PDA

View Full Version : 9/25-26: Feeds before the storm


Tuna
09-27-2002, 01:01 PM
Fished Wednesday and Thursday, then probably NOAA-ed myself today (Friday). Got up this morning to rain stronger than I felt like fishing in, heard bad NOAA predictions, and decided to head back to NJ to take care of some odds and ends. Just as I begin the trip, the rain lets up and visions of wild feeds filled my head... but I kept going. Maybe Ted S found a window of time to fish today - if he did, I bet there were some fish popping.

Wednesday was a good day for me but, as in Josh's post on fishing with Andy squared, there were no large sustained feeds, just pop-ups here and there. But I seemed to be where I needed to be when it counted and did fine.

Best feed of the day was around Caswells, with a nice bass feed with a large pod of albies behind it. Josh got there for the finale, but for 15 minutes beforre that it was a bit of classic fall magic. Other than that, it was albies popping up near shore from Turtle Cove south, and some albies at the edge of the rip. Managed 7 before heading to Gardiners behind Josh.

The albies at Gardiners never stayed in one place, but I had fun trying until finding one large pod that was nothing but blues. Headed home then after having got 3 albies there.

Thursday, got out early in light drizzle and a stronger NE wind and almost called it quits before getting to the point. I could see Ted S moving out to outer Shag and another boat looking like they were calling quits. But I kept on to the Point, where I found albies in the rips immediately, The rips, however, were not fishing friendly and after dropping a fish, I headed south to find albies just outside the rips. Took and dropped a few more before heading to Caswells for a few minutes of big aggressive albie pods. Took a few there and returned to Turtle Cove to watch a shore bass blitz and take albies outside of it.

Most of my albies this day were smaller. The one big one I got I foul hooked on the side, and had trouble with the tide taking me too close to the rocks at the Point. Struggled for a long time with this fish in the rips, moving tthe boat from time to time (and losing ground on the fish) to avoid the rocks. Got impatient and broke the rod landing the little devil.

It was getting raw and wetter out there, so I started to head for Shag when I spotted boats between the Point and Oyster Pond. Nice mix of bass, blues and lots of albies, although I had many albie refusals and blue hookups instead. Got my 10th albie just before the action died near Oyster Pond, chatted with Ted (who had good luck at outer Shag) and then got bored waiting for the fish to turn on at tide turn, called it quits before 1 am as the rain got a bit steadier. I imagine the fish turned on again later.

During the two days, no giant sustained feeds but the albies seemed much more willing to take the fly, particularly in the wilder surf of Thursday.

Plan to be out again Wednesday to scout for Dave Corbet's 2002 Albiefest (where I take him out around Montauk as part of an exchange program where I fish with him in the spring at the Cape). Waters are still fairly warm and there's bait around so unless a real big storm or series of them come, there should be goood fishing for weeks (I hope).

BIGE
09-27-2002, 02:20 PM
Peter, will you be out Sunday? It's looking better and better. I'll be out with fmw. I'll give you a shout on 6.

AndyF
09-27-2002, 02:59 PM
I know the feeling, Peter. Planned on three days off of work (not an easy task) and great fall fishing and actually came back home last night (Thursday) because of the dire predictions; so of course we haven't had a drop of rain all day and light winds.

After a challenging but fun day out with Josh (thanks again, Josh!), I took my buddy Andy out again Thursday but we never made the run up to the point. North side of Gardiner's had lots of pods early, but they were very tough. They seemed to concentrate in small groups busting through small balls of bait. They would go down as fast as they came up. My theory is that the albies weren't boat shy but the bait sure as hell were, so the albies just followed the bait. And the conditions were really tough. We only had one boat out with us for about half hour and then we were alone in heavy seas (especially for the bay), sometimes strong winds and the damn rain. By around 1 or so they were too sporadic so we just cruised around Three Mile Harbor playing with the blues for kicks. No boils like Wednesday, but I'll take a bad day of fishing over a good day of work.

Hoping we have a long, productive fall.

Tuna
09-28-2002, 07:04 AM
Rich - nope, I won't be out Sunday, I'll still be caught up in some non fishing chores. Won't be hitting the water again until Wednesday. Good luck out there with fmw.

Andy - nice to say hello on the water on Wednesday. Looks like I may have double NOAAed myself, as the forecast for today is for lower wind (only 20-25 knots) than before. Normally I go crazy wwhen I do this, but in addition to having some things I had to get done, I need to rest my right arm which developed a new ache the last few days on the water.

Ted S - if you fished Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday, post what you saw for those not on the water. Rich and fmw, we also wanna hear about Sunday if you make it out.

I'm still replaying some scenes from Thursday. The last feed (the one that moved to Oyster Pond) had some big pods of albies slashing through the water and that, and the image of me drifting into the rocks with that darn foul hooked albie keep flashing in front of me. Sure love this time of the year!.

teds
09-30-2002, 10:07 AM
Peter, As the rain got heavier on thursday more boats called it quits. So as you could guess the fishing was wild until it became hard to see.The best part was there were only 2 other boats out. Jim levison and Bob Sullivan myself and classic big water bad weather albie fishing.I was soaked and tired but it's nice to have that kind of fishing in relative solitude at this time of year. I went back to work on friday but friends told me of good fishing along gin beach and inner shag on friday late am and early pm. On saturday I outsmarted myself by waiting for the wind to drop.It did at sunset and I did not go out.Of course I heard they had good fishing at Shag that afternoon.
Sunday was rough as it gets with 4ft swell and chop at shag and worse conditions at the point. I found albies for the first time in fort pond bay,they were spooky and up and down in 60 seconds, again only one other boat back there with me, Paul Dixon.There were fish in turtle cove and shag in the afternoon.It turned on again at 4pm with the tide change along gin beach, but many competitive boats made it less than fun.

teds

peteD
09-30-2002, 10:10 PM
Saturday was dead all over. Some said there were fish later in the day, but I never saw them. Chartered with Jim Levinson on Sunday and picked a few albies early, and they really heated up off Shaqwong later in the day.