BITING OFF MORE THAN THEY CAN CHEW
Last weekend was in interesting one.  I’m Pretty much doing all of my fishing on the outside these days as the water in the bay is now in the mid-70s.  Depending on the day it’s been a mix of bass and blues, but mostly blues.  However, come Monday it was all bass, some of which were quite large.  Like I said, it all depends on the day.  What’s extraordinary is the sheer amount of bait this year.  Squid, butterfish, half-beaks, pollock, sandeels, spearing…  Lots of small stuff out there for bass and bluefish to gorge themselves on.  That’s why my encounter with a frighteningly large striped bass on the surface surprised me.

After banging a bunch of bass and bluefish, the tide began to slack and as expected things slowed considerably.  That tell-tale tide-line formed just to the south of us.  Amongst the scum and occasional piece of garbage that one finds in such tide-lines in the Lower New York Harbor area, I noticed the white belly of the fish trying to right itself.  As I got closer I could see that it was quite large.  Pulling up alongside, I reached down thrust my hand into the fish’s mouth and grabbed a gill and hoisted it.  Truthfully I wasn’t ready for the weight of this fish and almost threw my back out.

This fish bottomed out a 30-pound boga.  It measured at 50”.  It looked like it had popped right off the wall of someone’s game-room, with its outh wide open as if getting ready to suck a plug down.  While this fish was for-all-intents-and-purposes dead, I thought I may be able to revive it.  I figured that the cause of death was a hook in the belly from one of these knuckleheads using clam bellies.  But, before dropping in back in for the old back-and-forth, I took  a peak down its throat.  WTF!  There was a sizable summer flounder lodged in there.  Could it be possible that this 18-year-old bass choked because he “bit off more than he could chew.”  As I pulled the flounder out there was no hook.  Yep, that fish choked!

As you could imagine, there’s an analogy there somewhere, and the light-bulb went on as I stated snapping photos.  Why on earth would this fish grab that big flounder when all that other abundant and certainly more edible bait was around?  The answer to that is that fluke are abundant these days as well.  And there aren’t many anglers out there that don’t already know that big fat lazy fish like a big bait.

And why are fluke abundant?  It’s pretty simple really.  Fluke had been badly mismanaged for decades.  Prior to 2000, when the Mid Atlantic Council approved a management plan which essentially gave the species an 18% chance of recovering within the 10-year time frame stipulated in the Sustainable Fishing Act, the population was just a quarter of what it is now.  Fortunately, those “big bad environmentalists” sued and pretty much forced NOAA Fisheries to crack down.  The case’s landmark ruling that year required management councils to implement fishery management plans that had at the very least a 50% chance of success.  Since then the commercial industry and some in the recreational fishing industries have been wailing and moaning that they are all going to go out of business, and every coastal fishing community in the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast is going to disappear in the blink of an eye.  Each year we face tighter fluke regs so as to make that elusive rebuilding goal by 2013, and each year we’re seeing bigger and more fluke.  The spawning stock biomass is now 4-times what it was back when the management plan began.  That’s no coincidence my friend.

Today we’re getting the same complains we’ve had every year since the management plan was implemented.  Now, however, they are much louder and certainly more shrill.  There is the standard questioning of the data, which has been peer-reviewed 16 times in the last 23 years…  Then the arguments that the rebuilding goal is unattainable, even though just about every scientist says that it is.  Then of course there is the argument that the stock is rebuilding so why can’t the rebuilding plan extend 20, 30, 50, 100 years?  Then of course there’s my favorite one: “Environmentalists just want to end all fishing!”  It would be laughable if so many folks didn’t actually believe that.  The fact of the matter is that without the environmentalist lawsuit back in 1999 (essentially forcing managers to do their job), our summer flounder fishery would be in terrible shape.  The spawning stock biomass certainly wouldn’t be 4-times what is was when the management plan started and folks wouldn’t be consistently catching 20.5” keeper sized fluke.  And that’s a fact!

It seems these days that all the commercial industry, as well as a good part of the recreational industry, feel that managers should leave them be and just let them fish at whatever levels they deem fit.  Historically, we can see where such management systems have lead to a Tradgedy of the Commons.

As is the case with that big bass that choked on the flounder, if we give fishers everything they want, they would most certainly bite off more than they can chew, essentially fishing themselves out of business.  And that’s not good for fishermen, fish or the general public.

There’s been a lot of talk about the hardships commercial fishers and the owners of charter/party boats because of the fishing regs and the cost of fuel.  They may not be making the profits that they had hoped, but I certainly don’t see that as a result of a lack of keeper sized fluke.  According to all the reports I’m reading, it looks like there are lots of them being caught.  Undoubtedly, we can thank the environmentalists for that.  On to the fishing reports

FISHING REPORTS  
Southern New Jersey’s back-country continues to produce lots of schoolies with the occasional larger fish in some very skinny water.  Up the Jersey coast there are massive schools of adult bunker and big bass blitzing hard on them at odd hours of the day.  Raritan Bay seems to be thinning out but the bait guys are still getting the occasional fish.  Jamaica Bay is very slow.  The guys livelining are still getting some quality fish really early in the morning, but the fishing with files and plus isn’t so great.  Sure, there are some bluefish and schoolie bass blitzes on spearing, but they usually aren’t composed of large fish.  On the ocean side of Lower New York Harbor it’s been bonkers!  Never seen so much bait around.  Sandeels, spearing, squid, butterfish, baby pollok and even 6” pin-fish!  Major Montauk bass-blitzes some mornings, other mornings it’s just bluefish.  Luck of the draw really.  Across the Island such bait concentrations and blitzes are popping up here and there, but Lower New York Harbor seems to be Ground-Zero.  Out on Eastern Long Island, some really big bass are being taken on the South Side.  The flats fishing in East Hampton seems to be as good as it can get right now with massive concentrations of bait and eager fish roaming the flats.   In Connecticut, the Western Sound is producing its usual schoolie bass and larger bluefish.   But the farther east you go, the larger the bass get.  Rhode Island seems to be fishing quite well.  Schools of bunker remain thick in Narraganset and the bass are still on them good.  In Mass, the news about town is bluefin.  Anglers are chasing 100-plus pound fish both inside Cape Cod Bay and on the Ocean Side.  They aren’t easy to catch though.  And if you connect, you better have the gear to bring them in.  These are serious fish!  North of the Cape, the bass fishing on the Merrimack and particularly the Joppa flats, is pretty much peaking now.  Lot of big fish taking Slug-Gos and flies in around 4’ of water.  In Maine, the bass fishing has been tough this year, as it was last year.  Not a lot of big fish around.  With that being said though the bluefin are beginning to fill in and guys are starting to get good shots at them.  Stay tuned as that fishery can get good!

NEW JERSEY FISHING REPORTS
From Southern New Jersey, Capt. Bryan DeLio from Iowa Guide Service checks in with this report:
Hey John, This week was much like the week prior. The top water action still continues to dominate the scene down here. The absence of “white bait” still has the Bass heading for the shallows daily on the hunt for grass shrimp, making them prime targets for a well placed topwater fly or plug. Crease flies, sliders and the Fortune Fly Muddler (an Iowa fortune original) in all white has been getting all the attention by the linesiders. The tides over this past week had us targeting layed up Bass in some of the deeper basins and “pot holes” on the skinnier flats and “green” flats on the lowers tides. For the most part these tight pods of bass are tracking fairly predictable and traveling in groups of 1 to 5 fish. The water temps down here plunged a dramatic 20 degrees going from 78 last Friday to a prime 58 degrees this week as of Tuesday  and that has really fired up movement of the Bass.  The fish dropped a bit in size this week into the 20″-29″ class but the locations and the atmosphere that we are finding them more that made up for the drop in poundage. As I always say it not the size of the Bass its how and were you catch them. Snagging bunker and dropping them down and getting a 30 ld’er is great but in my opinion stalking and catching a 10.lb bass on topwater who’s layed up in 9″ of smooth water ….. it doestn’t get much better than that.
Until next time…Keep it reel, Capt Bryan DiLeo

NEW YORK FISHING REPORTS
Captain Brendan McCarthy from Urban Fly Guides checks in with this report:
Hey John-quite a week for me in the fishin world. Fished all week in Jamaica Bay where it started out great with more bait then I have ever seen. Squid, Sandeels, Spearing, Silversildes, Bunker, Herring and baby Pollock. Have to say Sat and Sunday wasn’t great except for the first hour of light but heard (of course) Monday rocked at Breezy. I towed my boat to Montauk after my trip on Sunday and did an evening trip out there where lots of Bass were rolling on the surface in the rips. Fished Monday and Tuesday southside of Montauk with Tony May and his buddy Neal for some so so action on Bass, some truly huge Bluefish and some Bluefin to chase around to no avail. Heard a lot of good reports but not a lot of fish seen. Fished the flats today for some excellent action with hundreds of shots and some nice over keeper-sized fish landed. Pictures to follow when I can get to a computer. Here is one shot of a fish from Southside on Tuesday. Super Duper clear water and nice take and run. I will be fishing the flats thru mid July with a few southside trips if the sun dosent shine. Have a few days open after the 1st. Till next time. Thanks, Capt. Brendan McCarthy

Capt. Chris Hessert from Manhattan Fly reports from Lower New York Harbor:
Hey John, On/off….on/off, the action has been decent but does change about 180 degree’s from day to day. The bass action was good in the early part of the week. However, it was early, very early, from 4:30 AM for a few hours then they scatter and the bluefish come in by the acre! you can hear flopping and slapping on bait all around the boat…a short wire leader, then the fly only has a life of 3/4 blues. Fun on 8/9w… The schoolie action was good in the early part of the week then came the blues. Still watching that warm water eddie, slowly moving this way, hope it  holds  together when (if)  it hits the shelf. Bring those greenies in close, impressive tuna reports from the Cape and Islands too. You don’t know until you get out there!More next week…Capt. Chris

From up on the North Shore, noted outdoor artist Bob Giordano checks in with this report:
Hey John, Good fishing up here on the North Shore. I’ve been focusing all of my trips around Huntington Harbor and the bay itself. There’s plenty of Stripers early mornings on almost any tide. Still lots of schoolies but took my first better fish at 28″ two weeks ago just off the new moon. Lost a much bigger fish not two rod lengths from the boat. Typical. Got out around 3:00 am two days  off the new moon looking for a worm hatch but none to be seen. Once the sun dappled it’s first hint of dawn it got pretty going out there with even a fluke going airborne on the small sand eels that are in the bay. A quick outing this past Saturday brought eight to the boat with three fish just below twenty eight inches. So the schoolies are getting bulkier. All bass have been on chartreuse over white clousers in shallow water 4-6′. Saturday also saw the first decent bunker pods in Huntington and Lloyd Harbor. Dredged a bunky pattern through on a few drifts without any takes or visuals. Blues have been on them further out in the sound from friends reports. I haven’t dunked chunks but there taking some decent fish along the bay shoreline. Catch up soon and stay well. Bob

From Eastern Long Island, Capt. David Blinken from North Flats Guide Service checks in with this report:The fish are filling very nicely in the usual places out here in the Hamptons. Out at Montauk there have been large bass in the late afternoon through the evening slurping bait and chasing up squid. I’m sure if you are out there at dawn it would be great as well.  They have ranged in size from 10-20 lbs. My friend Greg Belcomino landed this nice Blue on a flat in about 18 inches of water. We estimated his weight to be from 8-10+ lb. Later in the day he landed this nice 29 inch bass I have noticed that in general there have been fewer and smaller fish this year. Maybe the netting during the fall blitz or the large takes in the Carolinas in the winter are taking there toll on our great fishery out here on the East End. I wish we could do something before things get critical. With that thought in mind good fishing and to all release that fish you want to keep this week it might just make a difference.Tight lines, David

Also checking in from out East is Capt. Jim Hull from Light Tackle Challenge.  Check it out:
Some nice fish this week. With the moon waxing to full, action is on again off again with blitz on all big bass one day and small blues taking over the next. We were lucky to take some fish in the low to mid forties but this beauty taken by Dave Schrader on my homemade bass eraser measured 51″ and is estimated at 55lbs. Pump up and reel down. Jim

CONNECTICUT FISHING REPORTS
Not many reports coming in from Connecticut this time around.  But Capt. Sandy Noyes from Rumrunner Guide Service is killing them!  Check it out:
This has been the most consistent fishing that I’ve seen in quite a while. As long as we have some tide moving the fish have been there. The big difference this week is that most of the fish have sea lice on them so we know that its a fresh batch coming in. The sizes are about the same with a few more in the teens. I’m seeing more squid now than I have in the past few weeks. Jack and Jim came down from upstate New York for a few days and did well with flyrod poppers and squid flies.

RHODE ISLAND FISHING REPORTS
Capt. Ray Stachelek from Cast-a-Fly Charters has been fishing the waters from Watch Hill, Rhode Island to Cape Cod and the islands
It’s been hot with oppressive daytime heat, but the striper fishing has been holding its own.
I have never seen a temperature swing of forty plus degrees during a summer month in one day like we had Saturday. Despite the bright sunshine this week there are stripers around the upper bay. Last week, the fishery lacked consistency but it has leveled somewhat this week.  Everyone knows by now most of the live bait action is up into the Providence River south of the hurricane barrier. The flotilla of boats up there is amazing, and so are the feuds that develop with close quarter drills. Bank sinkers are a flying and tempers are short. If you like reality fishing at its best, that’s the place to be. There are two boat ramps in the vicinity of the action. This makes it a great deal on fuel savings and staples for the dinner table.  We have been fishing structure south of Providence to Prudence Island just to get away from that scene. Some stripers in the teens are starting to move down from Providence as the water temps continues to rise. So far the masses of bunker haven’t showed in open water. The pogy boat was around last week for a couple of days, but it drifted aimlessly while the spotter plane circled the bay.  There should be concern about is the growth of algae blooms. It’s starting to show in pockets of the upper bay like swirls of marble cake. The lack of wind doesn’t help the problem either. There is plenty of pollen on the surface to go around too. Water conditions seem dirty with stagnant water. Best Bets, Try to find stripers in areas of rock structure away from the pack. Start the morning as early as possible. Once a spot gets integrated with noise with other boats, the fish quickly vanish. Striper feedings have not been aggressive but there are subsurface boils for the keen eye to notice. They are filtering larvae and other critters and also working crabs along the shallow bottom. Aggressive approach to fly presentation will not work. Finesse is the key with an intermediate line. This is high level of skill fishing at its finest. Those anglers with patience and good presentation will be justly rewarded.

Capt. Greg Snow from SNow Fly Light Tackle Guide Service reports in:
As I prepare to head out to block Island for the remainder of the  season, fishing continues to be quite good in Narragansett Bay.  A myriad of baits can be found throughout the Bay.  Bunker, Spearing, anchovies, silverside and sand eels are choking the shallows. Good size bass up to 40′ have been taken on light tackle with early topwater action resulting in some seriously elevated  heart rates.  Block Island on the other hand has seen some truly epic fishing in the past week.  Squid and baby butterfish are getting chewed on in a major way.  There have been countless 40 pound bass with lots of 50’s and at least one confirmed over 60 this past week.  It’s great to see such large fish but if you are lucky enough to tangle with one of these beasts please release her.  I am constantly reminded of the serious ego problems with so many fisherman over the course of the season.   The bottom line is the fish over 25 pounds make for very poor table fair,  not to mention that they are all breeding females.  It really makes a much better story showing your buddy a picture of a 45 pounder that you know is still swimming out there making little stripers and passing on her big fish genes.  Tight Lines…Capt Greg Snow

MASSACHUSETTS FISHING REPORTS
From the Boston and Cape areas, the guys from Boston Fishstix Guide service are killing it!  Check it out:
Short report this week. Richard and I have been on the water a ton, chartering in Boston and down on Cape Cod. The bass are here in good numbers and continue to cooperate for fly and light tackle anglers. Even better, the school bluefin (which are really growing up this year!) have arrived both up north and way down in the bay. We’ve hooked a number of fish in just the past few days. The hot lure is the Ocean Lures tuna popper and their “SP.” Check em out at www.oceanlures.com  Let us know if you need info on the local fishing or want to get out for a trip.Tight lines,Capt. John Mendelson

From Northern Mass, Capt. Dave Rimmer checks in with this report:
HERE WE GO CELTICS, HERE WE GO! CONGRATS TO THE MEN IN GREEN FOR CAPTURING BANNER #17 AND RETURNING THE STORIED FRANCHISE TO THE GLORY DAYS OF PAST. Following the hometown heros made for late nights and tough wake-up calls, but it was all worth it. I continued to hear excellent reports on striped bass fishing throughout our region, as bait of all sizes remained abundant. A friend got into a school of big bass feeding on herring off Gloucester Harbor and absolutely crushed big bass for 2 hours. The estuaries produced as well and big schools of breaking schoolies (love that 2003 year class!) were seen off the beaches and rocky shores. On the Merrimack River fishing was basically insane. There was a push of big bass into the river around June 12, and every day since then my charters have produced big fish as well as many other Captains and anglers. Britt Hultgren of Amesbury, MA, a regular client for 5 years, caught her first “legit” keeper on fly, a 37 inch, 17 pound specemin pulled out of a school of breaking fish off the Plum Island Beach front. We also had outrageous action on sluggos on Joppa Flats, with multiple slobs competing for the 7.5 inch treats in white or olive over white. So pretty much across the board, if you are not getting on good sized bass these days, you need to keep moving, because they are around.

The other big news is that bluefin tuna are showing in waters north of Beantown. They have not showed inside 10 miles yet, but it is “game on” and will surely be a serious distraction over the next three months or so!

From the Cape, Capt. Terry Nugent made his first Canyon Run of the year…  And scored!  Check it out:
6/14 The Canyons and Beyond! Yesterday we took Riptide on our first Canyon trip of the season. Truth is it wasnt REALLy a conyon trip because we fished well BEYOND the canyons. The crew for the trip was Mike C, Ruge, Split and Me. The night before was filled with prepping the boat, loading on 450# of ice, winding on new topshots and all that stuff that happens before the first offshore trip of the season. This just adds to the list of the already labor intensive task of getting ready for any canyon trip. For good measure we did the oil, belts and gearcase lubes on the Verados as well. Lastly the most painful part of the prepping. The trip to the gas station to fill all three tanks to the filler caps.

Then it was nap time. A quick 4 hour nap was all I needed before leaving the house at 0100 to meet Split at Falmouth at 0200. We loaded on his gear to the already packed boat and by 0230 we were clearing the jetties at Falmouth. The run against the tide in the Sound was the bumpiest and slowest part of the entire trip. We made 30kts in the 2ers until we rounded Gay Head. Here we lost the opposing current and the water began to flatten out. Split and Mike C settled into the beanbag chairs for a long nap, Ruge kept watch and I pushed the big Contender up to 35kts for a fast flat cruise towards our destination of 39.30 / 71.00.

The run to the edge was unevenful and in 2 hoursfrom the time we rounded the 31 can off Gay Head we were clearing Block Canyon. Split and Mike C awoke to loads of shelf life. The sun was just breaking the horizon as we dropped over the 1000 fathom curve. We finally hit our numbers and we found some scattered weeds and a few shearwaters. It was no allot of life, but it was the most we had seen since we cleared the shelf. The water was 76 degrees. We decided to look around a bit before going lines in. I cranked the radar up from traveling mode to bird finder mode and Mike C put his eagle eyes on the horizon. We picked up a good flock of shearwaters about 2 miles away. We heaeed over towards them and when they came into view so did the breaking Yellowfin under them.

On this trip Split was going to be running his spread for us. It was unlike our normal spread in several ways He runs ALLOT of rods, we generally run only 7 or a max of 8. So when we saw the birds and fish it was a very rapid deployment trying to get all the rods out as we closed on the fish. When we reached the fish it took only seconds for 6 of the rods to go off and we had 50-70# yellowfin going in every direction. With the new spread we were not as smooth as we would have liked and some of us were grabbing the wrong rods from the wrong positions. When the smoke cleared we went a sub par 3 for 6 on the YFT, with 3 of them pulling the hooks as we fought the other three. While the extra rods do work well, it would have been nice to get used to the new spread with a double or even a triple. The six rod knockdown threw us for a learning curve loop at least we were on the board.

The guys reset the spread as Ruge bled, iced and boxed the tuna and I set us up for another pass on the fast moving birds. This pass was a bit slower and we doubled up, but on big mahi rather than YFT. The mahi put on a show and in short order Ruge was bleeding and icing a 15# and a 20#er. As I set up for the third pass.

This time the spread got bit but the fish were small skippies. Not sure what was happening but the same flock of birds kept giving up different fish. We landed and cut loose the 3-5# skippies and then the birds were gone.

The guys gave the boat a quick cleaning as I began to look for the birds again or some other target to go after. I found a scattered weedline on the break and we began to trol NW along the break. When we found sonething floating bigger than a bucket it was covered with life and also some super sized mahi. The best item we found was a 30′ log that held a ton of fish and we pounded it for 2 hours making pass after pass at it. The best mahi of the day came from this piece of timber and was over 30#.

This hunt and seek went on for the rest of the afternoon and we picked away at mahi in the 15-30# range. I’m a HUGE mahi fan since I don’t really love eating tuna, but blacken me up a big hunk of mahi and I’m in heaven. Add to it the size of these fish and I was in my glory.

When the day was done aroun 1600 we went lines in and headed for home. Just as Mike C and Split began to get into the REM sleep mode we cleared the edge and Ruge and I spotted SBFT slow rolling on the glassy water. We woke the snuggle buddies and set out a quick 5 rod spread. Dispite pulling right over the fish several times they were just not in the eating mood and they continued to roll slowly without so much as a sniff.

The rest of the run home was fast and flat and I even got an hour of beanbag time as Capt Split took the wheel from the Lanes to Gay Head. We hit the Falmouth jetties just as the sun slipped away at 2100 hours.

The final tally for the trip was 3 YFT from 50-70#, a bunch of mahi from 15# to over 30#, and a few small 3-5# skippies. We sort of landed two sailfish as well, when cleanign the big mahi today Ruge found a pair of 12″ sailfish in it’s stomach still in pretty good condition. So by proxy we got 2 sailfish  The fish came on an assortment of lures, bars amd hoos. I don’t know what all was in the spread most of the time. Split did a nice job of adjusting the spread for the conditions and he didn’t rest for a minute. Dispite scattered weeds the spread was kept continuiosly weed free all day. The total fuel burn for the day was 307.9 gallons, leaving us 93 gallons as a reseerve. I found out some interesting things about the boat. We were able to reach Block Canyon from the Gay Head can in exactly 2 hours. That should put Atlantis in the 1:45 range or around 2.5 hours from Falmouth Jetties. I expect we will be making that run ALLOT this summer weather and fishing permitting.

Overall it was not the ultimate canyon trip, but considering this is striper season and we ran down with basicly no outside intel, in a center console for a day trip I’m happy with the results. I hope to get better with the bigger spreads. I think with our smaller spraed we may have executed more effectivly since we are more familer with it. But there is no denying the more rods in the water the more fish you can get into the boat if you fish them correctly. I was honestly surprised how many rods we could pull from my boat without any tangles or issues. Kudo’s to Split for that and thanks for the lesson.

On a side note we didnt get any pics of the YFT due to the cockpit chaos, but Ruge did get some OUTSTANDING Mahi footage on the HD camera. With the polarized lens and the cobalt blue GulfStream water the footage is just stunning. I’ll be working on that over the next week and hope to have some up for viewing later on in the week. Good Luck,Capt. Terry Nugent

MAINE FISHING REPORTS

From Maine, Capt. John Ford from Portland Guide service checks in with this report:
Warm but North east wind ,water temps…cold 54-58 degrees.  Pouring rain here today…Stripers are showing up each day, some decent sized fish around 26″-32″. Yesterday (Sat)was not a great bass day with some cool North east wind blowing, just one of those high pressure days the bass do not like. We found some fish blind casting on some mud flats but no fish showing themselves on the surface anywhere. We decided to run offshore a bit as there has been good reports of bluefins around south of us. Did’nt expect much as it was a bit sloppy out with the NE wind. Ran out about 6-7 miles off Portland to the shipping lanes. Lots of Gannets flying around mixed with gulls but nothing really organized. About a half hour into our search I saw one big splash about 100 yrds off and headed that way, as we got closer a pod of tuna exploded. A small group of them maybe 10 fish or so… they were up and down quick and we never saw them again. We poked around a drop-off and marked some big schools of bait and fish down deep at around 200ft. Tried to jig a little but really too much current and drift to get down effectivly. Never touched a fish but signs were good. It’s early for tuna but i was happt to see a few here… need a good flat day to get a real scouting mission in…will keep you posted. -Capt. John

That’s all for this week.  See ya next tide!

Capt. John McMurray
Northeast Fishing Correspondent and Lateral Line Ambassador

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