The winds of October will long be etched into my brain and into my back. While November has still showed us a fair amount of wind these winds have been much more moderate and tolerable enabling us too see some of that fabulous fall wreck fishing that we have been looking for without getting our butts kicked!

Since my last report we have spent most of our days fishing over some of the deep water wrecks and the results have been good. We did have one day last week where the winds forced us to fish inshore with very little to show, and yesterday we actually struggled on what I would call my nicest day on the water in over a month. With the exception of those two trips all others met with outstanding catches of Sea Bass with limits around the boat on each and every day.

This past weekend was a huge success at the Wharf. Weathermen had promised the nicest weekend in over a month and the fishermen where out in full force. I left the docks early Saturday morning with a sellout crowd and a huge pit in my stomach. We rode and rode and ended up landing over a small wreck in 132 feet of water that had not yet been fished and met up with some of the best action that I had seen all fall. With all those lines and hooks in the water we were catching Sea Bass like Mackerel. We fished two other wrecks this day and by days end had achieved what I thought might have been a “mission impossible!”

Sunday’s trip was equally as impressive fishing in 120 feet of water with almost everyone on the boat ending up with a super catch of very nice sized Sea Bass. On Monday our crowds were back to normal and I bounced around on several different wrecks in the 80 to 90 foot range. By days end we had gotten the job done with several limits of decent to measurable sized fish while catching tons of throwbacks. I would prefer not to talk about Tuesdays performance but let me just say this, I found out the hard way that these fish are not everywhere. While this trip was not a true stinger this day was certainly not what I had expected. It seems as though the Sea Bass are definitely moving out to the deeper waters now and some of the wrecks that we have been fishing inshore are just not filling back up with fish.

As I write this I am coming off of our first 10-hour special Tog trip. As a lot of you know our first couple were a bust due to those pesky October breezes. This trip was a hug success. While not everyone on board landed a limit of Tog, there were limits caught all around the boat with fish up to 10 pounds. This was indeed a great trip. We have one more special Tog trip on the schedule this fall but for those in need of that “Tog fix” I am certain that a lot of our days in the future will be spent targeting these fish with the regular 8-hour trips. With the majority of the Bass seemingly seeking out the deeper water we will not be able to make that 25 or 30 + mile run to the offshore wrecks with some of the smaller weekday crowds. We will however be able to catch Blackfish close to the beach. This will allow us to keep running on a daily basis even with some of the smaller crowds. Last year almost all of my late November trips were spent targeting the Blackfish in the mouth of the Bay. We also have 12 hour Sea Bass trips scheduled every Saturday until the end of the season so we can chase these Bass out to the deeper water.

Here it is the second week of November already and believe it or not I’ been hearing complaints lately about the waters actually warming up again. Folks targeting Stripers on the chunk have not been able to get away from the Croakers. While a little taste of Indian summer has certainly sparked interest in fishing efforts it seems to have slowed down the Striper bite a little in the mouth of the Bay. As of this writing though there is still a good number of trophy sized fish being landed regularly. Just today Capt. Jeff on the Thelma Dale IV landed 7 big Stripers with a couple of the fish weighing in at over thirty pounds! These water temperatures will eventually drop, they have to with the shorter days and cooler nights. When I was fishing up in the Bay today, the Tog that we caught felt like they had just came out from under a warm blanket. Water temps in the Bay have still been hovering just above and below 60 degrees, while ocean temps have been running at about 61 to 62 degrees.

In a nut shell fishing has been good. Stripers are here and the chance at a trophy is as good as it gets, Sea Bass fishing is also very good but we are having to travel a little further than we should have to given the time of year and the current water temps. If I were to make a guess I would have to say that within a couple of weeks these Sea Bass may do what they did last year and could possibly be all offshore fish. We will continue to target them as long as they are accessible with the 8-hour trips however if it comes to the point where we are only able to catch them at 30 or so miles we will only be able to do this with a big crowd or on the special trips. I firmly believe that we will catch a lot more Bass in the next few weeks but we may have to go offshore to find them.

If you would like any more information about trips sailing out of the Wharf or you would like to reserve a spot on one of our special trips please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA.

Until next Week Happy Fishing!

Capt. Rick Yakimowicz
Keen Lady IV