Post up up your 2019/2020/2021/2022 Blackfishing Pix/Reports/Adventures/Musings

Whelp, that's most certainly a wrap for this season, for sure!

Was scheduled to have Chris/HippyChick haul me home from Freeport on Sunday. But his office general, Suzanne, called Tuesday afternoon and asked if I wanted to bring the Lep home a little early, due to the coming storm.

Yeah, um, does Dolly Pardon sleep on her back? Of course I want her home ASAP!

So she worked me into Chris's REALLY busy schedule for a Freeport Public ramp meet-up late afternoon yesterday. Turns out we beat the snow home, literally by a 20 minutes. Thank the Lord!

Last ride down the canal for the season. Really dreary, with a strong ENE blowing. I could just feel the coming storm in my bones:



And home she came - all blocked up, with the four supporting stands properly placed. Engine oil changed, cooling system winterized, all pumps drained, a bit of non-tox RV anti-freeze poured into the bilge, a few 100W light bulbs installed down in there as well, so to keep the worst of the cold away. Once she's shrink-wrapped, my trusty GE dehumidifier will run 24/7 to kill any chance of mold formation. Took a while to come up with this solution, but I gotta tell ya, its really a key to keeping the boat minty-fresh during the worst of Winter's efforts to hurt the interior's surfaces.



Couldn't do my usual pressure washing of the hull, but that will have to wait 'til this messy weather backs off. Squiggy will come by to shrink wrap her on the 30th. Wish it were sooner, but that's the best they could do. The days are long past that I would do my own shrink wrap job, just too much drama for one "now-older" person to handle solo. Anyways, I'm just grateful the fine folks at HippyChick came thru for me. Once again. They are the very best!

Edit: As of 10:00 this morning, the snow was not as bad as they forecast, but still a mess. The wind however was and is every bit of the forecasted speed - plenty strong. I'll get out there shortly and clean the cockpit out. But first a hearty, fortifying, home-cooked Thursday morning breakfast with Mrs. Lep.



And so now begins the miserable off-season, without any certainty of the always much-anticipated Spring Fishing Expos to dull the pain. . . Ugggh. Winter sux for a coastal fisherman here in NY.

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Welp I finally did it! Got my 10# tog. I kept saying the past few trips that I would take a slow day for the chance at a tackle buster.... Little did I know the excruciating pain of watching everyone else launch keepers over the rail as I could do nothing right! Got mugged to death out of what felt like my best chance of keeper redemption for the day. Snagged up my last rig and put both rods away as it felt failure was inevitable, but the little voice in my head said, "Hey buddy, you still have a leader on your jig rod. Drop it down and see what happens." I kept bouncing the jig every 30 seconds or so to make sure i could detect and try to alleviate any snags before they became too far gone, and one time there was a weird sensation... I felt a weight but did not feel any bite. I started to reel up the weight that felt almost like a dead line that I had found from some other anglers misadventure, but all of a sudden a big head shake!!!!! I reeled down and set the hook and it was game on! The BH 701L was bent in half and the drag on the twinpower screamed for one beastly run back towards the bottom. Managed to keep the fishes head up and everything held for two more runs. Into the net goes a beauty of 10# male white chin. Lesson learned here, be careful what you wish for, but be thankful for what you get! Merry Christmas folks!!! The addiction continues.... Hopefully the first of many!

Welp I finally did it! Got my 10# tog. I kept saying the past few trips that I would take a slow day for the chance at a tackle buster.... Little did I know the excruciating pain of watching everyone else launch keepers over the rail as I could do nothing right! Got mugged to death out of what felt like my best chance of keeper redemption for the day. Snagged up my last rig and put both rods away as it felt failure was inevitable, but the little voice in my head said, "Hey buddy, you still have a leader on your jig rod. Drop it down and see what happens." I kept bouncing the jig every 30 seconds or so to make sure i could detect and try to alleviate any snags before they became too far gone, and one time there was a weird sensation... I felt a weight but did not feel any bite. I started to reel up the weight that felt almost like a dead line that I had found from some other anglers misadventure, but all of a sudden a big head shake!!!!! I reeled down and set the hook and it was game on! The BH 701L was bent in half and the drag on the twinpower screamed for one beastly run back towards the bottom. Managed to keep the fishes head up and everything held for two more runs. Into the net goes a beauty of 10# male white chin. Lesson learned here, be careful what you wish for, but be thankful for what you get! Merry Christmas folks!!! The addiction continues.... Hopefully the first of many!

I've been snelling hooks and tying rigs non-stop, all the tog reels are gone thru (again!), the outfits are now fully rigged and ready - all we need is the calendar to hurry the hell up!

- all we need is for the calendar to hurry the hell up!