I wanted to take today off but the weatherman said no wind and I had a brand new fly rod and reel that I wanted to test. Gail and I left the dock at the crack of 8:00AM and found the albies soon after. She hooked up on her first cast and it took me about five to do it. We spent the day looking and casting. The fish are moving around quite a bit. The rod and reel passed with flying colors. We had our fifth double digit albie day in a row and we added a few bass and blue fish just for a change.

For the past two days Gail and I had the pleasure of fishing with Cathy and Barry Beck. I drove the boat, Barry took Photos (not these, he took real ones) and the girls put on a clinic. We left the dock early Wednesday morning to beat the sun and slightly later today. Both days brought winds around 20 and today we had waves in the three to four feet range. It wasn’t crowded where we fished. Cathy had never fished for albies and Gail has caught a few. Soon after the flies hit the water the albies hit the flies. Two days of casting and catching could not have been better. The weather challenged the girls and the ladies kicked its butt. Needless to say we had a lot of fun with two of the nicest people that you could meet.

Thursday brought Dr. Jim down from New Hampshire and he invited Gail to join us. We left the dock early to find that the fog was replaced by wind. It was blowing over twenty and these two kept throwing flies. We managed to hook four albies but they didn’t want to stay connected. However the stripers did and the guys put a bunch in the boat.

Will came back again and brought Steve with him. We left the dock in pretty thick fog in search of the ever selective albie. After a bit of a run I saw the fog rainbow and knew there must be a pot of fish under it. Well it was close anyway. We started on some nice bass up to nine or ten lbs. and when the tide started to move the albies moved with it. We had some great shots and the guys did well on the fly rod. Both landed several and we finished the day with a double. The fog lifted for a nice ride home. It doesn’t get much better than that.

 Thursday brought Mark and his son Cole up for the morning to search for the elusive stripers. The usual spots haven’t been producing like they should be so we went straight to plan B. The first stop was a quick one that was devoid of any fish. We tried the next one for the first time this year. It had always been a good producer in mid summer on a flood tide. We pulled in and the fish were waiting. Both guys hooked up and landed several apiece before we lost the tide. The next stop was unfishable because of all the weed so we kept going. We pulled into the next one to find birds and fish on bait. We picked away till the tide changed and then we moved on. We were able to pick up a few more bass in different spots to make a really good morning out of it. There is lots of small bait coming in right on time so the fishing should just get better.

 Spring has sprung. We had a ten day vacation in the Caribbean. We took our annual trip to New Brunswick for salmon. Both trips were pretty successful and now its time to think about getting the boat in the water. I am already booking trips for this season so there is a little incentive there. I’ll be uncovering the boat in the next few days and three days later it should be floating. There are reports of the first schoolie bass arriving locally. I’ve got a few new ideas for different things to do so it should be interesting. Stay tuned.

Thursday brought Mike and Mike back out for a go at whatever we could find. We started out with a bunch of small bluefish and after a half dozen or so caused us to change locations to try to find some bass. We started checking spots that held fish earlier in the week. We were working the second stop when a nice sized school of fish popped up for the guys to double up. A little while later Mike hooked a larger bass and then they left for parts unknown. The next couple of stops were empty but we did find an area loaded with bait. We hung around a bit until the bass found them. Unfortunately they were baby bass so we left them to grow a bit larger. W got a call from one of the Montauk Guides that was on our side of the Sound and he had found some albies. That shows you how good Montauk is at the moment. We moved and Mike picked up our first albie of the day. In a period of about ten minutes the wind came up from zero to twenty and the sea from flat to two to three footers. We left to head home and halfway back Mike picked up his second albie when a school came up right in front of us. Today was a bit of a challenge but the guys got it done.

I had an afternoon trip Friday with Minor and Brad who made the trip up from NY to get a shot at some albies. We found the3m where I had left them earlier and they were still fussy. After a bit Minor hooked up and our day improved. Brad pulled a blue out of a pod of albies and after a move Minor was able to grab a couple more albies.