Archive for November, 2010
Outside and Inside Fire Island Inlet 11/29/10
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Others Enjoying a Beautiful November Day
Arrived at the marina at 4:30am on Monday. Temperature was 28 chilly degrees. Loaded up the boat and crunched through the skim ice out of the slip. Ran out Fire Island Inlet to the east and was on location south of Watch Hill by 5:15am. Killed some time drifting around waiting for the first signs of light. Not surprisingly there was not another boat in sight.
Soon as it was light enough to see I spotted birds nearby and found a bunch of stripers rolling on the surface under them. Picked a bunch of short bass from the schools but as seen on the video below they were running pretty small. The best I managed went 29 inches and it was released anyway.
Before long the fleet arrived and everyone had some fish and although I did not notice many keeper sized bass being landed, I’m sure there were a few in there. The blitzing quieted down but it was still a steady pick of fish. I stuck with it till around 11am before heading back inside the inlet.
Back inside FI Inlet I jigged up a bunch of herring hoping for some better fish. Drifted the top half of the flood all around the inlet but only life I found was a single that ate the herring but the hook pulled on the way to the boat. Only saw a couple other fish among the many boats in the area.
It was a simply amazing day weather-wise considering the fact I had ice around the boat in the morning. It is always a GOOD thing when you are shedding jackets in November rather than adding them.
Mixed feelings today, was happy to have some fish stretching the line but also sort of saddened by the fact that the 2010 season is rapidly drawing to a close. I’m sure there will be some legal sized fish caught over the next week or two but the number of small bass in the area right now generally indicates the tail end of the stripers southern migration past LI’s south shore. The boat is in till 12/10 so I may get another shot or two, I’ll just have to wait and see
Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!
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Happy Thanksgiving to ALL
I would like to take a moment to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. I hope everyone enjoys the day with family and friends and has a wonderful day.
Please take a moment to think of those less fortunate in the world during this holiday season. I also think it would also be fantastic to keep our servicemen and women in our minds while they support our country and can not be home with their families and friends for this holiday.
Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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Maybe Tonight Charters- Open Boat Dates
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Open Boat Striped Bass Fishing
By now the news of the diamond jigging action for striped bass along the South Shore of Long Island is well known. To make it possible for anglers who can not get a group together for a private charter I would like to announce that the Maybe Tonight will be sailing as an OPEN boat for the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend.
On Saturday, Sunday AND Monday (11/27 -11/29) the boat will be available for individual anglers to come aboard to take advantage of the hot action going on right now. Please check the following details;
- Fare is $90 per person
The boat will be sailing with a four passenger maximum
Reservations Required (phone and/or email details below)
Sailing times for each day will be departing at 6am and returning at 12pm
All tackle included
No Saltwater License Required
As already mentioned, each trip will only have four anglers so if you would like to get in on the jigging action going on right now please call 631 750-5350 or email charters@maybetonightcharters.com to reserve your spot.
Happy Thanksgiving to ALL
Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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November Striped Bass Gone Wild!!!!
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My Fishing Buddy Bob H. Getting In On It
Headed out Fire Island Inlet at 5am on Sunday. Chilly 38 degrees but thankfully the wind was down until it got light. Headed down the beach east of the inlet, stopping south of Barrett Beach on the Fire Island National Seashore and waited for it to get light, it was definately the quiet before the storm.
And when it did get light it was LIGHTS OUT!!! Four solid hours of all out Long Island Fall blitz fishing. The birds were blotting out the sky, bait blotting out the finder and the fish going off all over as far as I could see east and west of my location. I had fish on top, on the bottom and everywhere in between. I honestly lost count but if forced to guess I would say almost 40 stripers and bluefish came aboard and I am happy to say that each and everyone was safely released. The stripers weighed into the teens and some of the chopper bluefish were in the low teens as well.
Clouds of sandeels were the main course but there was herring in the mix as well as you could see the gannets dive bombing and coming up with them. More and more boats arrived on the scene and everyone was bailing fish as fast as the jigs could hit the water. This was full-blown Long Island November blitz fishing at it’s finest and is not showing any signs of letting up.
I had the video camera out with me today and I was experimenting with a new tripod so bear with me on the videos below 
Hopefully my videography skills will get better soon!!!!
I can’t wait to take another shot at them soon,
Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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Menhaden (Bunker) Management
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The spring of 2010 will be remembered by many anglers along Long Island’s south shore for the excellent action with large striped bass feasting upon schools of menhaden for over a month as the fish made their eastern migration. Just about every day in June and into July had south shore anglers catching their personal best stripers, all pulled from beneath schools of bunker the likes of which have not been seen along the Island in recent years.
As good as this action was, those of us who search the Great South Bay and local canals for these same baitfish can tell you that finding them was a difficult task at best. For each day the schools were easily found there would be several days without a sign of them anywhere. The bunker were just not in the back bay areas in the numbers of years past.
The lack of bunker in the bay this year had me thinking way back to the days where Great Cove on the north side of the Great South Bay in Islip would be paved with the schools from one bank to the other, the State Boat Channel Drawbridge would have the schools of baitfish the entire width of the span. In the evenings, the 3rd bridge on the Meadowbrook parkway had schools from shore to shore and as far out as you could see into the darkness. I could go on but the bottom line is the bunker were everywhere.
Consider this graph from http://savemenhaden.wordpress.com/ website
I understand that it is very easy to talk about the old days and how the fishing for virtually everything was better back then. However, we also need to consider the fact that this very key species numbers have been declining for a very long time now. The menhaden is a key ingredient in the diets of many of our favorite gamefish. Studies performed in recent years are linking certain diseases found in striped bass of the Chesapeake Bay estuary to the scarcity of menhaden.
Plenty of further information on this matter is available on the Save Menhaden site listed above. Striped bass anglers are asked to keep an eye on this matter
Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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Fire Island Inlet Stripers
Posted by: | CommentsI had a few hours to kill last night so headed to the boat. Hit the Fire Island inlet around 3:30pm. Beautiful conditions, slightly overcast, light east wind blowing against the flooding tide.
Hit some rips inside the inlet with Danny plugs but was only able to raise a single fish that took a swipe and missed. Moved toward the mouth of the inlet on the bar off Democrat Pt and found schools of sand-eels blotting out the screen on the fish-finder. Occasionally there was a shower of bait as bass chased them to the surface. I picked two fish on plugs that were in the 10-12lb class. Switched over to Bass Assassins and had two more in the same range come aboard. With all the activity on the recorder I was hoping for a hotter bite but that’s how it goes sometimes.
As it got dark the little action there was faded off and I waited out the slack. As the ebb started moving live eels went into play but sorry to say there was nothing happening on them during the first 2 hours of the current.
East wind started honking pretty good so I headed back across a sloppy Great South Bay. Not a bad night action-wise for a quick trip.
The bass that have been way east of Fire Island are finally beginning to work their way west and we should be getting a good shot at them by the weekend. I’ll be there when they do
Tight Lines….
Capt Paul
Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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