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

Early October in the Eastern Long Island Sound

October typically brings some of the best fishing of the year to the eastern Long Island Sound.  Bass and blues are putting on the feed bags, often in insane surface blitzes, before their migrations south.  Black fish season reopens, and anglers look to fill freezers for the winter with these and dinner plate size scup.  Bay anchovies and other bait fish choke the reefs, with albies giving chase.  Fall is arriving, and with it shifting weather conditions including increased winds and waves, making it tougher on recreational anglers hoping Mother Nature coordinates with days off.  For the past several years, a day out typically guaranteed great fishing.  While the weather has generally cooperated thus far, fishing has been a bit more hit and miss this season.  I know guys will say that they caught a ton of blues, or stripers, and maybe some albies, but the mass of fish in many of the usual places isn't what it has been in seasons past.  I've had discussions all summer about causes, but guys who fish on a regular basis will tell you that it has been tougher.  Places like the Gut, Pidgeon and the Race are all safe bets to fill coolers with blues, and porgies are hitting well on the rock piles.  Fisher's is seeing some top water striper action near Race Point and locations along the south side, but they are not the acre+ of churning bass and blues that I look forward to in October.  The reefs in the Watch Hill area have been hit or miss as well.  Sure, you can always grind out fish, but the action and numbers are just down.  This weekend I ran from Groton (CT) to Point Judith, RI.  Saturday's weather was as ideal as one could ask for, and my first stop was Watch Hill.  The tide was beginning to push in, and the fishing just wasn't happening.  I quickly decided to run east up the coast, working all the way over to PJ in my little skiff, the Gemma Rose II.  Bay anchovies are working in, as football field sized schools circled west of the break walls, with the occasional schools of albies or bonito slashing through.  Despite the masses of bait, the numbers of top water blitzes were few and small.  Hanging around the breachways is going to score fish, but I'm looking for the massive catch 'til your arms fall off October runs.  Seeing all the bait was encouraging, and I along with all of the other salt water anglers that fish the ELIS are hoping the action builds up as well.  We need our fix of massive striper blitzes to see us through to the spring!    

Capt. Jack "Bones" Balint put his client on some good fishing this weekend, including this nice bonito.

Eastern LIS Report 9-2-13

There has definitely been an upswing in the fishing in the eastern LIS, Watch Hill and Western Rhode Island. Bait has been filling in on all the reefs, bringing in loads of mixed blues and bass. The last few weeks saw quite a few bonito landed is well. Now the wait is on (and it won't be too long) 'til the albies start showing up.

Big jellies are drifting the RI coast with schools of small butterfish hanging underneath. Birds have been working small bait from East Point, Fisher's Island right across the inner and outer reefs to Watch Hill. The fish are beginning to put the fall feedbag on as the time for a southern migration is now just a month or two away.

I've had a ton of success fishing Zoom Flukes on 1/4-1/2oz. Kalin's jig head or Deadly Dicks. Be sure to keep a rod rigged and at the ready with an unweighted Zoom and lighter flouro leader for when those albies pop up.

September is my absolute favorite month of fishing. My plan from now until November is to get out as often as the wind and work will allow.

My buddy John with the results of our first few casts of the day. The GoPro battery crapped out afterwards.

Eastern Long Island Sound Fishing 7-28

After dragging myself out of bed Friday at 2:30am only to see that they had upped the wind forecast and issued a small craft advisory, my day finally began around 4:00pm, or about twelve hours later than expected.  I fished Watch Hill and the eastern half of Fisher's out of the Barn Island launch, this time armed with some eels as well as the usual light tackle arsenal, hoping to see numbers like I did last week.  Inner Sugar looked promising, as I marked some decent fish holding close to the bottom.  I fished it from the spindle all the way around Catumb Rocks without any luck.  I watched a few other boats come and go.  Despite the sun still hovering above the horizon, I drifted some eels across the areas I had marked.  While I managed to snag two lobster pots, losing my rigs, I hooked no stripers.  Talk about frustrating. 

 

 

I ran west to East Point (Fishers), where three casts in I had a striper on.  It was a schoolie, but a fish none the less.  After a few more of those, the tide started to let go.  I decided I drag a few tubes tight through the boulder fields.  First pass, two fish on, each headed in different direction, while I was slipping boulders.   I just had to let one run in the rod holder, turning into it to avoid rocks while trying to reel on the other.  The first one came in quickly and was a schoolie that I popped off ASAP as I wanted to try and recover my other rig.  I cranked in line and came tight on the second fish, still on. From the initial hit, I was expecting bigger, but this guy was just over the keeper limit.  By this time, the sun was setting and the tide had completely crapped out.  I considered waiting for the flood to pick up, but was just too tired.  I ended up back at the dock trying to catch some sleep before heading out again in the early am. 

 

I was woken as the remaining few boats came in at some point in the night, and from the conversations I could hear, the fishing wasn't as good as it had been earlier in the week. "At least we got a few," said one guy as the last two boats departed.   Maybe the fish were reacting to the pressure changes, and will be back on the by the time I write this.

 

By 4:30, I was dropping back in and headed out to the reefs.  I had some tide left on Watch Hill, and it wasn't long before I was into some big blues.  This was all blind casting, as I wasn't marking nor were there any birds to be seen.  As a matter of fact, this season has been characterized by the complete lack of birds working big schools of bait on the outer reefs.  Maybe it's just been my timing, but I've never out so many times and seen so few birds working. 

 

As the tide on Watch Hill died out, I ran west to Race Point.  On the way I spotted this really beautiful schooner a few miles south of the coast.  I ran out to take a few pics.  Race point was dead.  The Helen III and a few other boats were drawing blanks.  I didn't see a fish landed in 45 minutes.  I'm not sure why she was there instead of with the weekend fleet at Valiant Rock, or over in Plum Gut which has been full of bluefish.  The guys on that boat may as well have been jigging in a desert. Time to head back east.

 

 

The flood tide was now running at Watch Hill, and I expected those blues and birds to be up and chasing bait, but again, nothing.  I fished long enough to see a few boats come and go.  I took a peak east up the coast to Weekapaug and Quonochontaug, before deciding to call it an early day.              

 

 

Eastern Long Island Sound Report 6-22-13

What a great day on the Long Island Sound!  The weather was beautiful, and the water is starting to clear up.  I launched out of Niantic around 4:30 Saturday morning, with a plan to fish towards the west, a bit of a change for me.  I had a flood tide on the Super Moon, which didn't seem to make much difference at all.  After the last two weeks, things could only improve.  I started at Bartlets, but it just wasn't firing early, and that's when I threw the plan overboard.   I ran up the north side of Fishers, stopping by the Clumps and on to Wicopessette Pass.  No birds, no bait.  I ran out to Sugar and Watch Hill, figuring that might be turning on again.  I've not had the success fishing the flood tide out there as I have the ebb over the last season or two.  Heading a bit further east, the fluke fleet was in full force, and I saw numerous boats hooking up and bringing fish over the rails.  Fluking is not my thing, so I went back inside Stonington to Jeff's spot that produced last week, and sure enough, landed a few small stripers.  The tide began to ease, and before it quit, I wanted to take another look at Watch Hill.   I could see birds working from the point to the red can as I approached, and was soon hooked into blues busting on the surface.  I was fishing white Zoom Flukes on Kalin jig heads, and landed a number until the tide completely died.  I would loved to stay as the ebb picked up, because I had the sense that Watch and Sugar were primed for some good fishing, but I had to start back.  I hit into more blues at the east end of Fishers, hooking several in the upper 20"-30" range on the same baits.   Flukers were all over the south side of Fishers, and again, were landing fish.  Running out of time, I started back for Niantic.  I got some good reports of bunker and stripers west of the CT River, still up in the Thames and Easter RI to the Cape has just been on fire.  School is now finished, so I'm ready for some serious fishing trips! 

Eastern LIS Report 6-16-13

Sunday, June 16th
The morning’s trip began much the same as last weeks, with the exception of the fact we now had an outgoing tide as opposed to incoming.  My buddy Jeff and I launched from Avery Point a bit before 5:00am, with the intent of starting the day between Wicopessette and Sugar Reef.  Storms Thursday night had dumped another 4” of rain in the region, and the water remained stained the color of coffee.  The wind was 5-10knots out of the SW, and seas were calm.  Given my last trip, I anticipated tough fishing, and was not disappointed.  This time of year is all about stripers and light tackle fishing.  I’m not that interested in the livelining , and running an 18’ skiff, not in a position to drift the rips looking for fish holding deep.  We were soon sitting on Sugar Reef with a growing number of boats, marking a few fish but not getting any hits.  One or two boats picked up schoolies in the 45 minutes or so we hung around.  Running back inside the reefs towards Fisher’s, I noticed a school breaking the surface and we pulled up for a few casts.  My sudden stop drew the attention of a couple of additional boats who were soon motoring in our direction.  The glimmer of hope didn’t yield any results, and over the next few hours we worked Fisher’s Island Sound to Race Point, and over to Bartlet’s.  A repeat of last week, with the exception that I wasn’t even marking any bait balls above Bartlett’s.  We headed back east and give Watch Hill a last look on the incoming tide, which was about as productive as when we left.  In a final Hail Mary we decided to try back in the salt marshes around Stonington, some of Jeff’s yak haunts.  With an electric motor and push pole, I can fish some skinny water.  The HM paid off, as we finally found fish that wanted to play. While not fifty pounders, these schoolies were ready to smash some topwater poppers.  For the last hour to hour and a half we threw Gibbs Poppers and picked up an number of fish.  While none landed were keepers, it definitely salvaged the day!    

Jeff can only stretch his arms so far.  Maybe if I had a macro lens. 

 

 



Nice day, crappy fishing in the eastern Long Island Sound.

Went out a 5:00am with a buddy and fished the flood in the eastern sound from Watch Hill back west to Bartlett's. The fishing sucked. Thanks to Andrea, the water was the color of black coffee throughout most of the area inside Fisher's. There were a bunch of boats out around Valiant Rock in the Race, as per usual, but I don't fish my skiff out there. Only real signs of life were the bait balls above Bartlett's, but nothing biting. There were a few small blues around the outflow, but I really didn't feel like spending time there. It looks like 4-5" of rain did a number on the bite. Took my friend sightseeing up the Thames and called it a day by 10:00a.m. Maybe it got better on the ebb tide. Hindsight being 20/20, maybe I should have launched in RI and tried for some cleaner water. Maybe I should have just stayed in bed!  Now I have to go rinse everything down:( Hopefully I can sneak out an evening this week, or next weekend's weather will cooperate enough for an Saturday night/Sunday morning trip.

The best part of the day.  It was down hill from here, but hey, I promised to post the bad with the good.  Not even a little fish to make look like big fish!   


 

Fisher's Island Report 6/1/2013

 

The Long Island Sound is quickly filling with bass and blues, with fish close to 60lbs. being taken this past week.  Drifting 3-way rigs with bunker has been the way to go.  While I like to get out and do this every once and a while, it's typically at night and looking for monster bass.  I much prefer light tackle and fly fishing from my skiff, targeting top water bites and fish on the smaller rips and reefs.  I simply can't safely venture out onto the big rips when the tide gets moving, and find it more fun to catch a bunch of 20-30 pound bass on 12-20lb. line setups or my 8wt.  Fisher's Island and its surroundings are usually my go-to spots.  

Saturday morning I overslept, waking at 4:09 a.m., about the time I had planned to arrive at the launch to catch both the start of the outgoing tide and predawn.  By the time I gassed up, stopped at Dunkin Donuts and got on the water it was after 6 a.m.   I decided to bypass the Clumps and make straight for the reefs around Watch Hill.  The wind was finally cooperating, and the run out was smooth.  I arrived to find more than a dozen boats on Sugar, including Jack Balint and Steve Burnett, both with charter trips.  As I mentioned in the past, Jack has been my go to captain when chartering in the LIS, and I'll be headed across to Montauk again with him this fall. 

The tide was flowing nicely, but the fish that you often see breaking on the surface were nowhere to be seen.  I marked a few bait balls, but fishing this reef solo in the Gemma Rose II is tough as I can't let her drift stern first back into the rip.  It's nice when I've got someone aboard so we can take turns casting and holding the boat in position.  I wasn't there long when both Jack and Steve took off west.  This was a clear indication that nothing was going on around here or Watch Hill, as neither would be leaving fish with customers on board. 

I decided against continuing the battle with the current, and started west along the north side of Fisher's.  Last year from mid-May to late July, this area produced solid action along the many reefs and rocky shores, particularly on the ebb.  On this day, the water was filthy and I got nothin' at any of the stops I made until a short fish at North Point.  I worked back along the south side with the same results.  (The fluke fleet was out in force, anchored south of the island.)  By the time I'd circumnavigated Fisher's, Jack and Steve were back on Sugar, and then east to Watch Hill.  I managed another short bass off of Catumb Rocks as the ebb tide was finally giving way. 

I wasn't ready to head in, as despite the slow fishing, it was a really nice day on the water.  Just for the hell of it, I decided to run over to Bartlett's.  By this time, the tide was completely slack, and there were only a few boats anchored fishing scup.  It was time to head back to Avery Point and call it a day.  On the way back, I landed my best catch of the afternoon!  My favorite Bud-n-Mary's (Islamorada, FL) cap blew off.  I motored back around, and as I don't carry a landing net, I leaned over the bow to grab it as I idled forward.  I had my hands on it, but then lost it under the boat.  The prop wash sent it down and I figured it was lost.  I cut my engine and let the Gemma Rose drift with the current.  Sure enough, after a couple of minutes it came up not 20 ft. from the boat.     

 

Conditions:

6/1/13

Mostly Sunny

Wind SW 5-10knots

Seas less than 1 ft.

Outgoing tide

Water Temp 58-59 degrees, dirty

 

Gear Used:

12-20 lb. spinning gear setups

7" Hogy's in amber, pink and white

White Zoom Super Flukes w. Kalin jig heads

247 Squid-Zee in amber