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I’m sorry, this is really long but I figured it would be better to write it all now than try to remember next year when I’m trying to get more people to come! This is just the play by play on my fishing report... I'll let the others mention their catches...
Left Arlington at 1:45 am on Thursday morning and headed to Floyd Bennett Field. We got there around 6 am and started setting up in a PRIME grassy area in the nook of a little access area... Well that spot as we should have known was very prime and had been inhabited by the same group every year for the past 7 years… When Dee arrived moments after we set up our tents and let us know, we decided to move across to another grassy area as this group happened to be the people that put on the tournament. No biggie, lots of space in the grass! We set up and contemplated sleeping or fishing… well the weather was too nice so we had to get out there! We fished the ruffle bar area and caught some blues and I caught a fluke that got off as I tried to swing it in. Already off to a good start. We headed back in for a nap and some food around lunch time. I ate, checked my phone and saw that Easton had called, called him back and decided to go try and find him out there… well we got our locations flipped or something and I ended up taking a course for the ATC tower and went all the way to the cross bay bridge almost. I trolled some along the way and picked up a few small blues. Somewhere back between the islands I was drifting with the wind wondering where Easton was and picked up a small rock. I turned around and did again, this time I took some shots of me reeling it in and it freaking out when it got in the boat. It was beautiful back there in those sedge islands. I never found Easton so I started the trek back against the wind and current- that sucked.
Friday, woke up a little later than JFFoley and Easton, but headed out with two other guys that came that don’t post on here. We started picking up blues once we got to the ruffle bar but it was kinda slow. Once the tide started to ebb we started catching blues a lot more. One of the guys picked up a big 34” or more bluefish that was all head. I didn’t put the video up yet because of all of the cursing… it was big. Right after that we started drifting the edge of the channel and picked up a few rock. I got another fluke (~21”22”) jigging a 6” bass assassin sea shad with a floating bucktail behind it. I was surprised it ate something that big, it absolutely inhaled it. Then I got a rock that was ~30”-32” depending on the sag of the fish and my inability to measure it so that was really cool. It absolutely blew up my tube and thrashed at the surface right after the take. It was funny because the power boat near us couldn’t buy a fish and we were catching blues, a fluke, and a few more rock right around them. They eventually got one and then things slowed down for everyone and we headed in. Dinner and captain’s meeting that night we nice and we enjoyed some time around the camp and decided not to go out night fishing.
Saturday, I had planned on waking up at 4:30 but my alarm didn’t go off… woke up late… at 5, didn’t feel all that late! Jimbo brought some turbo fins for me to try on his drive for his outback, night and day difference!!! Fished the same area with the crowd and picked up a large blue that tried to eat my fingers when I was measuring it. Thanks for the help on that one Easton. Trolled around that area and picked up one more small blue. Decided to make a run for the backside cuts and got our destination mixed up. Jimbo went for the creek and Easton went for the cans… I drifted the edge and got one small rock (maybe 24”) on the tube, it’s the one in the video that freaks out when I try to lip it. I had a decent rock and blue both over 30” on film so all I needed now was the mythical weakfish unicorn to complete the slam. I fished pink everything. I fished deep, I fished shallow, I fished slow, I fished fast… no dice. I had two nice fluke bites around the cans and decided to head back to the ruffle bar. I think I got one more blue and headed in for lunch. Afternoon session was bad for me, got SKUNKED. My friend picked up his first rockfish @ 29” so that was cool, also not on the video yet… I need to remember I’m filming! He doesn’t fish that much so it was cool that he got the biggest blue and a large rock.
Sunday, small craft warning, everyone packing up and there are patches of rain going through. I figured since my tent and camp stuff were already soaked that I’d take a peek at the water and see how bad it was. It wasn’t too choppy and the weather robot on the vhf didn’t sound too scary so we decided to go poke around. Deployed the tube a little early and got rocked before I got to the hump where it starts to come up. It was a nice 25”-28” rock that thrashed off at the boat while I was trying to turn the camera on. I had a few blue nibbles and that was it. Came back in, panic packed the wet gear and headed over for the raffle. I was shocked when the awards came around and I heard her talking about “someone that brought the most new faces to the tournament… Is Michaellllllll…. Here?” As soon as she did the long question L on my name I knew it was going to be me. That was really cool! They gave me some aquaskinz stuff, one of the things I had been contemplating buying, so that was really cool! Next year she said I need to bring 10 new people, so be ready!
The raffle went on and then they got to the kayaks… I had written TJ’s initials on his ticket and I had my girlfriend write hers on the one ticket she had… well low and behold, she WON! It’s a native ultimate 14.5 multisport and it has crabbing boat written all over it. I’m looking at getting a motor, but since I don’t know the first thing about that… I’ll have some questions. Once the pain of buying a hobie and a new depthfinder passes I’ll start looking.
It was a great event this year and I had a lot of fun hanging around the camp with the guys and meeting some new faces. Mullet, it was great meeting you and thanks again for the introductions and the help with the kayak! I hope our tournament can one day be as successful as the Jamaica Bay Event! Mark your calendars now guys, second weekend of May 2012, MKF needs more guys to confuse these northern boys by calling not calling rock “baaass”. Pictures to follow…
Other cool news I found out some picutures I took last year were going to be in the Kayak Angler Magazine that just came out! Here's the page too...
http://youtu.be/RF8BKdTAd4Y
Left Arlington at 1:45 am on Thursday morning and headed to Floyd Bennett Field. We got there around 6 am and started setting up in a PRIME grassy area in the nook of a little access area... Well that spot as we should have known was very prime and had been inhabited by the same group every year for the past 7 years… When Dee arrived moments after we set up our tents and let us know, we decided to move across to another grassy area as this group happened to be the people that put on the tournament. No biggie, lots of space in the grass! We set up and contemplated sleeping or fishing… well the weather was too nice so we had to get out there! We fished the ruffle bar area and caught some blues and I caught a fluke that got off as I tried to swing it in. Already off to a good start. We headed back in for a nap and some food around lunch time. I ate, checked my phone and saw that Easton had called, called him back and decided to go try and find him out there… well we got our locations flipped or something and I ended up taking a course for the ATC tower and went all the way to the cross bay bridge almost. I trolled some along the way and picked up a few small blues. Somewhere back between the islands I was drifting with the wind wondering where Easton was and picked up a small rock. I turned around and did again, this time I took some shots of me reeling it in and it freaking out when it got in the boat. It was beautiful back there in those sedge islands. I never found Easton so I started the trek back against the wind and current- that sucked.
Friday, woke up a little later than JFFoley and Easton, but headed out with two other guys that came that don’t post on here. We started picking up blues once we got to the ruffle bar but it was kinda slow. Once the tide started to ebb we started catching blues a lot more. One of the guys picked up a big 34” or more bluefish that was all head. I didn’t put the video up yet because of all of the cursing… it was big. Right after that we started drifting the edge of the channel and picked up a few rock. I got another fluke (~21”22”) jigging a 6” bass assassin sea shad with a floating bucktail behind it. I was surprised it ate something that big, it absolutely inhaled it. Then I got a rock that was ~30”-32” depending on the sag of the fish and my inability to measure it so that was really cool. It absolutely blew up my tube and thrashed at the surface right after the take. It was funny because the power boat near us couldn’t buy a fish and we were catching blues, a fluke, and a few more rock right around them. They eventually got one and then things slowed down for everyone and we headed in. Dinner and captain’s meeting that night we nice and we enjoyed some time around the camp and decided not to go out night fishing.
Saturday, I had planned on waking up at 4:30 but my alarm didn’t go off… woke up late… at 5, didn’t feel all that late! Jimbo brought some turbo fins for me to try on his drive for his outback, night and day difference!!! Fished the same area with the crowd and picked up a large blue that tried to eat my fingers when I was measuring it. Thanks for the help on that one Easton. Trolled around that area and picked up one more small blue. Decided to make a run for the backside cuts and got our destination mixed up. Jimbo went for the creek and Easton went for the cans… I drifted the edge and got one small rock (maybe 24”) on the tube, it’s the one in the video that freaks out when I try to lip it. I had a decent rock and blue both over 30” on film so all I needed now was the mythical weakfish unicorn to complete the slam. I fished pink everything. I fished deep, I fished shallow, I fished slow, I fished fast… no dice. I had two nice fluke bites around the cans and decided to head back to the ruffle bar. I think I got one more blue and headed in for lunch. Afternoon session was bad for me, got SKUNKED. My friend picked up his first rockfish @ 29” so that was cool, also not on the video yet… I need to remember I’m filming! He doesn’t fish that much so it was cool that he got the biggest blue and a large rock.
Sunday, small craft warning, everyone packing up and there are patches of rain going through. I figured since my tent and camp stuff were already soaked that I’d take a peek at the water and see how bad it was. It wasn’t too choppy and the weather robot on the vhf didn’t sound too scary so we decided to go poke around. Deployed the tube a little early and got rocked before I got to the hump where it starts to come up. It was a nice 25”-28” rock that thrashed off at the boat while I was trying to turn the camera on. I had a few blue nibbles and that was it. Came back in, panic packed the wet gear and headed over for the raffle. I was shocked when the awards came around and I heard her talking about “someone that brought the most new faces to the tournament… Is Michaellllllll…. Here?” As soon as she did the long question L on my name I knew it was going to be me. That was really cool! They gave me some aquaskinz stuff, one of the things I had been contemplating buying, so that was really cool! Next year she said I need to bring 10 new people, so be ready!
The raffle went on and then they got to the kayaks… I had written TJ’s initials on his ticket and I had my girlfriend write hers on the one ticket she had… well low and behold, she WON! It’s a native ultimate 14.5 multisport and it has crabbing boat written all over it. I’m looking at getting a motor, but since I don’t know the first thing about that… I’ll have some questions. Once the pain of buying a hobie and a new depthfinder passes I’ll start looking.
It was a great event this year and I had a lot of fun hanging around the camp with the guys and meeting some new faces. Mullet, it was great meeting you and thanks again for the introductions and the help with the kayak! I hope our tournament can one day be as successful as the Jamaica Bay Event! Mark your calendars now guys, second weekend of May 2012, MKF needs more guys to confuse these northern boys by calling not calling rock “baaass”. Pictures to follow…
Other cool news I found out some picutures I took last year were going to be in the Kayak Angler Magazine that just came out! Here's the page too...
http://youtu.be/RF8BKdTAd4Y
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