The fish story: Our first trip for "New York" (versus CT river) stripers. The Misfit Kayak Fishing Team was champing at the bit to get everyone together in JBay for a team trip. It was where our team met. For me, the Jamaica Bay Kayak Fishing Tournament in May traditionally signaled the start of my kayak fishing season. I'd spend hours getting everything in and on the kayak in top condition, and then I'd spend a lot of money buying lures I already had - all in preparation for 3 days of heaven.
This year the preparation, anticipation and expense were no different, except that a last minute change of plans kept half our team fishing in New Jersey. So we decided to have a friendly "NY v. NJ" intra-squad kayak fishing competition. We had two honorary team members in NYC with us, "Mo Fish" Mo and "JR" aka "BIGBASS" who's been catching fish and posting (honest) reports about Long Island fishing for decades.
It was all New York, as the Jersey Boys made it to the water's edge, but opted out in the face of small craft advisories. Me and Pete, we always make the drive, just to put eyes on the water for ourselves. We were at JBay at 6am to fish and conditions were fishable. Chalk one up for the New York contingent (by default?) Everyone in our crew caught fish and between us we had close to 30 bass. I had a 28 incher in the mix and Mo had one even bigger, closer to 30 inches, but most fell in the 24-26" range.
Lots of ways to catch them, but the most effective lure yesterday was a medium (5.25") Crystal Minnow trolled between 4 and 8 feet deep. Junior had them on bucktails (tipped with pork rind) and I also used a Heddon Super Spook in the shallows to land a couple. (Love that lure, but you gotta switch out the stock hooks)
We fished through the Pumpkin Patch, moving northeast to southwest as the outgoing tide began. Once we had some moving water, we had fish. Lots of action, lots of exercise and a great day outdoors on the water. And now that we're a team, there's no longer the bittersweet resignation that the party was over until the next tournament. For this bunch of Misfits, the party is just getting started!
