Great night of fishing on the Blackhawk with Capt. Greg Dubrule and crew!

The forecast was for rain and a good ebb tide.  We headed out to Race Point at 8:00pm, and I personally was hoping to finally get in some better fishing, with a shot at some big stripers.  I love going out on the Blackhawk's night trips a few times a month, as it gives me a chance to fish areas I otherwise wouldn't in my skiff, and always holds the opportunity for some really big fish.  With a limited number of angler on these trips, more time is spent fishing and less dealing with tangles, etc. I probably went out on 4-5 of these trips last season, as well as a few Happy Hour 4-10pm excusions, and a Diawa Demo trip.  I can tell you that I came home with a cooler of striper fillets on every one of them, and on three brought home the pool as well.

We had a pretty good group headed out, with several of the guys having done a lot of night drift fishing.  It's not as easy as it seems, or some make it out to be.  If you've fished the Blackhawk, you've heard Capt. Greg's pre-game speech.  Keeping your rig feathered on the bottom during fast drifts without hanging up or collecting other lines takes practice.  Some guys will snag and lose $10 worth of lead and jigs every other drift.  Others will never stay in the strike zone after initial contact with the bottom.  Last night, I think all but 1-2 of the 18 anglers on board had multiple fish.  While I've been on trips where we caught a greater number of fish, I've never been on one where the quality was better. 

I came back with a cooler full of striper fillet's, but I swear Capt. Greg was drifting me over the guppies!  My biggest keeper at around 40" wasn't even going to put me in the top 10.  We had about an hour stretch where each fish over the rail seemed to get bigger than the last.  A guy with a 45 pounder was looking pretty good, and nine nights out of ten would be collecting the pool.  Out of the water comes a 48, followed by a 56 to 57 pound fish.  A few more in the upper thirties and lower forties weren't even in the running.  I can tell you, the mates Matt, Nicki and Alex did an awesome job, as not one of the big fish was lost to tangles, angler inexperience or at the net.  For some reason, Matt just got left out of all of the pictures! 

Thanks for a great trip, and I look forward to fishing with you over the next few weeks.