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A BIG day with Island Clan Charters

I just received these photos from one of our regular readers, and semi pro angler, Sanford Whitehouse.  He spent the day with the boys of Island Clan Charters out of the Sailfish Marina on Singer Island, Florida.  The 4 to 6 foot seas were perfect for Whitehouse but apparently not ideal for his buddies who were looking a bit green.  They caught 10 fish in 4 hours (9 Dolphin and 1 skipjack) using bonita and teasers.  Mr. Whitehouse took the biggest fish of the day.  It sounds like Island Clan Charters knows how to get it done.  Great work and thanks for the report.

Fishing is never simple

In today's International Herald Tribune Verlyn Klinkenborg has an article that anyone who fishes can relate to. The final sentence says it all...

"I suppose I go fishing in the hopes that one day I will fish as intently as the trout that is even now rising to the mayfly."

Get the full article HERE

Montauk fishing picks up

It looks like things have finally started to take shape in Montauk.  From what I hear the surf has been OK at night but it seems as if the recent weather change has brought the Fall fish we have come to expect in Montauk.  Saturday night brought some decent fish to my regular South side rocks and Sunday morning the same.  There were a few tournaments this weekend and as of Saturday night there were several fish in the high 30's. 

The Atlantic Saltwater Fly Rodders & Capt. Gene Quigley

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the monthly meeting of the Atlantic Saltwater Fly Rodders.  I can't say enough about this group.  Awesome anglers and great people.  Check out their website, it's full of great info related to saltwater fly fishing in the Northeast.

Last nights presentation was given by Capt Gene Quigley of Shore Catch Guide Service.  The focus was NJ saltwater fly and light tackle fishing for striped bass.  He did an excellent job of laying out the wide range of opportunities available to fishermen there.  I was particularly intrigued by the pictures from last January's huge bass blitzes!  It was a pleasure to meet him as well, as I have read many of his articles and have seen his name a million times.  If you go fishing in New Jersey look him up for sure.

Atlantic Saltwater Fly Rodders

Gene Quigley: Shore Catch Guide Service

No rain = No trout in Millbrook, NY

My first weekend away from the saltwater of Eastern Long Island (in I don't even know how long) and I was really hoping to get into some trout but do to the lack of rain the streams are dead.  I stopped into the Orvis in Millbrook and they said it has been dead for a long time and they are not even offering guided trips!  Oh well.  It looks like a great place and Millbrook is beautiful.  Next weekend I'm back in Montauk where the bass have been hard to get during the day but all of that should change soon!

Montauk Surf Classic - Lessons learned

This past weekend was The Montauk Classic surf fishing tournament and as I posted on August 8, 2007, one of the things I was focused on was time management.  Well, this year I managed to stick to that plan and it made a big difference.  I did not overdo it in the first 24 hours which enabled to fish the whole tournament instead of sleeping for day two. 

I have already come up with a few new goals for next years tournament.  The main one is to learn new spots so that no matter what mother nature throws I will be able to respond by fishing a location that will produce.  Since I have a tendency to stick to a spot that works, I'm in trouble when the conditions are not just right.  In a place like Montauk (or anywhere for that matter) one area may produce fish with and outgoing tide and a strong Northwest wind and spot 100 yards away may do well on an incoming tide with a Northeast wind.

The conditions for day one of the tournament were not what I was used to and because of my narrow focus I was not able to change locations effectively.  Yes, I could have tried other spots but doing so in the dark of night (when I chose to fish) is worthless as I would have no idea what I would need to do once there.  I did manage a few fish on the first night and one good one which I lost.  While I wont guess its size it bent a VMC 4x treble hook on my Yozuri darter.

The weather on the second night were more to my liking and while I caught many more fish than the previous night, none were big enough to put me on the board.

Lessons learned:
-Time management works
-It's not easy to catch BIG fish on demand
-Don't bank your tournament success on one spot when there are very productive spots all over

Congrats to the winners!
BASS
1- 38.60 lb Mike Cappola
2-  31.94 lb Wilson Gonzales
3- 22.34 lb Matt Martin
4- 21.22 lb William Dawson