Light tackle striper fishing with Plum Island Swimbaits.

I like to show what I'm fishing with, so here's a peak. Aside from the Plum Island soft plastics, I'm fishing a 7'6" MH St. Croix Tidemaster spinning rod with a Penn 460 Slammer reel.

Fishing with Jersey Justin

This season has been pretty unusual, both in the unpredictability of the local fishing and several of the locations I've fished. Just a few days after returning from Utah, I found myself heading (a bit) south to do something a little different from my norm. I had an opportunity to head down to Jersey City to meet up with Fishing with Jersey Justin Capt. Justin Suarez and friend Mike Prete from Plum Island Baits to do some fishing with my brother Doug and son Danny. Now, I typically associate Jersey City with an exit off the Jersey Turnpike, refineries, landfills and the Newark airport that I sometimes have to fly out of. None of these paint a very pleasant picture of Northern New Jersey.
Right across from Manhattan, tucked away off I-78, however, is Liberty State Park and Liberty Landing Marina. A block or two off the interstate and you're in a whole different world. Danny and I met up with Doug at Liberty Park Cafe & Diner for an early breakfast before hitting the water. I can't fish on an empty stomach, and the diner is open at 6:00am with all the standard breakfast fare.
We met Justin at the marina two minutes down the road. The morning was beautiful, with light winds and the seas settling down to just 1-2 feet. Headed out of the marina, your looking straight at the Lower Manhattan skyline, and as you turn to starboard, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. How cool is that? We ran out through the Verranzano Narrows past Ft. Wadsworth in Gateway National Recreation Area, past Sandy Hook to see what we could find. Our first location yielded more dogfish than anything else. Now, little do most know, but dogfish are actually good eating and make up a large percentage of the fried fish sold in British Fish & Chip shops. However, they rip up gear and are generally a pain in the ass. The next few spots we hit yielded a mix of keeper and short black sea bass and a few fluke, and this proved to be the dominant pattern for the rest of the day. Despite the sea bass limit being two per angler, there seems to be no end of short fish carpeting the bottom of most of our Southern New England and New York waters.
Plum Island's FLUKUSHIMA 'OG' 6.5" in Block Island Green proved to be the go to color, as Danny was sticking bass pretty consistently, including some nice keeper sized males. I eventually surrendered my pearl rigs, following Danny's lead and picked up more fish as well. Uncle Doug was as entertaining as always, trying to figure out how to hold onto little, flapping fish.
While the fishing wasn't on fire (we ground through a ton of locations), the day itself was awesome. I love the opportunities to get out on the water with Danny and my brother Doug, check out new locations, and fish with guys like Justin and Mike. I was so taken in with the surroundings that I forgot to get pics with Danny and some of his fish. I think Justin may have a few. I did manage to snap a pic of Danny enjoy the result of our trip last night. If you're in the New York area and looking to get away for awhile, give Capt. Justin a shout. He'll certainly show you a nice day on the water.

REMEMBER - TACKLE BOXES, NOT X-BOXES!!!!! Take your kids fishing!!!

A tradition continues with a little help from a friend.

Every summer begins the same way. Since I bought the Gemma Rose after my daughter was born, and continuing with the Gemma Rose II, the first official day of my summer vacation has been spent out on the water in pursuit of tranquility and a few stripers. Regardless of the weather or what ever else is ongoing, that first day following my final teacher work day of the school year you will find me doing the same thing. It's my own, quiet way of celebrating another year in the books, far removed from any kids and officially launching two months off that are sure to make my wife jealous. Let's face it, any teacher that claims this isn't one of the best perks of the job is lying, particularly if they love to fish. The day begins well before the sun rises, and every year has produced at least a keeper striper, a streak of which I'm quite proud.

My streak was put in jeopardy this year by a deer that decided to leap a guard rail early in the a.m. as I drove in for one of my last days of school. Any streak that deer had ended then and there, and my truck is still in the collision repair center, leaving me with a boat far from water. Fortunately, by buddy Rich, whom I have fished with on many occasions on the Gemma Rose II, invited me out to fish with him.

The weather forecasts called for winds and torrential rain by mid-morning, and the fishing has been very hit or miss to say the least. I could have cared less, because I was still fishing! I met up with Rich at 4:30am and we drove down to the launch and put our game plan into action. That plan was to run about 20 minutes from our launch, looking for bait and hitting a few spots along the way. If we couldn't locate any bunker, we'd work back to the launch, pull the boat and head to location B.  It didn't take long before we were marking fish and bringing in small schoolies both on the 7.5" Plum Island Pearl White River Eels I was throwing, and the 5.5" Lunker City Fin-S (both proudly made locally) that Rich was throwing in Sexy Shiner.  As our plan wasn't to catch schoolies, we continued to move in search of bunker.

Looking back a few seasons in my logs, this should have been an easy task, but this season has started out a little different. Despite quite a bit of looking, and with the aid of side imaging, we didn't mark any bunker, so we stuck with the plan to work back, focusing on several spots we knew would hold fish. I'm OK with this, as throwing top water is my preferred method hands down. Nothing beats the thrill of watching a big striper explode on an artificial, gripping the rod and waiting to come tight and set the hook.

We continued to mark and catch fish, but none breaking 28", and many not much bigger than adult bunker. That said, they were pretty ambitious, repeatedly hammering baits half their size. Sick of short strikes, I was looking to downsize when Rich's rod doubled over and his fish started pulling line. After a good fight, he boated a beautiful 40" fish sporting a few sea lice as evidence of having arrived after a long migratory journey. Forget the little stuff, I threw on my 9" Doc lure and started the slow, walk the dog retrieve. I had a big blow up but no hook set, and a few casts later, boated a nice fish just over keeper size. We continued to work the area, but the results were more smaller fish.

One Golden Rule of fishing is never switch from a lure that's producing (I did), and another is don't leave fish to find fish. We were going to break both of these today. Despite the 40" fish, we decided to pack up and make the move to location B. We'd had good early am intel on bunker, and were hoping some big fish would be hot on them. By the time we dropped the boat back in, the sky was turning increasingly grey, and the rain was beginning to fall. We quickly found the bunker, but generally in water too deep for our cast net, so we set to snagging, leaving some fish to struggle on the snag and dropping others down on a three way rig.  It wasn't too long before I hooked a fish that measured just a bit over 31" and the drizzle turned into a steady, heavy rain.

Despite our best efforts, we weren't getting any more takers, and the tide was going completely slack. The rain was relentless, and we made a move to a new location where I'd caught some of my largest fish last season, including a 46", 40+lber. We threw the bunker back out and just allowed them to free swim, resulting in a few boils but no takers. I hooked my Doc back on and gave it a heave.  A few slow side to side glides, and a large striper knocked it into the air and then latched on. I buried the hook, felt several violent shakes, and then the plug popped free. I'm sure there were a few expletives as I continued the retrieve, but then I saw the fish coming back and hitting again, following and hitting yet again. Still, I didn't hook up. I shook my head as I told Rich I wasn't sure how I missed that one, until I looked down at my plug again. The 4/0 VMC treble hook and triple split ring were nowhere to be found. I just had the single siwash bucktail in the rear left.  The power of these fish never ceases to amaze me.

By this time I was soaked through and felt like a drowned rat. Did I mention that my dry bag with my light weight Gage raingear was in my truck at the collision repair center? I'd thought it was too warm for Gore-Tex or heavy Grundens, opting instead for Frogg Toggs. Frogg Toggs are great for that unexpected shower, not so much for 3 hours of steady, heavy rain. We decided to call it a day and headed back to the ramp. While I'm still in search of my first monster of the season, thanks to Rich, I can celebrate another perfect start to my summer vacation!

Product Review – Plum Island Swim Baits

The fishing industry seems awash in soft plastic products from both major manufacturers and smaller start-up companies.  Everyone claims to have something special. I think the guys from Plum Island Swim Baits really do.  Let me preface this by saying that I fish a TON of soft plastics in both fresh and salt water. I live less than a mile from Lunker City, who’s Sluggos have been a staple for years.  I have literally bins full of soft plastics from dozens of manufactures. Some stuff is great and will always be in my bag or on my boat, others not so much so.  So why have I fished Plum Island almost exclusively this season?

I picked up a few packs of Plum Island River Eels 7.5”, Flukushima OGs and Flukishima Mondos this spring after seeing a few online posts about this local company that was making some great soft plastics. With every soft plastic, the balancing act comes between a bait with great action and durability. The stuff with the best action is typically really soft and tears up pretty quickly.  Super durable often equals too stiff and a lot less action.  Plum Island seems to have hit the nail right on the head. Their baits have great action in the water, feel super soft, and are tough as nails, often holding up to a day of striper fishing or numerous bluefish strikes.  Did I mention that they are scent impregnated as well? These things are not your rock hard GULP baits!      

It turns out that one of the guys behind Plum Island, Gabe Ravizza, lives ten minutes away from me, and invited me over to check out some of the stuff they’ve been working on.  We talked fishing for awhile, and I left with a goody-bag of soft plastics, including a bunch of new designs and color combinations.  Among my favorites were some of the albie baits that were absolutely slaughtered the last few weeks. I’m sure you’ll be seeing some more of these next fall.  I had the chance to get out on the water with Gabe this past week, and try out even more styles and color combinations on fall run stripers and blues.

The list of shops carrying Plum Island Swim Baits is expanding , though Gabe emphasized their commitment to maintaining the quality of the baits over the growing shop demands for expansion.  Want a custom color combination? They can probably do that for you as well. Check out Plum Island Swim Baits.  You won’t be disappointed.

http://plumislandbaits.com/

Tight Lines, and Remember - BUY LOCAL/BUY AMERICAN

RNA

Gabe with a big blue. 

Crazy Albie Days and Avoiding the Run and Gun Club.

Jeff with a nice fish on a Hogy Epoxy Jig

The fall run is now well underway in New England waters, from bluefin off Cape Cod to the inshore craziness as fish tear into the abundant bait in preparation for the runs south or winter holdovers. Leading off this fantastic fall fishery are the albies and bonito that arrive along the southern coasts chasing bay anchovies, silverside, squid and more. Guys up here wait all season for what is typically a pretty short albie run, hoping to catch these little speedsters on light tackle or the fly. As soon as the first few reports trickle in, the craziness erupts. If you're really lucky and can get out after them during the beginning of the run on a weekday, chances are good of racking up double digit tallies on fish that are looking to hit just about anything. Such was my buddy's luck on a two dozen plus day in a kayak. Unfortunately for me, the run usually coincides with my return to the classroom, relegating me to the role of weekend warrior with most of the rest of the world. By the end of the first weekend or two, those fish have been run over by about a thousand boats and seen every type of lure and fly presentation. They can get pretty damned picky.

The most popular spots are busier than ever as soon as the first pictures start appearing online, something of which we're all guilty. Places like (OK - Spotburn Alert!) Watch Hill, RI might see three to four dozen boats of all sizes intermingled with kayakers all vying for those green speedsters, and anyone who's fished them is familiar with the Run and Gun Club.  Fish pop up, and boats come gunning from all directions. Fish go down. Fish pop up a quarter mile away. Repeat the process. Few fish are actually hooked. Tempers flare. Even if you don't want to play, you get sucked in. I arrived at Watch Hill past Saturday with boats stretched from the point to the outer reef. I just wanted to get through and push further east, away from other boats. Dropping down to idle speed I find some open water to pass through. Another boat comes across my bow and I disengage my motor and let him pass. I bump back into gear and as I do so, the albies briefly pop up in front of me and then disappear. I've now got the guy who just cut across cussing me out for putting down the fish. Part of me wanted to tell him to go f&*k himself, while the other part knew he was pretty much an idiot wasting his time and not worth the effort.

RNA with a fish that fell to an Albie Snax

As I mentioned in a previous article, my biggest rule for fishing these fish is to STAY AWAY from other boats.  If a school starts blitzing 300 yards away and boats are heading in that direction, don't waste your time. Find some open water on the edges, kill your engine and wait. Chances are pretty good the fish will resurface nearby because the bait and the chasing albies will be moving to a  place away from all of the surface commotion. Look for the one or two birds circling way away from the gaggle of boats. If you figure it out, you'll never have to chase the albies. If you've got lots of fish and boats but the fish just aren't biting, break away from the pack. In doing so this past weekend, we were able to fish some blitzes completely on our own with fish much more willing to hit our presentations.   

So here are my best tips for "chasing" albies:

·        Don't chase, observe the patterns and let them come to you.

·        Maneuver slowly. Avoid the temptation to gun it forward. Chances are you're just going to put the fish down.

·        Kill you motor as you near the blitz, and don't sit around with your motor idling either.

·        Stay away from other boats by hanging on the outskirts or striking out on your own.

Gear I like to use:

M/MH inshore spinning rods like the St. Croix Tidemaster 7'6"

20/30lb. superbraid w/ 15lb. flouro leaders.

8wt flyrods

Hogy Epoxy Jigs

Deadly Dicks

Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows

Albi Snax

Plum Island Swimbaits (http://plumislandbaits.com/)

Any flies that mimic bay anchovies, silversides, peanut bunker etc.

As always, Tight Lines,

The RedneckAngler

Eastern Connecticut’s Fall Funny Fish

Eastern Connecticut’s Fall Funny Fish

About the time the late summer doldrums really start hitting home, the “funny fish” begin to arrive to living things back up and usher in the fall season, first with the bonito followed by the false albacore. Not only are bonito and false albacore some of the more exotic looking fish to visit our shores, they’re also some of the most fun to catch, offering frantic adrenaline rushes as you snap cast to a breaking school knowing you have perhaps just a few seconds to hook up to what can be a blistering run. The bonito make some of the best table fare, either as sashimi or perhaps seared steaks, as opposed to the albies, who provide more excitement on the line, but much less so at the dinner table (sharks and other large pelagics aside).

While typically targeted in eastern CT, RI and NY waters around Fishers Island, last seasons saw albies thick in as far west as Milford. Other seasons, they seem to almost completely bypass us. These fish are all chasing the schools of squid, silversides, bay anchovies, peanut bunker and other small baits present in large numbers in late August and September. Surfcasters need to combine knowledge and luck to land these fish, as they can travel at speeds up to 40 miles per hour. Obviously points and jetties provide prime locations, but you can also score from the open beach, particularly when conditions are pushing the small bait in close. From a boat or a yak, things get a bit easier to either set up off points where the fish are likely to pass, or to slow cruise along open stretches of beach with the tide and bait, watching for telltale signs on the surface or working birds. These fish often are mixed in or around smaller blues, but their distinctive green back will give them away on the surface. Don’t be afraid to blind cast though, and don’t just key on birds, as these things move so fast. My biggest rule, however, and one that I believe yields me higher hookup ratios than a lot of other boats, is to stay away from other boats! There simply isn’t much point in hanging around a group of other idling boats, waiting for the fish to show back up, or running and gunning to get to a breaking school in the distance.  Places like Watch Hill, RI get absolutely ridiculous during the albie runs. Fish away from the pack.  

As to gear, you’d better be rigged and ready. I like fishing both fly (saving for another post) and 7-1/2 foot medium fast spinning rods with 30lb. superbraid and 15-20lb. fluorocarbon leaders. The bonito will often take larger baits, and my favorites are 5-/12” Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows or similar stick baits in flashy colors, mackerel patterns, soft plastics like local Plum Island (http://plumislandbaits.com) and Cobra Baits (http://www.cobrabait.com/) on bullet jigs, Deadly Dicks, etc. For the albies, you will likely need to downsize as they are ripping through clouds of bay anchovies, silversides, peanut bunker and other small profile baits, typically at the top of the water column. I love unweighted Albie Snax (http://longcastplastics.com), Zoom flukes and will be trying Cobra Baits new Bay Anchovy soft plastic. Of course, make sure to include smaller Deadly Dicks, Shimano Waxwings, Hogy Epoxy Jigs and similar type hard lures. My other favorite is spin casting flies or epoxy teasers tied to a a 2” Deadly Dick type body with 2’ of 15lb. fluoro (See below). Albies can be finicky, so don’t hesitate to switch it up. I generally keep a rod ready rigged with each of the above, as there is no time to be messing around with tying on new lures.

If you haven’t been out on the bonito yet, you’d better get going. Meanwhile, let’s cross our fingers and say a prayer to the fish gods that this year produces another strong albie run as well!

Tight Lines,

Redneck Angler

P.S. - This was a real short primer. If you have questions or want to know more, shoot me a message.             

Telling them apart:

Here’s a good video to check out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v9rzJwlJL8