Archive for July, 2012
Long Island Fishing Report- Fire Island Fluke Fishing Going Well
Posted by: | CommentsThe fluke fishing in the Fire Island area has been going pretty well for the past several weeks and is showing no signs of slowing. Saturday’s group battled some difficult conditions with the wind working against the current to mess up the drifts and today’s group had just the opposite with STRONG winds combining with a moon current to have the boat really moving!!
Mr and Mrs Dion and their son Matt were aboard on Saturday for a 1/2 day fluke trip. In less than ideal conditions they managed to put together some decent numbers of fluke while coming up just a bit short of the legal mark on several instances. Plenty of line-stretching action on a tough day.
Today I had Mr Banta, his daughter Laurie, son Eric and grandchildren, Kyle and Sophie aboard for 1/2 fluke trip on the Great South Bay. BIG West wind howling down the inlet on the flood current today. Picked up the gang at Saltaire on Fire Island and in no time the lines were in. Everyone were good fisherman and it showed as they put the Blue Frog buck-tails and GULP combos into action loading up on a bunch of fish to 19inches before finally sticking a fat keeper for the table.
Fire Island keeper fluke
It was a great day on the water with a wonderful crew. Thanks Mr Banta and will speak to you next summer 
Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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Long Island Fishing Report – Great South Bay Fluke Fishing
Posted by: | CommentsI have been doing very well with the traditional fluke rigs dragging Berkley Gulp Alive and Blue Frog bucktail/Gulp teasers but with all this natural bait there for easy picking I figured I’d get some of them in the live-well and give them a go.
These peanut bunker can get balled up very tight and it is very easy to fill the net with more than you would need for a week’s worth of trips so I like to try and isolate smaller schools to throw the net on. This lets me capture only what I’ll need for that day. With that said it was an easy task getting 50 or so live baits in the well and it was off to the fishing grounds.
Arrived on the scene as the sun was peeking above the horizon. I fished the live peanut bunker in a bunch of favorite locations with the action being LESS than stellar to say the least. I spent 1 1/2 hours drifting the live bait before surrendering and going back to what has been working so well of late. With the incoming current now peaking I put on a white Blue Frog bucktail tipped with a Gulp Alive swimming mullet. Above that was another Gulp mullet as the teaser.
What a difference the change made as I was immediately into pretty nice fish, and plenty of them. Many of the fish approached the NY 19.5 inch size limit but ultimately were short by just that much.
Nice Great South Bay Keeper Fluke
At the top of the flood I got slammed and could tell right away this was a much better fish. This fish just kept digging for the bottom anytime I got even a little line back. Taking it nice and easy, a very nice fish came into view and with a swipe of the net a beautiful, fat 25 inch fluke was on the deck.
Great South Bay Doormat
The next drift produced another nice sized keeper that I released and I finished out the incoming with more the mixed size fish all coming up short. The turn to outgoing led to current against the wind conditions which is always a tough time and today was no different. The action slowed to a crawl and I pulled the plug on a very nice day. Another excellent day on the water!!!
Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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Fishing Knot STRENGTH TEST – Braid Fishing Line to Monofilament and Fluorocarbon Leader
Posted by: | CommentsLast winter I posted a video on my YouTube channel discussing the knot I was shown many years back for connecting braided fishing line to mono-filament and fluorocarbon leaders. This knot has served me well over the years and numerous large striped bass and bluefish have put it to the test. I can say that this knot has not let me down since I’ve been using it.
The original video has received a positive response, however, there were some questions and/or concerns that some folks had regarding the knot, the most popular being that it did not work at all with SeaGuar fluorocarbon leader material. This struck me as strange and was the first I had heard of such a thing. Another commenter stated he did not feel the knot would be very strong due to the fact I use a Surgeon’s Loop as part of the knot.
I try to answer both these concerns as best as I can in the video below while at the same time being extremely disappointed with how the Power Pro braid itself held up in my tests.
Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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Fire Island Fishing Report- Stripers Cooling Down, Fluking Heating Up
Posted by: | CommentsThe fishing in the Fire Island Inlet and Great South Bay seems to be getting into full Summer mode. I’ve had some very nice trips over the past week and a half with some good action on keeper fluke inside the bay, but unfortunately the striped bass action was disappointing. I continue to hear some guys reporting stripers on the bunker schools but it’s really been spotty to say the least.
Fire Island Bunker Pods
The beginning of last week the weather conspired to spoil a striped bass trip for Ron and friends. On our way to the fishing grounds thunderstorms forced a detour to the Captree Boat Basin to wait out the nasty squall line that rolled across Long Island that morning. As the storm cleared we were left with pretty good southwest blow but took a look around anyways before pulling the plug on the trip early. Major bummer!!
Later in the week I was out on a solo exploratory trip outside Fire Island Inlet searching for the bass. Finding the bait schools was not a problem at all as they were stacked up everywhere. One bunker school after the next but on this day there was nothing doing on any of them. Reports back at the dock all pointed at a tough day.
Great South Bay Fluke Fishing
Saturday was another planned day on the ocean once again chasing after the bunker pods, and hopefully, the striped bass. I had my fishing buddy John out and we hit every school of bunker we saw for several miles down the beach with no signs of fish on any of them. Spent a few hours working east of Fire Island Inlet before packing that and heading inside for some fluking. As luck would have it we probably should have fluked the entire day as we managed to grab 2 decent keepers and many others just missing the mark in the two hours we worked over the bay. Nice fillets for dinner took the sting out of no stripers.
On Tuesday I had Debbie, Shari and Debbie’s nephew Matt aboard for a day of fluking on the Great South Bay. We had a tough start to the day battling through the green slime slip-gut. Tough keeping the rigs clean but the gang worked through it picking away at fish coming up just short of the NY limit. As the water cleared on the top of the flood current the action picked up as well and the guys managed to pull two nice keepers for dinner with several other near misses. A beautiful day with a wonderful crew and a few fish in the box. It doesn’t get any better than that
Matt with some Keeper Fluke
Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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