first report of 07

[phester]

nothing major, but I had the pleasure of fishing my friends 2360 SailfishCC w/ twin 115 yammy4s. Nice boat. There are bunker [menheden] so thick around here, the likes of which I haven't seen in years. Not only could you step outta the boat and walk on them , you could STAND on them. Anyway we set up in front of the LIPA power station in Northport. Acres and acres of bunker. Snagged about 30 or so. Our thoughts were that the bass are not yet in "feed" mode so livelining a bunker took a back seat to cutting one up and using chunks. Lots of false "run-offs" it was just the bait snagging themselves in the line. I finally had one run-off that lasted alot longer and was alot faster than the previous ones, so after about twenty seconds of peeling line I locked the Calcutta 400s in full drag and bought him in. Again, nothing major about a 28" bass but it beats getting skunked. My friend Don, who owns the boat, got one on the next drift. We got these fish in the last 15 mins of a six hour trip....a little to long on a school night.....Water temps around here are still mid 40's [ 60* right in front of the power stations outflow] so we still need some warmer weather to get the water temp. up to 55* or so then the fishing can get really good. We'll see

[Sean]

Nice start!
Hopefully I will be right behind you ;D

[phester]

I dropped two NICE flounder right at the boat last weekend. The flounder season the last few years has not been good, at least by me anyway. There are areas on Long Island that most always have a productive season, not the case where I am. Doesn't mean you can't catch any, you just gotta really work for them. I have experienced fewer fish, but bigger fish, which is fine by me. Also learned that there were a few seals chasing all those bunker that I mentioned in my first post. The water would occasionally boil and a million fish would rush all at once but there are no bluefish yet, large bass are not feeding aggressively.....maybe there were some seals around, which is rare around here. I've seen them before once or twice ,however ,not that night . Next time out I'll be on the mighty V.

[charlie_the_tuna]

hey phes i remember down here on the south shore anchoring up in 10 feet of water and pulling up flounder one after another.
4 to 6 guys on board just cranking em in all day long.

now. . . . . . . nothing.

[phester]

yeah cct, their not as plentiful as days gone by. We use to do very well right in Northport/Huntington harbors and back in the Nissequoge river. Seemed like alot of shorts [or postage stamps as we called em] but alot of them. Now they are few and far between but most of the flatties I've gotten are nice size 2-3 1/2 lbs. I'll take three keepers that size over 25 shorties any day! Never really thought of the flounder as being over fished, most people say it's to boring. Also it seems like they take longer to get here and the "season" is over before it ever starts. Does anybody know if they still allow that short two week season in the fall???If I recall in late sept/ early oct. they open the season again ......can't remember...gettin old