first Keepers of the season

[peter mac]

Hey Guys,
Fished with friend Joe D. and John McMurray in J-Bay this morning. Beautiful morning NO WIND and the sun was out, we couldn't coax any fish on poppers and soon got ushered away from the rocks by the JFK runway by NYPD . We were able to find several large pods of fish that were more than willing to take large 7-9" chart/white deceivers on sinking lines over by the radar pier . Lots of healthy 16-26" schoolies and 4 KEEPERS to 32", first keepers of the season!felt great to have bigger fish pull back this time!.......... Bunker were scattered, no real concentrated pods, hopefully this warm weather will get things really going in the bay. Going back Sunday.............will post pictures when I get them later..........

Peter Mac

[danny]

that sounds great. stupid question: is any of j bay accessible to fly fish without a skiff? thanks.

[peter mac]

Hey Danny,
The answer is yes although it can be difficult to get to the spots, you can wade the beach right next to Canarsie pier. Yakkers love J-Bay, there is a yakkers tournement/fun day on May 15th with on the water trials for new yakkers or those just looking to try yak fiahing. I will get the website with the info and post it for you, they should also be able to give you directions to wadable areas.
Peter Mac

[danny]

thanks, peter. i was planning on bringing my skiff up from the keys this year, but i can't really find a good place to keep it (i live in the city)... so it looks like i'll be wading. ugh. i need all the help i can get. so thanks again...

[mctrout]

Danny
my slip at Gateway Marina in Brookly will be empty July-Nov 1 if you want to put your skiff there we could negotiate someting reasonable?

[danny]

thanks, brendan. i will give you a call tomorrow.

[dollarshort]

WOW.. kind of an odd year.. been hitting Keeper fish since early April in the Hudson. The start was slow and still is a little off campared to previous years but we've been pounding the snot out of fish in the 3-20lb range for the last 2 weeks.

All on light spin gear and Rapala's... if ya have the right color ( I cant tell here but Ill give ya a hint... they discontinued the color ) you can usually dig out at least 12-15 fish even on a tough morning. If the school is BIG 50+ fish is not unlikely. --127-3-

[peter mac]

Hey Dollar,
That sounds great, are they taking flies in the hudson?

[dollarshort]

Ive hooked a few on flies but they have been a bit fussy as of late. One day its one after another for a few hours and then the next your lucky to get a bump.

I had a strange experience on Sunday and you may have the skinny about whats happening.

Wind @ 15-20knts from the SW.. light rain and drizzle. 1-3ft waves in "The bay"

Getting "Bumps" on ever cast, some bumps ferocious.. some just light taps. Watched as fish charged my Yo Zuri to the boat and smash it with thier tails and also hit it head on but they werent trying to eat it... I think they were just trying to stun it. But they wouldnt come back for it.

Cant tell you how frustrating it was. I landed 7 and lost 4 along with 4 new lures ( damn expensive morning ) my buddy landed one and lost a MONSTER that took at the boat and he just couldnt get the hook burried.

What do think about the "Bumping"?? :confused:

[danny]

here's a somewhat educated guess: aren't the fish there to spawn? i know when smallmouth, for example, are spawning, they are super aggressive, but don't really want to eat. you can hook them or get them to strike out of anger. just a thought... i used to attach a trailer hook if i continually got short-striked. maybe they're just very aggressive, but not really feeding.

[peter mac]

Dollar,
We had the same experience fishing poppers, the fish would tail slap the popper once and come back and slap it again, if you just left it sitting in the water after the tail slaps they would come back and eat it. Same with head on assults, you had to wait at least a 3 count after they hit the popper and then hit them or you got spit. I agree they seem to like to stun the prey and then eat the dazed bait fish dead drifting. We had much better hook-up ratios fishing clousers, and deceivers, at least 90%, some takes were barely felt others were all out assults. We found the fish became much more aggressive as the day wore on and the sun came up to warm things up on friday afternoon. On Sunday, in the fog and rain the fish were more spirited than friday, better fight with more ferocious strikes...........One interesting note, I love the BIG fish attitude of all size stripers, I had a 9" striper hit and swallow an 8" deceiver tied on a 4/0 hook, I have no idea how he got the fly in his mouth........I am just glad they are finally here!!!

Peter Mac

[danny]

ps... i am catching fish on the fly, but nothing over 5 pounds. sinking lines, clousers, deceivers, herring patterns.

[dollarshort]

These fish are primarily Male fish and where Im fishing is to low in the river for spawning. They spawn in Troy about 80miles up river. I have had this happen before and eventually they turn on and eat ( last Wed for example when I hauled in close to 50 fish in 3 hrs ). I cant quite figure it out.

[peter mac]

Danny,
Where are you fishing?.......I fished JBay 3 times last week, there and the housy (2 weeks ago) are the only spots I have tried so far. JBay is coming alive, any day now it should really turn on!......fishing same patterns, clousers, poppers and deceivers, lots of chartruese/white
Peter Mac

[dollarshort]

Ya know its been an Odd year. The fish didnt show when they usually do. I looked back at the past 8 years. The month of March and April were banner all 8 years. I mean if you had a pulse and fly or spinning rod and a hook a monkey could catch at least 30-50.. if your good you could easily boat over 80 in a 4-6 hour stretch. This year was somewhat dissapointing. Alot of work with little rewards. Dont get me wrong ... in the past 2 weeks Ive boated well over 200 fish with the biggest 24lbs. But it seems Ive had to work pretty damn hard most of the time to get more than 8 or 9 fish in the boat. It seems every other days is the ticket. If you hit on Monday... plan on skipping tuesday and go out again Wed. Ive been out just about every day since 4/1 and never hit 2 good days in a row. Then you throw in this BUMP and run crapola to drive ya nutz. I figure if every BUMP turned into a landed fish I would be at 30 fish a day ( give or take ). No trick so far has whorked... dead stick... fast retrieve, slow retrieve, color changes.. depth changes... usually you can figure it out but not this season :rolleyes:

[mctrout]

here is a better one finally! 14lbs 32"

[peter mac]

Nice fish Brendan!

[fmw]

Brendan: Nice pic. Is that a fly rod holder in the rocket launcher of the leaning post? If so, is that a commercial product or a homemade job? Thanks.

[danny]

nice fish. i hooked and lost a good one today, in the hudson. had him on for a few minutes, just as i went for the leader, he came off. oh well. he ate a white deceiver.

[mctrout]

Yea that is an IFLY holder, bolted to a piece of 1 5/8" PVC that fits into regular rod holders, yet can be moved around. it is OK, but would be better if it wasn't bolted side by side, but was just a long extension to the rod holder. It became a too time consuming and thus the project never evolved past "good-enough".

Danny -sorry I havent returned your call, but have been booked everyday this week. have the weekend off so will get back to you then. sounds like you are doing well though

Killed today out there, with 20+ Bass. 7 keepers up to 16lbs and some bluefish. still no weaks, although Frank Cressitelli's sport got an 11 lber today on spin gear. will post a photo of the biggest Bass later tonight
Brendan

[mctrout]

Photos from Today. what a perfect bluebird day. his arm was beat by noon and called it. this fish was just under 16lbs. the other photo is all the birds diving on the blitz, yes blitz, a rare thing this time of year.Flies only of course

[PBH]

Nice fish B. Took the boat out for a spin and got my first of the season today. All shorts in the Quogue canal and blowing hard in Shinnecock, but a few nice fish. Not bad for May 6th! Sorry, no pics, as I was flying solo.
Bailey