring is to scrape and paint my anchor with white Rustoleum. And why do I do that? Good question. Its because some of the grounds that I fish every late Fall/Winter have "ghost" lobster pot lines laying on top of them. When pulling them to the surface they are much more apparent when wrapped around a white anchor - making it a bit easier to reach down from the bow with a serrated knife duct-taped to a boat hook and cut my anchor loose.
So this week I reached that happy point in my boat prep, went ahead and lowered the anchor for its scrapping/painting treatment, looked up - and WTF! Check this out:
I freakin' HATE bad late-inning surprises, whether its with the boat, or my Metsies, for that matter. Geez, I've broken lots of stuff on my boat - and fixed all of it, but in the 25 years of owning the Lep, never have I encountered this particular conundrum. Must have happened on our last trip this past December, while "bulling" a hung anchor out of a snag. Now I can see why my anchor line took some significant chaffing last Winter.
I know lots of guys that use a Good Windlass and davit, but none I know of have ever cracked a solid aluminum pulley. That davit (as an assembly) currently sells for $500, so needless to say I was VERY unhappy.
Next day I called Tom Ring Jr., the co-owner of Good Windlass (they ALWAYS answer the phone btw, try that with Simpson-Lawrence or any other windlass manufacturer), and he had the solution. Apparently this isn't an uncommon occurrence, though I've never heard of it. New roller kit (including the secondary rear delrin roller) $98, shipped overnight. Wow, I'll take it!
Tom told me its an easy repair - just take down the davit, knock out the knurled cross-pins and reverse the process with the new rollers and pins. He called it "A piece of cake." Ever notice how manufacturers ALWAY make a job sound easy? Yeah, well not on a davit that's been out in the elements for 25 seasons.
Stainless steel and aluminum don't really love each other, not at all. I must have hit that cross pin with a 30oz ball peen and steel punch at least 500 times, no dice - not a micron of movement. Then I repeatedly heated the aluminum around the pin on both sides with my MAPP gas torch. For sure I thought that would do it. Nope, zero results - no discernable movement. Its at this point in a repair job that I start to sweat. Geez, what to do?
When confronted with a tough job that seemingly has no good solution, I have found that it really helps to sit down, catch my breath, and brew up a cup of coffee. As I was mulling this nightmare over, the lightbulb over my head finally clicked on. I took the davit into the garage, got out my trusty Snap-on hack saw and cut through the stainless steel pin - which gave me enough room to wiggle off one side of the cracked roller. Then I locked a Vise-grip on it and using the ball-peen against the Vise-grip, I knocked the pin halves inwards, and out of the pulpit's two sides. Sometimes I arrive at the right technique just a little slower than someone else might, but I always seem to get it done:
A HUGE relief! The smaller rear Delrin roller met the same fate and so a potential launch-delaying issue became a not-too-bad repair - once I arrived at the "proper" technique. Now the anchor is all spiffed up and back on the boat, and I'm doing my final cleanup - with a targeted launch date of next weekend. I'm hoping my transmission repair and engine wiring job both work out as well as this did. And after that? On to the ocean fluking!
Finally, some redemption in the Peconics!
Yesterday I ran my annual half day Fluke charter for Rick, Kevin, and Mike, that is, of course, in between rounds of golf for these avid players!
For the last 7-10 days Fluke fishing has been picking up in the Peconic’s and I got a tip from a good friend about a consistent bite locally. So, we waited for the clouds to clear and headed off at a very leisurely 11 a.m. start to fish the last 3 hours of the flood tide.
Once the wind and tide settled into a steady drift, we began picking Fluke on every drift finishing the tide with a total of 23 fish hitting the deck. No real monsters but the guys did manage to find 6 keepers to 22” so everyone went home with a nice dinner.
Only disappointment for the day was the still erratic Weakfish bite. Tried for an hour at the start of the ebb but didn’t mark many fish and only managed one short. Sure hope this turns around soon.
Yesterday I ran my annual half day Fluke charter for Rick, Kevin, and Mike, that is, of course, in between rounds of golf for these avid players!
For the last 7-10 days Fluke fishing has been picking up in the Peconic’s and I got a tip from a good friend about a consistent bite locally. So, we waited for the clouds to clear and headed off at a very leisurely 11 a.m. start to fish the last 3 hours of the flood tide.
Once the wind and tide settled into a steady drift, we began picking Fluke on every drift finishing the tide with a total of 23 fish hitting the deck. No real monsters but the guys did manage to find 6 keepers to 22” so everyone went home with a nice dinner.
Only disappointment for the day was the still erratic Weakfish bite. Tried for an hour at the start of the ebb but didn’t mark many fish and only managed one short. Sure hope this turns around soon.
Nice Mike!
I splash 2moro, and so tonite we eat well in celebration. Shrimp w/lemon and garlic over linguini.
I splash 2moro, and so tonite we eat well in celebration. Shrimp w/lemon and garlic over linguini.
Partial Fluke Report 
With the Small Craft Warnings posted I had some serious concerns about running yesterday’s charter for the Chris party. Especially since they wanted to fish Bass in the Gut with a wind vs. tide situation! But they claimed to be experienced rough water fisherman so all I could promise them was a rough ride.
Started early morning in the Bay with a steady breeze but reasonable conditions on the last 3 hours of the ebb tide. First few drifts for Fluke only produced birds and one small short. Made a shift across the bay and found a small patch of Fluke with 6 more fish taken and 4 keepers including 2 pretty decent fish measuring 23” and 26” respectively. Also found one pretty Weakfish just a little under 4 # for the box.
Next headed off to the Gut and conditions were pretty much as nasty as I expected them to be. Had to concentrate intently on running the boat into the wind to properly present the Bucktails and avoid too much time in the washing machine at the end of each pass. First fish on was a nice 33” slot Bass followed by a number of Blues in the 5-12# range. The pick of Bass was a little slower than on recent trips but slowly we filled our limit with 3 more keepers all in the 30’’-34” range along with a few more short Bass and a pretty steady diet of Blues. So, ultimately the guys were rewarded for their toughness on a not so pleasant day to try and fool a few Bass on the North Fork.
A couple of more local trips early this week then we all anticipate the NY opening of Sea Bass season. It will sure be nice to round out the catches with a few tasty biscuits!
Capt. Mike
With the Small Craft Warnings posted I had some serious concerns about running yesterday’s charter for the Chris party. Especially since they wanted to fish Bass in the Gut with a wind vs. tide situation! But they claimed to be experienced rough water fisherman so all I could promise them was a rough ride.
Started early morning in the Bay with a steady breeze but reasonable conditions on the last 3 hours of the ebb tide. First few drifts for Fluke only produced birds and one small short. Made a shift across the bay and found a small patch of Fluke with 6 more fish taken and 4 keepers including 2 pretty decent fish measuring 23” and 26” respectively. Also found one pretty Weakfish just a little under 4 # for the box.
Next headed off to the Gut and conditions were pretty much as nasty as I expected them to be. Had to concentrate intently on running the boat into the wind to properly present the Bucktails and avoid too much time in the washing machine at the end of each pass. First fish on was a nice 33” slot Bass followed by a number of Blues in the 5-12# range. The pick of Bass was a little slower than on recent trips but slowly we filled our limit with 3 more keepers all in the 30’’-34” range along with a few more short Bass and a pretty steady diet of Blues. So, ultimately the guys were rewarded for their toughness on a not so pleasant day to try and fool a few Bass on the North Fork.
A couple of more local trips early this week then we all anticipate the NY opening of Sea Bass season. It will sure be nice to round out the catches with a few tasty biscuits!
Capt. Mike
@captmike28 That's a great day on the water! Keeper weakfish, striped bass, and fluke! You sure don't see that every day! If you kept a porgy you would have had a grand slam
Nice catching starting to happen. Meantime, I'm still stuck trying to address an ignition miss issue that refuses to reveal itself. Every time I think I've found the problem, it turns out not to be the case. Can't fish until I fix it.
The battle continues. . . and I'm not winning it either.
The battle continues. . . and I'm not winning it either.
Read on, Fluke fans. There are some mentions in this long post!
It has been a jam-packed week aboard the Captain’s Table and thankfully the fish have been extremely cooperative on all trips.
Starting last Wednesday, the Tony party of 5 came out on a kind of dreary rainy day with the persistent showers coming down most of the trip. However, that did not dampen their spirit or ability to fill their coolers with nice fat Porgies, mostly in the medium size range with a few jumbos mixed in. These guys wanted maximum production and the Peconic Bay drops I favor delivered full limit coolers for all anglers.
Friday saw the James party of 4 looking for a multispecies trip so we started with the very reliable Striper fishing in the Gut. Many more Blues have now infiltrated the local waters but the guys were still able to catch 6 Bass with 2 very nice slot fish in the 30-33” range and also having to return 2 very nice fish approaching 40”, each over the 20# mark. Although a few less Bass filets there is no doubt that catching a Bass like those over slot fish is always exciting for my clients.
Next stop was north of Plum for our first crack as Sea Bass. Initial drop yielded only 2 keepers and a bunch of shorts. So, we shifted a little further north and found a better pile of keeper sized fish nailing 8 more for the box up to 19”. Finished the day drifting the ebb tide inside Orient harbor and the numbers of Fluke have improved nicely here. Fluke were landed on almost every drift and the guys managed to cull 8 keepers to 22” out of 16 fish total.
Yesterday found my long-term customer John, his son in law Ricky and grandson Daniel on board for another multispecies trip. Same plan as Friday worked once again with just s few changes to the overall numbers. John landed a nice 32” slot Bass on the first pass but then the Blues started to take over. I noticed the natural drift speed was a little slow so I began to power drift and we started to nail Stripers with much more regularity. First Ricky comes up with a real fat 34” fish, very close to the 20# mark, then on successive passes we caught 9 more Bass with 2 in the slot size for a full boat limit plus several more Blues.
Moved north to the Sea Bass grounds and the Saturday boat traffic kept the overall catch down a little. Still, we managed 5 nice keepers to 19” among about 20 more shorts. Back to the bay to finish up with Fluke and found about the same keeper ratio as Friday with half of the Fluke landed reaching the 18.5”-20” mark. So, the day was capped off with 5 Fluke out of 11 fish on a slightly tougher drift and once again more boat traffic to make things a bit more challenging.
It has been a jam-packed week aboard the Captain’s Table and thankfully the fish have been extremely cooperative on all trips.
Starting last Wednesday, the Tony party of 5 came out on a kind of dreary rainy day with the persistent showers coming down most of the trip. However, that did not dampen their spirit or ability to fill their coolers with nice fat Porgies, mostly in the medium size range with a few jumbos mixed in. These guys wanted maximum production and the Peconic Bay drops I favor delivered full limit coolers for all anglers.
Friday saw the James party of 4 looking for a multispecies trip so we started with the very reliable Striper fishing in the Gut. Many more Blues have now infiltrated the local waters but the guys were still able to catch 6 Bass with 2 very nice slot fish in the 30-33” range and also having to return 2 very nice fish approaching 40”, each over the 20# mark. Although a few less Bass filets there is no doubt that catching a Bass like those over slot fish is always exciting for my clients.
Next stop was north of Plum for our first crack as Sea Bass. Initial drop yielded only 2 keepers and a bunch of shorts. So, we shifted a little further north and found a better pile of keeper sized fish nailing 8 more for the box up to 19”. Finished the day drifting the ebb tide inside Orient harbor and the numbers of Fluke have improved nicely here. Fluke were landed on almost every drift and the guys managed to cull 8 keepers to 22” out of 16 fish total.
Yesterday found my long-term customer John, his son in law Ricky and grandson Daniel on board for another multispecies trip. Same plan as Friday worked once again with just s few changes to the overall numbers. John landed a nice 32” slot Bass on the first pass but then the Blues started to take over. I noticed the natural drift speed was a little slow so I began to power drift and we started to nail Stripers with much more regularity. First Ricky comes up with a real fat 34” fish, very close to the 20# mark, then on successive passes we caught 9 more Bass with 2 in the slot size for a full boat limit plus several more Blues.
Moved north to the Sea Bass grounds and the Saturday boat traffic kept the overall catch down a little. Still, we managed 5 nice keepers to 19” among about 20 more shorts. Back to the bay to finish up with Fluke and found about the same keeper ratio as Friday with half of the Fluke landed reaching the 18.5”-20” mark. So, the day was capped off with 5 Fluke out of 11 fish on a slightly tougher drift and once again more boat traffic to make things a bit more challenging.
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