Kayak Wars 2011

slappy wrote:

Pat, you guys really tore it up the last couple weeks. A few of us went winter floundering on sunday, but it was a very, very slow bite.

It will be tough to keep up with you guys posting so many species. I'm betting that the VA team slips to 4th by the end of July. July should be decent for the northern teams, the yakdawgs teams are going to move up fast, especially the neckpunchers, those guys will probably put up 50 bonus bass and blues.

I'm going to get a little extra fishing time in July, June was tough with a couple weekends at the in laws and not many fishing days. But I will have a fishing weekend and my Cape May vacation is coming up. Cape May has been weird for me the last couple years. Two years ago it was on fire for flounder and bass, last year it was kind of slow for flounder and most of the bass I caught were under the bridges at night. But it will be a chance to get a few summer flounder and blues, both exotic species for me.

Wow, I'm surprised that the fishing is so good in that area . . . . never knew it until last year when I met a POL guy down in Virginia that moved from Groton to Virginia Beach - he swore that the fishing around Stonington to Point Judith was some of the best fishing on the east coast for stripers and tog, so I went on to Ultimate Kayak Fishing and asked some questions, and DonO led me in the right direction . . . . . looks like the area is right on a migratory path from Chesapeake . . . . Don did say that the fishing slows in July . . . . . after going to Maine in two weeks, we are going to stop somewhere on the way back . . . . I'm not sure if I should spend a night in MA or down by Stonington again . . . . . I wonder where the fishing is better at that time?

In terms of fluke, I bet the fishing in Cape May was slow last year because of the heat . . . . our fishing last year started to really slow down for fluke around now because it was much more warm, and I kept the bite going by fishing the south shore inlets, as close to the ocean as I could get . . . . they love rips - they will hang on the down-current side of rips, right up on the slope, waiting for silversides to get flushed down- sometimes they are so thick on the slopes that they are like carpeting . . . . any type of sloping drop off where current flushes bait always produces a couple of fluke for me . . . . . the best water temp is 72 - 75 degrees . . . . . and I don't use anything but spro bucktails and teasers for them - chartreuse and white - looks like spearing, many times they are gorging themselves on extremely tiny rainbait as well and the untipped teaser outfishes the bucktail - tipping the jig with gulp curley tails is a must, as the fluke feed heavily on scent.

Last week was insane fluking in the Long Island Sound . . . . the south shore is generally better, but hasn't been producing well for me this year - my best south shore spot this year has been the Marine Parkway Bridge at JBAY. That water there has become too hot though. I'm waiting for Moriches Bay to start producing - in my mind, Moriches Bay offers the best fluking on the east coast - tons of 21" - 24" fluke - the big ones are tough to deal with!

OUCH!

Well, Slappy went hog wild on the big stripers again - puked up something like 500 points yesterday - LOL! I'm going to start to call you the slappinator - you are a striper fishing machine! That is some good fishing that you are doing up there and I am really enjoying following your season - congrats . . . .

BTW - I hate you!

Just kidding. . . . . congrats on a great catch. Never in my wildest dreams did I think the striper fishing was so good in New England, but the quality of the fisherman has much to do with it too me thinks.

I'm starting to think you may take first place before us now. . . . we have been see-sawing positions for almost a month now.

Seeing that almost made me go out on another scup trip . . . . but I have pride and decided against it . . . . . for now . . . . .LOL!

Too funny Pat. I tried to end the month big, I caught a ton of bass one night when the weather was crappy and I had to hide in the "small bass zone." When I went out this week it seemed that all the big fish were gone, but the trusty "slappy jig" with a 13" hogy scored one that taped out at 41#, I don't keep the bigs so i use the formula to guess the weight.

Striper fishing is good here through early October, but July is usually the slowest summer month.

If you are coming back from ME, you need to try a night trip to Joppa, there are plenty of places to stay in Newburyport and that is a good place for the wife to hang out while you fish. You need to pick a night with a late night high tide, the fishing is 3 hours before and after the tide. Check out the posts on NEKF.

I'm going to try to keep my team in there until they can start fishing again, it may only be bass here soon enough, so it will get harder. Chad Hoover just finished buying Hook1 so he may be back on the water too.

I'm guessing that the VA team is getting nervous about now--their lead was over 1000 at the beginning of the month wasn't it?

slappy wrote:

Too funny Pat. I tried to end the month big, I caught a ton of bass one night when the weather was crappy and I had to hide in the "small bass zone." When I went out this week it seemed that all the big fish were gone, but the trusty "slappy jig" with a 13" hogy scored one that taped out at 41#, I don't keep the bigs so i use the formula to guess the weight.

Striper fishing is good here through early October, but July is usually the slowest summer month.

If you are coming back from ME, you need to try a night trip to Joppa, there are plenty of places to stay in Newburyport and that is a good place for the wife to hang out while you fish. You need to pick a night with a late night high tide, the fishing is 3 hours before and after the tide. Check out the posts on NEKF.

I'm going to try to keep my team in there until they can start fishing again, it may only be bass here soon enough, so it will get harder. Chad Hoover just finished buying Hook1 so he may be back on the water too.

I'm guessing that the VA team is getting nervous about now--their lead was over 1000 at the beginning of the month wasn't it?

Good luck to you too and thanks for the information. I fished Joppa last August during the striper shootout . . . . . went to Surfland for some information about the area - that is one of the best shops that I have been to, and I was really pleasantly surprised by the beauty of Plum Island - looked like a combo between the OBX and Jersey shore - took tons of pics. The guys at Surfland told me that the fishing was slowing at that time, most of the fish were on the front side, that the fishing is usually off-the-hook good in June, and led me in the right direction about where to fish. I launched from a little launch with only enough space for about 4 cars, got out to a schoolie blitz on sandeels, so I caught a few bass on 007 diamond jigs. That is a great spot with the Merrimack emptying out there - the current was pretty bad, but not as bad as expected.

I think I am going to stop someplace on the way up to Maine now, since they are repairing the AC in my office next week (and it is a government building - why now, who knows). Still not so sure where to go, but thinking of staying Wed. and Thurs. in Mystic and fishing around Stonington again so I don't have to start fresh, but concerned about the heat and stripers . . . . . also got a really good tip about a spot in Rhodey that isn't too far either, but I am sure that the water will be cooler up by Boston.

I'm also thinking about the Cape? I hear they are doing well there, but the only place I ever have any luck there is at Race Point and only for monster blues . . . . I usually go in August, and think I may just wait to go there after the shootout instead - Pleasant Bay (near strong island) and Wellfleet haven't been productive for me and no structure there either.

Good to hear that you are going to have a team again. I think Chad Hoover was former president of TKAA? He wrote a book about largemouth bass fishing too?

In terms of the VA team, the super team takes this very seriously and I think they are rallying to change the rules again. This time, there shall be a slot limit for stripers caught north of Maryland and only stripers between 21" and 27" shall be posted by teams north of Maryland, closed season in for stripers in New England from May - June, and August - November . . . . . . and a complete KW moritorium for stripers caught by slappy LOL!

Just joking around . . . . that could get me into trouble again with those guys, who are certainly fishing hard once again this year . . . . . don't want some dude to punch me in the face when I go down there again next winter.

Nice job on the flounder. I'm surprised that you guys are still catching them up there. When they were here when I was a kid, the bite would be long over by now, even during the good years.

Hey Chris - nice fluke last weekend too!

There was a noticable slow down in the fluke fishing last weekend, and I can only imagine what the heat is going to do to the striper fishing, so I will keep my mouth shut.

you may find stonington and points south slow, but the yakdawg crew is getting some large bass, so I'm not sure. They get a different body of fish there than we do and their fish tend to be the heavy deep bodied bass making ours look like racers.

Boston was really slow this past weekend, July can be a tough month here, after June the main body of fish heads north and things get going again in September. The north shore, salem to gloucester usually picks up this time of year, deeper cooler water there. Joppa is usually good through July, in august it slows. That ramp, water street, is the right place, there is plenty of on street parking on the side streets there. Joppa is a small fish spot during the day and a large fish spot at night. Best areas are away from the river current up on the flats in very shallow water, most troll eels, but I toss plastics when I go there.

If you want to try Boston and you are here on a night I can get out, I can show you some spots. The bite has really slowed, but I can usually find some fish in the current. You will see why we all fish hobies around here!! One other spot you might think about is manchester, good area to scout for the shootout and generally good fishing. You will need to check in with others for daytime parking there. You might also post on NEKF saying you want to fish somewhere and see if someone is able to go when you are, NEKF guys are usually pretty generous with spots when you ask.

Slappy - thanks so much for the intel and information - it is extremely generous of you and you are a gentleman. I will certainly return the favor if you are ever in my area, or anyplace else I fish (Florida, Virginia, and if you fly-fish, I know tons of places). You seem to know JBAY as well as anyone, but I can always let you know where the bite has been good before the tourney (although that didn't work out so well this year).

My wife was liking Gloucester, and saw some places that she liked, so maybe we will do two nights there and two nights around Plymouth or Mystic . . . . whichever is cheaper! LOL!

I had the same impression of Joppa that you said - looked like a place good for schoolies in the day and big fish move in from the outside at night to feed on the flats - can only imagine the smogasborg that the Merrimack washes out during an outgoing tide at night . . . . . I fished around the flats and moved to the channel when the tide was slacking and found fish working right on the edge of the channel and the flats, very close to a buoy, and I think they were on sandeels, or something small. Lots of boats and kayakers there.

I see your teammates have started posting again. I was out last night with Carl4x4, Dennis, and a couple of other KFAers and we totalled 6 stripers between us - very slow. We have a couple to post, and it was a bad tide, but the bass bite is slowing here (even the fluking was mediocre last weekend).

Thanks also for the offer of fishing. Sometime I would really like to take you up on it. You catch some amazing fish on soft plastics. Believe it or not, soft plastics are not so widely used in NY for bass - most of the guys I know are pluggers and T & W guys. For me, I learned much about soft plastic fishing for stripers while fishing the Housatonic during the winter (it is a 90 minute drive for me), and little gulp assassins are all that I use there - deep water and you find fish by marking them on your depth finder, and then just work the water column until you find the right depth, speed, and action - I love that type of fishing, but most people don't know that it is really a skill set that takes time to learn. I've become much better with soft plastics now than I was 4 years ago when I started, but have a long way to go.

The fish in the housy are on alewives - does hogy make anything similar?

In any event, I need to start using them on LI more. . . . . and no one uses sluggos! I read a book by Capt. White about soft plastics, but never applied it.

Thanks again - good luck this week and tight lines!

I'm in the "bigger is better" camp for plastics for bass. Picked up a couple pigs last night on the 13" hogy, that is hands down my favorite bass bait and has produced many 30+# fish for me. When the big fish aren't around, I usually do 10".

We pulled up front for a little while today until the NY guys start posting. I think both our teams are going to start moving away from the VA guys unless fishing picks up down there fast. Of course they have 2 extra months to fish at the end of the season!

I'm going to start using plastics more, definitely going to try some hogy's on the Housatonic in the fall / winter - not sure exactly how to use them around LI - most of the places that I fish for stripers are similar to Gloucester or Salem Harbors - lots of rocks, piers, and docks . . . . . it is so simple to just troll around them with tubes, but I feel I may be missing something, especially working the water column around deeper piers. You are fishing the soft plastics primariy in areas with current, like rips? Is it deep water? I think what makes those soft plastics so good is the versatility of using them in shallow or deep water. I see they are used in New England much more than Long Island.

Congrats on knocking the VA guys out of first - we did it briefly last week, and then they posted like 400 points of dogfish. . . . . that is one rule that should be reconsidered last year - those fish are considered junkfish but are worth more than stripers . . . . . gotta live with it for now. You put some distance between them too - that will be hard for them to cover.

I agree that if their fishery is anything like it was last year, it will be tough for the VA guys to stay competitive for first place - especially since their local drum population has collapsed out there (they still get the coastal migrators on their way in during the spring, but the cold winters of the last two years has destroyed their local population). They still have speckled trout, but it is tough to catch more than one or two of those per outing for kayak wars (you can get all the spikes that you want down there, but most are 14"). Some of those guys will be targeting sheepshead for the next month or two, but again, they are usually fishing CBBT, which is very dependent on weather, and usually not more than 2 sheepshead are caught per outing - black drum around there too. Their fluke down there are small in comparison to New Jersey and Long Island, and they don't leave their comfort zone by targeting fluke anyway. Last year, they basically gave up after August because they were frustrated by the rules and had fallen far behind, so it is hard to tell what they can do in the fall. Once the weather cools, they will start picking away at schoolies again from HRBT . . . . that has been their bread and butter this year. They get a really good run of speckled trout in September and October, but the fish are generally spikes that are too small for KW. Those guys certainly fish hard and frequently and will stay within striking distance though. Tog may be their ticket this year during the fall - if you know what you are doing, you can catch a bunch of them during an outing and they are worth as much as stripers . . . . but . . . . only a 30 fish limit.

For us, the striper fishing will be a slow pick until September, and we will also be picking at fluke. I probably will be targeting mostly fluke until the shootout next month, but I don't know if we can keep up with your pace - I can't believe all of the flounder you have caught this month. I should have done some flounder fishing in Glouceter while I was there, since the bass fishing was so bad.

I have four stripers to post from the trip. It was so hot, and the fishing so slow, and boat traffic so great, that I gave up and just enjoyed the hotel and pool for the last two days of the trip. Still tired from fishing the first couple of days and getting stuck in the current at the river at the bottom of Gloucester Harbor, and I would have liked to go out my last day, but there was a small craft advisory. I actually am going to take a couple of days off from fishing this week . . . . need some rest.

Plastics are my life!

I pretty much use them anywhere for anything. Well anything that isn't a bait only fish that is. New England has a history with soft plastics because of lunker city, hogy, and ronz. I first started using sluggos more than 20 years ago in CA for bass and bonito, so when I moved here I started using them for bass. they have come a long way with a good selection of big stuff for big fish.

For rocky shorelines they are great for pitching up into the rocks where you can't go with that t&W. I typically work a small area at a time which can be slow going if there aren't many fish around, but I also troll them from spot to spot to locate the fish. there are a few boulder fields that I fish where I sometimes locate the fish by trolling then target the area I caught.

Boston has some major rips and not that many use T&W in the rips, I don't know why, they work well. But the more you go over the fish, the more they disperse, I keep my distance from where the fish are holding and cast into those areas.

Boston and the north shore has many serious T&W guys because there are so many good areas to cover that trolling is the best way to cover water. I think the best way to get into plastics is to use them as your follow up lure. Everytime you get a fish on the T&W work the area for a few casts with the plastic before you go back on the troll.

Eric - thanks for the advice on soft plastics - I definitely am going to use them much more this fall.

What happens when the fish are on small bait - ie - silversides or sand eels? Does hogy make anything small like that? Most of our bait for the remainder of the season is going to be small - silversides, sand eels, and peanut bunker. Our fishery is one of extremes - big (menhaden during the early spring) and small (silversides, rainbait, etc.). We don't get any mackerel here, and herring are very, very sporatic year to year. But, when they show up, all hell breaks loose on the bass front.

Also . . . . you posted like 700 points of stripers and flounder over a week! WTF? I'm going to Rick and asking for a rule change . . . . LOL!

I'll tell ya, it is fun to watch. . . . . wish that fishingmilitia was doing the tourney this year - he would have definitely given you a run for your money - he is to drum what you are to stripers! I don't think the junkies can catch up to you with so much points between you unless the fishing gets better there during the fall. Should be interesting to see what happens with their speckled trout in the fall. For us, it has been an uphill battle all year - finally catch the junkies, and your team takes off . . . . plus the yak dawgs are right on our back - worried about them.

Larry - nice job on the fluke last weekend - your fishing was slappy-esque! LOL! Looks like you caught almost 20 fluke, which means that you probably caught like 60 overall! Good fishing! Keep those VA guys behind you.

Captiva, I fished the point pleasant elks tourney. Pre fished a few hours on wed, and fished two full (hot) days fri and sat. Most ass time I've ever logged in my yak. Was sore for days! The fishing was SICK! My plan A spot was a wash, but my fallback spot was thick with fish-best fluke fishing I've ever seen. No exageration, I caught about 90 fluke over the three days, about 50 would have measured for KW, about 20 were keepers in nj (18"). You NY guys have some crazy min length right? The two guys I fished with did about the same, my buddy Gary had a few more keeper size fish than I did. I'll be back out there on August 1st hoping lightning will strike twice! Pretty simple fishing too, I used a 1/2 oz jighead with gulp swimming mullet, and a mullet or a ghost shrimp on a dropper. 10'-15' depth was the ticket.

That is an awesome weekend of fluking!

I can't wait for this month, August is usually my best month of fishing for quality fish. Looking back over the last few years of logs, August is by far the best month for legal bass and large fish on my home waters, usually the last week of the month is when things really get going. It happened last year, this year has been up and down, June was good, July almost a bust except for a couple nice fish one morning.

I have a pile of plastic and some sharp hooks ready!

yaknfool wrote:

Captiva, I fished the point pleasant elks tourney. Pre fished a few hours on wed, and fished two full (hot) days fri and sat. Most ass time I've ever logged in my yak. Was sore for days! The fishing was SICK! My plan A spot was a wash, but my fallback spot was thick with fish-best fluke fishing I've ever seen. No exageration, I caught about 90 fluke over the three days, about 50 would have measured for KW, about 20 were keepers in nj (18"). You NY guys have some crazy min length right? The two guys I fished with did about the same, my buddy Gary had a few more keeper size fish than I did. I'll be back out there on August 1st hoping lightning will strike twice! Pretty simple fishing too, I used a 1/2 oz jighead with gulp swimming mullet, and a mullet or a ghost shrimp on a dropper. 10'-15' depth was the ticket.

That is some sick fluking. The most I ever had in one day was approximately 50, but only about 14 were 16" or above. . . . . usually, I only get maybe 10 fluke per outing on a good day with 3 - 4 being 16" or above. . . . . it seems easier to get stripers than fluke usually, which makes no sense to me at all.

Now I wish I went to that tournament. I was going to go last year, but was afraid of the hot water, boat traffic, and poor fishing reports, and I was right - the fishing was slow according to guys that went. This year was different and maybe I'll go next year.

The fluking sucks right now on LI and has been a BIG disappointment the entire season. Put in 4 hours on Saturday morning for a lousy 4 fluke, and a few tiny sea bass. I did catch a 20" on a live bluefish (snapper bluefish) on a bucktail, and that is the only fluke of any size I have seen in a while. All of our bays are filled to the brim with snapper bluefish, juvenile silversides and peanut bunker, but nothing on them. I am thinking if I target fluke from here on in, I am going to try to get some live snappers before, but it is such a PIA to get them in terms of time commitment.

The size limit here is 20.5" (down from 21") and I have caught 4 keepers this year (all released - everyone in my family hates fluke) - a 23", 24", 20.5", and 21". Last year, I had some doormats, including a 26" and another I dropped which was at least as big.

That's some crazy fishing Larry! I hope to star contributing more points to the team. You're an animal!

Hey guys, lightning didn't strike twice. I went out mon morning and had my typical fluke outing. Got a 1/2 dozen in two hours-one measured for KW. I think they're heading for the inlet, hoping to find a place to intercept them before they leave. It sure was a fun couple of days though! The water is getting pretty warm here, I'm going to try for some 'exotic' species while I wait for my striped friends to come back.

Sorry to hear that, but you are not alone. The fluke bite here has gone down the toilet and I bet that many of the fluke are out in the ocean until the bait starts stacking near the inlets at the end of the summer. I still have some deep water spots and hope to get out there soon.

We are looking for exotics too - Daryl from my team is doing some scoping for triggerfish tomorrow, and we hope to have a bead on where they are by the weekend.

Also hoping the weakfish show this season. I'm optimistic after Chris and Slappy finding them by the cape.

The tides are terrible this week and I don't think my fishing tomorrow after work will be too productive.

Yakn, the stripers were on the bridge in the dark, on the bottom and willing to eat plastics on a 1 oz head, I went up to 1.5 oz in the strong current. nothing big, but mostly KW fish and willing biters!

I went out here last night--good conditions, decent tides. Armed for bear, one hit one 28" fish. Spooked a couple others on the surface, overall a very quiet night with little showing on the fish finder. Aug is usually good here, but sometimes it takes until the last week of the month for things to get going. Our fall run starts in late August and ends early Oct. Pretty much done for bass here by Oct 20.

Funny, cause the striper fishing is slow here too.

I hope they show by the time of the shootout, Eric. Speaking to some of the guys like Carl and George that have done the shootout every year almost, they say the bass fishing has been worse every year - from 100 striper days, to 60 bass days, to 20 bass for the whole trip over 5 days of hard fishing. I believe that there is a problem with the Chesapeake bass, in terms of over harvesting in the south and the virus. I also don't like that this year I have seen very few schoolies - everything has been 27" - 35" with a handful of larger and smaller fish thrown in. . . . . this is usually the sign of a downturn. I think with the problems in Chesapeake, our Hudson stripers are spreading out more, making the fishing more difficult. Have you noticed a downward trend?

I'm always complaining about the fishing though! LOL!

Hot summer probably has them very lethargic or in the ocean right now. Its definitely the water temp cause there's plenty of bait

I think that stripers are in a decline. The fisheries managers will review size limits at the end of this season which is good, but one season too late. Tons of fish in the 27-31" range here. There are some nicer ones around this year too, last year's 42-43" fish are now in the 44-46" range. I haven't been getting too many big ones lately, but I'm hoping that will change as more tuna arrive offshore. We need some big bait inshore.

If you bring a couple of your team mates you should be able to pick up your 50 fish over the weekend, you will just have to find the spot that is holding the fish. This summer has been strange, spots that usually hold fish now are sometimes barren until you hit them on the right day.

Saturday am was like that, no fish around for a while, a few missed hits, then an epic hour and a half with real quality fish. It was a mix of big fish and 30" fish, so the big plastic was a help to weeding out some of the smalls.

I see team ny has stepped out front again.

Save a couple SB spots for the shootout there are some large bass around.

the bite really died this weekend so I don't really have much intel to share. It was very slow by all reports I got...a few guys posted some nice fish though and there are some big bass around.

Things change fast and the storm coming through early this week will shake things up either better or worse, no way to tell now!

Thank you Eric. Been packing all day today as most of my friends are doing too. Looking forward to getting up there and wetting a line with you guys!

We'll have 3 JCKF Team members at NEKF this year and we hope to find some 37"+ fish for bonus points. We haven't had fish that size locally yet this year. Not for us anyway.

right now it is eels at night and tube and worm during the day around the rocks.

of course Hogys at night have been pretty good to me too.

Keep your fingers crossed for things to get going otherwise it will be a slow pick.

That is bad news about the bite, Eric. I kinda expected as much after my trip there in July and last year. Some big fish were caught last week by team OK Coral though - that team has some good fishermen! I'm getting up to Salem on Friday with my wife and we are staying in Peabody. I hope to fish Salem Harbor late in the day on Friday, and try Devereaux Beach in Boston on Saturday . . . . maybe someplace else that night or return to Salem Harbor again. If Salem Harbor is a slow pick, I may even go back to Gloucester Harbor, as I know some spots where I can pick at some schoolies there. However, I would like to explore Boston Harbor more. I agree that the storm will either move in fresh fish, or move the remainder out. Between the storm and coming off a full moon, the stripers will be moving as we speak.

Are you going to be around Winter Island during the tourney or are you staying at home? I would like to meet you during the tourney. I'm not sure if I will make the awards ceremony on Sunday, as we are leaving for the Cape Cod and it would be a tough sell on my wife to have her sit through a fishing awards ceremony with a bunch of fisherpeople. Maybe you will be there for the Captains meeting?

Now I have mixed emotions about the fishing portion of this trip as the striper fishing by me has been really very good for the summer and I am reluctant to leave. The Long Island Sound between Hempstead Harbor and Oyster Bay has a good body of resident Hudson stripers holding around the rocky shoreline feeding on scup, crabs, and snapper bluefish. It is tidal dependent, and this week has bad tides. . . . . but the week after is very good. It has been a pleasant surprise to see so many nice stripers in August, and maybe it is always this way, as I almost always target weakfish for the entire month of August. But normally it is too hot for the bass in August and I start fishing them again when the weaks would leave in late September. This year is different. I'm pretty sure that this bite should continue in the sound until the water cools a bit in early - mid September and the stripers move back into the Harbors along the sound. If the pattern that I have experienced holds this year (and this has been a strange year), the fishing in the Harbors usually is very good until the second week of November - the fish get smaller and smaller starting in October until you are left with nothing but juveniles by Thanksgiving. After this, I know some spots where they winter.

Also fished Moriches Bay with Carl, Dennis, and Darren last weekend (south shore Long Island) and we had a good bass bite out east - water temp was 68 degrees during the flood, and I caught my biggest gator YED of the year . . . . .

KFA-NY is sendind about 14 total anglers to the tournament - usual suspects like Carl and George, but also some new guys like Tom Lowe (searobin) and Bob Bernard (bjb) - we thought it would be more, but some guys backed out.

Only one of my Fleet 1 Teammates is going - Daryl McAvoy. . . . . Darren is going to the Bahamas, Dennis is in the process of moving to Virginia Beach, and Jaiem just ain't doing it.

In any event, hope to meet up with you and Linehaul at the tournament. . . . . good luck this week and thanks for the intel! If you say it is slow, that carries a big amount of weight.

the fishing was slow this past weekend, but it can't stay that way. Those fish aren't leaving and more fish are coming in from the bank. This time of year the big bass come inshore from stellwagen and we get our biggest fish of the year.

I would expect it to pick up, but don't expect to catch 50 fish in 2 days unless you get on breaking fish. The fish were around this past weekend and I found a big school of big fish that would not eat and disappeared very quickly.

So far I have only fished 4 days this month and haven't gotten my 50 fish yet--friday night I got my first short fish of the month, I downsized from the 13" to the 10" hogy because the fishing was slow.

Don't be discouraged by the reports, there is a good chance to get a large fish or a few large this weekend, they aren't concentrated but are spread out around the rocks. In tight to the rocks at night or first light are the best chances for biggies.

Deveraux should be a good choice, that area typically produces quite well. Don't give up on the big ones and target the smalls, the opportunity for a really good fish is there. I picked up a few nice ones, so far this month my best is 46". I want to find her again on tourney day!