Jamaica Bay Recap

[Pinch]

The fishing portion of the tournament is now over. Snagged line represented very well in this tournament and all caught fish. Several bass were caught by our members up to 41", Flounder up to 24", bluefish up to 34" and Weakfish up to 29"!!!! Awesome job this year, it was a blast. Pictures coming soon and of course a blog post. For anyone not making it this year please consider this for next year. This is an amazing fishery as well as a great event for fish stories and information sharing.
MikeBass.jpg
Grilled with a nice bass

[dhawk]

Nice cant wait for the pics want to put it on my to do list for next year.

[Shady]

Sounds awesome, looking forward to the full report. I need to get up there one of these years...

[tufnik]

Just got back home from being on the road 6 hours. Phewww....what a trip! Four straight days of fishing my a-- off. That's right, I'm a--less.......lol.... Will post report soon.

[M_Duong60]

Did you take any captivating videos like before?

[jet]

Just got back home from being on the road 6 hours. Phewww....what a trip! Four straight days of fishing my a-- off. That's right, I'm a--less.......lol.... Will post report soon.

6 hours?? took me 4 hours 7 minutes but i didnt stop at any rest stops.

[tufnik]

6 hours?? took me 4 hours 7 minutes but i didnt stop at any rest stops.

Yeah, it includes my rest stops and gas fills, not to mention the traffic. I also live on the other side of DC in VA.

No captivating vid, Duong. Just interesting pics.

[mytmouse]

WTG fellas!!! I can't wait to read the reports!!! Make sure you let me know how long the NYC accent of saying BAAASSSS and Bunkaaa lasts! LOL I already told the Misses I'm rolling next year!

[tufnik]

Jamaica Bay 16-19 May 2013

Kayak Fishing Classic
Jamaica Bay, Brooklyn, NY
16-19 May 2013, Thu-Sun

Wow, what a trip! I signed up only a few days before it started, and it was too cool. Never did I do so much fishing in four straight days. I fished my butt off.

After six hours on the road I arrived there at 3 pm, Thurs. Did a couple hours of fishing in the evening and caught a couple short flounders and a couple sea robins.

I went on to fish the Bay Fri to Sun. Caught about half dozen flukes, but no keepers (19" is min). Biggest was 17.5". I also caught well over a dozen sea robins. Lots of marked fish, but they didn't seem to take my lures. I mostly jigged and used bucktails (tipped with sandworms), Gulp mullet and twister tails. I did do some trolling with a chartreuse/white storm deep-dive, but got no striper or blue. One surprise was catching a fluke on the storm deep dive in about eight feet of water. I also caught about a two foot dogfish on a white twister tail.

I met BigFluke, Redfish, RockChaser, Grilled, Fish, Sparechange, Stupidjet, Pinch and Fish there. Their camp site was already set up. Saw a cooked and eaten fluke in the fire pit (pic). Fishing wise - some did well, others not so well. I'll let them report their catches if they want. In general, some caught stripers and blues trolling the tube (pic), which seemed like a popular trolling lure for many tournament yakers.

The biggest highlight for me was on the last day, Sunday. The launch was delayed due to wx. Small craft advisory was out. The wind was up, heavy overcast and some fog, rough water and light/med rain. It was a bit cold too. It somewhat subsided, and eventually some yakers went out. I was on the water 0715 hrs in my full cold wx outfit.

It was about 10 am. Chimo and I were fishing near the red buoy, maybe a thousand yards southeast of the main launch ramp. The area was near last year's "fluke haven." Chimo was about 70 yards away and apparently waved to me. I couldn't make out what he did so I continued fishing. He finally yelled out to give him a hand. I went there and when I got there I could see a big swirl next to his yak. I knew it was a big one.

He eventually pulled it up for a pic. It was a 41" striper! I was so excited for him and just taking the pics. It was fun just being there watching the catch. Congrats to Chimo.

I talked to several yakers. Although some did well, many did not. They caught small tournament fish (weakfish, blues, flukes and stripers) and lots of sea robins. Overall, my impression was that the fishing was not as good as last year. Two local shore anglers said the big blues aren't here in numbers yet. Another local shore angler said the fluke bite was not as good as last year. (No wonder the "fluke haven" didn't produce much). Another angler also said last year was better.

Lunch on Friday was provided. They had breaded chicken and cold cut sandwiches, potato salad, macaroni salad, tossed salad and cole slaw. The awards luncheon on Sunday included hot meals of chicken parmesan, ricotta cheese shells, macaroni cheese, salad and buns.

Anyway, it was my first trip and it was fun. I would do it again next year. Hopefully, the bite will be better for most. Oh.......I didn't win anything during the raffle..........I only had one ticket.......lol.....

[tufnik]

More pics.

[tufnik]

Two more.

[Memory Maker]

The fishing portion of the tournament is now over. Snagged line represented very well in this tournament and all caught fish. Several bass were caught by our members up to 41", Flounder up to 24", bluefish up to 34" and Weakfish up to 29"!!!! Awesome job this year, it was a blast. Pictures coming soon and of course a blog post. For anyone not making it this year please consider this for next year. This is an amazing fishery as well as a great event for fish stories and information sharing.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]6951[/ATTACH]
Grilled with a nice bass

Congrats Mike ..........that is 1 NIIIIICE striper .......

[Shady]

Thanks for the report Tuf! I bet those Sea Robin pulled hard for their size with such giant pectoral fins? Cool looking fish

[tufnik]

Thanks for the report Tuf! I bet those Sea Robin pulled hard for their size with such giant pectoral fins? Cool looking fish

Yeah, they surprisingly do pull hard for their size. Several times I thought I had a striper. Bigfluke caught the biggest I've seen.

[CB kayak 02]

I see Rich on the Leaderboard!!! Nice going Rich! Did anyone place after the final day?