I took a solo trip this morning to search for the ever elusive bonito. The bass bite has been really good early mornings so I beat the sun leaving the dock today. The bas co operated and I caught a bunch before moving on. I passed a school of chub mackerel and picked up one on the way to bonito city. I arrived where I wanted to be and found several pods of bones raising havoc with the bait fish. I made a great shot and hooked up almost immediately and I dropped it 10 seconds later. This was to be repeated may times this morning. I switched to circle hooks with the same results. Finally I threw into a pod of bones hooked up and brought the fish to the boat only to find out it was a bluefish. I was probably lucky to be alone today because things were starting to get ugly on board. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and soon landed two bones for the slam. The tide changed and a bass blitz started that was bigger than anything that I have seen on this side of the sound. Part of it broke off and I took this pic at noontime. Tomorrow is another day.
Grand Slam
We have a winner
Wednesday morning Bill brought his son Jack down for a chance at some stripers. We left early on a calm but foggy morning. At the first stop Jack hooked up very quickly with his first striper. Within fifteen minutes he had a trifecta with a bass, a bluefish and a mackerel. We had a steady bite until the sun came out. When the tide changed jack had a strong finish with several more nice stripers.
Bass and more bass
This morning Gary took the long and dangerous ride up Rte. 95. We left early and found several schools of bass that were in the eating mode. After a bit we took a ride looking for the elusive ones. All we found were small bluefish and more bass. The tide changed and we returned for even more bass. This was 1:30 this afternoon. We tried a spot that was overlooked and had four doubles in a row. A long but fun day.
Guess what I found
I had a very late start Monday due to a random drug test. I left the dock promptly at 11:00AM under a cloudless sky and no wind. The first spot produced a bass on my second cast. They were packed together in behind a large boulder. almost every time I put the fly there one would grab it. It was great because I was the only boat there. I left when company arrived and went in search of the elusive ones. I found more bass and blue fish where they were last week. It was too hot to stay out so I started back to the dock when a couple of fish popped up 100 feet in front of me. There was something vaguely familiar about the splashes. I got the rod ready and when they came back up an expertly placed fly caused one to eat it. Mr. Expert saw the strike and after a ten second fight pulled the hook on our first bonito of the season. I can only remember one time that they arrived this early and that proved to be a pretty good year for the bones.
Still looking
Gail and I took a trip out this morning and we were fishing the tide so I got to sleep till six AM. It took us two casts to double on stripers. We stayed until the sun was high so we only stayed in the same spot for two hours. We headed out to see if we could locate the elusive bonito. Its a little early for them but a few have been caught locally by accident. We did find more bass and bluefish so we didn’t get bored.
Perfect
Today brought the infamous Dr. Jim out of the deep woods of New Hampshire. The weather report was for perfect conditions on the sound. We left the dock with the sun rising and we made our way to our first spot. We stayed there for three and a half hours without moving. The action was pretty much non stop. When Jim’s arms got tired he insisted that I take the rod. After I put a half dozen in the boat I insisted that he take his rod back. Finally the tide slowed and we took a boat ride. We found fish in several places and Jim put a couple of medium sized bluefish in the boat just for the fun of it. The sun came out just about the same time our trip ended and it was a great ride back to the dock.
Looking good
I took another trip to do a little scouting. I didn’t find what I was looking for but I did find a bunch of bass. The tides are going to be perfect this week. The news is that some medium sized Blue Fish have arrived. I donated a couple flies to them and left them alone. This could be a pretty good week on the water.
They are still here
Thursday morning I took a last minute solo trip to see what I could find. I pulled into the first spot and hooked up on my first cast. That is often times the kiss of death for the day. But not in this case. It was a steady bite for about three hours and by then it was a pretty good day. So far this year most of the fish are around five pounds or so and they are fighting harder than you would expect. I might just have to try this again.
Weekend fun
Saturday morning brought Bob and his brother Marion over for a shot at some bass. We have an incoming tide this week so we had to fish in other areas. Marion brought the first couple of fish over the side and had the lead until Bob got started. We found fish in four out of the five spots that we hit. In one place we had a half dozen boats around us and our guys were the only ones catching. A pretty good day on the water.
Foggy Mornings are fun.
Today Bob came down from the deep woods of Eastern Connecticut for some striper time. we headed out on a flat calm and kind of foggy morning. We found lots of working birds in several spots that weren’t holding fish. We made our first stop and found what we were looking for. A nice day on the water with a good friend and some bass too.
