Wednesday, October 18, 2017

10.18.17 Six hours of albies up......



    Needed a change of venue. I have ben half-heartedly fishing the beaches some mornings with nothing to show for it. When I get there I'm just not feeling it. Not getting the joy I once did. Hopefully that will return. 

     Today I jumped in the boat and after getting saturated getting out of the bay the albies were up. I went south looking for bass but found none and turned around. It was easy peasy albie fishing. Not easy to get them to eat, but they were there and predictable. Outgoing. Ripping tide. All you had to do, if the other boasts cooperated, was take turns drifting a long drift and getting the albies when they blew up in your area. It wasn't that the others didn't play nice, it's just that twin screws idling while waiting for fish to surface doesn't make for fun times. I hoooked up and then left there heading across the pond. 


     Didn't even get over to the other shore and found fish all over and no one around. It was great. When I got over it got better. I stayed and had albies up the entire time I was out. I was really out for bass, and stayed too long waiting and watching. I wanted to head up river and then way in the back. I settled for a ride to the Statue of Liberty not finding any birds or marking any bass. 


    It was, like most albie days, frustrating. I threw all kinds of flies at them. The pink worked and then it didn't. Went to a bigger Surf Candy, and it looked huge in the water and got no takes. I settled in on Brad Buzzi's Albacore Candy in size #4. You can buy them in cool cartons HERE While you might think they are too small to use in the salt water, that's what these albies, especially the New York ones wanted today. I know, they eat big Sluggos and Deadly Dicks. Well for me, 20 pound flouro was out of the question, 16 spooked them at times, I went down to 12, and broke two off. 


     You didn't need the birds today as it was blow-ups for what seemed like miles.  When running solo I can't handle the runs and gun approach, I like the find a line, setup for a drift, get comfortable and wait. Eventually you'll get yours, unless other boats have different ideas. The birds were out, but spread out over the pods when they surfaced and dove. 


     While I haven't been on the bass, friends have. Lief is still doing well and finding near keeper sized bass on the beach.  Richie landed his first albie today on the beach. I found bunker along the beaches at Sandy Hook. Lot's of bait, albies are thick, waiting for the bass to show. Guys are killing them drifting live eels, just haven't heard anything about bass up on top yet.

Lief Peterson photo