Gr8ful Fish
12-06-2007, 06:21 PM
After the clubbing I put on the bass yesterday, I was chomping at the bit to get my "Bertha" back out for another trip before the end of the year. My buddy, Al, joined me and we planned to fish until we could catch 100 bass. Afterwards, we would head in to the AH public marina to pull my boat for the year. :(
Unfortunately, when we got to the bay, conditions were nowhere near as nice as they were yesterday morning. Sandy Hook Bay was greeting us with bitter cold temps and stiff 20 knot winds that were stacking up tight 3-4 footers with whitecaps as far as the eye could see.:(
After waiting for the winds to drop out a bit, we scraped the snow off the boat and shoved off at ~8:30. I slow cruised through the churned-up bay, but it was still ugly enough that by the time I got to the area of the bug light, I was just about to say "let's turn back." However, as we turned the corner towards the hook, we could see that the waters outside of the bay and down the beach were much calmer, and we knew that the winds were expected to disappear later in the morning.:cool:
The other thing we noticed as we turned the corner was that there was a mile long cloud of birds that was working just off the tip of the hook & another mile long flock out towards the end of Sandy Hook Channel. :eek: :cool:
I set us up ahead of the bird frenzy; Al started jigging up bass as soon as I stopped the boat. However, I had to sit back and watch for awhile as my fingers were simply too frozen to work (I forgot the heavy neoprene gloves I normally wear to drive the boat, and all I had on board were a pair of light fingerless ones.) Holding onto the stainless steering wheel of an open center console on a windy December day is no picnic! Al had caught & released 7 bass before I even started fishing.
Once my hands thawed sufficiently, the two of us started jigging up bass one right after the other. We switched between jigging under working birds or jigging on good fishfinder marks, and we caught fish constantly using both methods. We released our 100th fish at 2:00 PM, and headed back to the barn with the birds still working off of Rockaway inlet.
All of our fish were shorts today with the exception of one nice one ~34" that I lost trying to lip it alongside the boat. Although most fish were "run-of-the-mill" 16-25 inchers, we did have a whole bunch of extremely thick 26-27.5 inchers.
The only non-striper we saw all day was the single spiny dogfish that Al caught on his jig.
Ended up not pulling the boat due to flat tire on the trailer. (Well, partially due to the flat ... but more due to the fact that I caught 209 bass in the last 2 days!) ;)
I may try to sneak one more striper or tog trip in before the end of the year if mother Nature leaves the window open just a bit longer.:D
- Gr8ful
Unfortunately, when we got to the bay, conditions were nowhere near as nice as they were yesterday morning. Sandy Hook Bay was greeting us with bitter cold temps and stiff 20 knot winds that were stacking up tight 3-4 footers with whitecaps as far as the eye could see.:(
After waiting for the winds to drop out a bit, we scraped the snow off the boat and shoved off at ~8:30. I slow cruised through the churned-up bay, but it was still ugly enough that by the time I got to the area of the bug light, I was just about to say "let's turn back." However, as we turned the corner towards the hook, we could see that the waters outside of the bay and down the beach were much calmer, and we knew that the winds were expected to disappear later in the morning.:cool:
The other thing we noticed as we turned the corner was that there was a mile long cloud of birds that was working just off the tip of the hook & another mile long flock out towards the end of Sandy Hook Channel. :eek: :cool:
I set us up ahead of the bird frenzy; Al started jigging up bass as soon as I stopped the boat. However, I had to sit back and watch for awhile as my fingers were simply too frozen to work (I forgot the heavy neoprene gloves I normally wear to drive the boat, and all I had on board were a pair of light fingerless ones.) Holding onto the stainless steering wheel of an open center console on a windy December day is no picnic! Al had caught & released 7 bass before I even started fishing.
Once my hands thawed sufficiently, the two of us started jigging up bass one right after the other. We switched between jigging under working birds or jigging on good fishfinder marks, and we caught fish constantly using both methods. We released our 100th fish at 2:00 PM, and headed back to the barn with the birds still working off of Rockaway inlet.
All of our fish were shorts today with the exception of one nice one ~34" that I lost trying to lip it alongside the boat. Although most fish were "run-of-the-mill" 16-25 inchers, we did have a whole bunch of extremely thick 26-27.5 inchers.
The only non-striper we saw all day was the single spiny dogfish that Al caught on his jig.
Ended up not pulling the boat due to flat tire on the trailer. (Well, partially due to the flat ... but more due to the fact that I caught 209 bass in the last 2 days!) ;)
I may try to sneak one more striper or tog trip in before the end of the year if mother Nature leaves the window open just a bit longer.:D
- Gr8ful