Archive for 2010 Fishing Reports
The Grand Finale for 2010!!!!
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Time to pack it in!!!
Headed out this morning at 9am for the grand finale of this year. Radio station had the wind chill in the 20′s as it was HOWLING northwest. Water temps were down in the low 40s. The pictures make it look halfway decent out but trust me when I tell you otherwise
Searched a bunch of areas looking for some herring. Hit the bridge area, behind Democrat Point and around the Sore Thumb but only managed to find a single herring. Saw one or two others caught by another boat but that was it.
With no livies I gave it a half-hearted shot with diamond jigs and bucktails but did not have any luck. I actually would have been surprised if I did!! So, with nothing going on I decided to drift/cruise around taking some pictures and just re-living some of the great times I had this year. It was a wonderful season with plenty of great fish and I am already looking forward to 2011.
For now, it’s the holidays so lets get busy with that. I hope everyone has a great time during this holiday season.
Robert Moses Bridge- See ya in the Spring
Fire Island Lighthouse
This About Sums it UP!!!!
Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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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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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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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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Ocean Diamond Jigging
Posted by: | CommentsWe broke the Fire Island Inlet at 1pm Saturday (11/13/10) and headed east. We fished several spots along the way in 50-60ft of water. Nothing fantastic happening so headed further east. We stopped due south of Fire Island National Seashore and fished with in the area of the “FLEET”.
Some birds were diving on bait, we saw some fish breaking on top. We picked some stripers into the low teens on diamond jigs but nothing that could be confused with the fast and furious action of the few days prior. We also LOADED up on dogfish with a few sea robins added in to spice it up
At dusk we fished back in the bay and had fish in the low teens as well as a few other runoffs that were missed.
Beautiful November day out there. 60 degrees this late in the year is a bonus
Tight lines,,,
Capt Paul
Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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Second Place Finish for the Maybe Tonight Crew
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The Riverview Striper Contest is the granddaddy of all the striped bass contests on Long Island. Just about ALL the best striper fisherman on the Island’s south shore fish this thing. The event generally draws anywhere from 140 to 200 boats. We fish this event every year with the same crew and always have a blast. This year took it to a new level.
We headed out with a livewell full of beautiful live bait and were into decent bass right from the starting bell. For the first 90 minutes we had at least one hookup on every drift but I was disappointed the fish were all in the high teen to low 20 pound class. Any other day I would have stayed on them and had a blast but these sizes were not going to do anything in the contest so I broke the cardinal rule, “Don’t Leave Fish to Find Fish” At least one crew member was ready to mutiny against my idea of heading off in search of better size fish.
Turns out I’m glad we did, fishing some favorite back bay locations my buddy Scott stuck a 31.75lb bass that was good enough to hold the lead right up to the last 20 minutes before getting knocked down by a 33.5lb fish. So, we had a 2nd place finish and a top shelf dinner at the awards party back at the restaurant. What a great time we had, plenty of fish, great weather, a fish that placed and a smooth seas for the ride back to the slip. Awesome !!!! I am looking forward to next year already
Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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