New York Metro &
New Jersey

May 30th, 2003

More Yellow Eyes

Featured Affiliate

Make a waterproof fly box! Buy this box from REI for $18.50 then follow the instructions from Ray Avitable posted here: Ray's waterproof fly box thread.

A quick thank you to all the thoughtful responses I received regarding last week’s column about New York and New Jersey saltwater licenses.  Out of over a dozen e-mails I received only one was opposed to any sort of license fee.  Pretty much what I expected…  More to follow on the subject in future columns…  But this week’s report is going to be a short one, because quite honestly I logged about 12-hours on the water today and it’s tough to speak coherently, much less type.  So please forgive the mis-wording if you encounter any.  I’m sure this crowd understands. 

Not a bad week if you like bluefish.  Just about everywhere in this region that was the story.  Loads and loads of yellow eyed, sharp tooth mean and nasty bluefish…  On the surface, on the bottom, in the flats, in the rips etc…  I’m the first one to admit that dozens of two to three pound bluefish can get boring pretty quickly.  Not to mention, they can make short work of a whole box of flies in short order.  But when the big ones decide to take residence on the flats.  That can be pretty cool.  Bluefish love to smash poppers on the surface.  They’ll come from far away to do so if they are anywhere near that flat.  Sometimes they will even torpedo out of the water in pursuit of a noisy popping bug.  And when you manage to hook one over ten pounds in shallow water, boy do they take line.  And occasionally you’ll get one that will leap several times and tail-walk across the flat similar to the way a hooked tarpon might behave.  We had one yesterday that looked about 15-pounds jump 5-times before it broke off at the boat. 

So I’m okay with this bluefish thing for now.  But where is that big run of bass!!!  The bait guys are hammering them just about every single morning.  Some fly anglers are getting them to eat flies but certainly not with the same frequency as in previous seasons.   Maybe it’s because the water temps aren’t what they are supposed to be and the fish are still a bit lethargic and would rather be lazy and go after a chunk or a live lined bunker…  Who knows?  But you can bet I’ll be back out there tomorrow and the next day trying to figure it out.   Bass fishing has certainly been slow for me, but there are others that seem to be doing quite well.  So let’s get on to the reports and see where, how and why:

And don’t forget to email me your own reports. Tight lines all.

Tight Lines!

John McMurray

New Jersey

Captain Gene Quigley from Shore Catch Guide Service checks in with this central New Jersey report:

John,

Fishing was hot and cold down here in Barnegat Bay this week due to the cold,
wet, and windy weather. The weakfish seemed to have went into hiding as the
water temps dropped 8 degrees over night this past weekend. We marked the heck
out of em - just could not get them to eat. Blues are still plentiful but
smaller that they were in the weeks past. Most of the fish are going 3 to 4 lbs
with the occasional bigger fish mixed in. Client Mike Sineicki got in on the
Weakfish bite before the weather came in and had solid action with fish to 9 lbs
on Pink & White Jiggies

The hot bite was definitely with the stripers during the nasty weather and we
managed to get good catches of fish on flies and plugs in the rough water. If
you are fishing clams in the bay or out in the surf it is a no brainer. These
guys cannot bait the hooks fast enough and fish have been caught up to 41 lbs
in the bay on bait. Saturday Clients Rick Verblouaaw and Chris Dries put 14
stripers in the boat, and on Sunday morning Ron Krisko managed 15 fish to 19
lbs.

My partner Capt. Jim Freda has been fishing the northern section of the bay
and doing very well with the blues.

Talk to you next week.

Capt. Gene Quigley
Shore Catch Guide Service

Good action in Raritan Bay according to Frank Crescitelli of Fin Chaser Charter. Some big bass under the bunker schools. Apparently they are not experiencing the yellow eyed plague that areas east of Raritan Bay are.

Jamaica Bay is full of bluefish and the flats are starting to produce some nice fish in the early AM… I witnessed Captain Brendan McCarthy from Urban Fly Guides put his sport on a very nice bass this morning (Thursday) and we were both marking some serious fish through out. Furthermore the bait guys are killing them, so they are there. It’s just a matter of getting them to eat.

Western Long Island

From the North Shore, Reel-Timer Angelo Peluso checked in this week with two reports:

Hi John,
The activity with bass, shad and blues has been steadily increasing out this way. Each day brings a few more fish to the flies and they are also increasing in size. We had a few bass in the 29/30 inch range this week. But even the smaller slot fish are showing some impressive pot bellies. Today brought some decent numbers of bass and shad. A friend and I grabbed the rain jackets and neoprenes and waded around the harbors finding fish at most of our spots. The vast majority of the fish were taken on the dropping tide, with the height of activity during the last two hours. Deceivers and Mudflies(a cross between a Hi-tie, a Clouser and a Crazy Charlie) did most of the damage. I'll be pounding the water again tomorrow, hopefully casting to some bigger fish. Stay well and stay into fish..Regards...Angelo

Hi John,
Funny how this Spring fishing is shaping up. During the last few days, the worse the weather got out here, the better the bass bite became. Just when you think you have that SE/SW wind pattern down pat, the "ill" NE wind of Spring brings the best fishing so far to the harbors and out in the Sound...from Smithtown Bay out to Horton's Point. While most of the fish are smaller schoolies, they are very eager to take the fly. More and more bigger fish are being caught each day on traditional gear as well as on the fly. Some of the bait guys are putting together catches of bass in the high teens with a few over 20 pounds. The last two days brought me about about 50 bass each day on the fly as well as a number of shad. Most of the other flycasters out there with me had similar results. And yesterday, I left them still biting since the wind had pushed in more than expected water and my exits strategy from the sand bar was dwindling fast...a reminder to keep an eye on the watch and the tide! Either that or I need to grow a few more inches! Maybe a pair of stilts could work! Next week I'll be back there in my boat! Happy to things finally getting into gear our here. Till next week...stay well and tight lines...Angelo

Great advise Angelo… And great report.

No official South Shore reports, but word is that the bluefish bight is great.

Eastern Long Island

From Shinnecock, Captain Don Kaye form Shinnecock Guiding Service checks in with this report:

Tough angling conditions persisted this week in Shinnecock Bay. Unlike last week, the fish weren't happy with the constant windy-rainy conditions but, they were THERE! It took a bit more work to find them since they didn't bust baits on the surface as in prior sessions. Working the channels and drop-offs with sinking lines and using slow, deliberate retrieves, produced a number of  good,'keeper sized, Striped Bass, a few Bluefish, and a couple of Hickory Shad. All fish released, of course! The poor weather conditions kept boat traffic to a minimum and the few anglers that set sail reaped the rewards! What happened to Spring? Much more to come! Capt. Don Kaye, Shinnecock Guiding 631-7288175

Also reporting from the Shinnecock area is Saltie Flyrodder Joel Filner.  Check it out:

Rain, rain go away, come again another day. Yep it sure kept coming
again. Fished Thursday night on the Peconic, one nice bluefish for
the 2 hours, and lost a weakfish to the skills of the angler. Friday
morning, misty, perfect outgoing tide, cold winds, and water that was
still 53 degrees, proved troublesome to the flyfisher. One striper,
one blue for two of us whilst my spin fishing mate could cast into
the wind over the hole and kept picking away at the bass and blues.
Saturday morning still raining, misty, but winds down to a manageable
10 to 15 knots, 52 degree water, and only one fish for the three fly
casters and very few to the conventional tackle. Sunday actually wore
the sun glasses in the morning, cold winds, and cold water and no
fish for me and no fish for the spin fishers. Monday the sky opened
with rain and wind from 4 AM thru  6 PM. I went out, watched the rain
and went back to bed. One Eastern Flyrodder took his kayak on
Shinnecock and had a banner morning with stripers and big blues
chasing bunker. My two spin mates fished in the rain and wind,
leaving the fly rods in the car, and managed three keepers, a lot of
just undersized fish, and large blues in the rain from 7 AM thru 10
AM thru the outgoing. Feather bed guilt.

Reel-Timer Mark Wallace checks in with a report from farther east:

Hi John,
Snuck out of work a little early last Friday and made it out on the water by about 6:00 pm.  Fished a rip on the west side of Shelter Island on the outgoing tide under heavy clouds that eventually yielded a steady light rain.  Northeast winds wern't too bad at about 10-15.  Water temp on my guage showed 56, but I'm not sure if it might be off a bit.  I was working a popper with a chartruese hackle tail and a body that my daughter had painted with about 10 different color markers!  I promised her that I'd use it and oddly enough, caught a 29" bass with it.  I got a number of rises on the popper retrieving it with a pop and pull retrieve, but no takers. It wasn't unitl I tried a steady retrieve that the bass began to strike.  I finished the evening with two more fish of 28" and 30".   Didn't get out again until Sunday morning and again fished that rip on the outgoing under partly cloudy skies.  Caught two smaller bass and then fished the ferry slip as action slowed.   By about 7:30, there were enough blues in the area to chew off any and all hair I had in the box and that pretty much ended my search for bass as the tide went slack.
 
Mark

That’s all for this week…  See you out on the water…