Kayak Wars 2011

I was just kidding about the trash talk - but it would be funny if they just took a week off and fished - get stripers, then trout maybe after.

The 50 bass limit on a single person is tough - I got 42 this month, but missed opportunities during other days when I was trying to find tog and a weekend in FL. Now, I am done till next weekend, and I'm not sure what that will hold. The fishing around the Sound is fizzing out . . . . south shore is slim pickings for the most part, with larger stripers.

If you took off a week, there would definitely be days that would be blowouts - I think being able to get out 4/7 days would be possible in open water.

Even if it gets hot on the housy, I can't see getting that many in two weeks alone for me - I did get 30+ last December, but it was peak at that time - peak looks a couple of more weeks away until some fish get in there - don't know if this next front will be substantial enough.

Dam Pat, we're(jckf) not even in the running and that last post got me fired up. Slappy, for all the time you put in this year, I hope the teammates will post a few fish for you in the home stretch. Its gonna be close. GOOD LUCK

I think the counselor is using his tactics to get the witness fired up. their blogs are pretty benign, mostly trip reports.

I wish they would talk smack, maybe that would get my team mates fired up enough to go on a trip or two before it ends!

Indeed, you are correct. . . . . some trash talk really would be good though, but I think they are so focused on beating their bogeyman from boston that they don't have time . . . . they must be thinking who is this hogyman?

I, meanwhile, will be continuing my striper quest this weekend . . . . some fish were caught in my north shore honey hole on Sunday, when I instead went to Westport, CT and fished the mouth of the Saugatuck.

December promises to be interesting - especially that last weekend. One of my teammates is going down with a KFA-NY group to Kiptopeke the last weekend of the tournament to fish the concrete ships. Plus, my other teammate Dennis who moved down there will be fishing hard that weekend with a bunch of old friends he hasn't seen since the summer.

I think by that time, the striper bite in the CT estuaries will be solid, if not very good - the fronts and herring movements over the next week will be the key . . . .

You guys on JCKF are just killing the tog down there this month - lots of nice stripers too - maybe next year the Jamboree should be November . . . fishing as good as anywhere right now.

Fishing in the Cape May area is usually very good in mid to late Oct and excellent in Nov. The problem moving the Jamboree to Nov is the weather. We don't want to see anything happen to anyone in rough conditions. This past year has been weird since it began. Migrations have been off, seasons and temps are crazy, and Yakman caught fish! LMAO!

I will be out fishing hard these next 2 weekends and hope to finish strong. 2100 points to max out on Bluefish, Bass and Tog. Maybe some bonus fish along the way. Yes, I'm dreaming, but I feel like I have to try!

Kayak Wars was fun this year and did what it was supposed to do; get us all together and share a common goal!

Chris, I did the math a week or so ago and realized that hitting the rev limiter on tog and bass for Nov and Dec would have us at 10K. I figured that was unrealistic, but if we get enough trips in, who knows. Not capping bass this month probably puts it out of reach, and I cant buy a fish lately, but I never thought we'd be at 8K either. KW got me out more often than I would have otherwise, and got me to 'explore' a couple new fisheries. Not a bad showing for JCKF

KW is a double edged sword - I think it has made me a better fishermen, and like Larry, opened my eyes to a bunch of new fisheries, and made me target different fish like tog and fluke.

That being said, I also missed opportunities on fish like albies and weakfish while needing to get a striper limit on various months, or just score points the easiest way I can . . . . .

Also, it is addicting . . . . don't know if that is a good thing or not . . . . .

JCKF did really well this season - it is no small thing to beat KFA-NY Fleet 3 - those guys placed second last year I think and have two of the most hardcore fisherman in our club in Tom and Bob. In fact, I think Tom may be the most knowledgable fisherman in KFA-NY - he would have had much higher point totals if he weren't chasing weakfish so much in the spring and two months of targeting albies in the fall - the entire team fishes hard and are bonded by the fact that they are all over age 50. In fact, Wayne is actually a Vietnam vet! The entire team fished hard for the whole season . . . . .

From looking at the last two years, you guys get the short end of the stick in the overall striper fishery - everywhere else has residents - looks like the bass just blow through in the spring and fall for a few weeks. But your tog fishery may be the best quantity-wise in the tournament. The fluking looks world class as well, and you have a chance at the occassional exotic fish like a black drum, speckled trout, or sheepshead. . . . .

Plus, Larry was nailing blues left and right in the spring as well . . . .

It looks like the teams scored more points this year than last year, even though points were a bit lower for some fish.

The big bass fishing was so good around here that I wasn't doing anything else for quite a while, but we don't really have much in the way of other fish to target. You will notice that the NEKF teams couldn't compete with the rest--between spotting everyone else 4 months and only having 1 major fish around for the season, guys gave up easily.

The junkies added a bunch more and are in position to pass us if the weather is good and they can get out. I can either hope my team fishes or that the weather is bad.

I think next year I will do more variety because I want to get my son on some black sea bass as well as flounder. The problem is variety means I spend more time driving than fishing!

Slappy - why worry? I see one of your teammates just posted 4 specks! Here comes the calvery!

Well, with two weeks left and an 1100 point approximate lead, I don't think you have too much to worry about . . . . . . unless someone takes a week off and just pounds them. . . . the speckled trout bite is still really good down there, and that would be the only thing that worries me, but they are only worth essentially 400 points per month unless you catch bonus fish.

I do predict that there will be fish caught by team VA either tonight or tomorrow - they want to be hogyman's kryptonite! LOL!

Yeah, teams definitely caught more fish this year than last year - my team included - but the striper limit was 30, scup didn't count, tog were only worth 15 points, and all bluefish worth 20. My team lost a hardcore strper fisherman in Ed Handler, who is a one man team this year with the linesiders, and still pounding bass late in the year! We had so many good striper fisherman that it was hard to even post fish at the beginning of the month for most of the season - during the peak, we limited out usually by the 3rd or 4th day of the month.

Hoping to go out strong. I know we're not going to win it at this point, but the fish just got to Cape May!!! WAAAAAAYYYYYYYY Late this year! I'm going into rally mode! LOL

Slappy on the board already! You are a man on a mission!

As predicted, the opposition was out in force last night. . . . . didn't even wait to post! LOL! Told ya that would happen!

Chris - good to know that the bass are right at Cape May now - gotta believe that is the big body of Cheseapeake fish on their way down south . . . . . KFA going to VA next week.

Good luck down there Pat! We'll be heading down Dec 19-23

Slappy, You're an animal!

Unfortunately, I won't be making the trip to Kiptopeke, but two of my teammates will be there (one already moved down there during the summer).

It is usually my prime time on the Housatonic . . . . . don't know when that is going to happen this year.

I am making a full family vacation down to Florida for Christmas - this time around Marco Island and I will be chasing sheepies again and looking for some spanish mackerel and other pelagics. . . . . that is what I'm really looking forward to now.

they already hacked our lead down in one night and the rest of their Nov fish. I guess my team mates didn't get out.

Things are really slowing down here, water temps are heading into the 30s and it is getting tougher to get bit. The hot tactic last night was to do nothing at all. I got the most hits just holding the hogy a foot off the bottom and not jigging. Only got 4 kw fish and a couple tinys, the tide wasn't good, but it is December and there are no bass in Boston in December!

Pat, you need to try splasher and feather for the spanish, it is crazy to watch them in action. A straw works fine as the fly and lasts longer than a fly. There is an article on nekf about it.

We still have a couple more weeks of good fishing I think. I was out two nights ago and the water's still in the high 40's. TONS of fish still around. didn't want a whole lot to do with my eels though lol.......jigs were better You're right, the bass fishery is only REALLY good here for a month or so in spring and fall. we're just on their way past. When it's good it's good though. Our resident fish tend to be small, and in summer it's really tough to get into bigger fish. There's a lot of years when we don't get much of a fall run and the fish just cruise by 5 miles off the beach.

It frustrates me a lot though, I'm only able to really fish at night, and I'm usually by myself so I stick to the back bays. I haven't done many surf launches and am not really comfortable doing it alone just yet, let alone at night. lol I don't have anyone to help me find all my stuff/drag my body out of the water if I dump on the way back in. Not that there's not good fish to be had, but the front side is generally better. Then up there it seems you have much much better structure in close to the beaches.

clamboni wrote:

We still have a couple more weeks of good fishing I think. I was out two nights ago and the water's still in the high 40's. TONS of fish still around. didn't want a whole lot to do with my eels though lol.......jigs were better You're right, the bass fishery is only REALLY good here for a month or so in spring and fall. we're just on their way past. When it's good it's good though. Our resident fish tend to be small, and in summer it's really tough to get into bigger fish. There's a lot of years when we don't get much of a fall run and the fish just cruise by 5 miles off the beach.

It frustrates me a lot though, I'm only able to really fish at night, and I'm usually by myself so I stick to the back bays. I haven't done many surf launches and am not really comfortable doing it alone just yet, let alone at night. lol I don't have anyone to help me find all my stuff/drag my body out of the water if I dump on the way back in. Not that there's not good fish to be had, but the front side is generally better. Then up there it seems you have much much better structure in close to the beaches.

Your fishery sounds almost exactly like ours on the west end of the south shore - get lots of bass in the bays in the spring, but they move out when it gets hot, and then move offshore during the fall - and there may or may not be a surf run from year to year, and if there is, it goes off big time.

Part of the reason I got into kayak fishing was that the surf fishing on LI was so inconsistent from year to year, I had some awesome seasons . . . . . and then some when I would only see a not too many and for very short periods.

That is why I got my kayak and started fishing the LI Sound - I think it is has the best population of resident stripers on the coast with the exception of Chesapeake - if you know your stuff and can stay mobile, it can be an almost year round striper fishery.

Eric - sounds like you are getting worried - LOL! Stay cool, man! Less than two weeks to go! The big girls haven't shown in good numbers yet in VA from what my friend is saying, but the schoolie fishing looks like it is on fire there! I'm going to check about the Housy later this weekend . . . . a bite looks to have materialized on Long Island now.

Captiva wrote:

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Eric - sounds like you are getting worried - LOL! Stay cool, man! Less than two weeks to go! The big girls haven't shown in good numbers yet in VA from what my friend is saying, but the schoolie fishing looks like it is on fire there! I'm going to check about the Housy later this weekend . . . . a bite looks to have materialized on Long Island now.

After last night, I am getting worried. 50 bass could get the win for them based on the last 2 nights of fishing. The bite really dies here after thanksgiving. I usually don't fish stripers very often in Nov/Dec, because after a full season, I want to catch something different. Very few people around here fish the off season stripers because they are very difficult to catch, without a kayak it is tough to get more than a few in the off season.

I didn't realize that Jersey had so few resident bass, that does make it a challenge to get on the good fish and a real treat when they show up. MA and north are destinations for migrators, so we have them reliably all season--mid-May to mid-Oct. There is a huge population of 40"+ fish right now and it will be around for the next couple years, hopefully some will swing in close before the end of the season!

So far, a funny weekend here - fished for a total of three hours over Saturday and Sunday on the north shore - total fish over two days - 35 - total of bass over 21" - none, but I'm hoping that changes tonight - going out with a few hard cases from the club who have been working a big body of fish on the south shore that are feeding on adult menhaden - so the fish are pretty big . . . . we'll see.

My north shore spot that I have been picking stripers off for 5 weeks is done. Funny thing is that my buddy who got there before me this morning totaled two striper, and 4 herring. He live-lined one of those herring and caught a 32" bluefish - now that is the latest I've seen blues on the north shore here by a full two months - usually, the blues are gone by the second week of October.

Those remaining blues are walking a fine line due their greed - one typical Canadian cold shot and their be floating belly up - but interesting to note that there are very few quality stripers on the sound - which seems to be the trend for most fall seasons

Strange days indeed. I'm confident that the Housatonic will be on by next week. It feels like two weeks behind here, and, with the moon on the 10th, there is going to be a big amount of strper movement this week, and I expect the water temps to drop substantially as well due to the moon.

very slow around here this weekend, should have gone toggin with the JCKF crew, nice job guys!

Togging is crazy right now! I think we hit our 30 today. Big fish too. Working on a trip report now!

You can say that again about the tog - two days into the month and you guys are almost limited out - pretty impressive. Now I know where to go if I want to make a tog trip in Nov or Dec, but it is still like a 3.5 hour drive for me to Cape May - gotta get there eventually. If you guys got a bass limit, you could almost catch the neckpunchers, who were a very good pak this year, but you would still need to fill in with other fish.

Got a couple of nice stripers last night for the first time since September, first bonus fish since the shootout - big body of fish on the LI South Shore at a local bridge - felt like slappy last night . . . . . broke out the hogys and slappy jigs . . . . . but I didn't catch anything on them! I want my money back! LOL!

Got my two fish on storm shads - from what I am hearing, they are feeding on bunker, herring, and sand eels - betcha the moon moves them out on the tenth though . . . . .

May need extra help with my hogy selection - I used a 7", in a black back, with a white bellie, but I couldn't get confidence in it cause the plastic looked more like an eel . . . . got a few hits, but they were short strikes - the hogy thing takes some getting used to - plus, was getting stuck constantly. . . . . tried to be slappy, but instead looked like his retarded drunken cousin, getting stuck all the time and actually even breaking a rod after getting snagged - I've been running through rods this fall like a teenaged girl runs through shoes - two ended up in the drink and one broken.

In any event, the weird fall continues - usually those fish are on the front side beaches right now or in the Bight . . . . or down by Jersey . . . . . going to be a weird finish this year with a little over a week left.

Water temp is a balmy 51 degrees up here . . . . . don't think I'm going to have a chance on wintering fish for a couple of more weeks, but trying the Housatonic this weekend anyway.

My teammate / buddy got shut out at the concrete ships yesterday, although a 47" had been caught the prior night . . . . and the speck bite is fizzling out, so Slappy may catch a break!

Things have been weird all year! Migrations and patterns make no sense at all. My bass spots have been dry all fall except Sat night when I caught a 31.5 from a bridge. I wasn't in the kayak, so I couldn't score it.

I expect to see bass hot and heavy down here around the moon too. I think it's going to get nuts and then we'll wake up one morning to full blown winter!!!

Guys are actually still landing Fluke here. That's NUTS! Maybe we can score a few of those this week.

I could write a 5 page post on not getting snagged!!--it is mostly about jig size and feel on the drop. If you find yourself getting snagged often, you might want to get a more sensitive rod too. I use some pretty specialized stuff and would be mad if I was breaking the rods, I make my own and put some time into each one. We will have to go out when you are up here and you can get a feel for it when the fish are biting.

Those kipto bass are big, they get so many there that are in the upper 40" range. It is a big deal around here to get bass over 45". Boston produces a few big bass (over 50#) every year, but I have never seen one.

I am losing my optimism on keeping in front, I think my team got skunked this weekend, basically the way the bite is here now, if they put up their 50 bass, they probably win.

Hey Larry! Check yer PMs.

Looks like first and second flip flopped . . . . but I think Eric still has some tricks up his sleave . . . hehe.

maybe we should start fluke fishing.........I honestly believe that if I get a few nights out shortly I might be able to max us out for the month for bass. Can't find anything with any size for my life this year though........think we're too far behind to move up a spot anyway. That all depends on the wife letting me keep fishing though lol.

I think where we're at we're really at a disadvantage for KW.........me fishing the back anyway, there's nothing to fish for for 2 months of the season.