Another season is in the book. That makes 27 for me guiding. We met some new and pretty cool anglers this year. That keeps things interesting for us. Add them to our regulars and we had lots of laughs on the briney this year. The bass started off with good numbers and pretty good sizes. We had several that were north of 20 lbs. I think we caught three bluefish this year. The albies were a no show. They had too much bait offshore and had no need to come in to play. The big surprise was the amount of bonito that visited with us. We caught more this year than the last five years combined. Hopefully we’ll all be here to do it again next season. Stay safe and have some fun. Thanks to all of my old and new friends.

It had been quite a while since we were able to get out in the boat so we set the alarm to beat the sun. I’ve been running the boat a lot but others were doing the fishing. We found the birds and the bait pretty quickly and soon after the bass found us. The picture on the right is my side scan so that was what we were competing with. We caught bass for an hour or so until the tide slowed and the bass dropped down. After a bit of a run we found several schools of chub and Atlantic mackerel and we discovered that if you cast to the side of the school you had a good chance at the elusive bonito. The three species were running together so you never knew what would take our fly. We had several doubles with the bones and a bunch of singles. A morning well spent.

Today brought Steve back and he brought John with him. We found some small fish at first and after a timely call we found several large schools of bass that had the bait trapped. It was a little dicey but the guys did themselves well. After the tide died and the fish quit we went on a search. They managed a few more bass from the suds. We did see four bonito jump in different places or it was one bonito in four different places. In any case they didn’t want to play.

Friday morning brought Martin and Stuart down for a good day without the east winds. We opted to start with some relaxing fishing instead of fighting the masses. For two hours the guys caught bass with no other boats around. These fish were smaller but you can’t beat a relaxed environment. After a while we joined the masses and quickly found fish with a bit more size. We took a ride and found some bonito that didn’t want to stay on the hook. Added to that we found some sea robins and Black Sea Bass. Another fun day.

What a difference a day makes. Today Simon and Dave returned for day two. We found some schoolie bass early and then took the long ride. There were scattered pods of different species in the area. Quickly we caught the first of a good bunch of Bonito. The tide slowed so we. Took a short break followed by lots of action. There were more Bonito and decent stripers as well as bluefish to ten pounds. At the seven and a half hour point I declared it a successful trip and we headed for the dock. A half hour later we ran into a large blitz of bass and blues. I offered it up and they decided to make it a nine hour trip. We stayed and they caught for another hour. A ten hour trip was not offered. A lot of fun today.