Kayak Wars 2011

Stay the course Pat, I think the virginia team is gonna be catching all the way to the end. Get your points while you can. Rob Choi posted 500 points on the 23rd! Its gonna be tough watching their tally continue to rise after my fish have gone for the season. The further north you are, the more creative you'll need to be. Lots of people are experiencing slow fishing now. Its got to be close to blowing up any time. At least the tog'n is solid. Good luck the rest of the way.

Thanks, Larry. I'm actually going to hit a lull now with stripers for a little while, but once the fish hit their wintering locations, I can pound out 20 bass in an outing with the peak being around the first two weeks of December. We're making plans for a team outing there at the the end of the season, where between three of us, we should be able to max out.

There are only schoolies around right now Long Island right now, with a ton of dinks mixed in, more so than there should be now, and it seems as though even the peak has passed in Montauk. A bunch of us made a day trip on Sunday, and it was slow on the south side, even though the water is still very warm here.

Once tog resets, I should have a couple of weeks left before they move deep . . . . . also going on a road trip one weekend too.

You guys didn't really hit your stride until a couple of weeks from now last year . . . . . I remember that you and Clamboni posted some fish that would have been bonus size this year.

We'll be able to hang in till the end no doubt . . . . some guys have been busy lately.

Good luck to you too!

I hear that the Virginia guys are gunning for Slappy . . . . . even paying off some of his team members not to fish down there! LOL! Better watch out slaps . . . . . . I think they are sabotaging my guy down there by sending him to places with only small fish before he knows the fishery - LOL!

The well is about to go dry here, stripers are leaving quick. I haven't fished in a while but reports are of smaller and smaller fish. In the next week or so they will only be in a few spots, the ones who stayed too long and the ones who aren't going to leave. No other fish on the KW list will be available here.

My hopes will be pinned on my team mates in VA, they are rocking and have put up almost 100 points in the last 2 months!!

slappy wrote:

My hopes will be pinned on my team mates in VA, they are rocking and have put up almost 100 points in the last 2 months!!

Bwahahahaha


Things were slow here too this past weekend for the Jamboree. Toggin has been stellar, but winds kept us from staying in the inlet through the right tide to get to them. I hope to get out on them next weekend!

big snow storm forecast for tonight, stripers are pretty much done.

I'm ready to start moving up in the freshwater standings, I've got my sights on coming in 13th!!

Snow = striper buzz kill.

Once that snow melts, water becomes really cold and, unless they have access to deep water with a thermocline - they won't eat anymore or very rarely. A few years ago, when we were having warm winters, I caught stripers from the surf until Februay - they were on herring and it never snowed - once the snow came, that was it. Sometimes it has recovered for me if it is an early snow, but it really pushes the fish if they are moving, and this will push out most of the baitfish from our south shore bays and I bet the surf fishing will explode in a few days on the south shore.

I got out there yesterday during a mini blizzard - actually had a couple of hits - we got less than an inch of snow, but I'm not optimistic about my chances this afternoon and the tog bite will suffer much - that worries me most.

I was guessing you would have some wintering schoolies to fall back on till the end of the tournament, Eric. . Lets see how far a 2000 point lead goes - to catch hook 1, any team needs two bass limits to get near plus a few other fish as well. . . . . it will be interesting to see the north south dynamic for the rest of the year. My team should be back into bass pretty good by the end of November - don't know about a limit.

Reaching a limit this month for bass before it got too cold was a good goal - I was hoping to limit on tog and my teammates would beat up the stripers, but it didn't work that way - now we are leaving a bunch of points on the board with stripers this month.

Not much time left with tog with the cold weather.

To be honest, I am burning out a little for the first time since I've been doing this . . . . . pictures and downloading and everything else are becoming a pain and the colder weather is bothering me more than other years. Kinda wish it was over now or started later in the spring instead of the first two or three months when we have no fishing on LI.

WTF captiva? Normally when you post I'm all excited to get out and fish. After that last post I want to look up doctor Kavorkian's phone number! I went this morning and got the skunk, but my buddy got a schoolie. What I took positive from the short trip was the large amount of bait still inside, and the water was suprisingly warm. This little weather hiccup will be a memory in a couple days, and it may start another wave of bait/predator movement. I think even if slappy's fishing slows down, he'll still hold off the VA guys. One wrinkle though, I think they hold a ton of KW records, which will mean a pile of points at the end. Keep getting out, there is a few good blitzes left for all of us.

here is the sunshine: I'm optimistic about the rest of the season.

If there is one fishing thing that I'm good at, it is catching stripers in the winter when they are not biting. I will be surprised if I can't do 50 in Nov, but it is quite possible that there won't be many around. Boston has a tiny winter over population, not enough to show on the ff and the decline of the stripers has cut that fishery down to a shadow of what it once was. Fortunately my team mate Marty lives in VA and can get 50 at any point.

bold prediction on their part:

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They are in the drivers seat with the most fish to catch, but they also need some decent weather to pull it off.

Slappy, from where I sit YOU are clearly in the drivers seat. You've got over 1500 points on them now, and if they maxed out bass and tog, mixed in a few misc each month,and add their "record" points- I'm guessing they'll finish maybe at 15K. Even if you just pick at em, with a little help from your teammates you should hold them off. I cant believe I'm pulling for someone who soundly kicked my ass this year, but I am. Good luck the rest of the way-close it out!

slappy wrote:

bold prediction on their part:

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They are in the drivers seat with the most fish to catch, but they also need some decent weather to pull it off.

Oh, BARF!!!!!! Those guys make me sick - if those guys DON'T win the friggin tournament it would be a disgrace - they live in VIRGINIA in a year round fishery and stacked their team with guys that fish 3+ times a week to win it. . . . . did I mention that they can fish year round and have about 15 different saltwater species that we don't???? If they let themselves get beat by some guy who lives in the frozen tundra of Boston, they shouldn't feel very good about their fishing prowes. . . . .

How does someone go online and say that????

Those guys rub me the wrong way - they bitched mercilessly to the judges about the rules last year after we beat them in both the team and individual tournaments - and we're a team from New York mind you that really only have a kayak fishery May to October. . . . . . where is this feeling of entitlement coming from?

First, we all spot them the first three months of the season when there are very few fish to be caught here . . . . . . then the fishing slows at the end of the season too - if they win, with like four months of the tournament that other teams can't fish - it isn't anything to be proud of.

I'm almost sure that I can get a limit of stripers in December by myself - if my teammates want to travel a bit, we can go pretty far in November too - but for us, tog is going to be key in the first week of November.

This just lit a fire under me. . . . .

Slappy, you better not let these guys slip by you . . . . a limit in November would likely seal the deal for you. For my team, participation and a warm early November will be key - if we can get a tog limit and some stripers too next month, we will be in good shape.

Never thought I would be saying this . . . . . but lets go Slappy! LOL!

Be careful of southern spies - they have even infiltrated the KFA-NY site too . . . . .

I don't know the history here, but as long as they play by the rules, I'm good with it.

Funny thing is I have a bunch of VA guys on my team and they haven't done anything!! They asked me to join because Marty "knew a guy in Boston" who could post a few bass. I thought I would be helping not leading.

The further north you go, the tougher this tourney gets. I think that the organizers have done a good job, but I agree with your points about the differences in the fisheries. I only got 3 KW species on my home court this year and only 5 blues came from there, the rest were elsewhere. I couldn't make a competitve team with guys from MA that don't drive hours to fish. As guys learn more about the tourney we are going to see teams made more and more based on location of the members to keep up with the rules.

I agree with you about cross-regional teams with the caveat that it is necessary if you live north of CT or RI where there are only stripers and winter flounder - assuming that the people on your team contribute consistently - you may have only been slightly worse off if you had gone with a team from MA.

That being said, south of CT, I think teams have a chance if everyone contributes throughout the season, not just at selected times. We lost two guys from last year that contributed almost 4000 points - we could have used those points this year with stiffer competition coming from New England. JCKF organized their team the best by doing it on levels of particpation - their points have gone way up as a result. Other people on KFA teams fish all the time, but post very rarely, which may be the most frustrating issue of all for teammates.

Our KFA-NY teams are too fragmented, based on friendships or just set up piggly wiggly because that was the way we organized at the beginning. If we put the 5 guys who fish most on one team, we would do better - we dropped the ball by not getting bass limits in July (peak time) and October (still good early), plus having a disappointing April where normally April would be a cinch for a bass limit. I'm not sure if I would participate if the teams were organized the same way next year - might need a break anyway.

I agree that there should be no problem as long as the VA guys play by the rules, and some of those guys are nice, but it is bad play for someone to shoot their mouth off like that, not just at us, but all other teams, especially when the time limit of the tournament is tailored strictly for their benefit - the teams south of Cape May are the only ones that have a good winter fishery - to brag after being spotted three months of good fishing is like bragging about getting an B on a test after getting a 30 point curve. No one is going to say you are so awesome where 90% of your points are scored by catching 21.5" schoolies at the same bridge over and over again - I have no problem with that, as it is playing within the rules and I score lots of points on schoolies too, but I'm not holding myself out to be God's gift to fishing and predicting that my team is going to win like Joe Nameth or Rex Ryan - you think that will light the fire under some guys on the neckpunchers too? Just my opinion - think that people like that should keep things in perspective. I never even knew that guy existed until I saw that post.

The sad part of it is that they think the fishing for us, Hook 1, JCKF, and neckpunchers have stopped - not sure if it is understood we will all continue to catch bass till the end of the season - slappy has wintering fish, we have an awesome run of schoolies on the Housy, JCKF is still waiting for the migrating fish to show, and neckpunchers have a really good winter fishery in the Thames and Connecticut Rivers - I doubt the prediction will turn out to be accurate.

I'm a sensitive guy . . . . the Irish in me makes me easily offended . . . . . LOL!

I'm just jealous - it would be a dream come true to live in a year-round fishery. . . . . good luck to them for the rest of the season.

I think we are starting to see the impact of spotting them an extra 3 months of fishing, the VA guys can easily come back with all the fish they have.

I spent most of my life in CA and was used to a year round fishery. It makes a big difference in your skills and experience in testing a wider variety of fisheries.

I'm not sure what is going on with the CT guys. They got hammered by this storm and some may still be without power. The power companies around here have done a horrible job with the storm, lots of bad info for those without electricity. We barely got grazed.

The winter fishery here looks like it will go this year. That means the occasional good night and mostly nights with just a handful of fish. I stuck one this week that was definitely a bonus bass. That is a real prize fish here, it is tough to get anything too big in the off season, although one year I got a couple 25# fish in December. They are already in super slo-mo, the big fish ate a 10" hogy on a 3/4 oz jig held just off the bottom, I bet it was in the fish's face for a minute before it ate, then the hook pulled after it towed me 100 feet. arrgh.

It would be nice if the tiered the bass like they did the weaks. Catching a 35" bass and at 21" bass isn't the same thing and I almost never target bass under 28".

I agree about tiering the bass - big difference between a 28" bass and a 21" bass.

Make stripers 28" - 37" worth 30 points, 21" - 27" 20 points, and same for trophy size.

Even make the size limit smaller and make 18" - 20" worth 5 points to keep everyone involved when the bigger fish move out . . . . .

I think the bluefish rules really hurt us this year - cut our points for blues in half.

Captiva, congrats on the sheep! I'm jealous-been looking for them for two years.How about a report?

When did Captiva get a Sheep? Did I miss that? Congrats!!! Sheep and Triggers have eluded me BIG TIME!

Thanks, guys . . . . the sheeps were a backup on a trip I made to Florida with my wife last weekend.

Wife wanted to go to the theme parks . . . . so, when booking the trip, I'm thinking . . . . . Orlando is 45 minutes away from Mosquito Lagoon, the best red drum fishing in the world! So, I say, well, that sounds like a plan hun, but lets stay in Cape Canaveral so we can go to the beach too, oh, and by the way, I'm booking a fishing guide for the first day there, but will do theme parks for the rest of the trip!

Well, got there on friday, met up with the guide in the afternoon, who is the source down there (spotted tail charters - he wrote a book on fly fishing the space coast), but, from heavy rains in October, and two weeks of 20 knot east winds, the lagoons were high and brown, and, a cold front hit the day before, so the water dropped 5 degrees - not a good combo for the fickle red drum - launched in Mosquito Lagoon to 25 knot north winds . . . . no action for the first hour, then we saw a spray of baitfish and he said - cast there - so I did - bam - fish on and I'm stoked . . . . . he says it isn't fighting too hard as I brought it in - turns out to be a fluke! aaaarrrrgggghhhh! Nothing else the rest of the time, and, I dropped a fishing rod into the diarrea colored water to boot - not the best afternoon for me.

Upon leaving, he said I was down at the worst time possible for drum with the high, cold, and dirty water, and the sea trout fishery had collapsed after two cold winters - and not even to dream about a black drum, so, anticpating this could happen, I tried plan B which was sheepshead.

Not for nothing, I have fished for ten years consistently in Florida, and those lagoons are intimidating for me down there for the first time at the space coast - miles and miles of open water flats, where the deepest water is less than 1'. If you can't site fish for them, you are cooked.

I rented a yak from Ron Jon the next morning, got rope to tie it to the car, got some local intel that the sheepshead fishing had been really hot, looked at a nautical chart of port canaveral, found a launch, bought fiddlers, and off I went. . . . glad that I brought down my custom tog jigs.

Launched in port canaverel, and it looked like a tog fisherman's paradise - deep water piers, jetties, dockage, and moorings, all very near the ocean - best part of it was that you could take the yak under these huge piers used for cruise ships, where there were hundreds of yards worth of pilings, and no man had probably fished in ages . . . . .

So, first morning, fished for 3 hours, totalled 10 sheepshead to 19", plus assorted junk fish like mangrove snappers, grunts, spot, and small jack crevalle. Same drill as tog fishing - move from piling to piling until you find them, pick a couple off, move to the next piling. They fight just like a tog, not quite as hard, but the real difference is the bite - very subtle, much more so than tog - sometimes I didn't even feel it, and sometimes, it would be a very light tap like a small fish, and I would lift, and then the tog-esque fight would ensue, also, sometimes they would take the crab on the way down, and I would start jigging and say, hmmm, feels light . . . .

Unlike tog, you won't always find them on the bottom - they were spread across the water column, and, like I said, would steal your bait on the way down sometimes. Sometimes, when I would move into a spot, I would see them rolled-over on their sides, near the surface, pecking off barnicles from the pilings with their teeth - they would then see the yak and go down a couple of feet below the surface - weird!

Second day, fished for 3 hours again during the morning and totalled 11 sheepshead to 17", better bite, and less garbage fish.

The gross part of it was the roach problem down there - there were oysters attached to the pilings with hoards of roaches climbing on them - needless to say, I didn't secure myself to the pilings!

Initially, my problem was landing them, as they would move to the other side of a piling and somehow pop the hook, so, I started pushing myself away from the pilings, so I could fight them in open water.

The 19" sheepshead I caught was as good or better fight than a tog of similar size - probably better - took me a while to land and took drag from a really tight reel. Brought that one home for dinner that night!

All and all, a great trip. Next time, I will do better - know lots of areas now down around Canaverel. Despite all the structure, didn't seem to be as many sheepshead around as you would think The place if fished heavily.

They were mostly on fiddler crabs, but, the first day, shrimp worked better, so, if the fishing slowed, I would alternate between both, but the tog jigs were the key to a good hookup ratio.

Great report Pat! I lived in Melbourne Beach and fished those areas for 3.5 years. It's an awesome fishery. I was based out of Cape Canaveral for almost 2 years and I would fish the jetty almost every day before work. That whole area is a kayakers dream. The pilings and flats are amazing! Glad you had a good time!

Awesome report Pat, thanks. I feel like I could have a shot at them if I went, based on the details you provided. I may borrow your strategy on where to stay also.There is just so much water to fish down there that without local knowlege, you run out of vacation time before getting dailed in.The great thing about florida fishing is, as you experienced, so many species means lots of 'plan B's' if your primary doesn't pan out. I'm gonna try like hell to hit the caps on tog and bass this month, but its getting tough. Last two trips shutouts.

Chris - I couldn't agree with you more. Something I really regret was going to the no-motor zone my last morning when I had little time - the freaking place is like twenty miles long and ten miles wide with water up to your ankles! LOL! You really need a full day to do anything there, and you still wouldn't be guaranteed a fish even in good conditions. So much big mullet back there - can't tell the difference between mullet swirls and reds. it is a tough fishery.

I wish I did what you said and go to Jetty Park, they said they were killing the reds and fluke out there on the other side of the channel . . . . I was so close to there where I stayed - really wish I went there now.

Larry - it is really a great place to do that, and not wildly expensive at this time of year - you can rent a kayak at Ron Jon for $70 for three days and bring it offsite, but you have to buy or bring the rope to tie it up. I stayed at the Residence Inn, which was really close to the port - I could see it from our room - the no motor zone was 10 or 15 minutes away, titusville and mosquito lagoon are about a half hour. I rented a Cobra kayak and it was so easy to load and unload, it was like 15 minutes to launch. . . .

looks like Chris was doing a little fillet and release!! I have yet to eat a tog, maybe next year. You guys pounded them this month.

Just over 2 weeks to go, I guess what happens next will depend on the weather. Fortunately I can fish stripers in just about any weather around here. The junkies have really come on strong, but if we post 50 bass that means they will need to post 2k points in 2 weeks--that isn't easy!

Next year things will get even more interesting I'm sure...

I finally had a chance to get out. Having a baby in the house is killing my time out. The Toggin is drop and reel during the slack tide and the fish are big and winter-time fat!

I'm hoping to get the 30 Tog limit for Dec next weekend, Maybe even a bonus fish or 2. Today was the 1st Bass blitz for the area surf casters. Fish went to 40". The Cape May Rips and Del Bay have been steady with 40# Bass, but the weather has kept me from getting out there on days that I have a sitter.

I hear that one or two of the VA guys is taking next week off to just pound the bridges for their striper limit - I hear they are bloggin' that hogy man is going down . . . . . that they're intending on showing that yankee, blueback, Boston fella where he can stick his hogys . . . . . LOL! Eric better look out . . . .

All kidding aside, the battle for first place is over IMO . . . .it would take something monumental like someone taking a week off, and then being able to target the other species as well - the speck bite has been going off there.

That being said, if a good bite is going on, it is possible in a week to get a striper limit - in May, 2010, we hit our striper limit by May 2nd, but it was a 30 bass limit back then.

The fish up here are in transition, and it would be easier for me if they were in their winter locations like they are in Boston - saw a steadily decreasing bite this weekend in the salt, and still waiting for them to move into the estuaries on the Sound - the fishing will explode then, but with the warm weather, I'm not optimistic it will happen for two more weeks, or even after the touney is over - water temp here was 53 degrees last weekend. So, if weather stays consistent, I'm not expecting much next weekend, but the following weekend should be really good, and I intend on taking some time off as well, so we'll see. There is a ton of menhaden around the Sound - very late to be seeing them - saw them in two totally separate geographic locations last weekend - no preditors on them, as I am only seeing stripers to about 27" right now, and those fish will become less and less active.

Nice job on the togs, Chris. It must be hard getting out with a little one. . . . . glad you got some time on the water.

Eric - the tog is the best tasting fish of them all - probably comparable to winter flounder - it is the only fish that my family will eat anymore - LOL - that is one of the reasons I throw back all my stripers - no one wanted them anymore! Tog are so slow growing that I throw most of them back though, cause they are easy to re-catch!

Now you got me jacked up!

It will take a few trips, but I'm thinking that I can get a limit in 5-6 trips which I think I can fit in. Marty is supposed to put up some fish too, it is pretty easy picking down there. If I was in VA targeting the 21" fish, I would probably just bring the heavy stuff and get them 4 at a time on the sabiki rig, couple hours and done!

A week off can lead to some serious destruction, on my week off in Sept, I got the 50 fish limit, but I only posted the 25 that were trophy sized, if I hadn't gotten blown out half the trips, I would have hit 50 trophy bass for the month instead of only 45! Taking a week off here right now wouldn't do much--the water temps are down to 40 in both fresh and salt, it is going to go downhill quickly come mid-December. Last year I was iced in by x-mas.