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Headed out this morning with Capt. Mike and special guest jigger "West End Frankie," straight to my offshore office. Rough as hell early, had to put the sock in the water to slow us down enough to fish 5oz buck tails. Short after short, but nothing for the box for a couple of hours.

Captain was starting to stress, but on the turn Mike came through with the first keeper of the day - a fat 5lb fish. And so it went, with an approximate keeper ratio of 10:1 - lots of action pretty much on every drift line. The wind laid down around 10:00, and it was just gorgeous by lunchtime. We continued to work hard and stayed out late - the conditions were so sweet that no one wanted to leave. Ran back to the dock at 20kts, with the windshields wide open - the "natural" air conditioning felt great!

Final tally was 10 keeps to 5.5lbs, with Mike being especially hot this trip. Big Kudos to Frankie, who fished a long, tough trip on his own boat yesterday. And double especially to Capt. Mike, who ran a full-day Montauk charter yesterday, yet STILL had the energy to get in his car this morning at 04:00 and drive from Calverton to Freeport; then fished at the rail the entire trip, cleaned the boat with Frankie and assisted with the fish cutting - and then drove the 60+ miles back home. Mike is 72 and honestly, I have no idea how he does it. I'm just grateful that he fished with me today. Dude is nails.

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Headed out yesterday afternoon on the 12-4 on the JJ. I wasn't too crazy when I saw wind saying gusts up to 25mph up there. But my friend insisted we go anyways. Head north out of the harbor, first drift within 5 mins I pull up a double header... Sea Bass on teaser, Fluke on the bucktail. Both keepers! Alright, maybe this won't be so bad after all, held with 3 oz. Then the wind picked up and it was not fun. Switching from spinning set up, to my black hole rod and put on 6 oz, nope still not holding...8 oz, eh got a little better but didn't get much time to hold bottom. Had to work it just right to make contact. I was using a chicken rig at this point. Worked way back into harbor and it was slow pickings. I ended up winning the pool with my fluke, and just had the two fish to my name. Fluke was a nice fat on at 20", the sea bass was really nice. The picture doesn't do it justice. I snapped it quick while the mate was getting it out of the net.

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No pix today, but had KenScot and Kevin/Longcast (my A-Team) aboard today. It was no keeper slam-fest, but we still managed to put 9 in the box to 5lbs for the three of us. Had to stay late and work for them to get what we did. Of course, tons of shorts and "almosts." I think I might have made a strategic error regarding the part of the grounds that we fished for a few hours mid-morning that just didn't pan out. Meh, all part of the process and lesson learned. We'll slay 'em next time.
 
Snapprhead27 said:
Headed out yesterday afternoon on the 12-4 on the JJ. I wasn't too crazy when I saw wind saying gusts up to 25mph up there. But my friend insisted we go anyways. Head north out of the harbor, first drift within 5 mins I pull up a double header... Sea Bass on teaser, Fluke on the bucktail. Both keepers! Alright, maybe this won't be so bad after all, held with 3 oz. Then the wind picked up and it was not fun. Switching from spinning set up, to my black hole rod and put on 6 oz, nope still not holding...8 oz, eh got a little better but didn't get much time to hold bottom. Had to work it just right to make contact. I was using a chicken rig at this point. Worked way back into harbor and it was slow pickings. I ended up winning the pool with my fluke, and just had the two fish to my name. Fluke was a nice fat on at 20", the sea bass was really nice. The picture doesn't do it justice. I snapped it quick while the mate was getting it out of the net.

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That's the way to double up Matt!
Excellent eating on both hooks.
 
Fishing Today

Knowing that High Water Slack was at 07:00 Kenscot and I wasted no time leaving the dock - arriving on station offshore at exactly 07:02 - pretty good. Problem was, the tide was very s-l-o-w to change and when it did, not much drift at all. A friend came alongside and generously donated a coupla dozen peanuts to the cause - upon which we caught exactly zero keepers. Oh well, thanks anyway - its the thought that counts!

So we meandered here and there, trying a few different driftlines as a bit of a change-up from my usual reliables, for maybe three fish in the box by 11:00. Not good - I do not care for a tame ocean, I prefer some motion to my ocean, as I feel it aerates the water, stirs up the fish, and keeps the weekend knuckleheads off us.

The next change was 1:00 - and with it the weather totally turned. Big wind, like 20kts big, with light rain and big-ish waves and we were off to the races. Off came the 3oz buck tails, on went the 8oz sinkers. Turned out great - limited in all the wind to Ken's 7lb2oz fish, the current leader in the boat's 2023 heaviest fluke contest. Also included in the catch a - 5lb8oz fish and a pair of 4lbers. Pretty solid quality, I would say.

Sailed home with the wind and waves astern, lots of moderate rain as we approached our inlet - which all dissipated and left behind a bright, sunny sky for the boat cleanup and fish cutting.

Unhooking the biggie:

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Leprechaun said:
Fishing Today

Knowing that High Water Slack was at 07:00 Kenscot and I wasted no time leaving the dock - arriving on station offshore at exactly 07:02 - pretty good. Problem was, the tide was very s-l-o-w to change and when it did, not much drift at all. A friend came alongside and generously donated a coupla dozen peanuts to the cause - upon which we caught exactly zero keepers. Oh well, thanks anyway - its the thought that counts!

So we meandered here and there, trying a few different driftlines for a change from my usual reliables, for maybe three fish in the box by 11:00. Not good - I do not care for a tame ocean, I prefer some motion to my ocean, as I feel it aerates the water, stirs up the fish, and keeps the weekend knuckleheads off us.

The next change was 1:00 - and with it the weather totally turned. Big wind, like 20kts big, with light rain and big-ish waves and we were off to the races. Off came the 3oz buck tails, on went the 8oz sinkers. Turned out great - limited in all the wind to Ken's 7lb2oz fish, the current leader in the boat's 2023 heaviest fluke contest. Also included in the catch a - 5lb8oz fish and a pair of 4lbers. Pretty solid quality, I would say.

Sailed home with the wind and wave astern, lots of moderate rain as we approached our inlet - which all dissipated and left behind a bright, sunny sky for the boat cleanup and fish cutting.

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That's known as "DETERMINATON/LEP STYLE"
Well done, guys.
 
Matt’s Montauk Charter today found himself, his cousin Chris, the venerable Chef Nader, and our own Geroge S. make up the “all star crew”! We were blessed with light winds and just enough overcast to make it a very comfortable August day on the water.

Based upon some good local intel we started todays’ south side adventure a little shallower than prior trips. Still, plenty of short Fluke around but within about 15 minutes George puts the first keeper, a nice 3.5# fish in the box on a Gulp grub. The Chef answers back quickly with back-to-back keepers of his own and we noted that they seemed to prefer his blue teaser.

One of the many things I like about George is he is very receptive to following my suggestions. On our June Striped Bass trip, he had been struggling to catch a keeper Bass, so I asked him to switch out his bucktail for a swim shad and soon after he helped us fill out our Bass limit. So today I told him I had a very special blue teaser that helped me deck a nice 8# Fluke in the same vicinity a few years ago. He quickly put this on his rig and proceeded to take both high hook and top fish honors for the day with a lovely 6.25# Fluke! Sometimes the Capt. actually gets things right!

As the day wore on the entire crew did a lot of sorting putting upwards of 60 Fluke on the deck but at least today the keeper ratio was a little better. Towards the end of the trip Chris and Matt showed that persistence always pays off in the fishing game. Chris struck first with a healthy Fluke pushing 4# and then Matt capped off the day with a solid 5# beauty. Not many Sea Bass today but at least one decent one went home with the Chef for his special whole baked preparation. So we headed back to the dock on very calm seas with a total of 11 Keepers in the box and some nice bags of filet for the crew.

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Fishing Offshore Today

Well first off, the Wx guys were way off with today's marine forecast. Calling for a light sprinkle or two before 05:30 - nope. Rained hard offshore thru 10:30. So let's look at the overall situation - steady rain, a nasty east breeze, a rotten close 3-4' chop/roll on the grounds, and a very strong new Moon tide. Doesn't sound like a recipe for success does it? Well, it just goes to show that its always best to go fishing whenever you can - you just never really know.

Turns out Capt. Mike, "West End" Frankie and I HAMMERED the larger fluke during the worst part of the morning's crappy conditions. Had to put the drift sock in the water to slow down our 2kt speed, and segue up from 4oz jigs to 8oz sinkers on the B/S and Chicken rigs.

Right off I put a 5+ on the deck, and Mike follows with a 6+. We caught well thru to the end of the incoming (my fav August tide), 'til right around 10:30. At that point the tide changed, as did the weather as well - for the way better. We continued to pick thru a ton of shorts - ending the trip with 11 in the box to Mike's 6.5. Very good quality today, even better average size than last Saturday - which was a banner day as well. Overall, it could have gone far worse, that's for sure.


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Leprechaun said:
Fishing Offshore Today

Well first off, the Wx guys were way off with today's marine forecast. Calling for a light sprinkle or two before 05:30 - nope. Rained hard offshore thru 10:30. So let's look at the overall situation - steady rain, a nasty east breeze, a rotten close 3-4' chop/roll on the grounds, and a very strong new Moon tide. Doesn't sound like a recipe for success does it? Well, it just goes to show that its always best to go fishing whenever you can - you just never really know.

Turns out Capt. Mike, "West End" Frankie and I HAMMERED the larger fluke during the worst part of the morning's crappy conditions. Had to put the drift sock in the water to slow down our 2kt speed, and segue up from 4oz jigs to 8oz sinkers on the B/S and Chicken rigs.

Right off I put a 5+ on the deck, and Mike follows with a 6+. We caught well right thru to the end of the incoming (my fav August tide), 'til right around 10:30. At that point the tide changed, as did the weather as well - for the way better. We continued to pick thru a ton of shorts - ending the trip with 11 in the box to Mike's 6.5. Very good quality today, even better average size than last Saturday - which was a banner day as well. Overall, it could have gone far worse, that's for sure.


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holy smoke men,,,,,,,,,,,,,, real nice job,,,,,,,,,,,,,,well done,,,,,,,3(y)(y)(y)s up,,,,, all nice fluke there,,,,,,,,,, all be good,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ><)))):>
<>)))):>
 
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