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CAPTAIN'S
WEEKLY
FISHING
REPORT
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FISHING REPORT AUGUST 19, 2008
CAPT. KEN RAFFERTY
www.FlyFishingSaltWater.com
www.FishingEastHampton.com
AUG 6th…Heavy Rains…No Fishing.
AUG 7th…Morning Lou DiCerbo and grandson Logan…light spin tackle.
Neither Lou or Logan had ever fished with spin tackle so I took a few minutes to show them how to cast out and retrieve a popping plug and within three cast Logan was hooked up with a large Bluefish. As we were landing that fish Lou hooked up with a nice 12 lb. Blue which we also landed. These Blues stayed with us for about two hours and then were gone so I headed over to Napeague where we found lots of smaller Blues to finish off the morning.
AUG 8th…Full-day…Michael Salzhauer and Peter Darcy aboard Michael’s boat. On a beautiful calm day we left the harbor and headed north/northeast for about fifteen miles where we found ocean sized Bluefish working the surface, finning. Peter was at the bow with light spin tackle while Michael fly-fished from the stern. Both anglers hooked up repeatedly with large angry Bluefish that broke as much water as I have ever seen when hook was set. We lost some tackle to some of these monsters but it was well worth it….I have begun to call this spot "land of the giants".
We stayed with these fish for most of the morning, ate lunch and with half of an incoming tide to come, headed out in search of Stripers.
Peter hooked up first and this fish made him run to the stern of the boat in one quick move as it peeled off lots of line. It took about 10 minutes or so and then we were lifting a nice 21 lb. Striper into the boat. As I turned to ask Michael for the pliers I realized he couldn’t help me….….he was hooked up on the fly-rod and a few minutes later he landed a nice 9 lb. Striper.
Michael landed two more Stripers in the same 10 lb. class on the fly while Peter hooked up and after a long fight landed one more Striper that was near the 35 lb. class.
AUG 9th…Afternoon…William Sudler…Fly-fishing.
My early morning charter was canceled due to north winds but by 1:00 pm it was nice enough to head out with "Bill Suds" as he’s called on his 23 ft Parker. I gave Bill directions to the "Land of the Giants" and sure enough they were finning on the surface. The first cast bill laid out landed in among five or six monsters and as big as they are, they spooked a little as the flie hit the surface but as soon as he started stripping BANG! hook-up, big splash and then a fast run which led to three leaps into the air before sounding into 25 feet of water. In ten minutes or so we had it on the bogga grip and in the boat…..it weighed 14 lbs.
In my opinion a 14, 15, even a 10 lb. Bluefish fights harder then a 40 lb. Striper any-day, anytime. The only fish that puts up a bigger fight out here in these waters is a False Albacore!
Bill just couldn’t believe the finning, he said they made him think of Tarpon. We stayed with these fish for the rest of the afternoon with Bill landing eight more but none larger then that 14 lb.
Bill wanted more of these fish and so we headed out again the next morning.
AUG 10th…We caught the last of the outgoing tide with Bill catching one 11 lb. Striper and loosing another in the rocks. We couldn’t find any more action there so we headed over to the land of giants. There were no fish finning at all so I just cast out a popping plug on my spinning tackle and started retrieving across the water…….two follows, one big splash….hook-up.
Bill cast his small popping flie out and was hooked up. I didn’t want this fish on my line so I just opened the bail and let line out. Since I don’t have any barbs on my hooks this Bluefish just spit it out and was gone.
We got Bill’s Bluefish to the boat, it weighed in at 9 lbs. we released it and he started casting again.
It was a little quiet here this morning, not like the past days, much less action.
( What I did notice about a week earlier while we were fishing this spot a gray commercial fishing boat of about 24 ft using a gill net surrounded the school of Blues we were fishing, circled the school 4 to 5 times while letting out net. He then brings his boat back to the start of the net and hauls it aboard with these large Bluefish all caught up by their gills. There are two of these boats, looking very similar and are both gray in color. What pisses me off is that they are using us to find these fish and it’s just not right. They have hundreds of thousands of acres of water in Long Island Sound but they can’t seem to find Bluefish! and how much could they be getting a pound for these giant Bluefish…….you wouldn’t want to eat one this size.)
At any rate we had to go hunting and ended over by Napeague Harbor where we hooked-up with lots of small 3 to 4 lb. Blues.
AUG 11th…Morning…John and Dave Cresci, brothers…Light Spin Tackle.
The tide had been coming in for about an hour as I headed over to the flats at Cartwright. I set John and Dave up with small popping plugs and no metal leader.
With a low sun behind us we didn’t have much visibility so I just had them casting towards shore. Both anglers had a nice splash behind their plugs and Dave hooked up with a nice 24 inch Striper. No sooner had I released it john was hooked up with another of about the same size. We had drifted out of the area, I started up the engine and went back to our starting point for another drift………both anglers were hooked up again and again. There was a nice school of small Stripers working this flat and we were on them, one after another. In an hour or so they were gone and so I headed out to find some big Blues.
I switched rods to the heavier tackle ( 10 lb. test ) lolol with 12 inch 30 lb. metal leaders.
Both anglers had chases and big splashes on their first cast but no hook-ups. Next cast Dave was on while John kept getting follows. We ended the morning with about 20 follows and four Blues in the 10 lb. class landed.
AUG 12th…No Fishing.
AUG 13th…Morning…Lou DiCerbo and his two grandsons, Hunter and Griff…Spin Tackle.
I tried to hook them up with some of those large Blues but they just wouldn’t cooperate with us. They would follow, attack but miss the plug. I even tried sub-surface swimming plugs but no hook-ups. WE also ended up outside of Neapeague harbor landing lots of 4 to 5 lb. Bluefish….great for youngsters.
AUG 14th…Late-day…Michael Davis, his son Johnny and their friend Riccardo…Light Spin Tackle.
Riccardo had never fished before with Spin Tackle and so while we were waiting for Johnny to arrive I gave him some lessons at the boat slip, he caught on in five minutes and was casting nearly a hundred feet. When we arrived at the first spot both Michael and Johnny hooked up with nice fish, Johnny’s fish was much stronger and peeled out a lot of line. We landed Michael’s Striper and it weighed in at 13 + lbs. John’s had to be more like 25 + but it got off.
Over at another spot everyone hooked up and landed Bluefish with Johnny’s being the largest 12 lbs. Riccardo’s largest was 8 lbs.
AUG 14th…Late-day…Paul Scharfer and his two sons, Jessie and Jake.
We did get out of the inlet where we found lots and lots of 12 inch Bluefish and after awhile we headed over to Cartwright. No sooner did we arrive then Paul received a call from Michael Davis telling us about a storm that was half way up the island and heading our way. We started back at 50 mph on a flat calm bay but as we turned Lion Head Rock we were into the heavy Rains and winds. We kept up our speed and within three minutes we were out of the rain and in calm water again. We fished a little more, seen another dark cloud heading our way and went in.
AUG 15th…Rain…No Fishing.
AUG 16th…Morning…Ed Shugrue…Fly-fishing.
Ed hasn’t been having much luck with me lately.
We tried for some Stripers but didn’t find anything there so I headed over to those Big Bluefish. We could only manage to raise was two fish and they missed the lures. I tried everything, swimming plugs, metal, Slugo’s nothing worked. Ed did manage to land one small Bluefish in another spot and by total accident one Sea-robin while using a sinking line.
AUG 17th…Morning…Pitts Robinson and his friend Billy…Spin and Fly. Another slow morning at one of my favorite spots. All we could raise was four big fish but couldn’t hook-up with any. I the only thing I could attribute it to are those commercial boats…they must be getting there before me in the morning and taking all the fish. Pitts and billy only landed two Bluefish.
AUG 18th…Morning…Jed Laskowitz and his friend Greg…Light Spin Tackle.
At 8:30 in the morning on our first drift Jed hooked up and landed a 12 lb. Striper and right after Greg brought in a nice 16 lb. Striper. We stayed there for about an hour all toll but couldn’t raise any more Stripers so off the giants we went. We had some nice sized chasers break water and miss the plugs. Jed had four different Bluefish on but they all shook the hook loose and were gone. On the way back in Jed did hook-up and land one small Blue outside of Accabonac. I then headed us over to Cherry Harbor in search of fish. We came upon three large schools of Bunker, all on the surface with small bluefish below them attacking but they wouldn’t touch anything we offered.
Capt. Ken Rafferty
captkenraf@hotmail.com
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