2011 Pete Dahill Memorial Striped Bass Contest Hosted by the Viking Inn Islip New York

We fished the 2011 version of the Pete Dahill Memorial Striped Bass Contest this past Saturday (10/22/11). My buddy Bob Highland and I pulled out of the slip just before dawn and headed across the Great South Bay in some sloppy conditions. We broke the Fire Island Inlet at first light and found even more sporty conditions as the big west wind had the ocean very lumpy.

Our hope was to find some of the bunker pods that have been running along the south shore and it we quickly found it was going to be difficult at best. The wind had blown up the chop on top of the swells making it tough to find the bait. We cruised  miles to the east first up tight to the beach and then moving off to 40-50ft of water without finding any signs of the bait schools.

Along the way we would mark areas of bait along the bottom where we dropped diamond jigs to work the marks over but had no results. Seems the browned up water may have put the fish off their feeding routine. After spending 3 fruitless hours outside we decided to move back inside and fish the live baits we had aboard on some of our favorite pieces.

The water inside the bay was more a mess than the ocean. The very clouded water combined with the current running against the wind made for less than ideal fishing as it would turn out. We were not able to find any fish at any of our combined favorite honey holes as the ebb current slacked.

As the flood started we repeated the process of working our way from the inlet back into the bay again hitting all our spots while adding in some other lesser known locations with no results for our efforts. Our day ended with the incoming current peaking and combined with the wind blowing the same direction we were moving along at  a lightening fast drift of almost 3mph. Not GOOD!!!

We headed back to the contest host location at the Viking Inn in Islip with our tails between our legs. Taking advantage of the wonderful barbeque spread the Viking Inn provided gave us both the opportunity to forget the tough fishing day we had just endured. Hats off to the Viking Inn and it’s volunteers for another excellent event. Not many qualifying fish were entered but it seemed as though noone was really minding at the awards/BBQ ceremony.

The winners were a 33lb Striper taking first place that was reported as being taken to the west of Fire Island. The same boat also had the second place fish of 27lbs. Great day for those guys. They also took the Bluefish category with a 12lb brute. An 18lb striper rounded out the prize list.

The night was rounded out with a bunch of tackle door prizes being raffled off and we were both lucky enough to cash in on one of these. HUGE thanks to Greg over at Burnetts Bait and Tackle in Bay Shore and Frank from Chasing Tails Tackle in Oakdale for their very generous donations to the raffle.

Despite a less than stellar day of striper fishing, I did have a good time as this was the first time Bob and I got to fish together on the same boat. Hopefully it won’t take as long for us to get together again next time.

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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