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We tuffed it out offshore for four to 4.5lbs and a limit of king kong-sized biscuits. I should have moved in a bit to my open crusty-bottom hunting grounds, but I really thought they'd bite on the turn where I was. They didn't. Enough said. 🙄

could not pass up today after looking at the weather report
OMG lake Atlantic ..well with the big boat down fuel line has to come from Germany...I guess Cat's are not 100% American made,

anyway took the 22' out flat calm hit the inshore spots ..lots & lots of life 99% short life ..so headed to the Honey Hole & it did produce ..spent a couple of hours with our limit on large BSB & five fat keeper fluke ,,back at the dock just after 12 noon..great half day of fishing..

Originally planned to fish some newer "inshore" local reef drops, but once George and I broke the Inlet, the gorgeous ocean told me to head deep. So we did.

High-cruised out to to the grounds, actually an area out there that I haven't fished in two seasons, and man, were the fish ready. Nice ones too. George started us off with a double-header keeper fluke AND keeper biscuit, which I don't recall seeing before. Actually, he did it TWICE today - a record that should stand up for some time on the Lep. Or not, hopefully. 😀

What followed was a really good pick of fish, with an excellent keeper to short ratio. By lunch time we were done, with a limit of fat fluke, the three largest being 5.5, 6 and 6.4lbs - my season's best so far, PLUS a full limit of really nice biscuits. Net result were bags of fillet at a true 8lbs for each of us. And I'll say one thing - IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME!

Anyway, really gorgeous conditions - a gentle 2' swell, with a nice 0.5-0.9kt drift - perfect for the spinning gear, which we both used the entire trip. Two ounce jig heads were all we needed today. And the GULP! color of the day? "Salmond Rushdie" orange. Boy did they like that today, other than towards the end of the trip, when Nuclear Chicken was working really well.

Back at it this weekend, weather-permitting.

Showing off George. 😉👍

Showing off George. 😉👍

It's tough to show off when the Capt is doing the same . . .if not better 🙂 Simply put it was one of those great trips, with a great captain that has a plan every time we go.

father daughter day today..really thought it was going to be flat calm today ,,But that south swell and the 22' boat kept me from the HH...I hit an area I haven't fished in fifteen years ,,& its still pretty good.. Had four keeper fluke & two nice BSB in a half day of fishing..

Had the Chef and George aboard today for some good fishing outside JI. Finished with an "oh so close" 11 keepers to 6.5lbs, a bunch of husky biscuits and a bonus 22" baccala for Ken. The fish were real nice sized this trip, only needed to measure two of the 11 boxers.

Made the first summer trip to Montauk for Fluke yesterday with a 5-man crew of my regular charter customers. Montauk trips are always both exciting and often challenging from one perspective or another. Yesterdays first challenge began with pea soup fog which made my job of steaming some 30 miles to the east a bit less than pleasant. Then when we reached the point the predicted 3-foot swell became 4-5 footers with a few 6’s thrown in close to the normally turbulent point. So, by the time we hit our first drop about 5 miles SW we were already 2 men down.

Too bad for guys with no “sea legs” as it turned out to be an excellent day fishing. Sal nails a nice 4# Fluke within seconds of hitting the bottom on the first drift and Ricky follows suit with a fat 3.5# Fluke just a few minutes later. Sea Bass were everywhere and we worked through the day picking and choosing only the largest biscuits to fill out that limit. Towards the end of the trip Sal, who had the hot hand, landed a beautiful 4# Sea Bas to add to his top Fluke of the day which tipped the scales at 5.5#. Although we did not see any real king-sized Fluke the 3 man “active crew” did put 10 nice Fluke in the box so we wound up only 2 shy of their personal limits. Action on the Fluke was the most consistent I have seen so far this season with fish caught on every drift as long as you could avoid the Sea Bass.

Of course, Montauk usually pleases the eye with some of natures truly special creatures. During the course of this trip, we spotted one whale, a pod of Dolphin working on a school of Mackerel, and a sizeable brown shark swimming lazily off our stern.

another great day on the water,,.started off slow BSB were all over couldn't get to the bottom without them ripping at your gulp and strip bait OMG...With only two fluke in the box by 11ish I wasn't very happy..tide dropped out & the bite was on ..put seven more in the box ..Capt had his limit & the biggest fish of the day of 5.34 lbs..on Ted's scale ..

saw a whale by the JI this morning put on a nice show .and a small Mako

Headed to MTK end of the week.. Got the call bite is on !!!!

No pix this trip, but yesterday hit my regular haunts outside hard for 7 keeps to 4.5lbs, a bunch of biscuits plus the usual assorted other bottom critters for the three of us. A TON of shorts today - more than we normally see on three trips. I thought we were fishing in the Bay, the way we were swinging shorts. I think a fresh body of fish has moved "inshore," as many of these fish appear noticeably thinner than what we've been catching. No matter, back at it this weekend.

Jersey Fluking has improved recently. Rather than battle the crowds at the reefs and the rocks, today we discovered some new spots off by ourselves. Looks like some new skinny fluke have arrived with empty stomachs. But was fortunate to get this fatty after releasing 100+ shorts for us 3 retirees. We did get our limit but the other keepers were anorexic. Sea Bass still chewing in all depths.

went to MTK today fished with Capt. Al...we fished off from the fleet & did pretty good... I had six keepers to seven pounds boat had a total of eleven keepers ..I had the big fish of the day...

four of us fished out of westlake its great having friends that have friends ,,we were treated like kings ..saw the offshore windmill truck there too

Had Capt. Mike and the Chef aboard today for a really good bite at my usual deep environs, doing my best to keep away from the armada. My "strategery" paid off well, with 11 quality keepers to a 28", 8lbs5oz bruiser for Capt. Mike. The fish hit in bunches, with up to an hour between mini-blitzes. Mike was real happy with his biggie. I was real happy for him, plus the fact that despite being over the "evil sh!t" all day, I didn't lose a single rig. That almost never happens. Win - Win!

Nice job guys!!

Very nice fish guys!

Had a group of regulars on my charter Saturday and we hit our usual Montauk deep drops (Cartwright, Lovers Ledge, etc) but tide was ripping (thank goodness for a Trolling motor) and sea bass were in super thick. Grinded most of the day til I got a call from a buddy at the Frisbees that he was on them good and that salvaged our trip. 11 keepers to 27 inches with 6 of them coming in last 90 minutes at Frisbees.

Yeah, its like that sometimes. Just gotta fish through - as you clearly did. Great job!

some MTK picks all fish caught on custom CTS jiggers with SST jigs

Had a group of regulars on my charter Saturday and we hit our usual Montauk deep drops (Cartwright, Lovers Ledge, etc) but tide was ripping (thank goodness for a Trolling motor) and sea bass were in super thick. Grinded most of the day til I got a call from a buddy at the Frisbees that he was on them good and that salvaged our trip. 11 keepers to 27 inches with 6 of them coming in last 90 minutes at Frisbees.

Hey John, I saw a video you posted recently, it was the one where Skinner was teaching some younglings how to fish, how did you like that boat you were captaining? That was some rig, 3 yammy V8's on the back, were those the new 425hp XTO series? great vid by the way, I give skinner a lot of credit, some kids are just not into fishing.
Hopefully this weekend I will be in R.I. weather permitting going to shoot over to Montauk.
Nice report too.
Jay

Hey John, I saw a video you posted recently, it was the one where Skinner was teaching some younglings how to fish, how did you like that boat you were captaining? That was some rig, 3 yammy V8's on the back, were those the new 425hp XTO series? great vid by the way, I give skinner a lot of credit, some kids are just not into fishing.
Hopefully this weekend I will be in R.I. weather permitting going to shoot over to Montauk.
Nice report too.
Jay

Jay, was a beautiful family fishing boat and a rocket ship. My one quibble was the cabin was so wide that it was almost impossible to pass someone fishing anywhere along the cabin. The space between the cabin and gunwales was tight. Again, a minor quibble.

Weather looking iffy so far this weekend. Hope that changes and you catch em up!