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Thanks George. Also, many kudos to you for the huge Fluke you boated with Lep yesterday. You are becoming a force to be reckoned with on the South Shore grounds!
 
never like fishing on an east wind but we did fish today.. had nine keeper fluke a couple of seabass & porgy's bottom paved with small fish , fluke . porgy's & seabass .chewing up & pulling off gulp almost every drop..
 
Headed out this morning with our friendly host, George - the only one of my regulars that could fish today. A shame really - as today was by far the best bite of the entire season. The size wasn't super spectacular, though we did get to 5+lbs, but the amount of fish that hit the deck was just, hard to describe. One right after the other - like porgy fishing.

The breeze stayed down, under 10kts ESE, with no real ocean to speak of, great drifting conditions - 2 & 3oz jig heads were all that we needed, and they bit their heads off. I often hear how they won't chew on an E breeze - I've never bought into that thinking, and have had some really good trips the first day of an E blow.

Give you an example of how good it was - I was using the new Shimano Grappler Type J 6' spinner with my Evict 2000 on it - I went 15 for 15 on fish, casting up drift - with some really nice ones mixed in. That's a record I don't think I'll ever better. Just an amazing amount of fish today.

Anyway, they bit from the first drop, and once the tide started to turn I moved off the drift I had been making and mosied over to "my favorite corner," of the grounds. I think George (in his mind) was questioning why I left fish to find fish - but that particular drop has always been very good to me - I went 3 for 3 keepers on the first three consecutive casts, including the best fish of the day.

We were all wrapped up by 10:45, and did the C&R thing until 1:00 - for another 25 fish including 6 true keepers - that went back, for another day. We had to have boated 100+ fish today. They literally bit their heads off.

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You're right about my thinking. I would find it tough to move from a spot where we were getting fish every time we wet the line. But I was confident you had a plan, and it worked. That move put us on much bigger fish. It takes balls to leave fish to find bigger fish. But it's not the first time I've seen you do it with success, so I had plenty of confidence. And once again it paid off.

I have finger burn, from using the spinner, and my arms are aching from cranking so many fish from those depths. It feels great though :)
 
If you guys have another one of those days and wanna try something different with some of the fish, my smoker is available8-)
 
We could have done something like that - as we also caught 4 or 5 Chub mackerel. Big boys too - larger than the biggest Boston macks I've ever seen. I bet those would “smoke up” real nice!
 
If anybody wants to do that, whether its fluke, big porgies, blue fish, bass or whatever...
I bleed them like normal and when filleting them, leave skin AND scales on the fillet. It makes it easier to remove from the smoker racks and once they cool, it turns to leather and its easier to pack them up and remove the meat

Every batch thru the smoker is always a bit different and no guarantees LOL
 
went yesterday AM ocean was a washing machine ..went home ,,A friend said it turned into a nice day..
so we went again today..weather was not the best this AM... But as the day went on it got much better ,by the time we left flat ocean...had a three man limit of fluke ..bottom is paved with short fluke ..going to hit the fluke grounds again tomorrow
 
another day another limit well for the Capt...dont know what happened to the rest of the crew...did half of what we did yesterday...they still almost twenty fluke to clean tomorrow,,along with a few nice BSB & porgys...

bottom is paved with short fluke ..If I was a NJ boat could have sunk it today & yesterday!
 
Sailed today with our humble host George for a slow morning's fishing, keeper-wise - but the bite improved considerably on the tide change. Once the outgoing got moving, we quickly added keepers to the box, getting to 7 fish by mid-tide.

I told George, let's finish off the limit and head for the barn. That was some bad ju-ju, as we never did get that last keep, though both of us had some very decent fish come unbuttoned, two sure keepers right at boat side. Damn. Once the SSW wind came up the drift became too much - one slam and if you didn't get him, gonzo. I would have put out the sock, but just didn't have the energy after a long day of constant jigging. I am getting old, truth be told.

So we finished with those 7 fish to 5lbs, culled from at least 70 fish caught. A one in ten keeper ratio isn't ideal, but if you want fluke right now, that's the dealeo. We must have thrown back at least twenty 18.5" fish - like Capt. Richie said - a Jersey boat would have had a party today.

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Very nice work, guys. Here's my update from yesterday' efforts:

After 3 very strong trips in a row to Montauk, my expectations for yesterday’s Fluke charter were pretty high. Unfortunately, I may have set the bar a little too high based upon our results come the end of the day.

Only a small 2-man crew joined me, Chef Nader and his friend John enjoyed a smooth ride down to the point and a short start east of the lighthouse on the start of the flood. Quickly picked up 2 small keepers and a couple of Sea Bass before the tide started to build steam and the 4 0z. bucktails were really scoping.

No problem, I said to myself, as the tide on my favored offshore drops would be much softer. First stop the scene of our major score 2 weeks ago but all we could muster were a few shots and a steady stream of Sea Bass. Started moving progressively deeper and came up with a 4# fish in about 80’ of water. I thought we had it figured out but quickly the short parade began and once again we had to search. Last stop offshore was Cartwright which is usually pretty consistent but not today with a few more shorts and the nuisance dogs.

So, I knew I had to do something to salvage the trip and headed back to the point for the end of the flood. Tide was still moving pretty good by mid-day but with the help of the drift sock I was able to slow us down enough to catch. Managed 4 more small keepers’ ad a few more biscuits before finally calling it a day. Ultimately seven Fluke to 4# and a half dozen biscuits went home as fine dinner for my customers.


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Fluke today and a Nice Brown Shark for the Captain

Headed out with Capt. Mike and George for a gorgeous day on the ocean grounds. Started out a bit slow on the keepers, but carefully selecting the drift lines resulted in a full boat limit to 4.5lbs culled from a ton of just-shorts. Nice fatties this trip, thick fillets.

The Brown Shark hit my buck tail/fresh chub mackerel strip combo, and gave quite an account of itself on my new Shimano Grappler and Tsunami Evict 2000 - a really under-gunned setup for such a fish. Ran straight out, then back down to the bottom, then around the cockpit, ripping off repeated 100' runs at will. But that little reel's super smooth drag finally did him in, and we got him to within 10' of the boat, before his tail touched the line and he was gone. Both Mike and I got a solid look at him, had to be a good 6' long. Strong fight on a little spinning rod, that's for sure. I cannot be more impressed with the way that outfit got it done - most especially the tiny Evict reel. No pix or vid of the occurrence (naturally), but it happened.

Some spotty weather coming in for the next week or more, so who knows if this strong fluking will continue. If this ends up being the last trip of the season, it really was the proper way to cap it off.

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Well it wasn't from lack of trying, between engine problems, weather, work and lack of fish, it was another bad year for fluke fishing the sound, at least when I went over to Shinnecock to visit my Friend Jack in August, which was a tradition for 20 yrs till he moved to Oregon 2 yrs ago, I was assured to bring home a few fillets, now I'm just about ready to put the boat away, my sons have lost confidence in my boat's ability to run for more than a couple of hours without engine trouble, although I now believe I have the engine running extremely well and had no problems last weekend, it has taken a toll on all of us, something that is supposed to give you a little refuge from personal problems and events surrounding us today only exacerbates the situation when now your worried about engine failure, I do have a towing service but still, it's always in the back of my mind.
Next September my contract/obligation is up and I will retire giving me all the time I need, also a new /used boat is in my future.
Hopefully next year will be better.
Jay
 
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