Fluke Reports 2006

[Skolmann]

For the second year in a row Jason and I had a charter with Capt. Skip Stritzinger out of Snug Harbor RI.

 

This year's trip was a 10-12 hour trip (depending on conditions, fishing etc.) to either Block Island, No Man's Island or Nargansett Bay (again all depending on conditions. Jason and I were mainly interested in fluke but were open to shots at stripers and sea bass).

 

Made good time driving up Thursday making the trip from my front door to checking into the motel in a little over 3 hours. Rigged the rods, had a good meal and had lights out by 9:30 PM as the boat was leaving the slip at 5 AM sharp.

 

Once at the boat, the captain explained the game plan for the day which consisted of doing some bass fishing at a spot in Naraganesett Bay that has yielded him big bass in the past before making the hour run to No Man's.

 

Upon arriving at the spot we were handed conventional M action rods rigged for eeling. We were fishing in 60' of water but were not using any weight. As instructed we pulled line off the reel so the level wind went over and back then over again which was @ 60' of line. This allowed the eel to swim down to the bottom. We weren't fishing for more than 3 minutes before you know who hooks up. It was give and take for a few moments between Jason and the bass before the bass found a sharp edged rock and broke him. Captain said that based upon the bend in the rod and the amount of line pulled from the drag that was an easy #40... . We picked up and made the drift again. Once again Jason was soon into a good fish (by the rod action to me it looked like another real good fish) and yes once again after a spirited battle the bass won The next drift I finally hooked up and soon had a #20 bass in the net. As I was fighting my fish Jason was in again, fortunately bringing a #23-25 bass to the net. Both were released. As quick as the bite started it shut down and after 20 minutes of bassing we started the run over to No Man's.

 

About half way over we came across some pods of breaking schoolie bluefin tuna but by the time we rigged a rod they were gone so we continued over to the Island.

 

After not getting any decent marks on some bass spots were moved to the southeast side of the island on to some flats in 28-35' of water for some fluking. 15 minutes into the first drift I already had 3 RI keepers (17.5"s minimum with a 7 fish limit) between #3.5-4.5. I should mention that we were bucktailing with 2 ounce Spros and put out one deadstick dragging bait. I used a white Spro while Jason used a chartreuse/white patter. We each stuck with our respective color all day. We made the decision not to keep anything under 19"s. By the end of the second drift we already had 10 fluke in the box while releasing many shorts (not too many NJ shorts I might add). With only being allowed to keep 7 more fluke (RI fish and game are really cracking down on charter boat captains keeping their limit thus even though he was fishing he was releasing everything we caught), we bumped our minimum to #4 in order to be placed on ice. After several more drifts and a few more for the box the captain said were going to try some deeper and rougher bottom water on the southwest side for some sea bass. A short ride later lines were in. Overall action was good but not fast. The sea bass was slow as we only boated 3. However they were between #3.6-4.1. I also put another #5+ fluke in the box. We went back to our original fluke spot but with a now ebbing tide the bite was slower and the fluke smaller although we did put another 3 #4s in the box to fill our limit. Man I have to tell you, it sure isn't easy throwing back keeper fluke (either NJ or RI size ).

 

With the now building SW wind to 20 we decided to make the 1+ hour ride back since we had to run straight into the wind. Once again half way back we came across some breaking fish, although they looked like tuna when we stopped and got out some jigs all we hooked were some bluefish.

 

The captain decided to return to our original bass spot and although we marked tons of fish they weren't in a feeding mood.

 

Was back at the dock alittle after 4PM.

 

I had the honors of taking the big fluke. Although not the big one I was hoping for, it still was a respectable #6.4. All togther we boated 108 fluke (again just keeping out 7 fluke/per person limit), 3 sea bass, 2 #20-25 class stripers, 6 doggies and 1 bluefish.

 

 

PS: Was great being up in the Red Sox Nation and having them lose on Thursday & Friday

[yak too]

Mike the flats have cocktails for the kids with an occasional fluke to keep it interesting. It has been slow I have to agree.

[yak too]

Skollman check PM s

[Skolmann]

Forgot to mention that at first we all tipped our bucktails with a thin squid strip and a piece of salted herring.

 

Later on I switched to using a 4" white Mister Twister Exude curly tail then switched again to a 4" white GULP swimming minnow. Both tipped with a small piece of salted herring.

[yak too]

Thanks Skollman. Great report as always.

[Triet]

Hit the JJ today with my bud. 5am rolled around, I was awake, and he was outside with my ride. Amazing. Got to the boat an hour later, and other than the Asian contingent in the pulpit, the boat was empty. We crowded into the pulpit, and rigged up. A typical outfit was a $400 Loomis GLX bass rod, and a $500 electric Calcutta. Tipped with a hi-lo Spro rig. I had a few outfits in tow, but mostly stuck with a FW UL Ugly Stick and a Penn 4300SS with a spool that I thrashed a couple of days ago. Tipped with a 1/2oz Chartreuse Spro, and a small piece of squid, that was it. Pulled out at 7am with 30-40 fares (vs 60 from yesterday!) We ran an hour to the river and bucktailed in about 5' of water. Maybe 50 boats around us. I would like to note, that in weekend warrior conditions, Jimmy never once raised his voice except to bust the chops of Joe, his lithe mate. It was slow pick per the mate, so-so per the customers. Nevertheless, we and pulpit crew had limits by 10am-11am, as well as shorts and robins. Then it got hot. The weather and the fishing. It didn't stay hot (the fishing), but it had moments of excellence. With no tide, no wind, and no drift, we would sometime have 4-10 fish waiting to be netted at once. Wild. My bud and I combined for about 20 NY keepers, which was typical for folks I saw. All in the 18-22" range. And another 30ish shorts in the 17.25"-17.9" range. Great fun with the drag screaming, the rod bent in a U, and in shallow water. Excellent mates. Hot ticket was a 1oz or less Spro, worked hard. Pool was about 5# and no, I wasn't close.

[Flukezilla]

Took my wife and two boys out on BarnegatBay this afternoon. Fishing about 1.5 hours of the ebb we boxed 6 keepers to 18". Might have had some more if my boys did not reel in every ten seconds J

[finchaser]

Fished fluke today had fish to 31 inches 11.4 pounds

[FishWithChris]

nice flattie chaser!

[DaveTats]

Went out on Northern Lights charter boat out of Mystic Island yesterday. Ended up with a 4# fluke, 2 nice seabass, and the usual amount of shorts. Fluke weren't too aggressive....seemed like they were just sucking in the bait and sitting on it.

[bido]

Slow pick today, central Moco ocean..6 keepers, one was 4.6 lbs.

[yellowtail]

had a great weekend fluking w/ gami up in p.j/ r/island!!i just walkedin the door its 1:30 am 7gotta get up early so ill post more tommrow !

tight lines

yellowtail ..

[Gamakatsu]

Hit the Frances boats for an all day trip on Saturday and an 1/2 day on Sunday with my son and yellowtail. First two drifts were excellent with lots of big fish all around the boat. Then the wind died, along with the drift and fishing. Most fares had 2 - 4 keepers with two RI limits that I'm aware of. Down side was that they allowed a 10# bluefish to take the pool. There was 14 pound fluke taken on Friday, when they had great conditions with many fish over 6 pounds taken.

 

Sunday was a slow pick with zero drift. We had five keepers, plus a nice seabass between us and yellowtail took the pool with a 5.5 pounder. We matched the rest of the boat. Mostly skunks due to windless conditions.

 

We took home 12 nice fish and had a local sushi joint whip some up for us. Friggin amazing sashimi! Yellowtail weighed 2 fish for the flukemania contest, that came in at 11 pounds. Not even close!!

[Skolmann]

I was very close to fishing the Frances Fleet Saturday morning after my Friday charter but when I awoke at 5 AM it was extremely foggy but the main reason I didn't go was because I didn't feel like suffering through the late afternoon/early evening traffic heading back to NJ on I-95.

 

Sounds like a great trip.

 

Where were you guys fishing?

 

If I can swing it, I'd like to get up there again this summer.

[GOTTOG]

Fluked on the Pigeon saturday. Lots of fares, lots of rentals

Hot too

 

A decent amount of keepers overall, but average was maybe 1-2 keepers per. Pool fish went about 5/5.5#. Not sure who was high hook as a few had 3 keepers and didn't see anyone get more than that but with that many onboard it could have happened.

 

Theresa managed a keeper on the bucktail and another on bait with the usual throwbacks, searobins, and small bluefish.

I stuck with the bucktails and asides from one drift were I used 2ozs w/ a teaser that produced nothing, I changed back and forth between 3/4 and 1oz chartreuse Spro tipped with a Gulp grub. Managed 3 keepers and over a dozen shorts. Tried the chartreuse grub thinking I'd get some searobins as quite a few were being caught but could only manage 2 short fluke on it. Could not believe I didn't get a searobin on it Did get some on the white grubs though.

 

Tried a regular belly strip but nadda, even ones soaked in sheddar only produced searobins or small blues.

 

Did make a few new believers in the power of Gulp...in fact a few had their only keeper(s) on it