mikesopals
10-03-2007, 09:34 AM
Flew out from colorado for my 11th annual fall albie trip but met up with my son first, who came down from Bryant University in RI for some fishing on his birthday. His goal was to do some fall sharking and try for some of the big blue dogs heading back south. We got off to a late start on Sat because the wind was really blowing, and found albies on the south side. Nothing really impressive to report other than too many boats on too few fish. On Sunday, we hooked up with three albies right away on the south side, and headed offshore with plans to use them as bait(sorry guys....but they are great shark bait and there were no blues around). Due to somewhat ugly conditions, around 3-5' with a big east wind/swell, we stopped at around 15 miles and set up a chum slick in block channel with a fast drift toward the butterfish hole. No luck for around two hrs and our chum was getting low, so I said lets pull the lines in........of course as soon as we started moving the close bait, the far bait went off...a nice 150lb blue shark which was released immediately after a few pics. Since they tend to swim in packs, we put two rods back out. Again, as we were pulling the lines in, I felt a pick up...and we were off again. This time, our old 30W Penn loaded with 30lb test was nearly spooled and I was thinking bluefin!!! It took about 1.5hrs but what a monster fish, in the end it was a 9-9.5 ft huge blue shark. According to the shark charts, it should have gone 360-410lbs. Anyway, we got great video and pics....and the blue dog is migrating south once again.
Back to flyfishing. Monday was not a good day for me. Albies werent thick anywhere but they were there in decent numbers. Best place was around 1 mile off the north bar, but there were plenty of scattered fish on the south side too. I broke off three albies in a row using a 16lb test tippet! My buddy broke off two, but the one he did get in was huge....14lbs on my old boga. Almost all of the albies were really big big this year, maybe 10-12lbs average.
Saved the day around 5pm with a huge bluefish blitz out towards outer shag.
Tues was off to a slow start, listened to the guides complain about no fish at Gardners. We found some fish at the same place on the north side-picked up two. Then headed over to explore the southside carefully as there was a pretty good swell. We were all alone and found tons of albies swimming slowly right on the surf line, at first I thought stripers but they were albies just cruising and looking for food. Contrary to the rest of the day, these fish ate anything we threw at them. We picked up 4 before the fleet arrived. Also of note is that there was a massive number of albies out by the green buoy at outer shag, very spread out---at least twenty boats on them, all casting like mad and not one hook up from what I saw. We did get one small blue and it threw up the smallest rainbait that I have ever seen--between 1/2-1 inch. My guess in hindsight is that everyones flies were too big. Anyway, the "montauk madness" part happened around 4:30 with a huge blitz close to shore right on the north side of the point. Again, I thought stripers but it was pure albies. The fish were feeding into the current, so it was pretty easy to predict where they would pop up next. The scene was really intense----probably 100x50 yds of boiling albies right on the north bar---the surf guys working hard and sending many lures past the insane boats, outgoing tide ripping, and a nice swell coming in. At one point, this huge CC boat with triple outboard comes gunning thru to get to the fish and nearly beached on the north bar! Anyway, if you were patient and picked your spots, you could get in and hook a fish and then motor out slow. We stayed with the school until 6pm and ended up about 1 mile west down the beach near the house where they watch the seals. For the last 30 minutes, we were the only boat on the fish....quite relaxing and nice!
Plan to fish thru Friday-will report in again.
Mike G
Back to flyfishing. Monday was not a good day for me. Albies werent thick anywhere but they were there in decent numbers. Best place was around 1 mile off the north bar, but there were plenty of scattered fish on the south side too. I broke off three albies in a row using a 16lb test tippet! My buddy broke off two, but the one he did get in was huge....14lbs on my old boga. Almost all of the albies were really big big this year, maybe 10-12lbs average.
Saved the day around 5pm with a huge bluefish blitz out towards outer shag.
Tues was off to a slow start, listened to the guides complain about no fish at Gardners. We found some fish at the same place on the north side-picked up two. Then headed over to explore the southside carefully as there was a pretty good swell. We were all alone and found tons of albies swimming slowly right on the surf line, at first I thought stripers but they were albies just cruising and looking for food. Contrary to the rest of the day, these fish ate anything we threw at them. We picked up 4 before the fleet arrived. Also of note is that there was a massive number of albies out by the green buoy at outer shag, very spread out---at least twenty boats on them, all casting like mad and not one hook up from what I saw. We did get one small blue and it threw up the smallest rainbait that I have ever seen--between 1/2-1 inch. My guess in hindsight is that everyones flies were too big. Anyway, the "montauk madness" part happened around 4:30 with a huge blitz close to shore right on the north side of the point. Again, I thought stripers but it was pure albies. The fish were feeding into the current, so it was pretty easy to predict where they would pop up next. The scene was really intense----probably 100x50 yds of boiling albies right on the north bar---the surf guys working hard and sending many lures past the insane boats, outgoing tide ripping, and a nice swell coming in. At one point, this huge CC boat with triple outboard comes gunning thru to get to the fish and nearly beached on the north bar! Anyway, if you were patient and picked your spots, you could get in and hook a fish and then motor out slow. We stayed with the school until 6pm and ended up about 1 mile west down the beach near the house where they watch the seals. For the last 30 minutes, we were the only boat on the fish....quite relaxing and nice!
Plan to fish thru Friday-will report in again.
Mike G